Features Archives - Page 83 of 153

December 14, 2015

Transformation tattoo for Transgender son

Steve Peace a Canadian tattooist has updated his wife’s tattoo of their children to reflect the new gender of her eldest son Ace. The original tattoo was done over 10 years ago, and showed a portrait of their children, Elliot, Hamish and Ace- when Ace was living as a girl.

Steve has now changed the tattoo of a young girl wearing a pink dress and pigtails into a boy wearing a blue shirt and shorts to reflect Ace who is a transgender teen. The tattoo transformation was kept as a surprise for Ace and shows how much they support his decision to be who he really is.

In an interview with Global News Steve said:

I think it really reaffirmed, for him, that we believed him […] Parents often sit in the closet themselves. This was putting it out there. Parents need to really support their kids in these situations. I thought he was happy before, but no — he’s happier now. It’s crazy. He smiles all the time.

Tattoo by Steve

Watch the video below to hear Ace’s story:

December 13, 2015December 13, 2015

Mais2 Illustration

Alessandra Criseo, better known as Mais2 on Instagram, is an illustrator and crafter from Italy who has lived in London for the past five years. Inspired by Things&Ink Alessandra created this tattoo inspired girl for us…

How would you describe your style? Sometimes it’s hard for me to see- I love trying a lot of different things and techniques so sometimes I feel inconsistent, but apparently other people can see my identity better than I can. People that know often talk about my style mentioning the fact that it has humour and makes them laugh, and that it has something creepy about it as well. Both compliments.

What inspires you? From my side I get inspired by things happening to me and sentences that I form in my head in specific situations, things connected to my childhood and people and things I love. Externally I get my inspirations mostly from fashion, food, objects, strange combinations of items together. I realised that I get inspired more by photographic stuff than illustration, I guess because it is a different media.
I do of course follow a lot of amazing artists, but often when I see a drawing I really love and I think that is perfect, I don’t feel like I need to repeat what they already did.

Do you have a background in art? I do, instead of high school I went to art school in my city, but it was quite crap at the time. It was the only art school in town and It wasn’t very good. In my third year I have chosen to specialise in fashion, where I met two of my favourite teachers though, so no regrets. I also did a two year course in a school of comics that allowed me to meet some of my artist friends and professionals and start my career.

What medium do you use? I tend to draw and ink traditionally (with any pencil and graphic liners) because it relaxes me much more than digital. I colour digitally in Photoshop, or if I go for a more traditional technique I use markers.

What do you like to draw? I definitely love to draw silly people,oh and food- if together even better. I love spooky and dark subjects too, drawing street fashion and animals.

Can people buy your illustrations? I have a bigcartel shop where people can buy everything I put on sale. At the moment you can find a few things in there and between those there is my first self published book Memento Bento that is an illustrated diary of my first trip to Japan- I’m very proud of it!

Do you have any tattoos? What do you think about tattoos? I love tattoos, I adored them from far away for ages before getting mine.
It’s always hard for an artist to decide what to get as a first tattoo because we change our mind easily and in my case my only certainty was that I didn’t want to design it myself- but I couldn’t stop picturing the composition in my head!

Tattoos are a big influence on my style, a lot of people get my illustrations as tattoos as well. Becoming a tattoo artist and tattooing my pieces myself is a dream of mine, I seriously have thought about that but I haven’t been brave enough to just do it yet. I wish some of my friends were tattoo artists to teach me and help me get started! Maybe one day, hopefully soon!

I got my first tattoos two years ago, on both of my calves.They are subtle references to two video games that really influenced my taste during my childhood and I’m sure I will love forever: Monkey Island and Prince of Persia. I also have a moon on my right wrist and I love it.

Are there any artists that you admire? One of my biggest weakness is making lists of things I love or hate, seriously, that’s so hard for me! I don’t even know what my favourite food or song or colour are! Generally speaking I love a lot of Japanese illustrators, ancient and modern. I love their humour, I feel like they get me. I love a lot of graphic illustrations- I enjoy the process of limiting yourself with the amount of colour and detail. It makes the result so elegant and timeless, and I find it calming as well when I do it myself.

As I have already mentioned, tattoo art is a huge inspiration as well. I love symbolism and really appreciate the composition that a good tattoo artist is capable of creating. I love how a well done design can stand alone perfectly without even any need for a context. I also follow a lot of illustrators that don’t fit in any of these categories, especially on Instagram and Tumblr- I kinda like everything.

December 10, 2015

Interview with Han Maude

22-year-old Han Maude works out of Jekyll & Hyde Tattoo Company in Rugby Warwickshire and creates all manner of tattoos in solid dot work. We chatted to Han about her love for Disney and what inspired her to become a tattoo artist…

How long have you been tattooing? Two years

How did you get into the industry? I became very persistent about getting my foot in the door, took my portfolio around numerous studios, until someone took the chance and saw potential in my work.

When did you get your first tattoo, do you still love it? Unfortunately, I made the same mistake as most young insubordinate 16-year-olds did, and got tattooed at 16. Luckily for me I was realised quickly that it was a silly decision and had it covered up, once I was 18. It was an upside down ribbon with some stars on my wrist, so no, I really don’t love it.

What drew you to the tattoo world? I always wanted to get into the industry, I remember being about nine and having my own play tattoo studio in my wendy shed, parents of the local area weren’t happy when their children went home covered in permanent marker. I always liked the seemingly male orientated jobs, and its amazing to see the amount of female artists pushing beautiful work out in the industry.

What inspires you? I really fell in love with Studio Ghibli, and Japanese style anime, watching the films or spending an hour here or there with my nose in the animator’s books really inspired me too tattoo pieces like this.
I also spent some time in India last year, and the beautiful artwork was everywhere. While I was there a woman did some henna on my hand and completely freehanded the design, which made this stunning piece of art.
Obviously with sea, sun and sand it didn’t last long, but I couldn’t wait to get back home and start drawing.

You tattoo a lot of cartoons and Disney are these something you love? Disney really was something I always loved, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who hasn’t loved Disney, in one way or another. Everyone wants a bit of sparkle in their life. And if I can be the person to do that, on someone’s skin forever, amazing! I’m a child at heart.
Anime was what really got me into tattooing, I loved it, I wanted to draw like it and produce pieces to the standard these illustrators was creating , it was 70% of my portfolio when I applied for apprenticeships.

Is there anything you wouldn’t tattoo? I remember maybe in my first year of tattooing, we had a guy come in and asked for EDL to be tattooed on the back of his head. I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I think I’d rather hang up my machines in a career I love than do something that could potentially cause offense or deemed racist.

Do you admire other artists? Definitely, the list goes on and on.
But a few of my favourite artists, would be Flo Nuttall, Amy Savage and Kolahari from the Circle London.

You predominately do dot work how did this come about? When I first started my apprenticeship, I wanted to do traditional and then neo trad, and then black and grey realism. I had a bit of a bad attitude, and wanted to find me niche quickly.
I saw all these amazing artists producing pieces like they had been doing it their entire life, I felt so behind. Then we had Ema Sweeney and Billy Hay guest spot at the studio, Ema is an amazing dotwork artist and I had maybe done one or two dotwork pieces and she really helped and gave a few pointers.
And everything after that started flowing, like my hand knew what it was doing before I did.

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015

Audrey Kawasaki Inspired Tattoos

Audrey Kawaski creates beautiful and mysterious paintings featuring girls with flowing hair and delicate features. Her muted colour palette and Japanese inspired portraits means that her work can be turned into memorising tattoos…

@rodrigocampolargo

@hannahflowers_tattoo

@lucktatu

@allyriley

@emma__d

December 8, 2015December 8, 2015

Meet MEAT

Meat is the new collaborative fashion venture of London based designers Alis Pelleschi and Bo Claridge. Specialising in rubber wear, the brand was born out of their belief that the material could transcend fetish-wear clichés. Reflecting the pair’s backgrounds as digital natives, Meat is a brand fully in tune with the internet. Not only in the inspiration they draw from online culture, but also in their adoptions of the internet as a presentation platform in itself. The ideology of Meat is to constantly evolve and reinvent itself with every season.

How did you start MEAT?

Alis Pelleschi: It happened quite organically out of our own desires to wear latex, but no-one was really making latex that suited our own styles. So Bo started making us pieces to go out to clubs in and stylists started requesting pieces. We suddenly realised that we’d found a gap in the market and it started from that. We both have different skills that compliment each other, so we’ve been pretty lucky that we can be as self-contained as we have been. And then along the way we’ve had so many lovely talented people help us achieve the MEAT dream. Neither of us have come from well off backgrounds, so we’ve had to do this on our own, off our own backs and we’re just genuinely really lucky to have talented friends and meatbabes around us!

How long has MEAT been running for?

AP: Three years. (Scary.)

Do you have a background in fashion?

AP: Neither of us studied fashion but we both came from studying Visual Communication. Before that I was shooting fashion editorials and knew the fashion and art world, whereas Bo came from the more art / tattooing world. So I knew what was needed to bring together these ideas and make a fashion brand. We both felt strongly that it wasn’t just about the clothes, we wanted to create this whole world via photography, video, ideas, music, stories and people.

What do you love about working with latex?

AP: Latex as a material is so futuristic to me and so sexy. It’s unlike any other material. There’s a reason why latex as a material gets fetishised, as it is so luxurious and unusual. There is nothing that makes me feel more sexy than slipping on a sexy latex dress. It’s empowering!

Do you guys have any tattoos?

AP: Bo has lots, she’s currently 2/3 way through a big back piece by our friend Stewart OC. I actually have no tattoos. I have up until now quite liked the idea of never having any, as I like being able to transform myself and evolve. However, I have been contemplating a few for a while. So planning to get my first tattoo in the new year.

What made you use Grace Neutral for you latest shoot?

AP: I’ve been fascinated with Grace for a long time… she is this perfect futuristic alien princess. She was actually one of the easiest models I’ve ever had to shoot as she is just so effortlessly beautiful and she’s super nice, so that helps. I really love the idea of a ‘meatbabe’ being anyone and making it your own and we like to use either hot friends or creatives we admire who are bold, full of self confidence and doing their thing. She has really honed in on her craft, it’s inspiring!

Meat clothing can be purchased via their website and they can be found on Facebook and Instagram.