Kewpie Tattoos

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know that we’re just crazy about kewpies. We first shared our love for these adorable dolls in Number 3 of Things&Ink magazine – The Love Issue. Now we’re seeing that a lot of tattoo collectors and tattoo artists share our feelings for these little cuties… 

@rat666tat

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@drewlinden

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@_cattnip

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@jodydawber

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@juliazombitattoo

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@showpigeon

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@attackofthe50footwoman

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@monikadarling

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Do you have a kewpie tattoo? Tag us in your photo on Instagram so we can see it! 

Visual Artist: Ginger Taylor

28-year-old Ginger Taylor is a freelance visual artist from Sydney Australia. We chat to Ginger about the art she makes, what inspires her and tattoos…

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How long have you been a visual artist and how did you become one? I’ve been properly freelance for just over two years now. I started out sign writing at JbHifi about three years ago and got a taste of a creative job, and I LOVED it. After years of very non-creative jobs it was like a breath of fresh air. Being able to go to work and draw in a tiny room all by myself and listen to music and podcasts all day was my little slice of heaven.

Where do you get the inspiration for your designs from? I would say travelling mostly. My sister lives in LA and when I go to visit her we go on a lot of road trips, eat in diners, stay in motels, go visit weird places. I also just recently visited Japan for the first time and I think you can see that through my work.

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What’s your favourite project you have worked on or piece you have produced? I’m always happiest when I get to paint on a large scale – so murals are my favourite project to work on. I just painted a mural at my local pub so that’s my favourite recent one.

What’s the process behind your pieces? Winging it! I paint bowling pins, watercolours, murals, motorbike helmets, tanks, jackets etc. anything I can get my hands on really so the process is different for everything I do.

How would you describe your art style and your fashion style? If there was a style that lived somewhere in-between a road side diner, a log cabin, and Harajuku – I’d say that.

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Does tattoo art have a big influence on your work? I’ve been into tattoos since I was a kid, even when I was six I remember drawing what I wanted to get tattooed one day (glad that didn’t turn out it was bat wings on my back, yikes.) I wanted to be a tattoo artist all through high school, So I’d say yes, even though I don’t particularly want to be a tattoo artist anymore I still think tractional tattoos make an appearance in my work heavily.

Can you tell us about your own tattoos, did you design any of them? I got my first tattoo when I was 18, it’s an anchor on my head. The rest of my tattoos all have funny stories or dumb ones like the cover up of an ex’s name, your 20s are for huge mistakes, right? I don’t take my tattoos too seriously – most of them have no meaning at all I just like they way they look. I actually just got my art tattooed on me for the first time, it’s a cowgirl with a canteen, snake and horseshoe. @emilyjanetattoo did it and nailed it.

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Tattooed Travel Photographer Kym Ellis

We chat to 29-year-old Kym Ellis, a technical marketing lead and travel photographer, about her tattoos and work. At the moment Kym has no fixed address and instead chooses to slow travel around the world – right now she’s in Chiang Mai in Thailand…

Kym Ellis

When did you get your first tattoo and what was it? It was on my eighteenth birthday and it’s a small pisces star sign symbol at the bottom of my nape. I wanted it when I was 16, but my dad who has very old tattoos which he hates, told me to wait until I was old enough. It’s not a very good tattoo but I still kept it as part of my back-piece.

What inspired you to start getting tattooed? Music mostly, I grew up in my late teens with MSN and MySpace and getting into punk and metal was the first time I felt like I had my own identity. I actually kept my music tastes a secret from my school friends for quite a while because I knew they were not into that scene.

Then when I turned 16 I decided enough was enough and changed my style overnight. I never looked back, it was extremely freeing to express myself in the way that I wanted to rather than trying to please others.

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Have tattoos changed how you see yourself and your body? Absolutely – getting tattoos gives me agency over my body and I definitely became more confident as I started to get more big pieces. Whenever I get a new tattoo, it only takes a few days for it to become a part of me. I often forget I have so many, and when I see old photos of a less-tattooed version of me I find it very strange to look at.

I still have some big gaps on my arms and legs that I want to fill up, but I am just taking it steady and enjoying the proces.

Stomach Piece By Romain Labordille

Do you think your tattoos affect how others see you?  Yeah, in both good and bad ways. To be honest I don’t get too much negativity about my tattoos these days, but it can happen occasionally because I travel so much and different places have a different perception of tattoos as a whole.

What sorts of reactions do your tattoos get? For the most part I get a lot of compliments about my tattoos and people often ask me where I got them done, how many I have, or how long they took. Sometimes people want to touch them, that’s kinda weird!

There are still certain places that I visit where tattoos are less accepted and I definitely notice people staring at me. But it really isn’t the majority of people, and my way of dealing with it is to be proud and confident.

If people ask me what the meaning behind my tattoos are, I show them the tribute portrait of my cat that I grew up with. I carry her memory around with me everywhere and yes I am aware that this puts me firmly in the crazy cat lady category.

Cat tattoo by Sam Stokes

My cat Tess, by my friend Sam Stokes

How do you find your work and tattoos mix? Can you show them freely at work? In the earlier days of my career when I worked for companies in the UK, I mostly had to cover my tattoos up. It’s not the worst problem in the world to have, but I never felt like I could take my full self to work and it did wear me down eventually. In hindsight I should have just had them on show. It probably wouldn’t have done me any favours in the workplace but I also don’t think it would have got me fired.

Ever since I started working remotely for technology companies, it’s been the complete opposite. I’ve always been accepted for who I am by all of my colleagues. I wouldn’t take a job where I have to hide my skin again.

Is your photography a creative outlet that allows you to share the real you? It used to be, when I started out with photography about eight years ago I did a lot of portraiture and used myself as a subject when there was no one else around to photograph. Alongside building my tattoo collection, this was a means of expression.

Travel photography is my main focus now, because that’s such a big part of my life. I share a lot of my photos for free on Unsplash.

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What future career plans do you have? I have made some big career leaps in the past couple of years, from finding my first remote job to becoming more of a technical marketer and improving my coding skills. I’m really happy with my career at the moment and in the future I’d like to move into senior leadership or marketing operations.

I’m going to keep travelling too – being able to work from anywhere is such an incredible opportunity. My next project is to learn how to sail a boat. Then my nautical tattoos will really come into their own!

How do you find travelling and getting tattooed?  It’s really hard to get tattoos when you travel a lot. From living in places where there aren’t many artists who do the style you’re after, to trying to get a booking when you’re only going to be around for a few weeks. I have a full back-piece that is still missing it’s colour because I need to get back to the UK so Ben Stone can finish it up for me.

Back Piece by Ben Stone

That said I’ve managed to get some really great tattoos during my travels. I got a mountain range on my arm when I was in the Arctic Circle, a beautifully gothic traditional tattoo at a convention in Cape Town by @jarretcrosson, a gorgeous snake and florals from @mooreahum.tattoo in Vancouver, and my stomach piece was by @romain_labordille in Bali.

tattoos by jarret crosson and moorea hum

Halloween Tattoos Pt.2

Halloween is getting closer, the nights are drawing in and we’re stock piling the sweets for ourselves! To celebrate this spooky time for year we’re doing a mini series of Halloween inspired tattoos…

@sadee_glover

Sadee

@jodydawber

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@mikelovetattooer

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@_cattnip

catt

@xinaxiii

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@stephblackcrow

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@gerktattoos

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@karolina.sylwia

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@emilyceetattoo

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@hannahflowers_tattoos

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@kevinraytattoos

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@iris_lys

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If you’ve got a Halloween tattoo and would like to see it on the blog, send it to us at hello@thingsandink.com

Halloween Tattoos Pt.1

We just love Halloween, it seems that you do too, what with all the Halloween inspired tattoos we’ve been spotting lately on our feed.  From your favourite films to spoopy bats – there were just too many for one blog post, so we’re doing a mini series… 

@hayleyblackwoodtattoo

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@criscleen

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@charlotteannharris

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@stephanie_melbourne

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@ebony_mellowship

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@littlerachtattoo

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@rwhittakertattoo

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@avalontattoo

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@isobelmortontattoo

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If you’d like your Halloween tattoo to be featured on a future post send it to hello@thingsandink.com