About me
Who am I ?
Hello, my name is Manon, I am originally French, but with a traveler soul and a Spanish accent when I speak Portuguese.
I am at the dawn of my thirties, a young mother, tattoo artist, graphic designer, surfer, yogist in my spare time and above all passionate about life. I have been based for a few years in Aljezur, on the west coast of Algarve, in the south of Portugal, stirred between the wind and the waves, where I practice my art with the intention of bringing a little awareness and softness to this world.
How I became a tattoo artist?
I must admit that I never imagined that I would become a tattoo artist. This is also one of the reasons why I hardly identify with tattoo culture as we tend to imagine.
Basically I’m a graphic designer, and tattooing has come into my life without me seeing it coming. Once my graphic designer degree ended, I decided to do a fine arts degree, because I was unable to draw a sketch for my clients during a briefing. A tattoo artist, a friend of mine, started looking at my sketchbook and giving me advice, mostly tattoo-oriented. And the day he left, he gave me a tattoo machine. It was a week before my exams. The first time I took a tattoo machine in my hands it was to ink myself, and I literally fell in love.
Tattooing found me and gave meaning to my art.
I went to do my exams and quit my studies. I was no longer ashamed of drawing and I had found a purpose for why I spent hours on my sketchbooks!
Through my art, such as photography that I have been practicing since I was 10, or graphic design since I was 15, I was always looking for a way to “make you smile and transmit good energy to re-motivate you in a glance”.
Tattooing is the most personal and unique form of art that can deeply touch a person. And do it in full awareness and totally in accordance with the needs of your client, your art will be his talisman that will protect and boost him whenever he needs it, and that is what motivates me the most to become a tattoo artist.
Why I qualified my work as holistic?
My way of working is based on the fact that if your body and your soul is looking for a talisman and I am the right person to create it and engrave it on your skin, my work will cross your path at the right time.
Conscious tattooing for me is the fact that when you go to get a tattoo you are totally aware of why you are doing it, of the intention and the energy that you want to put into your tattoo. To have taken the time to find each symbol and the meaning that each one brings to the tattoo. The tattoo becomes a talisman that will protect you, heal you and help you on your life path.
On the therapeutic aspect, it is said that each time we think back to an experience we feel the same emotions as during this experience. Emotions mean hormones, hormones mean action on our body. A mindful holistic tattoo is a tattoo where the design energy and the energy during the tattooing session is in accord with the intention of the tattoo. And so every time we look at our tattoo, we call and feel the energy put into it.
What about my spiritual journey?
I started my spiritual development quite young, and more particularly from 18 years old when I fell seriously ill.
So I have been doing energy therapy for myself for more than 10 years, practicing yoga and meditation on a daily basis.
At the same time, I train a lot in personal and sacred feminine development techniques. I am very interested in Buddhist culture and Chinese medicine. I also have my Reiki levels. And I am someone in perpetual questioning and seeking for more connection between my being and my soul.
What do I love about my job?
What I love about my work is the positive and healing impact my art can have on my clients. Today, I am contacted for my designs, my sensitivity, my way of being and my holistic work.
I have the honor to work on very personal projects, with sometimes quite hard stories, and my greatest happiness is to manage to translate all this into a delicate and aesthetically pretty tattoo. A talisman that will have a huge psychological and healing impact on my client in addition to integrating perfectly into his body.
And all this while working from home, in harmony with my own energy, my own inspirations. And even though I don’t have any vacations or days off, I’m just totally passionate about my job and grateful for the life I have been able to create for myself both personally and professionally.
What is the most challenging?
In all honesty, my biggest challenge is my perfectionism and my ambition to always want to create more and better. Working alone, and managing everything, in addition to having a young baby, I am a very perfectionist and with a lot of ideas, and the hardest thing lately is to accept that I cannot do everything and to let go.
What does my workflow look like ?
Creating a design from nothing for someone you don’t know is quite complicated, that’s why the most important part of my job is the one that is not paid, which consists in exchange with my client for as long as it takes to get a clear idea of their project. I can exchange emails for weeks before accepting a project because I need to have fairly precise information on her idea but above all to be sure that my client is ready for her tattoo, that she is fully connected with the elements and the intention that wants in them. Sometimes it requires introspection that I will guide. Sometimes it’s pretty quick.
And from there I can start creating the design, and there I follow my instincts, I put elements together, do a sketch and let myself be inspired by my design and my client’s story.
I always send the design a few days before the tattoo appointment in order to have time to make changes and so that my client can identify with it.
And then you just have to create magic on the skin, sometimes with a nice conversation, sometimes just energy work and mantras.
I always work in harmony with my energy, inking in my private studio, with the sound of a nice relaxing music and a good tea.
What or who inspires me for me art?
Everything inspires me to tell the truth. I am very sensitive to details, so I will very easily be inspired by music, sound, a nice photo or just a nice sunset.
But more concretely, what inspires me is the art created with the heart. I have no artists that specifically inspire me, it will depend on my need for inspiration.
Otherwise, what inspires me to create is the desire to share some things that do good, that inspire and that heal.
What is my mission/intention in life?
My mission in this life is to share my art and my way of seeing things in order to be more in harmony with oneself. I particularly enjoy helping women realize their healing and creative power.
We are all unique, and the most important thing is to accept the differences of others and especially not to compare ourselves.
I think I am an inspiration and a guide to encourage self-esteem and accept your shadows in order to grow and shine with your own light.
