Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Thibault Gulielmo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Thibault, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have always loved drawing, at school when I was little I drew for friends who asked me to do their project… from a very young age I was already intrigued by tattoos, first by my father who had several prison tattoos and by the Biker magazines that my mother bought me and that I leafed through in my room in the Parisian suburbs (I am from France by the way), all these motorcycles, these tattoos, these pretty girls and these great wild spaces of the West very quickly made me dream of America! A few years later I finally got myself tattooed but time passed and reality quickly took over and it was only a few years later that tattooing reappeared in my life through a friend who had managed to get a tattoo machine (at that time the internet barely existed and it was difficult to find this kind of equipment if you weren’t in the business), it didn’t take me long to start practicing on my first guinea pigs, I’m of course talking about my friends and close family (Tattoos that I would do better a few years later!). At that time, and I’m talking about a time that those under twenty cannot know, I worked as a mechanic in a bowling alley, I spent my time behind the lanes away from customers and I was good at my job which meant that if the machines worked perfectly I had plenty of time to devote myself to my “other job” . . . draw and prepare future tattoos waiting, yes because over time I had become “the bowling tattoo artist” and clients often asked for me in order to get a cheaper tattoo than in a shop . . . as time went by, tattooing took up more and more of my time, my family grew, one day I had to make a choice between becoming a manager in a suit and tie or stopping everything and finally opening my own shop in order to make a dream come true . . . it was exactly at that moment that I knew that I wanted to follow a creative/artistic path on a professional level.

Thibault, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a little guy born and raised in a small town in the suburbs of Paris, France in the 80s with all the history and culture that this includes, at that time tattooing was still a distant and very inaccessible art.
Thanks to cinema, music and magazines, American culture, of which tattooing is a part, quickly entered our homes and I quickly understood that this was where my destiny lay.
It was in 2008 that I opened my first tattoo shop near Paris, which from nothing would become over time a renowned and very popular shop, still in business thanks to my friend who took it over, it continues to live happy days, as for me today, forty years after my little suburban bedroom, I live and tattoo in California in the company of some of the most famous artists in the world of Body art! I am living proof that whatever your dream, everything is possible if you believe in it enough and give yourself the means.
After several years working at the world famous Body Electric on Melrose in Los Angeles, I am now at the no less famous “The Tattoo Room” owned by the very talented and charming Danielle Oberosler.
These years of experience have led me to better understand and identify each desire of each client, all very different from each other, whether they already have a lot of tattoos or whether it is their first, I devote the same seriousness and the same interest to each of you.
Today I think I am able to satisfy almost everyone when it comes to tattooing, whether it is those who have already prepared everything or those who arrive with just a vague idea in mind, my role being whatever happens to satisfy each person as best as possible and to provide them with a pleasant, safe and I hope unforgettable experience.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

If I talk about the most rewarding aspect, we must also talk about the complicated side of the artist’s life.
Of course, like everyone else, there is a before and after Covid.
But despite the hard sides sometimes nothing could replace the freedom that the life I lead today can bring me, especially when it comes to tattooing, it allows me to travel whenever I want, to meet others and different people every day with always crazier stories than the others, today my family life mean that I must have a more stable life, but the most important asset in my eyes of the artist’s life is the freedom it provides!
Obviously freedom has a price and sometimes it can complicate certain things and certain misfortunes like Covid for example can completely reshuffle the cards and put this way of life in danger, I don’t have a fixed salary and when times are hard for everyone like right now for example, well artists often find themselves at the end of the food chain and freedom is much less… but with courage and determination we can get through everything (normally)!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

This question is funny because it happened to me several times in fact. . .
At 17 years old in a few minutes I left my family home while 24 hours before it was not at all planned, a few years later when I finished my time in the army in France and all my superiors absolutely wanted me to sign so that I stay and make a career I refused because I did not know what I was worth by myself outside of a barracks and I found that it was an easy solution, so I left!
A few more years later, after ten years of good service at the Bowling where I worked I could have finally sat in the director’s chair and lived happily with a very good salary for years but I preferred to stop everything to open a tattoo shop without any guarantee of success . . . but it worked very well and I spent ten beautiful years there but once again I decided to stop everything to go to the other side of the world again without guarantee.
Some will say that I have itchy feet, I think more simply that professionally speaking when I start to go around in circles and get bored I feel the need to move, who knows what awaits me for the years to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://thetattooroom.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tibotattoo?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr