Interview With JayHan – Master of Black & Grey Realism

Today, we have the privilege of interviewing JayHan, a talented tattoo artist from South Korea renowned for his intricate realistic black and grey designs.

JayHan’s work encompasses a diverse range of themes, including oriental motifs, fierce animals like lions and snakes, botanical elements, and complex compositions teeming with intricate details.

With 16.3k followers on Instagram, JayHan’s meticulous artistry and versatility have captivated the attention of tattoo enthusiasts globally. Join us as we explore a bit of his creative journey, artistic influences, and the meticulous process behind his stunning tattoo creations.

JayHan is also a specialist in scalp tattooing and micropigmentation!

Be sure to follow him to stay updated on his latest works and creative endeavors! Now let’s get to know him better.

What initially attracted you to the world of tattooing? 

I knew that the only genres of tattoos were Japanese tattoos and American traditional tattoos. However, as I learned about the various genres of tattoos, I became more interested.

Could you share the journey that led you to become the tattoo artist you are today?

I graduated from Arts High School and Art University. My major was Oriental painting, and after graduation, I wanted to quit painting and start a different business. Meanwhile, I wanted to go back to painting as a career, and my best friend at that time became a tattoo artist. I was interested in tattoos and the job of being a tattoo artist seemed cool. However, it was not an easy road to becoming a tattoo artist. I have been self-taught and tattooed for 9 years now, except for the first year. There was a lot going on and time went by too quickly. I started tattooing at a late age and gave everything I had to immigrate to Canada, but not long before I got my visa, everything went back to the beginning due to COVID-19. However, while living in Korea, I started my own tattoo shop and own crew, and I am still running to make my dream come true.

Who or what are the biggest influences on your artistic style?

My best friend is Q tattoo, the artist who taught me, Backggang, and my wife. Q helped me get started with tattooing, my teacher taught me tattooing and respected my painting, and she believed in me and gave me the greatest support.

For those unfamiliar with your artwork, how would you describe your tattoo style?

Sometimes it was difficult for me to explain my style in the past.  It wasn’t traditional oriental style, it wasn’t black and gray, and it wasn’t blackwork. However, recently I have been doing a lot of collaboration work between brush strokes and black and gray, and I am trying to mix oriental painting and fine work too. I am training to make my oriental paintings not look wired.

Your work features a variety of themes, from oriental pieces to fierce animals and botanicals. What inspires you to explore such diverse subjects?

I majored in oriental painting for a long time. There are many natural themes (animal, trees, mountains…) within that genre. And I really like depicting people or animals with the texture of the brush. I fell in love with oriental themes and expressing their textures through tattoos, so I started creating designs with various themes. And since Oriental paintings, unlike Western paintings, do not have concepts such as light and shade and shadows, they preferred to mix photographs or paintings with light and shade with Oriental paintings, and sometimes expressed the paintings with a brush.

How do you achieve such intricate detail in your black and grey designs?

I don’t know either. Unlike photos, drawings often produce better results when details are reduced and kept simple. But I’m not like that and I seem to be obsessed with details. Those details can lead to good results, but sometimes they can produce the opposite result. As I tried to make similar by reference photos as much as I could, I ended up wanting to create complicated details.

Is there a particular tattoo you’ve created that you feel especially proud of? If so, why?

I have two tattoos that I am proud of. One is a tattoo of a tiger and a tiger hunter, which is old, but gave me hope that my drawing could produce good results as a tattoo design.  The other one is a black and gray chest tattoo. It was a tattoo covering a customer’s keloid scar. Rather than the quality of the tattoo, it is a result that has changed the customer’s life. After the tattoo was completed and a few months later, when the customer told me about his happy appearance and his changed lifestyle, I was very happy and satisfied with what I was doing. It felt like it was psychological therapy beyond a tattoo.

What is currently the greatest challenge you face in your work?

Tattoos are illegal in Korea. There is no problem as big as that.

How do you envision the future development of your tattooing skills and style?

I have been training continuously since the beginning. From coil machines to wireless tattoo machines, there are now many different technologies and products, and because of that, there are many better and better artists. Tattoo trends are also changing rapidly. I always have to improve and train so that my drawings don’t look outdated or wired! It is difficult to predict the future. But I will always try to keep it up.

What piece of advice would you give to starting tattoo artists?

Just do it.  Culture Respect, Love, Peace, Humility, Honesty to my co-workers and  clients.

How can potential clients reach out to you, and what can they expect in terms of waiting time for an appointment?

Potential customers, if they want to contact me, there is a link where they can contact me through Instagram. If they want to make an appointment, they must first be sure what they want to get and which part of body to get it. That’s the first step.

Are there any new projects or collaborations you’re excited about that you’d like to share with us?

Yes, I have a big tattoo project now and I am taking on a new quest and new chapter in my tattoo life! If I succeed at it in the future, I would like to share the results with you. Thank you so much.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know JayHan and gained some insights into his unique world of tattooing.

Find out more about JayHan’s amazing artwork on his Instagram page so you can see if he’ll eventually tattoo in a city near you.

And if you’d like to see more interviews with amazing artists, be sure to check out our interview section – you’ll find there dozens of interviews with amazing artists from all over the world.