Art Cyniq

According to Éric Dufour, as far back as 2001 people were saying that tattooing was a fad. "Five years later, the same people were still saying the same thing. Today, you have to look toward the evidence and right now, it really is," says Éric, founder and owner of the tattoo studio, Art Cyniq.

Art Cyniq, explains Éric, is above all a vocational art project and is in some ways the extension of his passion for painting. With its storefront at the corner of Louis-Hemon and Rosemont Boulevard, Art Cyniq promotes art over business in a venue where the rent is less expensive than in the major centres of the city.

"The idea was to keep the optical studio and art gallery aspects, without getting too commercial," explains Éric. "It's also a place where I wanted to showcase artists' paintings — especially local ones — that I like."

He says he's still amazed at the number of individuals he sees on the streets who have more tattoos than he does. Éric, a former student of the School of Fine Arts at Concordia University, sees the enthusiasm of tattooing as a phenomenon whose popularity has created enough business to keep the various studios busy.