Category: Tattoos

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Interview with Kelly Julio

Tattooer Kelly Julio works out of Pulse Tattoo in Banbury, UK. We caught up with Kelly to chat about his tattoo style and how his career is more than just a job to him…

How long have you been tattooing? What inspired you to get into the industry? I started getting serious about tattooing around the end of 2004, after learning a lot from working at a friend’s tattoo studio in Jakarta, Indonesia.
I had and still have a strong passion for drawing, painting and graphic design and knew I wanted to make art part of my career.


What did you do before? Did you study art? I worked in hospitality for a couple of years, but deep down I knew it wasn’t for me and what I was meant to be doing. Although I have never studied art formally, I learned a lot from friends, art books, architectural art, photography as well as from traditional and cultural arts from several countries, especially my own, Indonesia, an infinite resource of inspiration for me.


What do you like most about your work? Tattooing is so much more than just work, more than just a way to make a living. I feel extremely happy when I can translate my customer’s idea or concept into something that they are happy to get inked on their body, which will accompany them throughout their life. I also love the human side of tattooing, being able to talk about everything and anything with my customers, not only about tattooing; sharing thoughts, ideas and learning from them.

How would you describe the style of your work? I am probably best described as an all-rounder, because so many things inspire my work. I want to please my customers by translating their ideas into a tattoo without restricting them.

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What is your favorite style of work and your favorite subject to work on? What inspires you? I love color as well as black and grey, I really enjoy working on mandala, geometric and pointillism pieces. I am really inspired by Art Nouveau, traditional ornaments and patterns.

Do you have any planned conventions or guest spots? I am taking part in the Oxford Tattoo Convention on 1st and 2nd of September this year. Next year, I am planning to participate in several tattoo conventions in Europe and the UK.

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Be sure to follow Kelly Julio on Facebook to see more of his tattoos and artwork.

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In Memory of Hannah Oliver

Screen Shot 2018-08-07 at 18.34.0625-year-old tattoo artist Hannah Oliver (Han Maude) passed away this weekend from a rare form of lung cancer. Having followed and supported her short yet vibrant tattooing career, we’d like to take the time to celebrate her work and her life. We’d also like to send our thoughts to her family and friends at this difficult time.

From Jekyll & Hyde in Rugby to Infinite Ink in Coventry, Hannah grew her talent as a remarkable dot work tattoo artist, and she showed her sense of humour and passions through her work. Known for her hoop earrings, long nails, and her love of Disney and blackwork tattoos, Hannah was much respected and loved throughout the tattoo community. She was also involved in conventions and Things&Ink exhibitions; she created a super cute kewpie inspired by Sailor Moon and cats for our Miniature Ink 2 art exhibition. Our editor Rosie owns and treasures the kewpie created by Hannah and displays it with pride in her home.

Hannah was also involved in the 100 Hands Project, curated by Alice Snape,  in which she tattooed a latex arm with an original dot work design. Her hand is now on show at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth, until 6th January 2019. So go down and see a piece of her original work. It’s a little piece of history and a little piece of her.

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Donna Reid, a close friend who worked with Hannah has set up a GoFundMe page to help Hannah’s family with the funeral costs:

We have lost our amazing friend Hannah. She has been taken from us all way too soon, and there will be an irreplaceable hole in so many of our lives now. She leaves behind so many people who adore her and who are going to miss her every single day. She has suffered with severe Crohn’s disease for quite some time now which has lead to her health declining dramatically. She was recently diagnosed with a very rare type of terminal cancer that attacks the blood vessels in the lungs. She fought it with everything she had, in true Hannah style! However, her battle with cancer was a short one, and on Sunday morning she had a heart attack and was taken from us.
It is now time for Hannah’s family’s to arrange her funeral. Before she passed, she had decided how she would like her funeral to be. I am reaching out to you all to ask if you will donate towards helping with the cost, no matter how small. Every penny will go to her family so that this awful time they are having to go through can be made a little easier. Thank you, Donna x

If you would like to donate click here.

Before she passed away, Hannah got in touch with us hoping to raise awareness about the rare form of cancer she was diagnosed with, and how she could support and fundraise for the EHE Rare Cancer Charity, so that she could help others. Sadly Hannah never got the chance to spread the word about this charity and the work it does, if you would like to donate in Hannah’s memory, click here.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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 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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!