For thirty-year-old Brazilian Jean Gaia, from Maua near Saõ Paulo, tattooing came at the right time. It offered him the ideal artistic ground to express his creativity and his passion for drawing. But it was in the newschool style that he finally found the freedom he needed to experiment and ultimately become one of the finest needles of the moment.
Have you always drawn?
I’ve been drawing since I was a little kid. I was very much influenced by my brother, who always drew and inspired me. Then, gradually, I was obsessed with Japanese comic books, video games and all kinds of illustrations.
What other influences have fed your artistic universe?
Video games like Metal Slug, Yu Gi Oh always caught my attention and cartoons like Dragon Ball, Knights of the Zodiac, Yo Yo Hakusho were part of my childhood and such a huge influence on my artistic development. Later on the Graffiti scene became part of my life but I wasn’t able to paint in the streets because it was something expensive for me at that time. So I used to draw only on my books. Drawings and illustrations have been always part of my life.
How did tattooing come into your life?
I used to be a musician and moved to different jobs in a few different companies. After being fired, I started to sell my drawings for some college students and then a tattoo shop hit me up about my drawings. I thought that was cool and I got into it. After a couple of years I started tattooing at my friend’s apartment. Eight months later I got my first job at a tattoo shop. It was located in my city, in Maua, and it was like an old tattoo shop. It was called Tattoo Legal. The owner is a close friend of mine, Renato Demei. He taught me everything about machines, inks and needles.
Have you always done new school?
In about a year I found the new school style and I was fascinated by it and all the perspectives, colours and how creative it is. So I started to learn and I looked up to artists like Ben Banzai - he has been a big influence on my tattoos, now luckily he’s a good friend of mine. He taught me a lot of things and he showed me a bunch of other things about new school. This style is my passion. I went deep studying everything about it and then I went to take art classes with Andre B2. His way of teaching things helped me a lot to make better drawings, more detailed, with more highlights or different colors, a better structure for the piece and how to make it cleaner.
What are the points you focus on when you start a new piece?
When I start a new piece or a project, I like to think in how I am going to do with the character or object, even how to do all the structure and composition and then I like to bring a history behind the piece. It turns easier to think about the colours and I also like to give a surreal aspect to my drawings and tattoos, with perspectives and colours closer to the natural, bringing this surreal art aesthetic. Animals are my favourite theme. Animals which got like a personality, like a human being. For example, a fox is smart and sneaky. Therefore, I try to give him human expressions, sometimes more crazy and sometimes more natural. I try to convey the feelings or the thrill of the character. I like to do a bunch of doodles using pictures of humans with strong features and then I put this on the characters.
You are a good colourist. How do you approach it?
The colours help to bring this feelings to the piece like if the character is kind of uptight. I use dark cool colours to show up the seriousness. Rich and vibrant colours to bring happiness or euphoria and even craziness to the character.
You also do realism, with a lot of talent and, more surprisingly, in colour.
The contrast is really important for me. I always focus to make the main piece to stand out using strong colours, then using mellow colours in the background trying to balance the highlights and shadows. For the portraits I use colours to stick out the image. I like to increase the contrast because when gets healed up, the colours will be brighter ; and for the background I try to work with highlights and colours to pop up more in specific points of the main image.
It’s a challenge for you?
Black and Grey portraits are cool too but the colorful ones yes, they are more like a challenge for me. It’s nice when you get all those color shades exactly like the image or photo. It’s just more satisfying. Even for these colour portraits, I’m trying to be creative, as much as I can, adding my touch. The New School style is something different because I can use all my creativity and make something crazy that does not exist or even for something real.
Creatively, how do you stay fresh and keep your creativity?
I’ve been watching a lot of cartoons and going to exhibitions (museums or graffiti stuff) it seems like I get more creative watching or visiting this places and seeing new and old stuff.
Do you have other means of artistic expression?
Nowadays, I work at a Tattoo Shop in Sao Paulo, it’s called Tattoo You and it’s a really nice shop. I really enjoy working there. After all these years I started to paint Graffiti through friends I made in the shop. Usually we like to meet and draw together there, it really gives me a motivation to keep up the hard work and learning new tricks.
Which tattoo artists do you look at?
At the moment I don’t follow that much another tattooer’s work because I don’t want my tattoos looking like another tattoos. I’ve been trying to do my own touch on my art and also show my own point of view about the reality. + IG : @jeangaiatattooyou Tattoo You Rua tapapua,1443, itaim bibi São Paulo
