Céline

While scrolling through Instagram a while back I came across some incredible tattoo portraits of a French Artist named Céline, @inspiredtattooportraits. Photograph after photograph, her body of art. She is her own muse. It reminded me of another bold and brilliant female artist, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. To quote Frida: “I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to know better.” Céline’s subject is her bodysuit, her body is her work of art.

Céline is 33 years old and was born and raised in Nice, France but currently lives in Paris. She loves art of all mediums, but has always been driven to photography, her father is a photographer. He taught her analog photography at a very early age, they’ve practiced together all around the world. Céline says, “I have never stopped shooting film since then. As for my tattoos, I see my body as a canvas and what I like about modelling is the « mise en abyme ». Meaning projecting my own work of art in another piece of art. And I love exploring other artists’ universe. I also paint a lot which gives me another type of creative freedom.”

Céline is releasing a short documentary this year about her journey, it features some of the artists she’s worked with over the years and some of her family as well. Some of the artists who have worked on her bodysuit include Guy le Tatooer, she says he did about 75% of her suit, “and the rest of the work is pieces I have been collecting from various artists over the years. I couldn’t name them all but to give you a few examples: Gotch, Curly, Haivaras, Rodrigo Souto, Cokney, etc. I have always been more interested in the journey of making a bodysuit rather than the actual end result even if the aesthetic has always been a priority to me. I like the exchange with the artists, the whole creative process, pushing my own physical and mental limits. I came out of this ten-year experience definitely much stronger.” 

I asked Céline if she always wanted to be an artist, she replied and said, “Destiny is not linear and I had a job for years before being able to be a full-time artist. Also, I’m pretty sure you can’t decide to become an artist, it is something that chooses you instead. It’s definitely not the easiest path. You really have to be passionate about what you do to succeed. But the most important thing in my opinion is to create your own opportunities.”

Inspired by everything from her past travels, to cinema, literature, and art history. Céline says she misses museums the most - museums have been closed for months in France. Before the pandemic, she was going to art exhibitions once to twice a week. Despite the Covid 19 crisis, Céline admits her creativity is at an all time high. Her advice to fellow artists in quarantine: “To focus even more on their crafts during this trying time. To dive deep in their inner world.”

Having connected with Céline through social media, I asked her if she thought online platforms were helping or hurting the art industry, she said: “Neither really. Social media is great to connect people. Regarding the tattoo world, I feel like there is less creativity nowadays because tattooing got sort of standardized, everyone is more or less doing the same things. Also, less inspiration from clients who kind of copy and paste what they see on the internet. Tattooing should be so much more. The tattoos you wear tell a lot about who you are and your personal journey. I think being influenced by others is great but you have to be able to recreate with your own vision and sensitivity.”

For prints: http://inspiredtattooportraits.bigcartel.com/

Foranalog photography and paintings @celineaieta on Instagram.

Words by Christina Diaz