A crack in a wall. A landscape in a documentary. A shape you notice for a second and somehow keep thinking about.
For hair tattoo artist Luca Fontana, inspiration can start with any of them.
Known on Instagram as @lucapho, Luca turns observation into designs that take shape on someone’s head. His work brings barbering, art, and design together, with a creative process that starts long before the first line is cut.
After his win in the Hair Tattoo category at the One Shot Hair Awards, we caught up with Luca to talk about the recognition, his unexpected sources of inspiration, and what he wants other artists to know.
His advice? Stay curious. Your next idea might already be right in front of you.
Inside the Mind of Hair Tattoo Artist Luca Fontana
Luca spends a lot of time looking. Sometimes an idea begins with a client’s head shape or hair texture. Other times, it comes from an image, an animal, a symbol, or simply a feeling.
Even his evening documentaries become part of the process, including subjects with no obvious connection to barbering. A small detail might remind him of something he noticed days earlier. Those connections can become the beginning of a design.
“I tend to see shapes and similarities everywhere,” Luca explains. “A texture can remind me of a landscape, a crack can become a figure, or a random shape can become the beginning of an idea.”
It’s a reminder to give your attention somewhere new. Look up. Watch something different. Notice what catches your eye before deciding whether it belongs in your work.
A Canvas That Changes With the Person Wearing It
Hair gives Luca a canvas with its own shape, direction, and growth pattern. Each design has to work with those characteristics to come alive.
There’s composition to consider. Balance. Perspective. How a design follows the head and what it communicates when someone wears it.
And then there’s the part some artists might find intimidating: it won’t last forever.
For Luca, that’s part of the freedom.
“I also love the fact that every piece is temporary,” he shares. “It allows me to be more courageous, experiment, and try something new. It’s a form of art that changes together with the person wearing it.”
That perspective makes room to take a chance. Try the unfamiliar shape. Explore the idea you haven’t quite figured out. Let the work teach you something.
What Winning the One Shot Hair Awards Meant to Luca
Behind Luca’s award-winning work are hours of research, trial and error, and passion.
Winning the Hair Tattoo category at the One Shot Hair Awards showed him that his vision could connect with people across the industry on an international level. It was meaningful recognition, but it also made him curious about what comes next.
“A win shouldn’t be a finish line, but a reason to keep studying, experimenting, and challenging myself.”
That’s the energy he’s carrying forward. Proud of the work, open to learning, and ready to see where he can take it.
Finding Your Style Starts With Staying Curious
If you’re still figuring out your creative voice, Luca has some reassuring advice: don’t rush it.
Give yourself time to observe, study, make mistakes, and try different things. Step outside your usual environment and let yourself be influenced by more than the work already happening in your field.
“An artist doesn’t have to look for inspiration only in barbering,” he says. “It can come from photography, art, music, documentaries, nature, architecture, or simply from observing the world around you.”
Luca also believes in understanding trends while keeping your own identity. Take in what’s happening around you, then give yourself enough room to turn those influences into something personal.
Sometimes the result is precise. Sometimes, in his words, it’s “completely crazy.” Those unexpected connections are part of how a recognizable style develops.
What Will You Notice Next?
Luca’s approach gives artists of every kind something to think about.
What are you paying attention to? What keeps catching your eye? What could happen if you brought that detail into your next creation?
Explore more of this hair tattoo artist’s work on Luca Fontana’s Instagram, and discover more creative perspectives in the ELEVATE Hair Hub.
Have something of your own to share? Connect with the ELEVATE community and tag @elevatehair so we can see what you’re creating.
