Meet René Gibson | Tattooer/ Artist

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

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
well, what set me apart from others when I was starting out is it was a new style of tattooing that didn’t really exist at the time, I’ll forever be proud of the fact I taught myself how to tattoo, I didn’t do a tattoo apprenticeship, and that my tattooing then eventually gained me an 0-1 working visa in the USA ( the artist visa) coming from a small country like New Zealand America seemed so unattainable, so achieving that access from a career I’d made for myself is something I’m very proud of. Getting to where I am today I think just took consistency, working at one thing every day for many years. I never thought tattooing would be something I would ever do as a career but I would up telling myself do what you love not what makes you money and one day maybe it’ll make you money.. I still live by that today. I wouldn’t say it was easy. I don’t think anything you really want in life should be easy because you would just take it for granted. everything I believe in that I want in my life takes work and a great deal of risk. once I started traveling and tattooing I was very eager to make my mark in the indusrty and very competitive so I worked all the time, lessons along the way I would say is that when covid happened the one posistive that came from that is that working all the time is a complete waste of time hah. I now love working very little and spending alot of time away from work. I find if gives me more ideas and helps my creativity grow much much more being outside of work so that when im at work I have way more energy to make new tattoo designs/ paintings. I started messing around with tattooing when I was 22 years old. I’ve been tattooing as a professional for eight years now, I’ve spent the majority of that travelling consistanly tattooing in places like Melbourne, Sydney, London, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, CDMX, and most major cities in the states.
My name is René Gibson, I’m a 36 year old Male, born and raised in New Zealand, I currently call Los Angeles home and where see myself growing old.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I ride a motorcycle, i find LA the best city I’ve lived in for riding so for starters i’d be showing you LA on the back of a bike! nothing beats riding around LA on a nice day without a cloud in the sky and in the evening the golden susets setting with the breeze on your face, all that cleche stuff haha.. Not being from America growing up all I know is seeing the states in movies so LA just feels like one big movie to me. I love American diners for breakfasts CLARK St Diner being my number one go to! My main two coffee spots are La Colombe and Canyon Coffee. La Colombe frog town is beautuful because its right on the river, I love the LA river because I love living in a city but I also love nature so the cross of of the trees growing down there in this insainly big concrete inbankment is so crazy to me. you can lay on the bank close your eyes and listen to the running water and even fall asleep! its so easy and close to everywhere I hang/ live. I’m in highland park so if we’re getting a drink and a snack I pretty much only go to Walts or Capri Club both in Eagle Rock and both a block apart from one another, (very rare where you can bar hop by foot in LA) Walts has beer and natural wine only which is a nice change from your stereotype LA dive bar, (don’t get me wrong I love Tonys Saloon) Walts also has amazing hotdogs and hot pretzels a lot of natural light seeping through the windows and a colorful very colorful interior, they stock all the pinball your heart desires along with a few other coin games, think carnival meets community driven beer and wine bar, theres so much outdoor seating so you’ll always be in for a tan (or some sunburn) come summer! Capri Club is a very romantic cocktail bar with wonderful Italian snacks and a lasagna night on Monday’s, I think. don’t quote me on that though hah. the perfect date spot with a cocktail list that frequently changes. both spots offer completely different experiences and are walking distance from one another. I also love riding Topanga Canyon which has a wonderful cafe/ pizza spot along with some cute little clothing/ nick nack stores,the canyon spits you right out into Malibu which is a great road to cruise on a sunny Sunday along side the water at the end of the line Neptunes Nest is not to be missed for some seafood or a cheese burger and fries.. you can live out all your keanu Reeves moments from the original Point Break made in 1991.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Honestly, mainly my mum for always supporting me in being totally lost in life in terms of what I wanted to do with work/ having a career, and completly supporting the idea of be being a tattooer when I told her I wanted to take it seriously.

Anyone who has written a reference letter for my US work visas or given me the chance work work in there shop/ studio.

my friend Tiana who was the one who put you onto me!

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