Blog Archives - Things&Ink

October 21, 2018

Blogger Style: Ayup It’s Shann

24-year-old Shannon Wright is a blogger as well as Production & Marketing Manager from Doncaster, South Yorkshire. We caught up with Shann to chat tattoos, her grungy style and body confidence…

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How old were you when you got your first tattoo? I was 19! And I was at a Gay Pride Festival in Birmingham.

What was it and do you still love it? I got some lyrics by The Smiths round my ankle. They’re one of my favourite bands. They say ‘Save your life, because you’ve only got one’. I wish the artist had used a thinner needle, because they’re harder to read then the second set I now have on my other ankle, but I still love it! It meant a lot to me at the time because I’d just come out of a toxic relationship, and it was the first time I felt like myself again and realised I had so much of life to look forward to!

What inspired you to get tattooed? Suicide Girls. I think I was about 13 or something when I first realised alternative models were a thing and I’ve wanted to be one ever since!

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Has having tattoos helped you to see your body differently? 1000%! Even before I decided to lose my weight, I wanted them to help me love my body. I always hated my legs because they were quite big (I was a UK28) and I’d never get them out. Even in summer when it was boiling! So my first lot of tattoos I got them on my legs and it gave me such a confidence boost! I learned to love myself and my skin. I just thought if people were going to look anyway, then I’ll give them something to stare at.

What do your tattoos mean to you? I couldn’t imagine myself without them now. They tell my story and make me who I am. Especially on my weight loss journey, they encouraged me to become a better and healthier me and gave me something to strive towards. I have to acknowledge my tattoo artists @lilyjtattoo and @pippa_kovacs_tattoos, without them I couldn’t look the way I do and be who I want to be so I owe them a massive thank you!

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Do you have any future tattoo plans? Of course! I’ve just started a chest piece. But I’m actually booked in later this month to finish my sleeve and start my new one! It’s going to be a spooky sleeve with all my favourite ghoulish things like the Addams family, Halloween and goosebumps!

Your style is pretty grungy do your tattoos reflect this too? Kind of! I think my tattoos add to the grunge look, but to look at then up close they’re all really bright and colourful. The majority of my tattoos have a meaning behind them so they tell a story, more than just reflect a style or image.

You’ve recently started blogging, what can readers expect to see in your posts? It’s kind of an extension to my Instagram, so it’s going to be full of recipes, fashion advice and just general chit chat. I get asked so many questions daily that I find myself repeating myself, so I thought if I started a blog, it would be easier to answer them and help people.

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You’re really active on Instagram, what inspired you to share your life on social media? Honestly, I think it was the key to actually making me change my life. I think it’s easy to wake up and say you’re going to change but if you post it on social media it’s a sort of pressure to mean what you say. But it’s also such a beautiful community and I have the support of my followers to thank everyday for helping me and encouraging me to be the person I want to be. It was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. It’s kinda like a diary and when I feel like I’m going to give up I scroll through and it gives me that boost to carry on.

You’ve also shared your weight loss journey, has being so open helped you stay motivated? Definitely. I have some of the best followers. I’ve made some beautiful friendships, and it’s just an amazing community. I think I’d have given up a long time ago if it wasn’t for those guys.

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What sorts of reactions do your posts and/or tattoos get? Does this differ to the reactions you get in real life? I’m lucky to say I rarely get any negative comments. Maybe two in about three years of posting. My goal is to just be real. I want people to see that I’m not perfect. I think it’s so easy to follow other people on Instagram and want to be just like them because they look and seem perfect. I think social media has a lot to answer for when it comes to us being negative about how we look, or having to look a certain way.

I just want to show men and women that it’s okay to just be you. We’re all special and beautiful. Which brings me on to real life. I’m very aware of the stares I get or the negative comments in supermarkets and shops. However, I’m being the person I want to be. I’m comfortable in my skin and I love the way it looks. I’m a massive believer in if it makes you happy just do it. I’d rather die knowing I did everything I wanted to do; than wishing I had done everything differently. Life’s too short!

April 26, 2018

Tattooed Blogger: Shanice Willoughby

23-year-old Shanice Willoughby, is a blogger, barista and florist in training from Surrey. We chat to Shanice about her blog, love for flowers and bohemian style…

When did you start blogging? How did you get into it? I started blogging last year on the first of January! I’d been wanting to do it for ages but lacked the confidence and fear of people not being that interested on what I had to post, but in the end decided to take the plunge regardless of that!

What can readers expect to see on your blog? Readers can expect a range of fashion, lifestyle, mental health and plant posts!

What influences your blog posts? Anything and everything really, whether it’s bits I’ve brought fashion wise, a location spot that I have to tell people about, coffee spots, traveling to lovely new places, or ups and downs in my mental health!

How does your job and running the blog go together? Does one help the other or do they clash? It is very difficult to work a 40+ hour full time job and run a blog along side it, some weeks I won’t have the time to post and it does bother me but it’s very hard to divide time/find the time to shoot new outfit posts, etc.

How would you describe your style? A modern day young Stevie Nicks- I am obsessed with seventies-bohemian style, think embroidery, fringe and flowy fabrics with delightful prints.

Do your tattoos reflect this? Can you tell us about your collection I think they do in a way yes, I absolutely adore flowers and have a fair few pieces now on my body which I love and want more of! I have the element symbols on my fingers (a true bohemian child) along with a few moons dotted around my body. I have a old sailor’s chant scripted on my arm about a mermaid, and other bits linked to the sea! I think my tattoos definitely reflect my wild spirit side.

Do you have any future tattoo plans or a wish list? More flowers, a lot more! (I have a very good friend who does wonderful flower work and she’s done all my new pieces!) And i’d love to get some mandala/henna style work done for sure!

February 10, 2018

Alice & Black Tulip Beauty

Alice is a 21-year-old singer and blogger from Bristol, we caught up with her to chat all things beauty, tattoos and music…

How long have you been blogging? Officially I’ve been blogging just over a year but not consistently, I started my blog in January 2017 and posted a few bits and bobs on it, but unfortunately got really unwell and diagnosed with a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease so it took a back seat for quite a while. I’ve been unable to work properly since my diagnosis, so my blog has been a great point of focus for me and something I love that I can do from home. I started blogging consistently in July 2017 and other than the odd small break due to health complications, I haven’t looked back!

How did you start and what inspired you to create your own blog? I’ve always been more of a creative person than anything else. I had quite a lot of people coming to me and asking about my makeup and my skincare, so I thought creating a blog would be a great way to share my favourite products and my progress. I also worked in The Body Shop for a year and a half so I learned a hell of a lot about the beauty industry, ingredients and benefits for the skin from working there.

What do you blog about? What can readers expect to see? If you want to check my site out, you can find me over at www.blacktulipbeauty.co.uk. I have focused mainly on beauty with the odd post about my life, my illness and holidays chucked in. I do hope to expand the topics I cover on my blog in the next few months and start writing about fashion, events, health and food. I would love to start raising more awareness for the illness I have too as I feel it’s misunderstood and undermined as to how much it really changes your life.

What is your must-have beauty item? What can’t you live without? Oh gosh those are two very different questions! My must have would be the Morphe 35F palette, it holds incredible shades and is SUCH amazing value for money, the pigment is incredible! But a product I couldn’t live without is the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer, it’s incredible and covers my eye bags a treat!

How would you describe your style? I always say it’s kinda gothic/punky mixed with a bit of girly glam?! I love doing all my makeup and hair nice but there’s nothing more personally empowering than wearing a leather dress and fishnets and big chunky boots.

How do your tattoos fit in with this? Can you tell us about your tattoos? I think my tattoos fit perfectly with my style, I’m a big wearer of black and red which is what my tattoos are. The first one I got was a skull and rose at the Bristol Tattoo Convention in 2015. I’ve wanted tattoos since I was 12 and I decided to just dive in with my first and not bother getting a tiny one to test the waters. The second was my Grim Reaper which I got done at Broad Street Studio in Bath by Jimmie, it took a few sketches to get the ideal Reaper I had in my head right but I absolutely love this guy and it’s probably the tattoo I’ve had the most compliments on! My mum absolutely hates it though, she tells me to get him covered up.

My third was a floral mandala on my shoulder, I saw someone with something quite similar and fell head over heels in love. I got home and emailed an artist I’d been obsessing over for ages and booked it straight in. This has been my most painful as it stretches slightly up onto my neck so that wasn’t the most pleasant feeling. This one and my Medusa were done by Iain Sellar from The Black Lodge in Portishead which I’d highly recommend. Such incredible artists in the studio and I’ve had amazing experiences both times I’ve been!

My most recent was my Medusa, she is probably my favourite. I LOVE how badass she is and I think Iain did such an amazing job designing her. I love how intricate the lines are and I’m so glad we chose to keep her eyes hollow aswell, I think it adds an awesome extra creepy vibe to it. These are all I have for now as the medication I’m currently on slows down my immune system which could cause complications with the healing of any new ones but I really want Iain to finish my sleeve when possible and then I want to start on a big back piece!

Do you consider yourself a collector? I collect skulls! (not real ones!) I have over 100 skull related things in my room and my collection is still growing. This week I managed to bag a skull lamp for £10 in Asda and I’m not going to lie it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve been asked so many questions as to why I like skulls so much, I just think they’re quite fascinating! There is a post on my blog where I do a tour of my room and you can check out my collection on there if you’re interested.

Can you tell us about your singing? I discovered I wasn’t all that bad at singing and started having lessons around the age of 14 and went on to study it at college and then university. I realised the course I chose at university wasn’t for me and dropped out but still have a huge passion for singing. I’ve been in quite a few bands over the years and played all around Bristol and a few times in Bath and London. I don’t really feel like I’ve ever been in a band where I’ve been on the same wavelength with other members, in the sense of where we wanted to progress with the style of music we were creating unfortunately. I would really love to be able to find that in the near future as I really miss performing. I am currently working on a dance music project with two producers though which I’m really looking forward to as it’s a genre I’ve never done before!

February 8, 2017February 8, 2017

Women with Tattoos

The gorgeous blog Women with Tattoos was started by digital producer and photographer Eleni Stefanou, 30, from London, a year ago. To celebrate we caught up with Eleni to find out more about her inspiration behind starting the blog and her own collection of tattoos…

Photographer Eleni started Women with Tattoos blog
to record the stories that may otherwise go unheard

Photograph by Eftihia Stefanidi

Women with Tattoos is celebrating its first birthday, but what inspired you to start it? I was spending hours on Tumblr researching my first tattoo when I realised how one-dimensional the representation of women with tattoos was. It’s the kind of imagery you’d find in a lad’s mag – women dressed and photographed to gratify the male gaze. Around the same time, a study came out revealing that, for the first time in recorded history, tattooed women outnumbered tattooed men. That’s pretty fascinating, yet mainstream culture wasn’t reflecting and exploring this shift. Women with Tattoos was an attempt to record some of the stories that may go unheard and to offer beautiful images that women could identify with.

Describe the blog in one sentence…
I think of it as a visual love letter to tattooed women.

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How has it evolved over the first year? It’s hopefully become more diverse in its representation of women from different backgrounds. I’ve also focused a bit more on the artistry of tattooing, by interviewing female tattoo artists and linking to portfolios when crediting the artists behind the featured tattoos. On a more general level, I’ve slowed down quite a bit. I used to do photo shoots almost every weekend, and while I loved it, it was becoming exhausting alongside my full-time job. I had to remind myself that this was something I was doing in my own time for my own enjoyment and that any pressure I felt was self-inflicted.

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Who has been your most stand-out portrait, why? There’s a photo I took of a woman called Gabriella, which is really hypnotic. We were in Camley Street Natural Park, this beautiful nature reserve hidden away in a busy part of London. Gabriella has a beautiful botanical tattoo by Saira Hunjan down the length of her arm. It includes a lemon, butterfly, bluebells and other flowers and there’s lots of negative space around these elements, so it’s not your typical sleeve. Ironically, her tattoos aren’t that visible in this photo, but I kind of love that they’re subtle and blend in with the nature around her. First you see Gabriella, the person, then you see her tattoos.

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What have you learnt while shooting these portraits? I’ve learnt that most people feel quite vulnerable when they’re being photographed. As someone who spends a lot of energy avoiding the lens, I can completely relate to this. So I try and adapt my approach depending on the person. Some of the women like to talk a lot in between shooting, while others prefer to listen to music.

I’ve also found that photography can be an empowering experience for many women. One of the most common feelings they express when I reveal their portraits is a sense of surprise at how beautiful they look. But they *are* beautiful and I’m just capturing what I see. It’s like the photo becomes a form of validation. When I photograph someone, they’re the only person in the universe in that moment. My focus is entirely on them, in fact, often I catch myself gasping for air because I’ve forgotten to breathe! Hopefully, the women can sense that they have my full attention and admiration, which is something that comes through their disposition in the photos.

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What do you hope others will take from them? I really hope that the project will help shift people’s perspectives and prejudices about tattooed women. A friend of mine who I went to school with told me that he never really liked or understood tattoos, especially on women, but now he finds them beautiful and reads all the interviews on the blog. I also hope that women will see the project and feel understood and valued – that’s probably the most important thing.

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Tell us about your own tattoos…. I have a dotwork prism on my side rib and a wreath on my inner arm. My tattoos are a source of strength – they crystalise what’s important to me in life. I’m a big believer in the power of symbols and how they can hold meaning and memories. Every time I do a photo shoot I have a really strong urge to get tattooed. I try to avoid rushing into things though. Luckily, most of my favourite artists live in the US, South Korea and New Zealand, which kind of enforces a more patient approach.

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Where do you hope to take the blog over the course of the next year? I’d really love to travel to new places and represent cultures that aren’t reflected in the blog. I want to find out what it’s like to be have tattoos as a woman in other parts of the world – what is the common ground and what are the differences in experience? I want to photograph and interview more women who are over the age of forty (a large portion of the women I photograph happen to be in their 20s and 30s) and I’m really keen to speak to someone who has a mastectomy tattoo – to find out more about the healing process of covering a scar with a tattoo. I’m naturally inquisitive and drawn to people and their stories, so this is the driving force behind what I do.

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To view more portraits of women with tattoos, visit womenwithtattoos.co.uk

January 26, 2017

The Tiger Style: Tiggen

We chat to Tiggen, 19-year-old retail assistant manager and blogger, from London about her blog, fashion style and collection of blackwork tattoos…

When did you start blogging, how did you get into it? I first started blogging last March, however I’d been building up the confidence to start for about a year by that point. After following and admiring many other bloggers online, I wanted to try it out for myself. It was something I’d always thought about pursuing but initially I had to push myself into writing my first post.

What kind of things do you blog about? Typically, I enjoy blogging about personal style, as it’s something that is unique to everyone and so closely linked to self image. I find issues around body image, and how we view ourselves and others, to be very interesting and I plan on writing more about that in the future. Other topics I blog about are lifestyle, beauty and London.

How would you describe your style? My style is very minimalist. I only wear black and white, with one exception of a brown jacket. As my colour plate is so simplistic I tend to focus on the quality of the material over anything else. I would say I dress quite casually on a day to day basis, I’m nearly always wearing my leather jacket.

What inspires you? I take inspiration from people watching, seeing the variation of street style and how people present themselves. London is such a diverse city and full of so many interesting people that I can’t help but feel inspired.

Do you have a favourite, artist, designer or musician, or someone else that you admire? I wouldn’t say there was just one person in particular that I admire, there are so many people that I look up to. Social media plays a part as it allows you to glimpse into people’s lives, to respect what they’re feeling and going through. To name a couple that I follow on Instagram: @jayrosetattoo @acornandauger

When did you get your first tattoo? Do you still love it? I got my first tattoo the day after I turned 18, it was only small but I was extremely happy to finally have one. Sometimes I forget it’s even there now that I have many more, but I still like it.

Tell us about your tattoos? Do they help you to see you body differently, do they inspire confidence? Each time I get a tattoo it instills more confidence in me and makes me feel at home in my own skin. They don’t feel like an addition, more as though they were there all along just under the surface and now they’re revealed. To me getting a new one is not only a physical change but a mental one, they help me to see my body differently and to boost my self image. I find them empowering. Much like my personal style I only have blackwork pieces, they range from illustrative style to more mehndi buddhist pieces.

Do you have any future tattoo plans? I have a habit of planning very far ahead in regard to tattoos. I’ve carefully thought about what I’m going to get and where, most of my body is already planned out. Next on my list is to get my other hand done.

Do you consider yourself a tattoo collector? Without a doubt. I enjoy collecting tattoos and meeting new tattoo artists. I’m hoping to travel to get a lot of them done, it’s all part of the experience. The beautiful thing about collecting tattoos is having artwork on your own skin that you can admire everyday and carry with you.

What kinds of reactions do your tattoos get? Luckily most of the reactions I receive are positive, whether from friends and family or strangers. However, there are occasions when people make derogatory remarks or invade my personal space to try and touch my tattoos. In the end though they’re on my body, so the only thing that truly matters is how they make me feel.