blackwork Archives - Page 3 of 5

November 17, 2018

Interview with Jonny Saunders

31-year-old tattooist Jonny Saunders tattoos out of Pulse tattoo studio in Banbury, Oxford. We chatted to Jonny about his dotwork swirl designs, how art relaxes him and how he chooses to decorate his own body with tattoos…

me.

How long have you been tattooing? I’ve been tattooing professionally for four years now. I used to study art, I had private art classes with Sue Burns who is the wife of Jim Burns the airbrush comic artist. Growing up with ADHD I found nothing interested me, except art. Art was the only thing I could do for hours on end and it helped to calm me down, it still does.

What made you want to become a tattooist? I wanted my artwork to have a bigger impact than I got on paper – it’s one thing to draw on paper and frame it but it’s another to mark someone for life. I love the rush of tattooing knowing I cant make any mistakes, the whole way from the power output to my running of the machine to how deep to go and what angle, and having it all work together to create amazing artwork to last a lifetime.

ornage peel

You tattoo in a lot of different styles, which is your favourite? Working full time as a tattooist brings many different styles of art daily. My favourite style and the one I want to make my name for is my 3D Dotwork stippling.

What do you love to tattoo and what would you like to do more of? As I’m still fairly new to tattooing I would love to do more and be known for my dotwork paint swirls and my custom mandala geometric designs. Big plans and designs to come.

dotwork buddha

What inspires your work? Are there any artists that you admire? I get inspired by doing photography and speaking with customers and their ideas. Without sounding stuck up I don’t admire anybody. I’m a strong independent artist with my own ideas and way of thinking. I have taught myself to tattoo and because of this I have my own way of working. I have my own thoughts on how art should turn out. In truth I want to be the one other admire.

When did you get your first tattoo? When I was 22, I got a tribal rose that was for my mum as her middle name is rose, but now I have it blacked out (my mum forgives me).

Twisted

You’re heavily tattooed, including your face, what sort of reactions do your face tattoos get? Having face tattoos for me has done nothing but make me so much more confident and free. I get stared at constantly and random people come up to me asking about them and I love the attention. I blacked out one of my ears as I didn’t want to look stupid by blacking out both.

dotwork statue

What inspired you to cover your face and black out your ear? Was this a journey or more of a spur of the moment thing? For me just the look of black abstract tattoos is as deep as it gets. It doesn’t mean anything to me there is no planing when it comes to the outcome of my body art. I get tattooed by Eli who works in Brighton, I show up and get tattooed. There is no plan, I just let him go crazy and I feel that with this way I won’t ever regret my body art. To be completely free of planing or worrying about if it will come out as planned feels amazing, there is no goal and no end.

paint swerl

Head to Jonny’s website to see more great tattoos or follow him on Instagram.

July 29, 2018

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…

IMG_20180329_143721_773

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.

IMG_20180408_140943_448

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.

IMG_20180402_004619_185

April 4, 2018

Interview with Kerste Dixon

27-year-old tattoo artist Kerste Diston creates beautifully abstract watercolour tattoos at her tattoo studio, The Drawing Room in Coventry. We chatted to Kerste about her style, and running a fully female tattoo shop…

Screen Shot 2018-04-02 at 08.15.07

How long have you been tattooing? I’ve been tattooing around seven years.

How did you start? I started as an apprentice at a studio in my home town in Rugby where I worked for about four years.

What drew you to the tattoo world? Its always something I’ve been interested in. As soon as I turned 18 I was in studios getting work done. I’ve always been more interested in creative industries. I did footwear design at uni before getting my apprenticeship and I did art at college. I can’t imagine not doing something creative as a career.

Screen Shot 2018-04-02 at 08.15.54
How long have you been a studio owner? How did it all come about? I’ve had my own studio for nearly two years. It just sort of happened – I left the studio I worked at in my home town in Rugby and I started working in Coventry. I had an old school friend who has their own business at Fargo Village where my studio is based. When I saw him posting on social media photos of Fargo I was intrigued. It’s a village for creative business and I thought that it would be the perfect place for a studio. They thought a tattooist would fit in well and they had a small unit available. My mum and dad encouraged me to go for it and set off on my own! I’m not sure I would have had the confidence without them to do it. But it’s definitely the best desicion I made. I opened in May 2016, and it started as a small private studio with just me. In May 2017 we expanded into next door and now we have myself and four other full time artists.

Who works in The Drawing Room and what kinds of tattoos do they create? We have myself who specialises in abstract watercolour and black work. Hanah who does super cute girly neotrad work, Emily our apprentice who does blackwork and Haley who does minimilist blackwork

Screen Shot 2018-04-02 at 08.16.29
Was it your intention to have a fully female shop? To be honest it just sort of happened and now it’s a thing. Most of us have a mostly female customer base too because of the style of work we do so it all just sort of fits. That’s not to say if the right artist came to me looking for a job and was a guy I’d turn them down! It just happens that everyone so far that’s been right for us has been female! We also have lots of guest artists – we seem to have made this reputation where ladies like to come guest too, which is lovely! So many people think a big group of girls can be bitchy but honestly the studio is the complete opposite of that – it’s such a lovely place to work and I’m so pleased to have the team I do!

How would you describe your style? Has this changed? I do mostly rainbow watercolour work, however I’ve branched off into doing darker blackwork. It’s still quite abstract but it’s just opened up some more doors for me work wise!

Screen Shot 2018-04-02 at 08.15.39
Do you prefer colour or blackwork? Is there anything you would love to tattoo? I like both colour and blackwork equally – it’s nice to break things up sometimes If I’ve had a week of all colour work and a blackwork piece comes in that’s nice and vice versa! Keeps things interesting! I love to tattoo all things nerdy/ponies and animals mostly!

Do you have any conventions planned? Just one more this year – Scarborough in May. We may look into a few more towards the end of the year though.

January 31, 2018

Palm Tattoos

In this post our editor, Rosalie shares some of her favourite palm tattoos…

There’s something so beautiful and intriguing about getting the palms of your hands tattooed. We’ve all heard the horror stories about the pain and the ink falling out, but this won’t stop any us getting them inked. So I’m going to share a few of my favourites to honour your bravery!

@littlebabylinda

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.24.26

@matiktattoo

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.08.05

@belmoxoxo

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.17.46

@lukeaashley

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.09.00

@edgarliconatattoo

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.13.36

@yasvotattoo

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.19.29

@inezalmeida_tattoo

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.15.04

@_ciambe_

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 19.23.31

August 9, 2017

Interview with Tattooist Mike Love

26-year-old hand poke tattoo artist Mike Love works out of Black Market Tattoo Parlour in Leicester and Second City Tattoo Club in Birmingham, where he creates bold and solid blackwork tattoos. We chat to Mike about his process, how he started tattooing and his guest spot plans…

How long have you been tattooing? I’m in my third year of tattooing. I am a self taught hand poke tattooer, before this I was body piecer for around four years, there I completed a more traditional style apprenticeship. I have pretty much spent my adult life being in a tattoo shop.

What drew you to the tattoo world? The idea and practise of self expression. In my late teen years I became massively depressed, after seeking a lot of help I really started to find myself. The things that kept me going and made me happy were tattoos and piercing. I approached a local shop about a piercing apprenticeship and from then on my life was changed. From piercing my love eventually blossomed into tattooing. I discovered hand poke tattooing and was totally transfixed by it. The process mesmerised me. Creating a tattoo by hand from one dude to another was for me.

Has your style of tattooing changed? What do you love to tattoo? My style of tattooing has changed and still is changing. To be honest I think it changes slightly each day. I mean everyday I try to improve what I do and learn whatever I can. But that’s what I love about tattooing, it will never be perfect. It will always stay true to what it is, yet we evolve as tattooers everyday.

When I started tattooing I did a lot more of the typical ‘hand poke’ and more ignorant styled work, but this wasn’t me. Traditional tattooing has always had my heart and that’s what I love to see and have tattooed. I work real hard everyday to be inspired by what I love and create bold and solid pieces that will stand the test of time. For me I love to tattoo anything that’s bold and black. I am constantly creating a lot flash, which is typically inspired by classic traditional flash or pop culture.

Can you tell us about your set up and the process behind your tattoos? I tattoo by hand, my set up is very minimal. I like to keep it simple and disposable. No bullshit. I hand make each tool for every tattoo combining a chopstick and a tattoo needle. I only ever tattoo in black and I keep my process vegan.

I am very much into the technical aspect of tattooing. I am all about learning and creating a solid well lined, bold, clean and nicely shaded tattoo. Tattooing by hand is typically a really calming and relaxing process, I gently push the ink into the skin by hand using the needle. There is a lot less trauma to the skin, which typically means the tattoo heals faster and for a lot of people this can be an easier process to sit for. It also doesn’t have to take a long time which some people think it can. Typically a palm size tattoo would roughly only take a couple of hours.

What inspires you? Are there any artists that influence your work? Man, I am inspired everyday. Whether it’s current events, or things happening in the city that I live in. But you know what, I have so many artists that inspire and influence me, and that I look up to, I wouldn’t be able to list them all. In both shops I work in, there are incredible people and talented artists, which inspire me daily. Tattooing is my life, so most of my close friends and my partner are tattooists, so we talk tattooing a lot and try to influence and constructively help each other.

Can you tell us a little about your own tattoos and your style? You know, I just love tattooing. So when I was young and dumb I would have pretty much had anything and everything. Which now has left me with limited space. I don’t regret what I got though, but when I do get tattooed now I really like to get tattooed by people I really look up to and really love what they are about. So normally I chose from their flash, or get a piece they really like, as that way I feel I get a tattoo that really represents that artist.

Trading with another tattooer is probably my favourite way to get tattooed now. I find it a great way to learn and share a cool experience with another tattooist.

Do you have any conventions or guest spots planned? I normally guest in another shop every month, whether it be the UK or abroad, this is one of my absolute favourite things to do in tattooing. Traveling and meeting phenomenal artists drives me to be a technically better tattooer. Currently for the rest of this year I do not have any conventions planned, but my next coming guest spots are at One For All Collective in Manchester late August and Seny Tatttoo in Barcelona late September. I am currently taking bookings for both of these via Instagram or email.