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Vice Blog

MONTREAL - YOUR MEAT IS MINE

Yann Black is a tattoo artist who doesn't bother with Daffy Duck holding his dick or whatever. Being a huge fan of hideous tattoos, I tried to find some in his website's image gallery but was unable to locate even one tramp stamp, wedding ring tattoo, or a single cock dragon. His art is weird and abstract; lots of lines and black holes and Invader Zim-looking creatures. When I phoned him up for an interview it didn't occur to me that he'd have a bilingual website and not actually be bilingual himself. Once I found out he was Francophone, I assumed I'd be good to hold a conversation using my Minnesota high school French. Wrong again. Oh well.

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Vice: Dites-mois un peu de votre style de tatouage.

Yann Black: Wait, speak slowly and if you ask me the questions in English I'll answer in French. OK?

Sure. Tell me about your tattooing style.

OK, d'accord. Before tattooing, I painted, so in fact what I do in tattoo isn't trying to find a new style or do something different, I just do what I did drawings of before. Voila--my tattoos. I wasn't looking to do anything special.

So what's the most unusual thing that's happened in your shop?

Sorry, but ask me in French. I don't understand.

Est-ce que quelque chose bizzare s'est passe dans votre magasin de tatouage? Like, someone came in and wanted something weird you absolutely wouldn't do?

Yeah, that happens a lot, people see a tattoo shop and they're looking for a binder with designs and patterns that are readymade. Here, we don't have that. There are plenty of people who come in and ask for, I don't know, tribal bands and junk like that. I only do my own designs, though.

So no cock dragons?

Quoi? En Francais, s'il vous plait.

Um, what's the ugliest tattoo anyone's asked you to do?

J'ai pas compris nonplus.

La tatouage le plus moche?

The ugliest? Well, in tattooing there are lots of ugly things, I've seen a lot. But there are tons of people who come in with designs they've done themselves that aren't good and I don't do that.

But what if someone came in with a portrait and a wad of money? Like their kids' portraits or their dog wearing a luau or something?

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Oui, oui that happens. We don't do it. There are tons of people who come with horrible stuff. Since we're in St. Henri--it's a neighborhood with a very particular atmosphere. Voila.

I see. So what are your days like?

Well, it's really full. I wake up every day at seven in the morning.

People come in for tattoos that early?

No, I get all my own stuff ready. They come at about 11, and I have three hours to great ready, to clean and sterilize and all that. I end at night, maybe nineish. It depends.

And then it's out to get bombed?

What? En Francais s'il vous plait.

Nevermind. It was nice to talk to you.

ZOE DANIELS