French tattoo artist Maud Dardeau, a pioneer in introducing the aesthetic of engraving to the tattoo medium, was recently invited by the Albrecht Dürer Museum in Germany to take part in the ‘Dürer under your skin’ exhibition. For Inkers, she talks about the performance she put on there, and her way of bringing the ancient art of engraving into the modern world.
You tattooed at the Albrecht Dürer Museum in Nuremberg, in the artist's own house. Can you tell us about it?
The exhibition opened on 12 April and will run until 1 September 2024. The museum is located in the house of Albrecht Dürer, one of the great masters of engraving in the 15th and 16th centuries. As Dürer's works have been taken up by tattoo artists all over the world over the last fifteen years, the museum has seized the opportunity to make the link between Dürer's world and tattooing. A discipline that continues to bring his work to life throughout the world.
How did you get in touch with the museum?
I contacted the management to suggest a live tattoo performance during the opening. In the end, they offered me the chance to tattoo for three days in Albrecht Dürer's old bedroom. It's an honour and a privilege for me to be the first person to do a tattoo project there, thanks to Dr Thomas Eser and Dr Christine Demele.
Who is the customer who took part in the exercise?
Miguel came specially from Canada to do this project. He's been coming to see me in Bordeaux for a few years now and has a collection of works by Dürer. They form a link with his personal history. I've already done three adaptations for him of masterpieces by Albrecht Durer: Saint Jerome in his Cell; The Knight, Death and the Devil; Melencolia. So he was the ideal client for this project. The work he has asked me to interpret this time is Hercules at the Crossroads.
What is your appreciation of Dürer's work?
Nothing is left to chance. Dürer's works are very powerful and contain a lot of symbolism - there's always a bit of mystery in them. He exploited all artistic techniques to the highest level. His line work is impressive. There's great strength in his work, while at the same time employing a very high level of finesse.
How long have you specialised in engraving?
I started tattooing in 2011 and very quickly moved into this style.
Your background is in colour painting. When did you decide to specialise in black and grey engraving and why?
When I started tattooing, I didn't want to reproduce my paintings on skin. I first wanted to learn tattooing for its own sake, which meant starting from scratch. I wanted to create simple designs to learn how to draw solid lines, like those found in the traditional American style. Or to learn how to do solid blacks with tribal. My primary motivation was to assimilate as much know-how as possible before launching into a more personal universe. As for working with black, I felt that it was the ideal starting point for me. I quickly became fascinated by the execution of the line and all the nuances it allows: contrast, volume, light and depth.
Were other tattoo artists already doing engraving, or was it a niche you carved out for yourself?
It was the beginning of this style in tattooing. A handful of tattoo artists were already doing linocuts - I'm thinking of the British Duncan X and Liam Sparkes. But I was one of the first people to do large pieces in an etching style, close to the copperplate or etching technique. I ended up specialising in this discipline. My technique was improved by observing existing works by Renaissance engravers. I then transposed sculptures and paintings into etchings, before very quickly offering my own creations in the texture of crossed lines. I immediately liked this new style. Engraving brought that European historical touch in the same way as Japanese tattoo prints.
You start from existing engravings. Which masters do you like to delve into and why?
There are several possibilities. When I start from scratch, I do what I want. I draw everything, it's 100% my job. When I started out I had several requests for ‘reproductions’ of well-known engravings, but now it's rarer. I like to be able to take ownership of the project and not be confined to pure reproduction. So, for some of them, I'm going to recompose the bases of existing engravings to adapt them to the body. I've taken works by Dürer, Doré and Goltzius, as well as drawings, paintings and sculptures by David, Rubens, Brueghel the Elder and Titian. Beyond their technical mastery, these immense artists created powerful, timeless works. These are classic themes that speak to many people. They knew how to illustrate and materialise any story or feeling.
How do you go about this phase of assembling and recomposing several works to create a single tattoo?
For some projects, I draw an overall sketch of the composition and the story I need to convey. Then I search my references for elements of several works by painters and engravers to recreate the basis of my project. I select characters or positions to create a scene and tell a story that has nothing to do with the original work. Whatever the case, I redraw everything so that the whole is coherent and the piece belongs to a single style. Finally, I work on the texture of the engraving directly on the skin; it never appears on my basic drawing.
What tools do you use and how long does this research phase take?
I use pencil, paper, Micron pens and lots of books - I have a large library which is backed up by the internet. Although when I started out it was very complicated to find images of engravings in good resolution. I use Photoshop like my feet, but it gives me a rough idea of the project. Some museums have large databases, which allow iconographic and textual research. You need to understand an artist's work, and sometimes that means using words. Otherwise, I visit a lot of museums. It's always inspiring, and I often come back with new things to work on.
How do you approach translating an old work to create volumes and shades of grey in tattoos? What technical constraints do these transpositions have to meet?
Tattooing requires its own technical adaptation. Skin is alive, and tattoos develop a patina over time. Consequently, it is necessary to anticipate the evolution of the lines. If the tattoo is too full of them, there is a risk of the lines merging. In just a few years, it could turn into a black mass that has lost its detail. So it's essential to think about the piece in terms of how it will age. So as not to saturate the skin with lines, I depart from the exclusive use of lines in engraving and adapt certain grey values with shading reinforcements.
Transposing works of art is a common issue for printmakers and tattooists. The French illustrator Gustave Doré, for example, complained about the lack of fidelity of engraved works compared with the original he had created. In the case of tattooing, the medium of the body also imposes its conditions. What infidelities are inevitable?
Simplification. It is also necessary to play on a larger scale for the pieces in order to get closer to the detail of the original work. Miniature engraving on the skin is doomed to failure.
What liberties do you allow yourself?
Modification is almost systematic because the human body is a very different format from rectangular paper. The most important thing for me is that the tattoo works on the support. It has to sit harmoniously on it. When I take over a work, I allow myself to rework the lines. Sometimes I add, sometimes I remove or modify elements to enhance the composition. Or I take more or less identifiable components to recreate a tattoo or a story.
What themes do you particularly like to tackle?
There are many: religion, mythology, flowers/animals, but also pop culture and, of course, the Japanese world, which is the basis of my inspiration for both the themes and the composition.
Traditional engraving is precisely what Europe and Japan have in common.
The principle is identical, and at the same time everything is different: the material, the colours, the subjects, the treatment. Japanese tattooing is without doubt the most complete. This style has existed for several centuries and is inspired by prints and stories such as the Suikoden (a popular novel of Chinese origin featuring justice-loving bandits, very popular in Japan from the 18th century onwards). For me, printmaking is a way of adapting the Japanese vision of tattooing to European culture, with its own stories and images, drawn from mythology for example.
Last January, you posted a video on your Instagram of a project in progress that combines the aesthetic of a Japanese munewari-style body suit with the European aesthetic of ancient engraving. Can you tell us about this crazy project?
I love it. I've done lots of small and large pieces, arms, legs and complete backs. But for a few years now I've been trying to mix the construction of Japanese tattooing with a classical European universe. The aim is to continue along this path, one way or another. Japan is omnipresent in my work, whether in the composition or the subjects. A lot of tattoo styles allow you to create bodysuits, but that didn't exist in printmaking.
Talking of Japanese culture, you did a back on the theme of Akira. Is everything transposable to the printmaking style?
Anything is possible. I've already transposed Parisian statues into etchings. It's the interpretation you make of it that's important, with your technique. The funny thing is that Katsuhiro Ōtomo, the creator of the manga Akira, was himself inspired by some of Gustave d'Or's textures to create his manga. In fact, mangakas as a whole were inspired - among other things - by European engravings to create the graphic aesthetic common to the graphic production of these Japanese comics. To come back to this project for a back adapted from Otomo's work, the aim was to start again from the basis of his work and push the engraving envelope.
Finally, do you have any projects on the go that you'd like to tell us about?
My big project at the moment is painting our shop. We've done a lot of work to transform it and make it even more our own. Now I have to dress it up! I'm in the process of creating the decor with themes that I like. It will take me a good year, I think. The aim is to give the place a new soul, to welcome my present and future customers into my world. + IG : @mauddardeau https://www.mauddardeautatouages.com/
