Things&Ink

28-year-old Hollie West, who tattoos at Indigo Tattoo Studio in Norwich, is known for her brightly coloured chubby babe tattoos.We chatted to her about her collaboration with illustrator Gemma Correll and what inspires her work… 

How long have you been tattooing? Two and a half years since ending my apprenticeship, which I started at Indigo, after finishing my degree in illustration at the art school in Norwich.

How did you become a tattooist? I was managing a pub after finishing uni, it was a very creative pub where we put on lots of exhibitions and live music so it was fun creatively but I missed drawing and designing. I became friends with the Indigo lot as they were always propping my bar up, the owner (Gema Gold) came across a website I’d set up to get some illustration work and asked me (after a few glasses of wine) if I’d be interested in trying to convert my illustrations into tattoos.

I, of course, jumped at the chance. The next morning I visited Indigo with my portfolio and fortunately Gema was already waiting for me, after looking through my work and discussing the reality of an apprenticeship she took me on. I was over the moon!

If you weren’t a tattooist what would you be? A children’s book illustrator, I love character design and bright colours and unusual images. I think a lot of the designs I tattoo wouldn’t look out of place on the pages of a kid’s book.

How would you describe your style? Illustrative, bold, colourful, bright and fun (hopefully). It’s difficult fitting my work into a tattoo category, it’s not really traditional although I definitely draw a lot of inspiration from that style, it’s not really new school either.I think there are a lot of girls doing similar work to me at the moment and I guess we all fit into a category together, I just don’t know what you’d call it!

You are known for your chubby women tattoos. How did your chubbas come about? I find curvy women so much more fun to draw, they have such a great flow which lends itself to tattoos so well. Big bums and boobies always come across so cheeky and fun, rather than seedy and overly sexual. They can be super sexy but in an old school pin up way that would make you have a giggle rather than rubbing your thighs and grunting.

I only did one or two as a little fun project but thanks to Instagram they kind of took off and I was getting emails all the time with amazing ideas from people about what these curvy ladies could be doing. It’s so great when people give you a basis for an idea but let you run with it and do your own thing, when I have the freedom with a design they often end up the best ones because I get to play and have fun with them.

What inspires you? Kids books, I have a huge collection, I get them bought for me at Christmas and birthdays. Colour, my particular corner of the studio is like a busy rainbow mess, so is my bedroom. I think collectable clutter around me definitely inspires me. I get all sorts of strange little creatures from charity shops, customers are amazing and bring me more to add to my shelves too.

I like fairy tales and stories, fantasy, nothing too real life and serious.

Is there anything you’d love to tattoo. I recently drew a castle, I’m going to have a go at a couple more and see how they might look as tattoos. I love how buildings look in tattoos, there are some really skilled tattooers doing landscapes and buildings and I think they’re such an odd, un-organic thing to sit on a body but they (for that reason I think) just work, I’d like to challenge myself to do something like that. It’ll end up looking like a princess castle even if I’m attempting a burning church though, I can’t escape girly and cute.

Can you tell us about your Gemma Correll collaboration? I have been lucky enough to be tattooing Gemma and her husband over the last year or so, they’re such amazing and creative people, it’s great spending time talking with them. I’ve always loved Gemma’s work (like the rest of the world!) and after tattooing her one day a few weeks ago I came up with an idea that we might be able to do to raise a bit of money for local animal charities. Her illustrations lend themselves so well to tattoos, I’d done a few previously and Gemma had said how much she likes to see her designs as tattoos.

So Gemma has designed a flash sheet which we will be taking to the Norwich Body Art Festival in August, we’re keeping it secret for now so that people who arrive will get first pick of the designs, as we will only be doing each design once. All money raised will be going to charity so it’s great that Gemma was willing to give up her own free time to design these, we’re both really excited about it, it’s getting a lot of attention on Instagram.

Do you have any guest spots and conventions lined up? Just Norwich convention and hopefully in Bristol in September, I’ve done a few guest spots this year at amazing studios such as Cock A Snook, Painted Lady and Never More. I’ve made such amazing friends doing these, I would love to be invited to do more. It’s so great to have a job where you can travel and socialise as part of it.