IG: julesboho.tattoo
Studios: Linzer Tattooatelier (Austria) and Chronic Ink (Vancouver)
Jules shares her life between Canada and Austria, she is an artist dedicated 100% to art in different techniques. Her life has always been between oils and brushes, different textures, canvases and paints, but 10 years ago she decided to incorporate tattoos into her routine and since then her passion for art has been even stronger. Graphic designer and received in communication, Jules highlights the importance of studying, experimenting with different techniques and using the imagination...
Already settled in Vancouver, she tells us a little about her life, her beginnings and her plans for the future.
“Art has a loud voice and you must use it.”
Are you a tattoo artist but you are also a painter?
Yes, exactly. I love variety and need tattooing just as much as working with paint and canvas or paper.
The variety keeps it interesting and exciting.
I love experimenting with different mediums and evolving my style. I love working with oils, spay elements and gold leaf on wood, paper, walls or canvas. The processes influence each other.
Painting influences tattooing and vice versa.
You feel secure in the creative process and trust in your technical skills.
Also I think you can just tattoo an abstract tattoo style really well when you truly paint.
And by that I don't mean on the ipad but with paper/on canvas and paint. It is necessary to do the extra work and understand how certain media behave on different materials.
How did the love for art come about?
The love and enthusiasm for art has been there my whole life.
As a child, I tried to portray my sisters and I was drawing animals all the time. I grew up on the countryside and was always surrounded by forest and nature. Computer games never really interested me, I was happy as long as I had a drawing pad and pencils.
As a kid I dreamed of working for Disney and when I first saw the „making of“ of „Jurassic Park“ I was obsessed by the artists painting the rubber skins of the dinosaurs.
Any form of the arts, like musicals, theater and the visual arts have fascinated me since childhood.
I later attended a college for graphic and communication design and worked as a graphic designer and art director before getting into tattooing.
How long have you been doing tattoos?
I can’t really believe it but it’s going to be 10 years soon!
Apart from tattoos and paintings, what else do you do?
At the moment I'm collaborating with different companies and labels. Product design is a welcome change right now and I love the new challenges it brings. I can learn a lot from it. I love traveling too. I love exploring foreign places and inhaling other cultures and being inspired. I currently live in Vancouver and enjoy the mix of city life and nature.
Your style transports me to nature, I see your paintings and it automatically takes me to the natural, the organic and the real... am I fine or did I go anywhere? What inspires you when painting?
It's clearly the people I surround myself with and the places I visit.
The art works are basically metamorphic representations of experiences or events that affect oneself or people in the immediate vicinity.
And often I get inspired by topics that affect society and are the focus of discussions. My art is critical, loud and intended to provoke thought. My claim to my paintings is not to create a piece of art that you like to hang in the living room because it looks pretty. It's supposed to trigger something in people. A painting needs to make you feel something. Art has a loud voice and you should use it.
But of course there are also other artists who inspire and motivate me.
Of all the exhibitions I have visited so far, the 2013 Gottfried Helnwein Retrospective at the Albertina in Vienna has fascinated and inspired me most. I was so blown away and shocked by the intensity of those massive paintings that I wanted to start paint as soon as I got out of the building.
At that time I knew that at some point I wanted to create art that could trigger such feelings in people.
How did it come about to take your art to tattoo?
I've always wanted to do an abstract style. I was excited about the idea of tattooing skin to make it looks like someone had painted on it.
Back when I first started tattooing abstract, there were only a handful of artists in Europe doing this tattoo style. It was brand new. I didn't have anyone that I could learn from so I had to try a lot of different ways to make it work.
I wanted my graphic background to be clearly visible in the tattoos and was fascinated by the freedom of design that an abstract style brings.
And how did that beginning turn out?
I can still remember my first abstract tattoo. A little watercolor flower on a friend. It was the first time that I "blurred" the lines in the tattoo like ink on water and I thought: "Oh, looks kinda cool." It quickly became a thing when I started posting some of my tattoos on Instagram. Since then, of course, you've learned a lot and you're constantly developing.
I had to learn what actually works as a tattoo and what doesn't. Skin doesn't behave like paper and you have to understand that tattooing has some rules that don't apply to painting.
What do you like the most about the tattoo?
The free process. Especially when it comes to brush strokes or other abstract elements. Personally I'm not a fan of „sticker tattoos“ – like tattoos with clear endings. I love it when a tattoo design goes with the flow of the body and emphasizes it.
Did you imagine living from art?
I always hoped to be able to make a living from it one day, but I never expected this success in my life.
Almost 10 years later I have worked at conventions around the globe and lived on different continents. I have clients who travel halfway around the world to get tattooed by me. I mean – I grew up in a small village with 1300 people on the countryside in Austria – there are probably more cows than people. So no one ever would imagine something like that even in your wildest dreams. Haha! I am very grateful for that and appreciate every single person who is getting tattooed or who is buying merch or paintings.
Last year I had my first solo exhibition and I was part of an exhibition in a museum in my chosen hometown Linz. I'm excited to see what’s coming next!
What do you do in your free time? Do you surf, travel and disconnect a bit or are you always connected with work and art?
In my free time, I love sleeping in and hanging out with friends and family. We often go camping, to concerts or just hang out. I love being outdoors and traveling and most of all I love the sea. Of course it's great to live in a place like Vancouver where you can go to the beach every day and still have mountains in the background.
When I travel, I can really clear my head. Having everyday life routine for too long kills my creativity. I constantly need a change. A mix of peace and chaos.
And I need a change of scenery. But as soon as I'm traveling to another country, I drop out completely and don't even check emails regularly anymore. I'm hardly on social media anymore and I give myself a break. Leaving the system. Getting out and reflecting from time to time is very important to me.
How is your year going? Are there plans?
At the beginning of the year I moved to Vancouver from Austria with my partner and of course it was a big change. But we settled in quickly and we fell in love with this place.
Working permanently in a studio other than my own is a new experience that I really appreciate. I'll stay in Canada until early 2024 and then I'll be in Austria for a few weeks before we head to South America for a couple of months. I try to skip the Austrian winter as much as possible! ;)
What would you like to see happen in the future?
There are a lot of things cooking in my kitchen right now and of course I hope that a lot of them will work out. I would like to establish myself even more in the art world and take part in exhibitions even more. I would also love to do more collaborations with big fashion labels or cosmetic labels one day.
How can they contact you
For tattoo projects it is best to fill out my „wishlist“ on the website www.julesboho.tattoo. There is an extra contact form for collaborations under the menu item “Art”.