Embracing female tattoo culture
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…
If you’d like your Halloween tattoo to be featured on a future post send it to hello@thingsandink.com
We chatted to 24-year-old Hannah Mai who works at Lucky Rabbit Tattoo Cult in Birmingham about her stylised tattoos, love for Disney and travel plans…
How long have you been tattooing? I have been tattooing proffessionally now for two years but I started my apprenticeship three years ago.
What inspired you to become a tattooist? I wouldn’t say at a young age I was surrounded by tattoos as none of my family had tattoos, but my Grandad used to tell me about how his parents had them which initially fascinated me. His mother had a clover on the top of her arm that covered up an ex-partner’s name and his father had a mermaid that swam when he tensed his arm. I also used to draw doodles on my friends in primary school with gel pens. I can’t imagine that was particularly good for us but I found it too much fun!
What did you do before? Art. Art has been my language since I can remember. It’s something that has never left my side. It’s the only thing I was decent at in school that I’d look forward to. I wasn’t fond of homework but when it came to art homework I’d practically be doing it as soon as I left the lesson. I have always loved the idea of creating artwork based on imagery taken from my childhood, and now I get to do this for a living!
As a young female you have great pressure by society and what the media tells you – that your value is in your appearance. I however am a firm believer that ‘as long as what I am creating is beautiful, so am I!’
How would you describe your style? A lot of people have told me my style is quite vintage and slightly rag-doll like. I would agree with this. When I first started out I did mainly floral and animal work but I soon switched to doing what I had really aimed to do all along which was Disney. However I knew I didn’t want to just do carbon copy Disney. I wanted to bring something new to the industry a style that was recognisable as my own and I’d like to think I’m on the right path with this! So I’d describe my style as delicate stylised pastel Disney which I know is a bit of a mouthful!
You tattoo mainly Disney tattoos, are you a Disney lover? I’ve always been obsessed with Disney it is one of my favourite things ever! It means so much to be in a position where I get to create this magic on fellow Disney obsessed lovers. My customers really keep me going I’m super thankful and I always look forward to having a week filled with Disney conversations with my customers.
Who is your favourite character and why? It’s so so hard to pick just one! I have a few. One would have to be Megaera from Disney Hercules. Her sass and independence taught me feminism from a young age. Another would be Judy hopps from Zootopia. I can super relate to her emotional ways and yet such strong positivity. If I was a Disney character I would like to think I’d be her.
Do you have any Disney tattoos? Yes! And I’m planning more when I have the courage. I super suck at getting tattooed and I’m running out of the lesser painful areas to get covered! I have a Snow White and Prince Charming on the top of my arm done by Sarah Cooper and went back to get my second tattoo which was Marie from Aristocats on my thigh, but I’ve also had Disney work from Angharad Chappelle and Isobel Morton.
What would you love to tattoo? Ahh I have so many ideas! I’m always excited to do lesser known characters from Disney movies. The ones that seem to be a bit forgotten about. I’m dying to do any of the characters from the Disney Robin Hood or Princess and the Frog. I’m also a huge fan of the Don Bluth movies.
Are you doing any guest spots or conventions? I have so many already planned to get through before the years out! I wouldn’t know where to start. The best thing to do would be to check my Instagram for all my dates!
Although I am in a Birmingham studio with my pals at Lucky Rabbit Tattoo Cult. I am mainly travelling this year. Recently I’ve been lucky enough to do Europe based guest spots as well which is great because it means I can cater to my European followers and soak in some culture at the same time!
Dublin reserves a warm welcome and a pint of Guinness to everyone who crosses the sea to discover the country. This multi-cultural, festive and friendly environment has seen Dublin become one of the best destinations for tattooing in Europe. You will find here no less than 200 tattoo studios and 2000 tattoo artists from diverse origins sharing the same passion of tattooing, all contributing to the development of the tattoo industry in Ireland.
Thanks to them, the city is an open museum to modern art where street painting, music and tattooing contribute to the amazing spirit of Temple Bar. Dublin has became the home of some of the most talented tattoos artists in the world and as a group of artists we’re happy to be in this city.
The Black Hat Tattoo was created in 2016 and the studio has built a strong collective of artists that belong together because they share the same values of what qualitative and professional tattooing needs to be. They are both artists and tattoo artists, and the collective has become one of the most popular tattoo parlours in Dublin.
However, the tattoo shop didn’t get where they are simply because of the quality of their tattoo artists, body piercer and staff. But thanks to their customers who not only come from Dublin but travel from all over the world, bringing their ideas, good vibes, trust and support.
Thanks for supporting us when we started. Thanks for spreading the word year after year to your loved ones, friends and mates. Thanks for helping us to grow and to believe in what we believe.
Today The Black Hat Tattoo is one of the trendy places to visit when you reach the city as we keep a traditional atmosphere that you can experience everywhere in Dublin with the warm Irish welcome we are proud of.
This post has been sponsored by The Black Hat Tattoo.
Tattoo artist Anna Mimink, works as a guest artist in several shops, and she can often be found at Artoria Tatouage in Paris, we caught up with her to find out more about her travels and tattoos…
How long have you been tattooing? What inspired you to become a tattooer? I have been working as a tattoo artist for five years now. I’ve always had a strong bond with drawing; when I was a child, I started to talk quite late on and drawing was my first way of expressing myself. But, I never fitted in when it came to art lessons and education, so I just kept drawing alongside my studies.
I was working in Paris in a luxury hotel and I felt burnt-out, and fed up with my career, so I went to see a friend who owned a tattoo studio. I ended up coming to the shop everyday, just to draw at first. But I really liked the carefree atmosphere and the positive impact that the tattoo had on the clients. So when he proposed that he would teach me, I was more than happy, even if it wasn’t my vocation at first.
What is it about tattoos that you love so much? What especially do you love about black and line work? For some people, it’s very hard to truly express themselves. I love it when a client comes to me with a project is, that is a true expression of their inner feelings. The human contact is so important to my job. We are talking about people not just art! I am still very moved when people I don’t know trust me enough to mark their skin for life.
I regards to the art, I have always loved art that is clean and well defined. I am quite manic in real life, and I think it comes through in my art. I also like the simplicity, or the efficiency of the blackwork. It gets straight to the point, no flourish. That’s how I like to express myself. Two other things that are important to me in a tattoo piece, and can be found within blackwork are; there is a good contrast and the tattoo will last very well with time.
What do you love to tattoo? What would you like to do more of? I really love to tattoo manga pieces. I am quite a geek, especially towards the Japanese culture. So these subjects are so much fun for me to work on. Especially, when I can rework them. It’s very intimidating but also rewarding to follow the steps of great mangaka (manga authors) that I love and admire. So of course, I would like to do more of manga pieces, especially some lesser known ones. I like doing some Naruto or Dragon Ball but it’s also great to work on other titles.
You have travelled and worked in so many countries, which was your favourite? Good question! I will split your question in two, my favourite country for travel and my favorite country for work. China was my favorite country to travel. It’s so big and so diverse! It gave me the feeling that you could spend your whole life trying to know more about it. And it’s the origin of so many Asian cultural streams. For the work, I would say Australia, the clients are very open-minded and they easily trust your work even if you are a foreigner.
What country/experience has inspired you the most? Where would you like to go back to? The Taiwan Tattoo Convention was my best memory of working in another country. I only spent a few days there, but the customers were so nice, they were very interested in my work. The local artists are so good and so open-minded and welcoming. Taiwan was like a perfect mix of China and Japan, and last but not least, the food was great! I really want to go back there one day !
Who has been the most influential person you have met? Or the one that has taught you something new about tattooing? Lately, I traveled around California with my family and I met an amazing artist in San Francisco, Brucius Xylander, owner of Black Serum tattoo studio. His sense of detail is just amazing, and it really gave me the will to work in a different way and develop new techniques to bring more details and more precision to my work.
Has becoming a mother changed your outlook towards your career? Or your style? It hasn’t change my ambition to become one of the best tattooers one day. But it really changes the way I look at my own work. I always considered myself as a dark person, and my drawings were a reflection of that. But after becoming a mother, I just wanted to spread more joy around me. And that’s where I started to specialise in manga. I wanted to tattoo more positive and innocent pieces. Even when it’s a sad or trash manga, it’s only fiction, it’s less sad than a crow skull or dead flowers to me. So yeah it definitely changed my style. And I am very happy about that change, I don’t have to carry the weight of my clients bad feelings like I had to sometimes, now I just share a common passion with them. It’s just perfect!
23-year-old Sofia Angelita works as a resident artist at Low Tide Tattoo in Southend-on-Sea and she also regularly guests at Kings Cross Tattoo London and Angelic Hell Brighton. We caught up with Sofia to chat about her style and influences…
How long have you been tattooing? I’ve been tattooing for two years or so.
What do you love the most about tattooing? Now that’s a tricky question, I love most things about tattooing! I love the daily creativity and freedom I’m lucky enough to have at work and that it never feels like work! But I’m sure every tattooist thinks that! I also love meeting new people and making them happy in some way!
You work in both colour and black, which do you prefer? In all honesty I don’t think I have a preference, colour definitely takes a different kind of thought process for me personally than black work or black and grey. Colour also takes a longer time for me but I really enjoy the both!
Who are your tattoo icons? Or artists that you admire? There are so many artists that blow my mind technically and for creativity. Rebecca Vincent will always be a huge icon to me, I met and got tattooed by her very early on when I was finishing my apprenticeship. She took so much time for me and was very informative and helpful and really gave me that extra moral boost I needed at that time, which she really didn’t have to do. Also loving Oliver Macintosh, Claudia de Sabe, Barb Rebello, Adam Ruff, Horiyoshi, Sarah Schor, so many artists, the list goes on!
What would you love to tattoo? I would love to tattoo more lady faces and ornamental stuff.
How would you describe your style? I’m really bad at this question ! I’ve had some people say it’s illustrative but I’m really not sure what “box” my stuff goes in that would help me explain it? I also love tattooing ornamental pieces!
