CARNDUFF - Mathieu Morneau is a new resident to Carnduff as well as the town’s newest business member.
Originally from Quebec, he is a talented tattoo artist whose chair has already had a steady stream of repeat customers. Since December, when he opened his doors, he has used his tattoo guns to put new ink into more than 130 designs. Not only is he inking the skin of the locals, but people who have come from afar just for him.
“It started as a cool fun thing to do on weekends,” Mathieu said.
He started while he was still in the army at the Canadian Armed Forces base in Shilo, Man. Someone had bought an Amazon gun and over the next two years, he had practised on almost everyone in his unit, over 100 people. Starting out, for Mathieu it had just been a hobby.
“He didn’t know how good he was and didn’t plan to pursue it,” said his girlfriend Victoria.
Mathieu credits her support in making the change from hobby to career.
“She made it happen,” said Mathieu.
He spent thousands of hours practising line work and thousands more studying technique during his time off at the base.
Mathieu is surrounded by old school art work on the walls, which is his favorite style of tattoos to do. As for how someone could be so self-disciplined and diligent to practice lines over and over for that long, he shrugged and didn’t have an answer but agreed that “It was fulfilling”.
Mathieu learned art from his grandmother, who painted in oils, but drawing became a staple outlet in his life from a young age.
“I was the bad kid drawing dinosaurs in school instead of paying attention to the teachers,” he said, and his work just evolved from there. Today he does pretty much anything, but mostly is asked to do animals, flowers and memorial works such as kids’ names.
