Rosalie Hurr, Author at Things&Ink

July 29, 2018

Interview with Tattooist Çağdaş Mutlu

Çağdaş Mutlu is a tattoo artist from Izmir, Turkey who creates black work tattoos, we caught up with Çağdaş to find out more about his work…

IMG_20180329_143721_773

Having graduated from Dokuz Eylül University Fine Arts Faculty in 2005 with a fine arts pattern design degree, Çağdaş has been designing and drawing for the last 15 years. While he has been tattooing for the last five years, focusing on dot work, lines and a black style.

Since he had been designing patterns for year, it was time for him to permanently mark those designs onto skin. His inspiration is providing a result that everyone is happy with and seeing the desired artwork come alive on the skin. There hasn’t been a favourite piece for Çağdaş, but instead seeing how his different designs emerge and develop everyday, watching the process that has been his favourite part.

IMG_20180408_140943_448

Describing his style, Çağdaş says:

HUMANART is a tattoo way and a brand that combines the art of tattoo with illustration and graphic design with narrative expression. We do not address this art that we perform on the human body as tattoo. What we create is an art of people. We do not define this as tattoo, but as HUMANART. This is how we represent our brand and this is the way we initiate a new movement by painting people’s lifes, philosophies and secrets on their own bodies.

IMG_20180402_004619_185

July 16, 2018August 3, 2018

Rafa Alvarez Illustrations

We love this illustration created by Rafa Alvarez called The Paradox created for Opticks Magazine…

Personal piece used as cover for art magazine “Opticks”.
I wanted to make an apparently normal image but full of visual contradictions. I used a beautiful stock photography by Tim Platt as reference for the initial pose of the couple, then drew tattoos intertwining with the arms and bodies making the hug impossible. The predominant “never together” tattoo could only be read when the couple is actually close to each other, becoming another paradox. Many of the details like the Moebius strip refer to classic impossible geometry (M.C.Escher) and I also couldn´t help to throw in Schrodinger´s favourite pet. Definitely a lot of fun to draw.

July 10, 2018

Interview with Tattoo Artist Ruby Quilter

26-year-old Ruby Quilter, is a tattoo artist at Sang Bleu Tattoo in London. We chatted to Ruby about being a female tattooer, and her fine line style…

How long have you been tattooing? I’ve been tattooing for about five years now, I began my apprenticeship at 21.

How did you get into the industry and what inspired you to do so? I started getting tattooed quite young, and from then it sparked something in me to learn more about different tattooers and tattooing history. I actually hadn’t considered tattooing as a job, even at that time, being a female tattooer had some social connotations. I felt like it was quite a huge step away from the path I was on. I decided to look for an apprenticeship and a really amazing shop near where I’m from called Scarlet Rose took me on.

What did you do before? I didn’t have too much time after leaving school to get into a career, I’d had a few different jobs, mostly retail work, and was studying fashion and originally wanted to do something along the lines of visual creative direction. I feel incredibly luckily I found tattooing.

How would you describe your style of tattooing? Fine line black and grey.

What inspires your designs? Loads of different things; I reference a lot of old flash and I look at a lot of religious imagery. I also love looking at old fantasy art. I collect a lot of older comics which have some incredible ideas that can transition into tattoos.

Are there any artists that influence you? Definitely; Jack Rudy, Kari Barba, Juan Puente, Freddy Corbin among so many others. I love the work of Nathan Kostechko, Juan Teyer, Ben Grillo, Zac Scheinbaum. I could keep going!

What would you love to tattoo? I would love to get more into fantasy, I have some incredible customers who are really open with what they get, and give me the opportunity to try something new. I’d also love to take on larger projects, I would love to do some back pieces!

Do you have any guest spots or conventions planned? I definitely have more plans to travel, my best friend Jack and I plan to make a trip to Barcelona soon, and make the most of travelling within Europe. Last year I worked the London Tattoo Convention, which was a huge opportunity for me and I would love to do that incredible convention again.

July 2, 2018

Careers: Tattooed Social Media Representative

25-year-old Mikaela is a Social Media Representative at LUSH in London. We caught up with her to chat work, her tattoo collection and being vegan…

How long have you been working for Lush? How did you get your current role? I’ve been working at Lush for about three years now. I started on the shop floor at the flagship Oxford Street store, then joined the in store events and branding team. I’ve always wanted to bring my love of photography into my everyday job, so jumped at the chance at joining the social media team. I’m now a social media rep, and support events and branding when needed!

What do you love about your job? I love working for a company that’s so accepting of everyone, and encourages individuality. It’s a company that cares about their products, what goes into them, where ingredients are sourced and of course is fighting animal testing which is incredibly important to me. Lush also creates and supports a number of campaigns each year and isn’t afraid to use its voice as a popular brand to make people think, and I think that’s great. It’s also quite a tongue-in-cheek company at times so there’s always an element of fun involved.

T&I13-1

What sorts of stuff do you do? What projects do you get involved with? On a day-to-day basis at Lush, I do a lot of community management on the store’s social media pages, shoot photo and video content etc. Outside of work I try to do as much photography as I can, the majority of which is portrait work and it’s something I’d eventually love to be able to do full time.

I’ve also been vegan for two years now, so that’s a big part of my life. I’ve been trying to get fitter and healthier so spend a lot of time at the gym with my badass female, tattooed, vegan trainer @princessoftheunicorns!

T&I7-1

Can you tell us about your tattoos? Do you have any future plans? I’ve been getting tattooed since I was 19, my first one was a tiny heart on my wrist. I then ventured into getting bigger and more colourful pieces. My first ones being by Gemma, Amy Savage and Adam Ruff. They’re mostly quite traditional, lots of hearts and a few lady heads! I also have portraits of my dogs on my calves and two Fall Out Boy inspired tattoos. I also have a dotwork Maltese Cross on my ankle that I got in Malta, which is quite sentimental.

I think my favourite is still the first colour tattoo I got by Gemma, it’s a locket with my mum’s initials either side that I later had a key added to underneath. I have so many ideas for tattoos that I still want to get. I want to finish my sleeve and get my knees tattooed next, but I definitely know why I’m maybe putting that off a little bit!

T&I10

Can you show them off at work? How would you describe your fashion style? Not having to cover up my tattoos at work is another thing that I love about working at Lush. Everyone is encouraged to express their individuality and tattoos are no exception. I’m around so many tattooed people at work that I sometimes forget that they can still be a problem at other workplaces. Everyone loves seeing each other’s work as well and discovering new styles and artists as a result!

I don’t really follow any kind of fashion in particular, I mostly wear black, occasionally dipping into a little Bettie Page 50s feel when I have time to put the effort in – but mostly keep it a little bit dressed down “goth” I guess.

What kind of reception do your tattoos get? Most of the time I get a really positive reaction, people love how colourful they are and finding out why I got certain pieces. I do get the occasional negative comment or dirty look but I’m pretty used to it now, and nothing will ever make me feel bad about them when I know how happy they make me!

T&I6

Has being vegan influence your tattoos or job? Does it influence the company you work for? I would probably say that I became vegan as a result of working at Lush. I’d always had a bit of a guilty conscience when I used to eat meat but once I started working at Lush with lots of vegans, I learned so much more about the meat and dairy industries that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

In terms of tattoos it means that I have to think about whether tattoo ink being used is vegan and aftercare, which hasn’t been too difficult so far. I don’t have any vegan-related tattoos yet, but I’m sure I will end up getting one eventually. I’ll definitely be getting more animal tattoos!

June 24, 2018

Tattoos & Yoga: Emma Vasquez

24-year-old Emma Vasquez , is a yoga teacher from Carlisle. We chatted to Emma to find out more about her daily practice, her tattoos and living a vegan lifestyle…

How old were you when you got your first tattoo and what was it? I was 18, it’s an owl on my thigh it’s about A4 size.

What drew you to the world of tattoos? Full bodysuits of tattoos. I just loved seeing so many tattoos together on one person, the colours and work just blew me away. I remember seeing a bodysuit on a lady in the swimming pools when I was about 10 or 11 and I was in awe of how awesome she looked.

What influenced your decision to get tattooed? I just liked how it looked, getting tattooed didn’t feel like a huge deal for me really, I don’t really have any that are meaningful or tell a story. It was more just get a tattoo done and that’s it. Go to a good tattooist and just enjoy the whole experience.

Can you tell us a little about your tattoos? I have both arms done, traditional and lots of colours and flowers. A nautical style piece on my back, an om on my chest, Ganesha on my stomach. I have both thighs tattooed, back of thighs, knees, shins, calves. All ten toes, insides of my feet and tops of my feet. They’re all traditional and I’ve been tattooed by many great tattooists, most were done by Megan Fell and her dad Colin Fell. Both solid tattooers.

How did your yoga journey begin? About five years, I had started meditating and wanted to see if yoga would complement that. I took my first class at the same studio I now work for, I totally fell in love with yoga from the start.

Have you been treated differently as a heavily tattooed woman in the yoga industry? I have had students tell me they were worried about coming to my classes because my tattoos make me look scary or “hard” even though I always have a huge smile on my face! People have outright told me they think my tattoos look awful and they don’t like them. But that’s their opinion and that’s fine. Sometimes I’ve had students giggle or point at my tattoos to their friends but never at the yoga studio in Carlisle where I work now, this was from other places I taught yoga. So I suppose people have said things or giggled and pointed at me to their friends because of my tattoos. I just let it be, I think the more tattoos you get the more you just don’t care about what anyone else thinks. I like them that’s all that matters.

Has your lifestyle changed since you started teaching? Not really, when I started yoga that’s when my lifestyle changed. I became vegan and made a lot of different life choices but since I started teaching it’s all just been so natural and fluid. No forcing anything, everything just flows really. It’s a great way to live, very relaxed.

Do your tattoos coincide with your yoga practice? I think as I am a strict ashtanga practitioner they do, ashtanga is a very yang style of yoga and if I go to other studios to do an ashtanga class I guarantee a few ashtangis will have tattoos! I suppose I also feel covered up with my tattoos when I practice, I feel hidden and in my own little world. I do get a lot of compliments about them though, in the studio and even people stopping me in the street.

Have they helped you to connect to yourself or the world in a different way? Actually getting tattooed made me realise we can step away from emotions and feelings, we don’t have to hold on to them or identify with them. If you’re in pain getting tattooed just accept it as your present moment experience and know that it’ll pass.

Have yoga and tattoos helped you to view your body differently, has yoga? Definitely, yoga made me completely fall in love with my body, to heal and nurture it and to be proud of it. And getting tattooed has also made me feel much more confident in my own skin.

image5-1

Where do you teach and how can people get involved?
I teach at the Yoga Studio Carlisle in Cumbria, it’s the most beautiful tranquil space. You get involved by coming along to classes! I run the ashtanga yoga programme here as well and that’s a real rarity for Cumbria! It’s fantastic to be teaching at the same studio I started my yoga journey in.