Jean Luc Moerman

Jean-Luc Moerman is a Belgian artist known for the tattoo technique that he applies to images of models, political figures, and international jet-setters. He covers faces, skin, and any other surface with his intriguing black-and-white or multicolored designs. His work has been strongly influenced by the underground culture of tattoos, graffiti, hip hop, rock, and skaters.  In a society where all judgments of merit and value are influenced by appearance and superficial impression, Moerman decided to use as his support skin, the surface of images.  With the tattoos that cover the bodies of immortal icons of history, Moerman also restores to these characters their mortality, deconsecrating them while still emphasizing their mystical, almost religious value to the society that produced them because, as in most primitive communities, even those most advanced, the art of tattooing has deep symbolic meaning.