ATC TATTOO ENGLISH VERSION

OUTSIDE THE BOX WITH LIONEL FAHY

Text: Stefayako / Photos: Slaine Grew, Visuals : Lionel Fahy

 

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Being the black sheep doesn't scare Lionel Fahy. His nickname "Out of step", a nod to a Minor Threat album, is proof of this. Lionel Fahy is an artist on the move. In turns musician, tattooist, painter and visual artist, he multiplies means of expression to distil his artistic energy. A minimalist and falsely simplistic style that borrows a lot from children's poetry. No need to make him fit into a too narrow box because his creativity blossoms in diversity. Co-founder and resident tattooist of Les Derniers Trappeurs in Paris, he devotes the other part of his time to his artistic duo AGAMFAHY that he forms with his wife Tal Agam. They bring together dreams and travels to create installations combining painting, sound and embroidery on a social topics background. 

 

 

Road trip

Music preceded tattooing in Lionel Fahy's career, at least professionally. "I started tattooing at the age of 15. I was the one who knew how to make punk faces, the one who tattooed punks. " If he put the tattoo aside for a while, it was to devote himself to it later.
Lionel spent ten years on the road with his punk band Portobello Bones. "It was difficult because we were nobody and we were making a style of music that wasn't very well accepted in the early 90s. We were in big lifestyle utopias. " He has many roles: singer, guitarist, manager. He was also in charge of concerts booking, label, promoting the band in a fanzine or a radio show. A very full life.  

"At the time, we didn't have internet at home, it's almost Neolithic. We worked by telephone, fax and put stamps on envelopes. There were very few publications on tattooing. Any American import magazine, we looked at them with a magnifying glass, we were like mad trying to understand how to make a coloured eagle or an Indian head. That's where I come from. " Travel is the best way to build a good tattoo culture. We are far away from the Instagram era with artists from all over the world at our fingertips. Thanks to his concert tours, he met tattoo artists in each city to learn more. "I knew it was a job where you weren't welcome. It was difficult to find the right equipment. They tell you that you can't, that it's forbidden, that you don't have the right. So, of course, I want to be part of it. »
And it's precisely during his tours that he crosses Yann Black's road. Both passionate about music and tattoo, they became friends and share their good practices. Yann already had an advanced technique and an innovative trait of his own that quickly found his audience. Then Rafto from Utopia in Poitiers helped Lionel becoming a professional tattoo artist. 

 

From music to tattoo he kept the road trip side. Always travelling, always on the road. Sedentary life makes him tense. He nevertheless tries it twice by opening a tattoo shop, notably in Nantes. But he decides to hit the road again and take advantage of the international network and the links he has built up during his guests.
Passionate about tattoo History, Lionel decides to travel and learn from the greatest. He met Mentawaï in Indonesia, Dayak on Borneo island, New Zealand and Japan. "It was a real will to be part of this clan of tattoo artists and a thirst for knowledge. There have been some very strong moments when some masters offer you their tools because they appreciate what you do and that you can transmit this ancestral art. It's very touching. »  

Les Derniers Trappeurs's opening in Paris with Roberto Dardini and Adrien Boettger marks a turning point: the end of travel for tattooing. It is from now on the only address to be tattooed by Lionel Fahy. There reigns a not feigned family and friendly atmosphere in this shop. The friendship that binds the residents is palpable for the customers and offers an intimate, warm and friendly welcome. "With Roberto, we've been working together for 15 years. Above all, we are great friends. There was a desire to have a place where we feel really good. We dreamed of having a place of our own. "Les Derniers Trappeurs is 210 m² in the heart of Paris and a titanic work to make this place welcoming and cosy. A real home base for this inveterate traveller. A place to work in optimal conditions and to meet friends. 

 

Anticonformism

For Lionel Fahy, tattooing is a vocation. A powerful passion to surpass oneself and break prejudices. "I come from an environment where tattooing was very taboo. We didn't have the right to draw on ourselves. It reminded us of the concentration camps. I knew people who had numbers on their forearms. And also people who had just come out of prison or who had been in the legion. »
It is not a ban that frightens him. Quite the contrary. It has only fanned the budding flame. "We have arrived a little bit out of step in terms of style and culture. I think we had a certain freshness and innocence that we were able to transmit. That's why now we recognize a French touch in tattoo. Illustrative side didn't exist at all when I started. »  

Having the freedom to express oneself is vital. A strength and an opportunity. "I believe that everything I can do as a human being is because we all have a great need to express ourselves. Not all of us are lucky enough to be able to do so, we are not necessarily listened to or seen. " His means of expression are multiple. It goes through drawing, painting or music. Like an introspection in the depths of oneself. But voices diversity is not always welcome : " it is very difficult in France to be accepted as a tattooist, plastic artist, musician and painter. It is not normal. You must necessarily be in one and only one box. »
Plurality has always been important among Les Derniers Trappeurs. Trying to express oneself through illustration or painting allows to come back to tattooing. It liberates creativity and feeds imagination. Searching for other sources of energy boosts the practice of tattooing because it is by going out of one's comfort zone that can renew oneself.

 

 

The perfect line

At first glance, one might wonder why using "Out of step" nickname. He tells us "when I had my shop in Nantes, it was called " Out of step " and it comes from Minor Threat album, an American band that I loved. They had this stupid cover where you had a black sheep outside the herd. I thought it was really funny so I painted the whole shop window with a lawnmower and some sheep. It didn't work at all, it was a fiasco! " In his shop, there was no flash catalogue. Each tattoo has to be unique. That was the deal. Taking time with the customer, knowing his personal story and transcribing it together through the design. There is no way to tattoo on a chain, it doesn't match to his vision of life and human relationships. "I don't make drawings to be reproduced X times on people's skin, I'm not interested. »
It must be said that graphic style has not always been well received in tattoo world. Often quoted as one of the precursors of this innovative and affirmed style alongside Yann Black, Jean-Luc Navette or Topsi, Lionel Fahy arrived on tattoo scene with a different cultural background from other tattoo artists of the time. Trained in art school and nourished in museums and exhibitions of all kinds, always testing new supports of expression. More an art school style than biker in short.  

Acceptance path of this style has been long and difficult. He had to persevere, put food on the table without losing sight of his ultimate dream of one day living from his art: "I received threats from people who wrote to me that they would break my hands. I even got death threats from a shop in Texas saying it wasn't tattoo! " This complicated period lasted about 8 years. He sometimes asks himself "What did I do wrong? Why does people react so violently when I draw birds? I draw things that are relatively gentle, there is no violence in what I do. Whereas if you make an impaled foetus on a sword, people will applaud! " It's innovative and non-conformist, and therefore misunderstood. "It was a time when people used to get armour tattoos to scare little old lady in the street. It's a bit of a misplaced virility, and it was never my thing. I don't think you need that to be a respectful human being. »
The trigger came in Germany with the publication of a long interview in Tätovier. A turning point in his life as an artist. "I was asked to come to Germany. I had to borrow money to pay for the trip and when I got there, I had clients who wanted me to tattoo with my style. " From one day to the next he is in great demand in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Then England and United States came to complete his clientele. It's only been 6 years that he has had clients in France, the demand remaining mostly foreign. 

 

When you ask him where does his minimalist, graphic and poetic style coms from, answer is multiple. Years of promotion in the fax machine's era and fanzines have forged the black and white side that is visible at first glance. Efficiency as the primary objective. For illustrative side, his four children certainly have a responsibility in this art of storytelling. Hours spent at the library with their noses buried in books or hours reading them the evening story before going to sleep. Four-handed drawings are priceless for stimulating creativity.
But don't be fooled by the clean and free lines that may seem easy. "My will is to try to be as sober as possible, which is not the easiest thing to do with a tattoo because you can't erase. You can't hide a line if it's not well done and make it go away. A "pure" line must be as perfect as possible. »
Tattoo's durability is a real subject. People ages, so does skin. Tattoo's legibility is essential and must remain the same. It is also possible to continue a tattoo story, to give it a continuation at the sight of new life events. Each tattoo plays with the person's morphology. Each scar or beauty spot, each colour or skin texture, everything counts.  

Freedom of expression

Craftsman or artist? This eternal question sometimes divides tattoo artists. Lionel is sometimes one, sometimes the other. "I am a craftsman as a tattoo artist because I am at the service of people. I consider myself as a tool. "In front of a client, it's about responsibility and liability. There is no way to put my ego before people's choice and to influence.
On the other hand, "as a painter-plastician, I consider myself an artist as I don't owe anything to anyone and I don't care what people think. It's very different! » 

 

Freedom of expression at its highest point is sought by AGAMFAHY duo. After starting to work together at Lionel's exhibition in Buenos Aires in Argentina in 2017, collaboration continued for another event in Norway. Styles and means of expression fusion was immediately obvious. Embroidery mixes with painting, just as much as music mixes with installations. It doesn't matter who did what.  

To give free rein to their creativity, Lionel and Tal, sound designers, work in their huge workshop in Vendée. More practical than a Parisian flat to paint large formats of three meters high for example.
They tackle political and social themes by creating complete immersions at different levels of reading, depending on age or sensitivity. "Thematics are very political. We're not clairvoyants, but for example we had an exhibition in Paris called "Weaving diffuse violences", about how state can silence you and make you disappear. For us, freedom of expression is very important. » 

 

Although future exhibitions, especially those planned in Tel Aviv, are postponed until better days, this duo has no shortage of projects. They are preparing a double vinyl release containing 50 of Tal's sound creations and a book of 85 black on white silkscreen printed paintings made during the first confinement. This series deals with non-gendered sexuality. "We are working on these cause we think it's extremely important. Especially since we have six children , and we see them growing up and positioning themselves in society. I think it's very complicated to find one's place. »
A retrospective project of 6 years collaboration is also in sight. "I don't think we'll have enough of a lifetime to cover everything. »