Interview
Stepan Borshch
Stephan started drawing at a very early age and was always drawn to art. That’s what happens when you are born in the art capital of Ukraine, the beautiful Lviv city, city of artists, musicians and poets that has inspired creative minds for ages. That's where his love of art was born. In high school, he started drawing temporary tattoos with gel pen on his classmates and friends which would get him in trouble. At age 14, Stepan learned how to build tattoo machines and started tattooing his friends; after high school he went to college and took programs for fixing and programing cnc machines but it wasn’t his passion. Years later, he ended up going to art school and study stained glass where he spent 3 years studying art and improving his art skills, during his summer apprentice he got chance to work with the best stained glass artists in his city. One of them was Oleksandr Shevchenko, senior lecturer at the Glass Art Department of the Lviv National Academy of Arts, and Valeriy, ex military, who loved to do stained glass they were old school and taught me a lot of old school tips and tricks about art.
“In 2012, I moved to Toronto Canada, where after learning how to speak English, I started to work in reputable local tattoo shop in downtown Toronto where I met Imam Azhari. He is an incredible hyper realistic oil painter and artist, that opened for me the door into hyper realistic art. After we finished tattooing, we would hang out in his studio and draw or paint, there would be other artists from other reputable tattoo shops in Toronto that wanted to improve their art skills outside of tattooing which would become my friends. In 2019, I opened Leopolis Ink Tattoo Studio from where I am currently working. Today I’m focused on creating black and grey or colour realistic tattoos, drawings or paintings, I do love to create art with different media.”
Website: www.leopolisink.ca
Instagram: @stefanotattooist
