b i o g r a p h y

romeo blau (b. April 1991) is a self-taught artist from france who now lives in brussels, belgium. his first contact with art happened whilst he was pursuing an academic career in literature and got his first tattoo in 2014 in london. fascinated by the emotional and psychological effect it had on him, he started reading about the history and anthropological importance of tattoos and soon realised his vocation lied in tattooing.
starting in 2016 and after a year of tattooing himself and his friends as he had just moved to canada, he started developing his visual style alongside his technique, choosing the handpoke method for a more artisanal approach and a closeness to the skin that is reminiscent of the tattoo rituals he was reading about while falling in love with this craft.

the handpoke technique allows for a more relaxing experience, it is generally less painful and takes less time to heal (~ 1 week), while taking more time to perform on the day of the tattoo. it is also silent and less intrusive (less swelling, bleeding and redness). it is also highly recommended for placements such as hands, fingers, ears, face and feet.

because he didn’t have any artistic background, romeo had to develop his voice as an artist at the same time as he was becoming a craftsman. the handpoke technique informed his style as he was trying to explore a more instinctive and intimate approach to matter and the body.
after a couple of years teaching himself to tattoo in montreal, canada, in 2018 he moved back to france to open paris’ first queer tattoo studio: la kermesse. he tattooed there with his co-owner chantal (chantaldessinemal) for 3 years, welcoming dozens of international guest artists mainly from the queer community as it was important for them to create a safe space for minority groups who had been too often discriminated against in traditional western tattoo studios. in 2021 he moved to brussels with the same convictions and continued to offer a safe space for his clients there.
as he was searching for more materiality in his tattoos he came across ceramics in 2022 and fell in love again. working with clay allowed him to explore the sensory dimension of art-making and opened a new realm of possibilities with textures, shapes and colours. shaping the clay with the same intention as he marks the skin, these two mediums are tightly intertwined in his practice and it was obvious to him that hand-building would become his preferred method when making pottery.

as a result, romeo’s style is intuitive, sensitive and organic, where shapes, colors and textures engage in a gentle tension between abstraction and figuration. whether in tattooing or ceramics each piece is shaped by hand with a near-ritual attention to gesture. his composition style resembles a fragmented form of writing that evokes inner landscapes. his visual language tells stories without naming, allowing space for silence, pause and a familiar strangeness.

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