Meet Yanik Niffeler | Tattoo artist

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

Hi Yanik, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
The topic of work-life balance is one that has occupied me for a long time and still causes difficulties today. The most difficult factor is definitely that I don’t perceive my work as work. It is my hobby, my passion. Consequently, I like to invest a lot of time and energy and often forget to give my body and my mind a break. There have been moments in my career when my stress limits have been exceeded. Unfortunately I have always realized this only after the overload occurred, because I was driven by my passion and the will to go further and achieve even more. However, through conversations with people in similar situations and through my personal experiences, my work life balance has greatly improved. Through certain routines, which for example sport gives me, or small rules, which I have set myself, I allow myself more time out, which I use to recover, reflect and enjoy the many other beautiful things in life.

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.
My tattoos, my art is inspired by the timeless works of the old masters. The deep engagement with the Craft is incredibly important to me and determines my work process. This will to advance as deeply as possible into the art and to explore all its facets, led to my art studies in Hamburg. Through this intense exploration, I have developed a personal style that I work on daily and strive for perfection. As with the old masters, it is not only the end result that is important to me, but the process that led to it. On the journey to the final result there are many questions to answer and decisions to make. I devote a lot of attention and time to these questions and decisions in order to achieve a unique goal. For this quality I had to make many sacrifices, such as the long distance to my family and friends, as well as the rare time off. My art accompanies me everywhere, it is all present and I am always working to improve it. Even if I don’t have a pencil or a tattoo machine in my hand right now, my head and eyes keep working and looking for more inspiration and potential for improvement. I want my clients to experience this intense process for themselves and that’s why I devote so much time and attention to it. This is the only way I can capture their ideas and stories in their most honest form and turn them into images.

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 would incorporate a little museum visit every day. LA has a lot to offer in this respect. Be it the Norton Museum to admire a Van Gogh, The Broad to visit the Basquiat exhibition or one of the Getty Museums to admire the imposing architecture. There would always be a sketchbook to include little drawing sessions to study the dinosaur skellets at the National History Museum or the people in the museum cafes and bookstores. Nature would be another important part of this week. So I would definitely go hiking in Griffith Park and relax at Manhattan Beach or Malibu Beach for relaxation. Maybe we would also rent surfboards and work on our surfing skills. For refreshments, we would have breakfast at Zinc or Urth Cafe in the morning and end the day at Bestia or Woodspoon in the evening.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Although there are of course some people to whom I am very grateful for their support, one person in particular stands out. My mentor, Noah Minuskin. Noah Minuskin is an incredibly talented artist who I first met in Paris in 2016. I had just started my tattoo journey and had traveled to Paris to start my sleeve project with him. I was a huge admirer of his work and incredibly happy to get the opportunity to wear his art on my skin. During the two days with him, together we created an incredibly beautiful vision of my journey as an artist. A kind of map that showed me what steps were still to be taken. He revealed to me a whole new perspective on the life of an artist, showed me how important it was to educate myself at the highest possible level and that the process, the journey is the most important thing. Incredibly inspired by this encounter, I moved from Switzerland to Germany to study illustration at the Art School in Hamburg. Each subsequent year he and I met for more tattoo sessions. In 2017 I flew to LA, in 2018 we met in Lisbon and the last session so far was in Berlin. During all these days the desire manifested itself in me to work side by side with Noah one day and to be able to learn from him daily. Through the map we created together I was able to follow his footprints and let them guide me. But I didn’t just want to follow him, I wanted to walk this journey with him. After six years of hard work, long nights at art school and in the studio, I was able to fulfill this dream. Noah offered me to move to LA and work side by side in his beautiful HOUS studios.
Noah has shown me the path I have been on for the last six years and for that I am incredibly grateful. At every step of my journey he has given me motivation and inspiration and I look forward to the next steps I will take with him.

Instagram: yanikniffeler