My Story

Phil Van Roy was born in Calais, France, where at a young age he was drawn to the city’s port to watch the tattooed sailors and fishmongers trading and selling the day’s catch in the early mornings. He fed his curiosity slumming in the old tattoo shops of Regis de Calais, and sailing across the English Channel trying to get information from the cantankerous old artists in Canterbury and London, who made him work for it, soldering needles using a rusty iron and an upside down cigarette lighter as a vice.

In 2001, at the age of 24, he moved to Paris, where his passion only grew as he continued to develop his own style in the French capital. After six years, he decided to begin traveling in search of more inspiration, and for two years he enjoyed guest spots in shops in Belgium, Sweden, Quebec and Texas, as well as in many regions of France.

Phil’s unique and easily recognized European version of the American old school tattoo style, as well as the impressive reputation he merited for his vibrant color work, earned him participation and top prizes in all the biggest tattoo conventions in Europe, including three years in a row at Tintin’s Mondial du Tatouage. 

It was his love of the band Pantera that led him to Texas during his travels, where he became passionate about other genres of American music, including country, hillbilly, Western and Cajun, and where he met and developed a strong friendship with Johnny David of the World Famous Tattoo Ranch in Fortworth. This friendship inspired Phil to open his own shop in Versailles, France, in partnership with Johnny, and the unprecedented, unbelievable world of the Tattoo Ranch Versailles was created. 

In his stunningly beautiful shop five minutes from the entrance to the Château de Versailles, Phil created his own slice of the southern United States, decorated with everything from taxidermied birds and animals, to ancient Orthodox icons, to an original chainsaw from the set of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Here he enjoyed ten years of success, a formidable international reputation, magazine and television coverage, more prizes for his tattoos and recognition for his charitable work as well.

In 2018 he fell in love with a Cajun woman and decided to pursue this new passion in following his wife, in her desire to return to her beloved Acadiana. Since he can’t play accordion and has never had much interest in hunting, he has arrived in Louisiana armed only with a pencil and his needles, excited to share his art and passion with Acadiana and the Cajun and Creole cultures he loves so much.