Brett Hayes | Japanese Tattoo Artist | Sydney
With 12 years’ experience Brett focuses on precise, bright, colourful and solid Japanese style tattoos, small and large scale. He wants the design to flow, to compliment the wearers personality as well as their body. Brett spends a lot of time researching and drawing for tattoos.
Brett prides himself on his professionalism, attention to detail and ability to understand and communicate effectively with his clients. He also is an avid learner and continues to work on his understanding of Japanese iconography, drawing, painting and tattooing.
FROM AN EARLY AGE Brett has always had a passion for Art. In his early teens, this was fostered through work-experience at an animation studio and by painting murals for local companies.
After graduating with an Advanced Diploma of Fine Arts, Brett became an oil painter and was quickly represented by several Sydney Galleries. Keen to expand his knowledge, he also studied at The National Art School, Julian Ashtons Art School (Life Drawing) and participated in several short courses with well-known Australian artists. His talent was recognised, achieving several awards and prizes for his realistic oil paintings. In 2005 Brett received 2 government grants to fly to The Northern Territory, where he taught Aerosol Art to Indigenous Australians. He continued these travels across the country, again teaching Aerosol Art to school children in country Victoria.
The needle first hit Brett’s skin at age 18, and his curiosity of the craft coupled with this artistic background inspired him to study tattooing. He began tattooing at Bodyart Menai under DR Rev – Bloodpainter in 2009. One year later, he was invited to complete his apprenticeship at Tatudharma, under the tutelage of Josh Roelink and Nathan Puata. These two mentors are two of the foremost leading artists in Australia for Japanese style tattoos (He graduated at Tatudharma just before the doors closed - due to a firebombing incident).
For the next 7 years, Brett continued this craft alongside Nathan and the crew (Alex Rusty, Ryan Ussher, Yoshio Honjo, Garth B Neale and Enku Shoji, to name a few) at a new studio - Lighthouse tattoo. During this time, his knowledge expanded exponentially and further increased after two trips to Japan where he studied Japanese art and culture and its relationship to Japanese tattooing.
Brett was fortunate to be tattooed by Tomo of Yellowblaze studio, Yokohama and Horishige in Osaka. He also met, spoke with and learnt from Shige of Yellowblaze, Horiyoshi 3, Alex Reinke (Horikitsune), Horimasa and Horiren, all masters of the Japanese Tattoo. Overtime, he has steadily been getting his own bodysuit tattooed and can understand and relate to the clients own personal experience.
In 2019 Brett worked at Little Tokyo with Rhys Gordon, Som and Cole Dawson. Later that year, he started working with the crew at Hibernia, whom he has known and respected for years. Every opportunity to work with top tattoo artists has given him a chance to further hone his own skills and vision and to become a better artist. Brett has been a part of industry events in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand, including being a guest artist at studios such as The Grand Illusion (Melbourne), Wicked Ink (Sydney) and The Tattooed Heart (Auckland). He has also worked with many well-known tattoo artists from all over the world including, Dean Parkin, Horiken, Uncle Allen and Ban Ganji.
He has donated his time to various fundraising events, to support charities such as Sydney Children’s Cancer Institute and Dare to Cure (tattooing CEOs to raise funds for cancer research), Sea Shepard and the Australian Tattooist Guilds (with which he is a member) various charity events. He has also been commissioned for corporate events, for major brands such as Sailor Jerry’s. Brett’s work has been recognised in several industry magazines and his client list includes several high-profile faces.
When not tattooing, you will find him hanging out with his 8 yr old son Ahri, cycling the Sydney roads, cruising on his Harley, doing Taekwondo (currently training for 2nd degree Black belt), reading, painting or drinking coffee.
