Maud Dardeau | Revolution Needles Pro Team Artist

COMMUNITY

Pro Team Artist Interview: maud dardeau

2026-10-29

Dürer, Goltzius, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai. Maud Dardeau’s influences read like a museum catalog of European and Japanese art, with engraving at the heart of her style.

A painter for years before she ever picked up a tattoo machine, the Revolution Needles Pro Team artist now works from her private shop in Bordeaux, increasingly building designs freehand, directly on the body.

Here’s her story, from the Paris shop that changed everything to the Round Shaders behind her bold, clean outlines.

An Artist Before a Tattoo Artist

Maud’s ﬁrst creative home wasn’t a tattoo studio. It was an artist collective called Jeanspezial, where she began working as a painter and illustrator in 2005.

We exhibited our paintings in several galleries and worked on all kinds of projects and surfaces: canvases, murals, sculptures… Over time, I started incorporating tattooing into my paintings.

By the time she visited Tin-tin Tatouages with her brother in 2010, tattooing had already found its way into her art.

In 2010, I pushed open the door of the famous Tin-tin Tatouages in Paris. At ﬁrst, it was just to get tattooed with my brother. Not long after, I was back with my portfolio under my arm. A few months later, I started my apprenticeship alongside Tin-tin.

I worked for six years alongside talented tattoo artists.

Then, in 2016, she decided it was time for a place of her own.

I left Paris to open my own private shop in the historic center of Bordeaux, where I work with my husband.

Old Masters, New Skin

Ask Maud about her inﬂuences, and the conversation quickly turns into an art history lesson.

Even though I’m interested in many art forms from different periods, I’m still inﬂuenced by the European and Japanese masters of engraving. I also really enjoy Italian, Flemish, and French Renaissance painting. A few artists who inspire my work are Gustave Doré, Albrecht Dürer, Carlo Crivelli, Hendrik Goltzius, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Hokusai, to name some of the best known.

You can see the inﬂuence of engraving in her linework. Japanese tattooing, meanwhile, is shaping how she builds compositions across the body.

“My style comes from engraving. Over the past few years, I’ve been moving my style toward Japanese construction. For me, it’s the best technique for making use of the entire surface of the body with ﬁgurative tattooing. It also allows me to work at the right scale on an entire limb.

More and more, the stencil stays in the drawer.

I’m working more and more freehand, building the design directly on the body. It gives the composition more movement. I work with all kinds of themes. I like to modernize old themes or give pop culture imagery an engraved look, for example.

The Subject Is Just the Beginning

I can’t say I have a favorite subject. I like to mix up my ideas and not box myself into one particular theme. I ﬁnd it pretty stimulating to bounce from one subject to the next. Ultimately, I want the tattoo to tell a story and evoke an emotion.

Fifteen Years In, Still Experimenting

Painting and sculpture never left Maud’s life when she started tattooing. Work like hers comes from an artist who never really clocks out.

I work a lot! I spend my free time creating, whether that’s drawing, painting, or sculpting. You absolutely have to keep trying to improve your work and test out different disciplines.

Welcome to the Revolution Needles Pro Team

Every line Maud pulls goes on someone else’s skin, with her name on it. That’s skin in the game, and it’s why we build our needles the way we do.

I’m really happy to be part of the Revolution Needles Pro Team. It’ll be a pleasure to share my tattoo work, created with needles of very high quality.

Inside Maud’s Needle Setup

Engraving lives or dies by the line, so Maud uses Round Shaders to give her outlines strength and depth.

I really like Round Shader needles. I ﬁnd they give a solid, clean line, and I love using them to give my outlines strength. I usually work with two Round Shaders, a 9 and an 11, followed by a 9RL. I also really like the 9 Magnum, which offers great precision.

Cartridge	Gauge	How He Uses It
9 Round Shader	0.35mm	Depth in outlines
11 Round Shader	0.35mm	Depth in outlines
9 Round Liner	0.35mm	Fine lines and precise detail
9 Magnum · Long Taper	0.35mm	Precision


13 Soft Edge Magnum · Long Taper	0.35mm	Large areas
19 Soft Edge Magnum · Long Taper	0.35mm	Large areas