Horror Archives - Things&Ink

December 11, 2023January 11, 2024

Ink and horror: a conversation with horror tattoo collectors

The tattoo community is full of horror enthusiasts – the genre captures the imagination of tattoo artists and clients alike. From gruesome characters from films and books – what could be more freaky than Chuckie covered in blood? – to figures like something from your worst nightmares. Our writer Emily Fletcher tracked down some horror tattoos collectors and the tattooists bringing these designs to life – settle in for a wild ride…

Tattoo artist Aleksandr Morozov – @alexmorotattoo

“My inspiration is horror movies, so I like to do tattoos with this theme. The shots from these movies are always contrasting and with well placed light. This I consider the main thing for my realistic tattoos. I achieve depth and volume in my work. Thus, mesmerise my clients and achieve positive emotions.”

Tattoo artist George Roberts – @gtattoos666

“I’ve been a tattoo artist in London for 13 years. I grew up watching horror movies, probably too young, and also had some wild paranormal experiences – this world has been in my blood from day one. I really enjoy tattooing classic horror movie characters, such as Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Ghostface etc… I could tattoo these everyday for the rest of my life. I specifically love meeting clients who want to have these characters on them for life and so they are probably just as big a fan as I am. I’ll even pop one of the classic movies on while they are being tattooed for the full experience – that can be quite fun.”

“The last one is one of my custom designs. I’d love to do more of these. These ideas usually come from my research into demons and anything on the darker side. I love the beauty of 1920s models and faces that are quite vintage but of course with a demonic twist, the contrast of those two elements can be striking. The one I’ve shared is my own interpretation of the demon Lilith. I specifically work in black work and black & grey. I feel this works best for these style designs.”

Artist Žana – @varshakot.flash

“I enjoy creating horror designs because I grew up watching horror movies, they’re very comforting for me. It’s also good for me mentally, it helps me to cope with anger. Horror movie killers also often just have a really badass look, which I love to draw.”

Tattoo collector Melissa Slater – @acslater27

“I started collecting these tattoos because I enjoy these horror films. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. It was kind of a ‘just do it!’ thing! Beetlejuice, Shorty from Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Black Phillip from The Witch and Scream. All top films for me. My tattoos are all done by Alex at Muse in Palmyra NJ.”

Tattoo collector Jaimee – @jtilb

“I’ve always been a big horror movie fan, and as I got older I knew I wanted horror inspired tattoos. These pieces are a lot more detailed than a lot of my other work, and I just love how they turned out. I get loads of compliments on them, especially the Goosebumps tattoo as it’s very nostalgic for a lot of people. All tattoos done by @emmajeantattoos“

Tattoo collector Georgie – @georgie_kfilm

“From the moment I first started getting tattoos I knew I wanted mainly horror related ones – I love the genre, but I’m also a horror film writer and director. First up is one I designed myself, from IT Chapter Two. I love taking less used imagery from horror films and translating it into art for my body, it makes the piece feel super unique!”

“Then we have my favourite slasher icon Ghostface, this is probably my favourite tattoo that I have. Finally my cat baby Pennywise, I’ve always loved tattooist Barbie’s cat babies but knew I wanted a horror twist for mine, and what was better to get than Pennywise, especially since my name is Georgie. All my tattoos are done by the wonderful @barbielongfox“

@georgie_kfilm tattoos by @barbielongfox

Tattoo artist Olivia – @cowgurl_bebop

“I love doing horror-related tattoos because a lot of horror is creating the narrative potential of something scary that could happen. A lot of people who come in to get these tattoos have sort of created a vague backstory around what makes the tattoo they’re getting feel spooky to them and I’m really into hearing these stories!”

Tattoo artist Marissa Gray – @grxy.tattoo

“I do black and grey horror realism and Illustrative tattoos, normally with splashes of red. I have always wanted to do horror and spooky tattoos and am so lucky to finally do so at this point in my career. I feel that unintentionally my favourite film and musical Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street influenced my work with it’s beautiful desaturated colour palette and bold red blood. Despite most of my pieces being solely black and grey, the use of red truly compliments the subject matter so well and I am grateful to be tattooing a genre that goes hand in hand with my artistic vision.”

Into horror tattoos… tag us in yours @thingsandink

We love getting the stuff we’re obsessed with tattooed on our bodies… check out our recent post on foodies tattoos.

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015

Top 5 Creepiest Women in Film

Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward:

There’s nothing scarier than a woman, and horror films have given us an endless gallery of terrifying female characters and performances to choose from. So with Del Toro’s women-led Crimson Peak hitting cinemas, let’s have a look back at a few of the freakiest fems and chilling chicks to give us nightmares…

5. The Evil Dead Girls – Cheryl, Linda and Sherry
Played by: Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly
In: The Evil Dead (1981)

‘We’re gonna get you…’ I couldn’t cherry pick one of these girls because they’re all equally terrifying. Sure they start off as the typical sweet American college females you’d expect to find holidaying in some dank wood cabin in the middle of nowhere. But once they get possessed by those pesky forces of darkness… well where do I start? Linda spins her head 360 degrees while girlishly singing threats and she won’t stop laughing. Then Cheryl, good God, poor tree-raped Cheryl freaked me out just guessing her friend’s playing cards in some rising screeching voice. That’s before she levitates, growls doom-laden prophecies at her friends and stabs them with pencils. The film was brutal enough to make me worry about my friends being turned into grinning, screaming, vomit-spattered psycho bitches from hell.

4. The Exorcist girl – Regan MacNeil
Played by: Linda Blair
In: The Exorcist (1973)

‘It burns!’ Speaking of possession and vomit-spattered psycho bitches from hell, none will ever beat this doll. I know the infamous scenes have been talked about and parodied to death but I have seen various exorcism films and this is still the most extreme and affecting, mainly because most exorcism films that have come after are feeble imitations. For one thing Regan is genuinely sweet and appealing at the start, which is a first compared to most teenage characters in horror. So it’s quite horrific to see her gradually turn into a blaspheming, foul-mouthed, puking, ball-grabbing, crucifix-banging cockney beast. The best and freakiest thing about this character is that she (or it) is so extreme that no matter how much you’ve heard about the film, you’re never sure what she’s going to do next.

3. Mrs Carmody
Played by: Marcia Gay Harden
In: The Mist (2007)

You expect victims of demonic possession to turn evil, but all too often in horror films God-fearing women should be feared too. Take for instance Mrs Carmody, played splendidly by Marcia Gay Harden in 2007 movie The Mist. A fog descends on a New England town, bringing with it a swarm of ugly carnivorous critters and the townspeople are trapped in the store. Mrs Carmody immediately makes her extremist Christian beliefs clear and starts babbling about the apocalypse. At first she just annoys everyone and gets a slap or two. But as the situation worsens, her power grows over the trapped community until most of them are baying for human sacrifice to appease the beasts. So Mrs Carmody wins this spot not just for sticking to her bloodthirsty Biblical beliefs to the end, but for spreading them so easily over the fragile minds of her flock that they obey her every will and turn to violence without a thought.

2. Carrie’s mum – Margaret White
Played by: Piper Laurie
In: Carrie (1976)

‘I can see your dirty pillows…’ Another crazy Christian lady who happens to be the mom from hell. I guess Stephen King had a real problem with Christian women since he invented both Maggie White and Mrs Carmody. If it’s possible, Carrie’s mum is even crazier and scarier than Mrs Carmody and certainly not mothering material. For one thing, she likes locking her daughter up in cupboards (Harry Potter anyone?) and can’t handle any talk of periods, breasts (sorry ‘dirty pillows’) or sex let alone her daughter’s telekinetic powers. Carrie could really have done with a social worker. Now don’t get me wrong, Carrie is also a scary character but only at the end when she turns into some blood-drenched, prom-trashing bully killer. Her mother is scary the whole time. Piper Laurie gives such a fantastically unhinged performance that, like poor possessed Regan, you’re never sure what’s going to happen when she’s on screen. I haven’t seen the remake but as great an actress Julianne Moore is, I can’t imagine her matching Laurie’s performance, especially in the scene where she smiles so divinely when pursuing her daughter with a knife.

1. Annie Wilkes
Played by: Kathy Bates
In: Misery (1990)

‘I’m your number one fan. There’s nothing to worry about…’ Actually it’s a writer’s worst nightmare. Successful novelist Paul Sheldon (played cunningly by James Caan) suffers a car crash and wakes up crippled in the home of a smiling woman claiming to be his number one fan. Unfortunately she turns out to be too much of a fan. Kathy Bate’s extraordinary role wins number one for a couple of reasons. Firstly, compared to the other women she appears harmless: a dumpy farm woman with some nursing expertise and a bit of an obsession for her beloved author and his books. But some of her more eccentric qualities (her sudden mood swings and specialised vocabulary of ‘cockadoody’ and ‘oogy’) hint at the madness within. She’s not only crazy but also controlling, calculating and not afraid to use violence to get what she wants, particularly concerning hammers and feet. This brings me onto the second reason why she’s number one creepy woman. She has a very black and white view of the world. Everything she does and believes is right and everybody else is wrong… or dead. In short, not someone you want to be disabled and helpless around. But the other thing about her that beats the other characters is that you can’t help feeling sorry for her or laughing at her overreacting: when she’s safely behind the TV screen that is.

October 28, 2015

Horror influencing fashion

Our guest blogger is Jade-Bailey Dowling, fashion writer and creator of Nouvelle Noir, a blog dedicated to dark fashion. This is the first in a series of post where she looks at how horror influences fashion and how you can draw fashion inspiration from the movies…

Horror has influenced fashion in many aspects over the years. Designers have taken obvious inspiration from a particular horror heroine, such as Carrie or Wednesday Addams, or adapted their new season style to fit the aesthetic of a film or genre; it is undoubted that horror and fashion sit on a precarious diversionary line.

Wednesday Addams

In this fashion series, I will discuss how designers past and present have looked to the horror genre to gain inspiration for their clothes, and further still how these have been translated by the high street and enable horror fans to take their love of horror from film to fashion.

First up, Stephen King’s coming-of-age combined with kinetic powers heroine Carrie White. The novel has been adapted for film various times, most recently in 2013 with Chloe Grace Moretz featuring as the infamous Carrie.

Carrie is a firm favourite costume choice for Halloween and fans often pour red paint or dye over any cheap white or light coloured dress they can find for an easy yet striking outfit for the night. Carrie can be a fashion icon without the need to reference this, albeit pivotal, moment.

The infamous blood scene from Carrie 1976

For those familiar with the novel or film, Carrie White’s style is very much reflective of the modest, strict upbringing inflicted by her religious mother, Margaret White. However, this granny chic style is set to be very much en vogue for Autumn/Winter 2015, as seen on the catwalks of Miu Miu, and Prada.

Mui Mui A/W

Although the 2013 version, directed by Kimberly Peirce, is set in a modern setting, the fashion choices of the costume designer follows that of the original film that aligns itself with the novel and is set in the 70s, another source of A/W 2015 style inspiration such as at Burberry.

Screen shot from Carrie (2013)

Channel your inner Carrie White with 70s inspired florals, a-line denim skirts and chunky shoes.

Denim dungaree dress, £20, Boohoo
Shirt £19.99, New Look
Brogues, £19.99, H&M
Knee High Socks, £2.99, New Look
A Line Demin Skirt, £30, Topshop

Despite Margaret White famously stating “Red. I might have known it would be red”, the famous prom dress is actually very light pink. For those who wish to steal Carrie’s prom look, pre pig’s blood of course, opting for a nude, or light pink dress can pay homage in a delicate and sophisticated way. With loads available on the high street at reasonable prices, should you wish to cover yourself with a red substance that will, hopefully, come out in the wash you can transform your look from Prom Carrie to Bloody Carrie with no major expense, while looking more authentic than other Carrie Costumers.

Screen Shot Carrie 2013

Left to right: Miss Selfridge – £55, Rare @ Topshop – £45, Glamorous – £25

Next time, see how the 90s iconic witch film, “The Craft” has inspired fashion, from catwalk to street style.

October 21, 2015October 21, 2015

Music Interview: Landscapes

We caught up with Shaun Milton from Landscapes ahead of their set at Hevy Festial this summer to talk about their album plans, tattoo influence and horror.

You’re in the middle of a European tour with Endless Heights and Break Even, how is it going?

It has been quite a chaotic tour, it’s three bands in two vans so we are pretty crammed in. The guys we are on tour with a fucking awesome people, they are honestly some of the greatest people we have ever toured with. The guys in Endless Heights are such a tight unit of friends and you don’t normal see that in bands. You usually see good fiends but you don’t normally see them like that. They are absolutely loving every second of being in the UK, this is their first time out in Europe. And Break Even are just really lovely and humble people as well so we are just having the best time.

Do you think you will put an album out this year?

We are really hoping to get something released this year. Last year we recorded our forthcoming album which we’ve titled Modern Earth. Its aesthetic is the idea of looking at society and world of today and taking a step back. It is trying to figure out what people are doing with themselves and understanding each others problems, not in such a policital way but saying it in our own personal way.

So yeah, we recorded it last September out in California at Panda Studios but we weren’t overly happy with the end result. We felt there was a little more to do on it and we are all about quality control .People can wait and moan as long as they want but at the end of the day if we are not happy with it we are the ones who have to live with it. So we took it back The Ranch Production House in Southampton and that’s all together now so then we took a stepback on how we were going to approach out artwork.

We didn’t want to deal with photoshop as such so I began building a set and we’ve just had the first set of images back. Hopefully we should see the album out in the next few months fingers crossed.

Cardinals Media

Did you take time out to write the album or did you do it whilst touring?

We were bouncing ideas around on tours but we just found that we didn’t get the peace and quiet we needed. Sometimes it works better with just two or three of you and sometimes it works better as a whole band. We tend to find that the phrase is right and that too many cooks spoil the broth. This isn’t to say that we are not all involved in the writing but just that we need to break away from everything else with a focus on what we want to do.

For us it isn’t just about what is right for the sound everyone else is expecting, it is about what we feel comfortable with. It has got to be about what we are vibing and we all have such different influences. Tom is a big Morrisey fan, I’m a big everything fan, Kai is a big pissed jeans fan, Martin is well into Man Overboard. We’re all into different shit. Jordan for fuck sake is into Grime. So you look at all of us and you wouldn’t put us together but when we put our creative inputs together it works so well.

Where do you want to tour next?

We’re in the middle of a European tour at the moment but we’ve never been to Australia. We were supposed to go at the end of last year and sadly we had to pull out, but we are hoping that sometime next year we can get out there along with America. We are signed to Pure Noise Records so we want to create a foundation for ourselves. Everything is based around our releases so with our release taking a year longer than what it should have done it has put us back a bit.

Yanbo’s done by Petra Brkić

How do you feel about your work inspiring tattoos?

We are always completely overwhelmed, I remember the first person to get one, they were from Brazil of all places. He had ‘ I drain out every moment until its gone’ which is a really old lyric and we were all just astounded about how our music got that far.

So we made a policy that the moment that so many different people started getting these amazing tattoos that we were going show some sort of appreciation. I save all of the photos we’ve been tagged into and I try and post as many as I can. But we also made this deal that if we have control of the show we’ll stick you on the guest list.

So yeah we are completely touched, you think to yourself what is it that people are getting from that particular song and our whole aesthetic but at the same time their own decision. Tattoos are a really personal thing, id be a fucking liar if I didn’t turn around and say that I didn’t ever get a tattoo because it looked cool but at the same time it still means something to me, it marks a stage in your life.

It is a real privilege and an honour for us that people are getting tattoos that are anything to do with us. But at the same time it is a step in whatever path they have taken or are about to take and i’m fully supportive of it. I know that we had some people that were not even following us on our Facebook that were specifically coming to our page to call people out for getting tattooed. If you don’t want to get tattooed don’t tell someone how to live their life, so yeah we are completely supportive of it and we think its great.

Ben Abraham’s done by Lukasz Christopher at Oddfellows Tattoo Collective in Leeds

In line with the release of The Horror issue, what is your favourite horror film?

I could say a whole bunch but if it is just one, I want to say Alien. And I will tell you the reason why or else people might not think it is a horror and just a sci-fi.

It is a horror and the reason it is a such a horror is that Ripley is essentially one of the first female heroes to come forward and the horrifying aspect is the rape that is sat between the lines of that film is incredible. It is not gendered, it is the horrifying thought that this face hugger that resembles a vagina basically forces a phallic tube down your throat and impregnantes you and then it bursts out of you in the most terrifying, painful way possible. To me that is so fucking scary, it has got all the fright element to it and I am all about space and shit so I love it.

October 16, 2015

Film Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward:

A Girl walks home alone at night, 2015, 18, dir Ana Lily Amirpour, 3/5

I’m not a big fan of vampires movies, unless they’re done well. I dislike the way certain films and TV shows (cough cough Twilight cough) have portrayed vampires as surly, sparkling love interests. I’m more a fan of the old fashioned kill-them-first-shag-them-later variety. I also dislike the fact that vampires have been done to death. But I guess vampire films are like any other genre. Out of the majority of over-clichéd, over-sexed muck rises a few gems that dare to do things differently and show everybody else how it’s supposed to be done.

There was Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In in 2008. I liked its original premise of a young girl vampire making friends with a human boy. However I don’t know if it was the film’s sparse, sombre tone or there was something wrong with me when I tried to watch it but I just found it a bit dull. This was certainly not the case with the subject of this review.

This year’s vampire flick (now on DVD and blu-ray) is the most striking and unusual of its kind I’ve ever seen. For one thing, it’s set in Iran with dialogue faithfully in Farsi while remaining an American production. Elijah Wood is one of the executive producers and he features in the special feature interviews.

Watch these interviews and you will understand exactly how an Iranian vampire film came together. The director Ana Lily Amirpour has an Iranian background and comes across as a female version of Quentin Tarantino. She swears a lot and chatters enthusiastically about her favourite things, which include spaghetti westerns, pop music and vampires. She set out to write a screenplay that brought all these elements together. She had already shot a couple of shorts set in Iran and when she tried on a chador veil one of the extras was wearing, she knew her vampire had to be Iranian. Of course.

But she’s not just planted a vampire in Iran. She’s planted a vampire in a fictional desert town named Bad City , home to various social misfits including a prostitute, a pimp, a transvestite, an urchin, some spoilt kids, a junky and his son Arash (Arash Marandi) who dresses like James Dean and drives a hot vintage car. Even when his beloved ride gets taken as payment for his father’s drugs and he breaks his hand punching a wall in anger, he still looks cool with a cast and a bicycle.

While he’s trying to look after his father and cat, make money and keep on looking cool, the vampire simply named the Girl is prowling the streets at night, looking suitably menacing yet somehow cute in a black flowing chador as she preys on scummy men, terrorises children and steals their skateboards.

The actress Sheila Vand gives an astonishing performance. She never smiles and her lines are rare too, but she communicates so much menace and loneliness through her expressions you don’t know whether to be scared or feel sorry for her.

The sparse dialogue in this film is a merit. It’s clear that Amirpour has learnt a lot from her favourite Sergio Leone. Her movie runs on the less-is-more principle, relying on the actor’s expressions and actions to tell the story rather than dialogue. She also makes heavy use of atmosphere and suspense rather than gore in the horror scenes, which is refreshing regarding most blood-spattered horrors today. In fact for a vampire movie there is very little blood, except for one nasty scene and even then the film is in black and white.

It’s clear from the start that this is not a straightforward horror. Amirpour is more concerned with giving her audience a visual feast. She is also a big fan of David Lynch. With the film being black and white and featuring various long shots of industrial scenery, as well as being an urban nightmare populated by sad freaks, I couldn’t help being reminded of such Lynch films as Eraserhead and Blue Velvet.

However, while the film is a banquet for the eyes and ears (the soundtrack consists of Iranian and Western pop mixed with spaghetti western-style music), perhaps the film is too concentrated on style and trying to be hip. For example, amidst all the culture references the plot boils down to a love story between Arash and the vampire. It’s the film’s presentation of romance which gets on my nerves. These two very good looking people meet, are instantly attracted to each other and their lovelorn talk consists mostly of comparing life to music: ‘don’t you wish you could live in a song?’ etc. I’m sorry but this fantasy does not match my past awkward, bumbling attempts at dating and thus I believe it encourages unrealistic romantic expectations. Then again the film is just that, a fantasy.

Nevertheless as cool and fun and imaginative the film is, I couldn’t help feeling a little underwhelmed at the end. The film bends over backwards to satisfy you superficially with stunning visuals. When it comes to the plot however, I feel the film could have gone for more emotional impact with the dramatic events it depicted. It’s cool that the film opted for a less-is-more approach concerning the dialogue and emotion depicted, but there’s never any real conflict between the characters. So as dark as the film gets, it doesn’t really pack a punch. Still, it’s worth seeing for the cat Masuka’s performance alone.

This is still the coolest and most genre-busting vampire movie you will ever see and I applaud Amirpour’s unique vision and cinematic enthusiasm. I’m looking forward to her next movie The Bad Batch, a love story set in a cannibal colony in a Texas wasteland. I hope she does a western.

Images from IMDB