Stories we wear on our skin
We’re obsessed with artist Douglas Hale after discovering him on Instagram. He creates clever collages that play with imagery he has found, colour and symbolism. Hale uses contemporary graphic styles to produce fantasy landscapes and unusual profiles. His artwork creates beautifully strange scenarios and often features well-known faces…
FKA Twigs
Harem Aria
Secrets
Diana Ross
Dawn Richard Album Art
Head to douglashale.net to view more
Our columnist Natalie McCreesh aka Pearl, is a fashion lecturer, freelance writer and creator of Fashion Pearls of Wisdom. In this post she’ll be talking about the stir visible tattoos can cause…
Us Brits are a predictable bunch, first sign of a little sun and we are stripped down to our shorts and vests before you can say ‘ice cream van’. Every year the warmer weather seems to jump on us out of nowhere- no warning until one day you are walking home from work in your faux fur coat as everyone else passes you in flip-flops. Lament as I did in my last column about winter clothes hiding our tattoos; I had forgotten what a stir tattoos can cause. In true Brit fashion I jumped at the chance to go to work today without my woolly tights on, legs bare and if I’ll admit a bit cold! I was walking around enjoying the vitamin D when I heard it ‘look at those tattoos’! The girl actually gave me a sheepish smile as she realised she hadn’t been as discreet as she might have though and I couldn’t help but laugh. But it did bring back to me the reminders of how other people find our tattoos to be something of their business. Suddenly my skin that had been protected by jeans and thick jumpers was exposed and public property.
This got me thinking about who we get tattoos for and how we control who sees them. Back, torso, bum these are all quite private areas which we generally conceal on a daily basis. For me anything above the knee is generally hidden away from sight unless I consciously choose to wear something like shorts or a backless dress. I am fully aware that if I chose not to cover my tattoos I will draw attention, wanted or not. As I’m sat writing this in the park a guy comes over and asks if he can look closer at my arm/ back tattoos – I’m wearing a vest top. I say sure and we have a quick chat about whether they hurt and where I got them done. He says I’m a ‘tattooed wonder woman’ and bids me farewell. The more visible tattoos I get the more I have to consider how I control my body. I’m not sure I’m ready to be in position where I can’t choose to hide my tattoos, not yet anyway. I salute those who do.
Emma Copland is a 28-year-old Scottish charity support manager and blogger living in London. We chatted to Emma about how she started her blog emmainks.com and her tattoo collection…
When did you start blogging, how did you get into it? I had a secret blog that was a scrapbook of my life but it was October 2014 when I officially started Emma Inks. The combination of living in London and my passion for travel meant friends were always asking for recommendations so I started promoting my posts, hoping that other people might find my ramblings useful too.
What kinds of things do you blog about? My blog is a reflection of me so it is a bit all over the place with posts on: London life, travel, vegetarian food, style, beauty and any other random thoughts I have.
How would you describe your style? I am not one to follow trends; I just wear what makes me feel comfortable, which often includes lots of leather, ripped denim, vintage rock t-shirts, black, and leopard print. I often end up looking like I have just been thrown out of an American dive bar. My style is mainly influenced by rock music, movies, Cher and people I see on the street.
What inspires you? I am inspired by many things, but mainly travel and people who are not afraid to be themselves. I love people who make their own path instead of following the crowd or doing what is expected of them.
Do you have a favourite designer or artist? There are so many talented artists; a few of my current favourite tattoo artists include Kirk Jones, Kelly Violence, Dani Queipo, Henbo, Rebecca Vincent, Cally-Jo, Hannah Pixie Sykes, and my gorgeous friend Nikki Nairns. They are all high on my list of people I would love to be tattooed by.
When did you get your first tattoo? Do you still love it? I got my first tattoo just after turning 18. It was bought by my two best friends before I went on my first solo backpacking trip and was a meant to be a heart/thistle representing our friendship and my Scottish roots.
These days it looks more like a club stamp I have not washed off and has a scar right through the middle of it after I broke my wrist snowboarding. It is definitely not a piece of art, but it reminds me of an amazing time in my life, being young and reckless so I don’t think I will ever get it covered.
Tell us about your tattoos? I started getting tattoos at 18 and went with the tribal style which was common at the time. I had my aforementioned club stamp on my wrist and a hand drawn sun on my back within the same year. The back tattoo was meant to represent my backpacking trip around South-east Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, though I still like it I am thinking about getting the Buddha in the centre covered up as I don’t want any religious symbolism in my tattoos.
When I was a poor student I couldn’t afford new tattoos but I did plenty of research and started to get into more traditional, colourful pieces. I got my anchor by Frank Paradiso in Tattoo Peter, Amsterdam’s oldest tattoo shop. I loved the style and vibrancy so much I got my second traditional tattoo by his colleague, Bill Loika, at Brighton Tattoo Convention. You could tell Bill has been a tattoo artist for years as my swallow inking was super speedy, yet beautifully executed.
A year later I promised myself that I was just going to look at the artwork at the same convention but after seeing Adam Cornish’s flash I couldn’t resist and got the rose on my shoulder.
The most recent piece was done by Harry Harvey at Vagabond in East London, the arrow was my idea but Harry took it to the next level and I was so pleased with the final design.
Do you have any future tattoo plans? I definitely want many more tattoos, I know that I want to continue with a few more traditional pieces on my right arm but I also want to start on some more detailed blackwork on my left leg. I would have more right now but unfortunately money is in the way of my grand plans.
Do you consider yourself a tattoo collector? Yes, I would say so. I love having a range of art by different people on my body.
What reactions do your tattoos get? I have had a mixture of positive and negative reactions to my tattoos. I think mainly people are just inquisitive so I really don’t mind answering their questions, even though they often get repetitive. The one which I get asked all the time that does get on my nerves is “What does your boyfriend [who has no tattoos] think?”. It kind of implies that my body is not mine to do what I want with and also that tattoos make me unattractive. It is never meant with malice but usually has an undertone of disapproval. People’s reactions don’t really bother me as I love my tattoos, and that’s all that really matters.
Five must-see minimal tattoo artists to keep an eye on compiled by our guest writer, Katie Houghton
(Photo Credit: www.instagram.com/taticompton)
Interviewed by Vice, showered with likes on Instagram and even acknowledged by the dastardly Daily Mail, Tati Compton is a notable name on the London stick-n-poke scene. Hailing from San Francisco and renowned for her delicate, yet symbolically free-hand work, Tati (Tatiana Kartomten) has more than impressed the capital with her blend of ethereal, dotted and intricate designs. The waiting list for her work is all sorts of long, but owing to a friend that has been lucky enough to snag a Compton piece, it’s worth the wait.
(Photo Credit:www.instagram.com/tealeigh)
Another must-try minimal name, if you’re hopping a flight to Brooklyn any time soon, is Texas born Tealeigh. Offering up designs that flirt with sass and foliage combined, Tealeigh’s artistic structure is both petite and empowering, you need only look at her Instagram of bottomless quotes and floral notes to prove it. From fine greenery and tidy bugs to humble skulls, her lines are neat and her message like a shot of whisky with a tequila chaser and then a beer, to the heart. With a tote that raves of ‘cash poor, pussy rich’… I’m buyin’.
(Photo Credit: maddyyoung.com)
Melbourne is the next stop for minimal. While Maddy Young herself is not actually a fully fledged tattoo artist, so much of her art has been featured on willing flesh that it would be a shame not to mention her on this list. With a dark stance, somewhat devilish echo and floral edge, Maddy Young fills the gap for those that want to keep their tattoos neat and petite, but don’t want to compromise on added sting. From cobwebs and moths to bold monochrome lines and dotted edges, Young’s work is inky and enticing.
(Photo Credit: http://jackpotdw.tumblr.com)
From botany and chickens, to John Waters and bottles of beer, it doesn’t seem like Berlin based Daisy Does Tattoos has much of a necessitated ‘theme’ to her minimal artistry, other than gnarly and much-wanted doses of black and white for Germany of course. Cartoon-esque, slightly rough around the edges but still able to knock out precise-to-nature greenery should the occasion so rise, Daisy promises throaty and cult-culture tattoos with a tidy, soft and gossamer edge.
(Photo Credit: thevandalist.com)
Born of Shanghai but now making his name more prominent that ever in urban New York, Kaiyu Huang is a tattoo artist that makes easy work of passionate details and simple yet pow-packing colours. Teasing symbolic black and white pieces with bi-colours and regular doses of red, Huang’s work is pretty damn noticeable where you to see it. While a lot of his main tattoo work consists of bulkier pieces, it’s his minimal work that’s making him stick out like a loveable thumb.
We were part of something magical that took place back on Sunday 13 March 2016… WOW! Women of the World was a festival that transformed the Southbank Centre into a space buzzing with creativity, conversation and female empowerment.
Our editor Alice Snape was there with photographer Eleni, who runs the wonderful Women with Tattoos blog, to chat to women about their tattoos. Here’s a glimpse of some of the inspiring women we chatted to…
Hazel
“I was just 16 when I got an arrow on my ribs. The more tattoos I get, the more comfortable I feel in my body. It is mine and I have chosen the way it looks.”
Carey
“I was 59 when I got my first tattoo. My daughter found Grace Neutral and I knew I had to collaborate with her. I see getting tattooed by her as a collaboration. She draws the designs on with a Sharpie and then tattoos over it. I find it a very interesting approach. I feel better about my body now than I ever have before. I love it because it is art.”
Aisling
“I got my first tattoo at 24. It’s a feminist tattoo as a tribute to the women in my life. I’m very aware of women’s representation in the media, so I would never get traditional pin-up imagery tattooed on me. I wanted to be marked for life with something that has meaning to me.”
Sian
“I was just 15 when I first got tattooed; it was on my hip. Since then, it’s been reworked by Woody at Into You, so I love it even more now. I find that women with tattoos are often fetishised. I get comments in the street and people ask me questions. I have a whole list of tattoo plans – they make me feel great about my body. I love my body anyway, but they make me feel even better about it.”
Ella
“I was 17 when I got a lizard tattoo. The first was a big deal for me, it is self marking and controlling the way I look. We are already marked by so many things. Tattoos are a commemoration of something, somewhere, someone…”
You can view the full collection of images and quotes on the Women with Tattoos blog: part 1 and part 2.