PROFILES

“I know that I know nothing”. Loïc Malnati has this Socrates quote tattooed on his arm. And when you leaf through the twenty or so comic books he has already published, you cannot help but be struck by their multiplicity of styles, ranging from hyperrealism to caricature and infantile drawings. In his graphic studio in Nice, he pushes the technique, picking up where he left off each time as if starting from scratch. “For me, meaning must take precedence over aesthetics, even if putting forms together is coquetry, a propriety that can relax readers like a smile”, relishes this virtuoso. At one point in his career as an author-illustrator he felt the need to take a break: “From the 90s onwards, comic books boomed and became all the rage. Publishers took over and authors became disposable hankies. I had reached a point where I was drawing to order. I needed to get creative again. That’s when I did my first tattoos on friends, and they were a big hit.” As regards body mod, he developed a steampunk-inspired style, harking back to the steam engine. A vintage world populated by puppets, which can be personalised time and again. A monochrome world with touches of watercolour rendering you can also find in his book Contes Mécaniques. Nowadays he produces a lot of graphic creations for other shops in France, but the 40-year-old still tattoos from time to time, always freehand drawing directly onto the skin. “I never rubbed anything out when I was drawing as a child, and I was criticised for it”, jokes the man who likes to poke fun at his own craft too. You can see for yourself in Dédé-Tattoo, his latest successful comic book with its outright jubilant gags about an old-fashioned tattoo artist. His tongue-in-cheek comments about flash infinity tattoos in these more impersonal cartoons will make you die laughing! Which just goes to show that in the thriving world of indelible drawing, there’s tattooing and tattooing.

By Tanja Stojanov – Photo Sophie Boulet