AboutThe act of drawing for daCruz is deeply physical and contemplative—a ritual of slowness in contrast to the immediacy of digital image-making. His compositions are grounded in observation but resist narrative, offering instead a space for quiet reflection, disorientation, and reassembly.
In recent years, da Cruz has extended his practice to tattooing—approaching it not as a departure from drawing, but as a new surface and medium through which to explore the same visual instincts. Entirely self-taught, his approach to tattooing is unconventional, intuitive, and deeply personal. Developed outside of any traditional apprenticeship, his tattoo work resists categorization and reflects a raw, expressive energy that is distinct from—but in conversation with—his charcoal work.
His work is rooted in material exploration, memory, and the quiet tension between presence and absence. With a background in fine arts from Lisbon University's Ar.Co – Center for Art and Visual Communication – da Cruz began his artistic journey with pastels, gradually refining his visual language into the stark, elemental world of black and white charcoal. His charcoal drawings are meditative, meticulous compositions that unfold slowly, pixel by pixel, through a process that resembles both construction and erasure. Working often on recycled paper, da Cruz embraces the imperfections and constraints of the material as part of the final image. Landscapes, fragments of memory, and abstracted forms emerge through layers of charcoal and chalk, playing with scale, texture, and the perception of depth. The empty spaces, the “gaps,” are as important as the marks—inviting the viewer to complete the work in their own imagination.
For da Cruz, tattooing is not a separate craft, but a parallel path—one that allows for a different kind of connection, immediacy, and emotional weight. Each tattoo becomes a permanent extension of his visual world, shaped through direct interaction with the body and the individual receiving it.
At the center of all his work is a desire to connect—between materials, memories, bodies, and perception. Whether on paper or skin, his images invite a slow, searching gaze, asking the viewer to meet them halfway and complete the picture from within.
You can explore Jorge da Cruz’s tattoo work at jorgedacruzartwork.com/tattooart
JorgedaCruz is a Lisbon-born artist based in Berlin since 2011, working primarily in large-scale charcoal drawing, with a parallel practice in non-traditional tattoo art.