Behind the Needle 2: Part three of the London Tattoo Convention series

“I don’t know if I really felt inspired, in as much as I kind of fell into it” Ryan Mason, Scapegoat Tattoo, Portland

This is part of the London Tattoo Convention series I filmed with Papercut Pictures for Zeitgeist magazine

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/32497637 w=530&h=299]

Behind the Needle 1 explored the motivations and inspirations behind four renowned artists’ work, Behind the Needle 2 features four more of my favourites. Ryan Mason (Scapegoat Tattoo, Portland), Jo Harrison (Modern Body Art, Birmingham), Steve Vinall (The Family Business, London) and Brian Thomas Wilson (Scapegoat Tattoo, Portland).

Ryan tells me how he needed to find something to do with his life, that wasn’t a shitty job after dropping out of art school, and what’s it’s like tattooing in Portland.

Jo talks about punks, rockers and what it’s like being in the tattoo world as a woman. She was actually pregnant at the time of filming and has since given birth to a beautiful baby girl called Marley.

Since Steve has been able to hold a pencil all he has really done is draw, he sees tattooing as one of the strongest and most permanent ways to put your imagery into the world.

Brian tells me how he got lucky by being offered an apprenticeship and was ‘pretty bad’ for a long time. Now he loves the symbolism of fairy tales in his tattoos. (I think in this part of the film you may be able to hear my stupid laugh in the background!)

He works with Ryan at Scapegoat, and as you can see from the film, they really love each other, ahh. (I LOVE you guys)

Words by Alice Th’ink as seen on Zeitgeist.
Photos by Papercut Pictures