Category: Photo inspiration

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Exclusive new images in Mark Leaver’s facial tattoo project

Facial tattoos are bold and unflinching, they cannot be hidden – perhaps this is why they still sometimes provoke fear and prejudice. Mark Leaver’s photographic project tackles this issue and tries to dispel some of the myths that exist about this niche within a subculture.

These are two brand-new, unseen portraits in Mark Leaver’s beautiful (and much talked about) series of portrait photographs. (previously blogged about here, and also featured in The Identity Issue of Things&Ink). This time Mark photographs a couple of our friends, Duncan X and Blue from Into You, London.

 

Duncan X, 48 years old, Tattoo Artist

Duncan x
Duncan x

 

Duncan was 21 when he got his first tattoo. Duncan was in a band for 7 years until he began working at Into You as a receptionist at 30 years old. He did an apprenticeship in Soho with Dennis Cockell. Duncan’s first facial tattoo was by Curley Moore (when Curly worked at Into You). Duncan doesn’t intend on getting any more facial work.

 

 

Blue, 50 years old, office manager at Into You, London

Blue
Blue

 

Blue was 18 when she started getting tattooed and it wasn’t until her mid 30s that she decided to move to her face. For her, the hands and neck were a bigger deal to get tattooed than her face. Blue has been at Into You for 20 years and she wants more facial work, but not for a while – maybe at 70! 

 

A word from the photographer Mark:

It seems oddly timed that the project has had so much publicity and attention right after I’ve graduated from university! To get the series published by the Daily Mail is an amazing (and unexpected) progression of the project. This marks a new audience which is amazing for much a niche subject – before the series was only really viewed by people from the tattoo community, for it to be in a tabloid paper is incredible.

The project is nowhere near over, I’m still shooting. I shot these portraits last week of Duncan and Blue. And I actually shot two more today and will be doing two more tomorrow. There’s still a few big names/characters I’d like to have in the project before I put it to rest.

 

We will continue to keep you updated on Mark Leaver’s progression with this project. His work can be viewed at www.mdleaver.com

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Identity – Portraits | Modification | Adornment. An exhibition

Artwork by Susanna Widmann

 

We are very pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition ‘Identity – Portraits | Modification | Adornment’ at Into You, London, in May 2014.

Launch party: Thursday 22 May from 7pm
Location: Into You, 144 St John St, London EC1V 4UA
Join the Facebook event, here.

 

Glimpse of a piece by Matt (Oddboy) Barratt-Jones 

 

The exhibition coincides with the launch of The Identity Issue – issue 7 of Things & Ink magazine and celebrates the work of tattooists, photographers and artists. Each piece is the artist’s interpretation of the theme – no restrictions or limitations. This collection, curated by the team at Things&Ink, is varied, exciting and thought-provoking.

Identity means something different to us all, and this collection of original artwork and photography – and The Identity Issue of Things&Ink magazine  – explores the way our identities can be informed by the world around us and what we choose to do with our bodies.

There will be work from:
Alex Binnie 
Araceli 4ever
Andrea Furci 
Axa Shireen
Aimee Cornwell 
Antony Flemming
Clare Goldilox
Delphine Noiztoy
Duncan X 
Joao Bosco 
Matt (Oddboy) Barratt-Jones 
Susanna Widmann
Wendy Pham
Ramon Maiden
Luke Garwood
Heather Shuker
And a selection of artists from Into You Brighton and London. 

The Chin Women of Myanmar, by photographer Luke Garwood
Ma Apoi aged 66

 

Come and join us to celebrate the launch and view the entire exhibition on Thursday 22 May from 7pm, Into You, 144 St John St, London EC1V 4UA. The exhibition will run for three months from that date.

The exhibition has been curated by the team at Things&Ink magazine
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Street Spotting in London

While interning at Things&Ink I spied some cool tattoos and stopped the owners for a brief chat.With everyone rushing to wherever they were going, it was difficult to ask everyone lots of questions about their tattoos!

Things&Ink reader  Mia MaCauley, 20, art student in London on a college trip.
She often gets tattooed at conventions, her chest piece is by Billie at Afflecks  in Manchester.

 

Her favourite tattoo is this little creep by Jemma Jones at Raincity, Manchester

 

Louise Fury, 36, body piercer at Original Skin, London. Originally from America but she lives in London.


She had just had a six hour sitting on her back tattoo and I didn’t want to bother her too much, we all know how tiring getting tattooed can be!

 

Daniel Herridge, 34, Birmingham. In London with his girlfriend.

Jen, 30 and Bruno 35 Owners of Gypsy Stables Tattoo Emporium, London.

 

Have you spotted anyone out and about with tattoos?

 

 

 

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Tattooed on the Job – the Perks of being a Things&Ink Intern

Our intern Rosalie interviews tattoo artist Lucy O’Connell while getting her tattoo sleeve started… 

I took the train to visit Lucy O’Connell and Ruth Rollin, both from Red Tattoo and Piercing in Leeds who were doing a guest spot at Painted Lady Tattoo Parlour in Northfield, Birmingham.

The studio is absolutely beautiful, like no other I have ever been in. Forget sterile white and tiled floors Painted Lady is like stepping into your much loved eccentric Auntie’s house. Instead imagine ornate frames, muted green walls and bare wooden floor in what was once a living room. The collection of art and taxidermy is incredible and the homey feel is so relaxing, this is how I want my house to be like! There was so much to look at while Lucy tattooed my forearm for three hours with her practically silent tattoo machine.

Owner of the Painted Lady, Dawnii Fantana, one of Lucy’s inspirations, was so welcoming with cups of peach tea and cake! What more could you want? Other inspirations of Lucy’s include; Xam (who she’s planning to get tattooed by when he guests in Leeds), Emily Rose Murray, Valerie Vargas, Jason Minauro and Claudia de Sabe (who is tattooing Lucy’s hands very soon) – Lucky thing!

Lucy had drawn the Chinese lantern design with a cute bird a while ago and I had to snap it up for the start of my sleeve, I love everything she does! I’m a real Instagram stalker, even recognising the fruit fillers that Amy Savage had tattooed as belonging to Lucy. We chatted and laughed the whole way through the tattoo swapping stories about not crying at films, university courses, her love for Robert Downey Jr, (we were watching the new Sherlock Holmes) and other nonsensical things!

Lucy has been tattooing for only two years, yet her style is so distinctive; with women and flowers featuring heavily, as she could tattoo these all day. ‘I do try to turn everything into a woman! I try to get away with as much as I can!’ Fine by me, I especially love her flowers with women faces, perfect.

At first when she started out in the industry Lucy thought she’d specialise in realism but her imagination ran away with her, although ‘it is nice to be given some direction’, creating your own art is more enjoyable.

I can’t wait to get stuck into my sleeve, having already spied on Lucy’s Instagram a gorgeous Indian inspired lady face, which I hope she can recreate for my own collection. My arm will be filled with Indian goddesses, tigers and fans at The Femaletattoo Show, in Leamington Spa where Lucy is working at on 14th September.

Lucy also has numerous guest spots planned:
One Day Gallery, Manchester 28th-29th May
Loaded Forty Four, Manchester 10th-12th July
As well as exhibiting originals of her work at The Old Bones Emporium in Edinburgh 6th-12th  June

I also got my first ever hand-poked tattoo by Ruth Rollins. I picked a little wishbone from her sheet of cute small dot work flash, to bring me luck. I found being tattooed in this way so relaxing and part from a few points it was pretty painless. I could have lain on the table for hours… I asked Ruth which method of tattooing she preferred: ‘it’s too hard to say which I prefer, they are too different and you’re not comparing like for like’. While tattooing with a machine allows Ruth to create larger tattoos, she, like the person being tattooed, finds hand-poking therapeutic. Ruth is also working at the Femaletattoo Show in September and I’ll be popping down to have another little relaxing hand-poked piece of art!

Having these lovely northern lasses tattoo me yesterday was only made possible by Dawnii Fantana (have a look at her beautiful gypsies), Ruth explains that ‘as relative newbies to the tattooing industry it is brilliant having people like Dawnii who help and encourage you’, Hurrah! To Dawnii, her gorgeous shop and supportive nature! Definitely on my growing to-be-tattooed-by list! I hope I don’t run out of space first!