Meet Amo Zhou | Illustrator and tattoo artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amo Zhou and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amo, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Art has always been something that comes naturally to me. I started my art practice in early childhood, and it has always been something I wanna pursue as a career. I see art as my way of perceiving the world, when I see a tree or some blossom flowers, I feel in my heart that there’s an emotion and an urge to create something out of it. My art practice these days is heavily influenced by nature and animals, I see them as something pure and calming, which is precious in this fast-moving world. When I show my art to other people, some of them will tell me how they feel resonated with my works, which makes me feel I am connected to them emotionally. The feeling of that became one of my biggest motivations for making art.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The biggest challenge I have along my art journey is the struggle to find my style and a medium I am comfortable working with. I think for most artists, their practice changes along the way as they have different experiences about life, and I am the same. I used to work more with colors, and then I had a few years of depressive episodes when most of my works became black and white with the use of ink. The experience made me realize how much I love working with black and how comfortable I feel when I draw with ink and pencil. I think it is interesting to see that even though the mediums I used have changed, the subjects are still the same: I love having animals and fantasy creatures in my works. I learned along the way as an artist that there is no way to force yourself to create. There were two years when I didn’t feel like creating art, which was quite difficult for me because I didn’t feel like an artist anymore. But as I keep on living my life, the feeling of making art just comes back naturally to me, so I would say sometimes artists may just need a break and do some other stuff in life and wait for the creativity to come back.
I love creating fantasy creatures in both my illustrations and my tattoo designs. In my head, they all have different personalities and background stories. Sometimes my tattoo clients will say they feel like the creature reminds them of themselves or someone close to them, and it feels like we are sharing the same part of the world.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love showing my friends different parks in New York, whether it is a big park with lots of different botanicals like Prospect Park, or a small neighborhood park with a children’s playground. The parks attract different groups of people. They are like little islands, where people would go and relax their minds for a bit from the chaos of the city. I would also show my friends around the museums and galleries in New York, just to see the past and present lives of art in general.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to thank my family for always supporting me to pursue an art career and sending me to study abroad in the United States. I also want to thank all of my friends who have always been there when I needed them and watched me grow as an artist and tattooist. I’ve met some nice and talented people in New York, including illustrators and artists I met from book fairs and art shows, and tattoo artists that I met while guesting and working in different studios. I am forever grateful for what they taught me about career and life.

Website: https://amozhou.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mintyktpillar/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amo-zhou-292433244/

Other: Tattoo instagram: @rawr.ink