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Xoil

Graphic, collage-like abstract

Needles Side Tattoo, Thonon-les-Bains, France

Xoil, whose name is Loic Lavenu, is a French tattooer credited as the originator of a graphic, collage-driven style often called the "Photoshop" style. He made his name at his shop Needles Side in Thonon-les-Bains, France, and later relocated to Lausanne, Switzerland.

Archive Note

Xoil became a tattooer in the early 1990s and developed a style that assembles lettering, animals, vintage references, and found materials with solid color blocks, gradients, and graphic effects, arranged like layered elements in image-editing software. His shop Needles Side in Thonon-les-Bains drew clients internationally and became a reference studio for the graphic style, and he cited the Belgian tattooer Jef of La Boucherie Moderne, whose collage work mixed vintage and modern elements, as an influence. He is widely cited as a founding reference for the broader graphic and abstract European tattoo movement of the 2010s, and he trained or hosted a number of artists who carried the style forward. He later relocated to Lausanne and has more recently moved away from full-time tattooing toward salvage and upcycling work.

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