A group of artists, like a crew of pirates...! Personalities as hardened as steel, all tattooing together in the same space, as if at the bottom of a ship's hold, in a deafening noise mingled with the clatter of machines and the sound of loudspeakers spewing their venom.
At the helm, Bit, aka "Sailor Bit", the Boss, Virus his second in command, aka "The Duck", and at the beginning, "Crazy John", who I succeeded. Then came Dave "Gussanito", a hot-blood from El Salvador, Pote Seyler "The tattoo artist to the stars, back from the Americas", the same man who created Body Electric Tattoo in Los Angeles in 1990, and Raf, the last to arrive. For piercing, Alex, then Lionel aka "Lio", and right after that, Seb and Sailor Hervé, a fine team of perforators. Accounting and other delicious cakes, "Noëlle"...
For us, this shop has been almost two decades of non-stop delirium. A crossroads for artists from all over the world. For example: Joe Capobianco , Hope Tattoo Gallery, from Connecticut, Claus Furhmann, from Vienna in Austria, Junior Gussain from Brazil, " Running Bear ", Navajo Indians, Ernesto and Robin, Iban Indians from the head-chopping tribe, the " Borneo Head Hunters ", Hori Hiro, Fukushima, Hori Tamo Hiroshima
and many others from the USA such as Ned from Salt Lake City "Lost Art Tattoo" and Gerry Carnelly "Gibsy Blood Tattoo" in Nottingham UK and many others... Bit and Ethno Tattoo created La Convention Internationale de Tattoo de Lausanne from 1995 to 2003 for its last edition. Not exactly a tattoo convention, it was a meeting of friends where you had to pay to see. Unique in Europe.
Ethno Tattoo was one life in the shop, another at sea. Sailor Bit, sailor of fresh and salt water, steered the ship through wind and tide, giving us all our chance, from 1998 to 2020.
That, in a nutshell, is the ship we were in. A good slice of life.
Sailor Bit
Tattooist since 1989. He opened Ethno Tattoo in 1998 at the top of the central street under the Pont Bessière.
The choice of Ethno as the name of the shop reflects his attraction to travel and indigenous cultures.
Japanese-style tattoos are his speciality. Sailor Bit now works with his friend Filip Leu.
Some of their work is done in pairs, working together on the same person.
Leu Family's Family Iron is a major reference on the international tattoo scene.
Virus
A long-time friend of Sailor Bit, Virus will be working at Ethno Tattoo until 2020. Trained by Bit, he specialises in Polynesian style and symbolism.
Special feature: he has a great sense of humour.
He now works in his own salon, VirusTattoo, in Renens, near Lausanne.
Laurenz
My stage name in this lively crew. He joined in 2003 and became a full member the following year.
the following year. For seventeen years I've been making tattoos in a wide variety of styles for the shop.
From flowers, animals portraits or mechanical subjects. Passionate about colours, my nickname
at one time was 'CoLaurent'. Today I work mainly in Confignon in Geneva in private studio, and occasionally in Lausanne at Virus for my clients and friends in Lausanne.
Goussa
Dave aka Goussa joined the shop in May 2005. He explored several artistic trends, initially
and medium-sized tattoos, but today he's happy to take on tattoos in a variety of styles
tattoos, in colour or black and white.
He is a conscientious tattooist. After two years in a private studio, he is opening "Electric Red" in May 2019 in Lutry near Lausanne.
Pote
Pote started tattooing in his flat in Yverdon in February 1986. Passionate about the tattoo art he was close to
the Leu family and passed many times under the needles of Félix Leu, who would make his back for him.
A friend of the family, he was also naturally tattooed by Filip.
In 1988 Pote left for San Francisco. He worked for a while in a room above the "Zeitgeist" bar.
Zeitgeist bar. In 1990 he founded Body Electric Tattoo on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
He took part in numerous conventions, including the National Tattoo Convention, and received numerous
awards for his work.
Returning from the Americas in April 2006, Pote joined the team and will be the last member of the original team in 2023. Today Pote works by appointment only.