Élo is making her dad proud

In her own words, Montreal artist Élo explains how her upbringing sealed her destiny:

I come from a family where everyone has the art gene. My brother, my sister, my mother, my father—they all have a natural talent for drawing. I'm the only one that kept working on it, that made it my job.

When I was a kid, I was encouraged to draw and be artistic. I was the kid in class who would draw on every surface of a paper the teacher would give me. And my mom, she really loves art and museums, and she buys a lot of art. It was always celebrated in my household. 

My parents always knew I was going to be an artist. They never tried to sway my path, even though they’re both successful lawyers in very big firms. My mom was maybe a bit hesitant, because since she's a lawyer, she was very afraid that I would get sued if I made a mistake. 

My dad has always been extremely supportive of anything we do. My sister has a PhD in psychology and two years ago, she just decided she wanted to be a carpenter. He has one hundred percent supported her. He's just down for anything. 

 I think my style looks the way it does because my drawing practice has always been towards comics, telling stories, and character design. 

My dad has always dreamed of being a comic artist, like all his life. He would make us read comics a lot. I’m a comic artist now as well as a tattoo artist. I published my first graphic novel in 2021. I think my style looks the way it does because my drawing practice has always been towards comics, telling stories, and character design. 

All my life I’ve loved the art of tattooing and how special it is because you're working on someone's skin. I never, ever thought I would become a tattoo artist because I thought my style would never work as a tattoo.

I really thought that to be a tattoo artist you had to tattoo a version of traditional or Japanese style or hyper realistic gray work. I didn't think there was any room for me. But it's so cool how anything, any style can be a tattoo style. In Montreal, there is such a huge variety of styles that are welcomed and the tattoo artists are so successful.

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The second you're a little bit marginalized, you have this instinct to break the rules and try something different.

The tattooing world has evolved so much in the last 10 years. There are way more women, trans people, queer people, people of color, and that has to have had an impact. The second you're a little bit marginalized, you have this instinct to break the rules and try something different. And the internet brought more liberty. It just opens so many doors for so many people.

When I met my friend Catherine in university, she was already tattooing out of her mom's apartment. When she started working at the tattoo studio Désolé Maman a couple years later, I was hanging out there a lot. I had lost my job because of COVID. I drew a lot of my comic after that because I was going crazy and I just needed a project.

I had money from the government that covered basic expenses. But I was struggling because I needed something else to do. I really needed a job. And I remember the people at the studio were like, “Become a tattoo artist. We can teach you.”

I didn’t think it was for me. I thought my style would never work. I feel like we all tend to not allow ourselves to do things because we don't think we'll succeed. But they all validated me. Coming from tattoo artists that I respect so much, it gave me permission because I wouldn't give that permission to myself. My mentor Julie-Anne helped me set up a little tattoo studio in my apartment. 

I started tattooing with Catherine's shitty old machine in 2021. Very quickly, I picked up a big client base because people really resonated with my style. One night, I was tattooing a friend and he let me borrow his Bishop machine and—oh my god—I fell in love. I canceled all my other appointments after that until I received my own Bishop. 

What initially made me fall in love with tattooing was how different it was from what I knew which was comics. It really helped me push my style. I also love the fact that you're able to meet a lot of people. 

Being a tattoo artist is a special and out-of-the-ordinary career. I've always known that tattooing would be a temporary thing for me, though. What I really want in my life is to be a full time comic artist. But right now I really enjoy both and I think I'm able to find a good in-between.