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March 27, 2015March 26, 2015

Things&Ink’s favourite Instagram artists of the moment

Artists chosen by T&I editor Alice Snape, and T&I managing editor Keely Reichardt…

Here at Things&Ink magazine, Instagram is a constant source of tattoo inspiration and a hub for finding new artists… we can spend forever searching for artists, and looking at their back catalogue of work. So we’ve compiled this little round-up of some of our favourite artists who are capturing our attention at the moment!

Lauren Winzer, Sydney, Australia @laurenwinzer
“A firm Instagram favourite. And not just for her tattoos, but for her amazing style and life updates – she looks like she is always having fun. She even tattooed Miley Cyrus. We have life envy. Her tattoos are awesome too, she has a really different, interesting and cute style that just keeps on getting better.” Alice

Teide, Seven Doors Tattoo, London UK @teidetattoo

“Teide from Seven Doors in London is embracing an abstract take on traditional and almost formed a totally unique style of his own… not seen anyone else doing anything like this!” Keely

Aaron Hingston, The Grand Illusion, Melbourne Australia @aaron_hingston
“Aaron has a fairly traditional style but uses really beautiful soft pastel colours that soften the bold style. He also creates the most beautiful lady heads all with slightly sad expressions!” Keely

Just Jen, Edinburgh Scotland @justjentattoos

“Absolutely love her style, she is someone who I have wanted to get tattooed by for ages. Bold colour palette and strong traditional style, but lots of her subject matter has a softer twist. Some of her tattoos looks miniature too, which I love.”

Raph Cemo, Kids Love Ink East, @raphcemo “I am normally drawn to colour tattoos, but the work of Raph has recently caught my eye. I particularly love this intricate chest piece, it is stunning.” Alice

Aivaras Ly @aivaras_ly “Totally in love with the cosmic traditional style of Aivaras Ly. I would love to know how and where these incredible compositions come from!” Keely

Who are you favourite Instagram artists of the moment?

August 31, 2014

When someone copies your tattoo

Recently I was alerted by my tattooist that one of my tattoos had been copied and inked onto someone else.

I know that with social media nothing is sacred. Yes, if I post pictures of all my tattoos, others will see the design and want it for themselves. But this shouldn’t stop tattooists from advertising their work and customers celebrating their new tattoo.

The copy on the left and my original on the right

It should be up to the tattooist to either out-right refuse to tattoo a direct copy or create a piece inspired by the said design. Then both people get a custom and unique tattoo. Tattooists must have some sort of responsibility to their clients and respect for other tattooists not to steal their work.

I suppose copying is the highest form of flattery and in some ways it is a compliment that someone liked the tattoo so much that they wanted it, but that doesn’t mean you should get it.

The tattoo in question is one of the few ones on my body that has a real significant meaning, it goes with one my boyfriend has to mark our five-year anniversary. I have a watermelon slice and he has a whole watermelon with a slice missing. Yes it’s silly but it means a lot to us.

This isn’t the only issue, the tattoo is badly done, and perhaps something that the wearer may come to regret.

Also what about the tattooists? Sophie who created the original has had her work stolen and the one who tattooed the copy is re-creating work that isn’t original. They aren’t creating a name or style of their own.

Nonethless I still love my tattoo just the same and I know that I have the original and the better tattoo.

I know for sure that I’m not the only one that this has happened to. Have you had a tattoo copied?

– DEFINITION OF FLASH- from Salon Serpent
“Flash is a number of designs, specifically made for tattoo purposes, placed together on a sheet of paper. Usually they are made in a set of multiple sheets. Meant to hang on the walls of tattoo shops, to be picked from by customers and tattooed. (not every painting by a tattoo-artist is flash and sometimes even unsuitable, because not specifically made to use as such) As with all (art)work, flash has copyright. Buying a set of flash gives you the right to use this flash for tattoos. It can, however, not be used for any other commercial or otherwise purposes then tattooing.”

Custom work is different, it is designed by the artist for that customer and should not be copied.

August 14, 2014

Lady Tattooers

With the recent launch of Lady Tattooers, a website dedicated to showcasing some incredible work from female tattooers around the world, we spoke with one of the website’s curators Betty Rose to find out all about the site, how tattooists can get involved and of course her own tattoo career.

My name is Betty Rose and I’m a Brooklyn-based tattoo artist and painter at Eight of Swords Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. My career began with an apprenticeship in 2004 and after eight years of working at a studio in Manhattan, I left NYC to travel for a year. Returning in 2013, I took up residency at Eight of Swords Tattoo.

I enjoy travelling for work, but after doing it for a year I decided to take a break from anything too far out of the way. My next foray will be the Westchester Tattoo Convention in October.

What inspired you to become a tattooist? What draws you to tattoos?

What originally inspired me to create tattoos was my years as a punk rock kid. When I was growing up I bounced around schools and had trouble making friends. The first group that I felt at home with were these punk-rock/skater kids I met in Junior High, who helped me to see how tattoos were both a way of expressing myself and taking the things I cared about with me everywhere I went. A few years later, I got my first sleeve and I started to realize that I wanted to be the girl holding the machine, not just the girl getting tattooed.

What was your first tattoo?

The first tattoo I got was a small fairy on my forearm based off a pair of earrings my mother had from the 60s.
What is the Lady Tattooers website and what does it hope to do?
When did you launch the website and Instagram?

Lady Tattooers is an inspirational art platform focused on promoting the top female tattoo artists. We maintain a list of tattooers curated by myself and a few friends. There are so many talented artists around the world and we plan to make people aware of who they are and how to find them. Our goal is to become the online resource for female tattoo art.

Lady Tattooers IG began in 2012, after my husband (Matty) made clear how little he knew about female tattoo artists. I’d always wanted to help spread the passion that started my career in tattooing, so Matty’s bewilderment opened my eyes to a unique opportunity to both do something I loved and give back to the community of female artists that helped pave the way. The website has been an idea we’ve been working on for a while now, but was only officially launched a few weeks ago.

How can tattooists get their work onto the website/Instagram? Can they contact you for an interview?

Typically, I find them while I’m browsing social media or I’ll get introduced to them through someone I’ve featured. Then I’ll take a look at their work, and if I’m excited by it I’ll make a post about them. As far as being contacted for interviews…I happily accept referrals from artists who are already featured, but I’m not comfortable being solicited. The reason for that is because it’s sort of against the spirit of what Lady Tattooers is about. An example would be that I’m comfortable promoting/selling the art of women I post, but I wouldn’t feel the same way if someone paid me to post their work. At the end of the day this is something I do because I truly believe these women are great artists, and I wouldn’t want to continue if it stopped being about that.

How do you decide which women to showcase? What do you hope the future will hold for Lady Tattooer?

The decision on who to showcase is based on a few different factors like talent, experience, etc. No one factor determines the decision; ultimately the decision comes down to what I think. On rare occasions I’ll put a Lady Tattooer to the front of the line because they inspire me on some level, or because I’ve been a fan of their work for a long time.

The future is such a tricky question…we only launched a few weeks ago and our original plan was going to have slow growth over time, but then we found out that people liked what we made. Since then we’ve re-evaluated our plans because of some amazing offers we’ve been getting. In short we don’t know if we’ll be doing anything different or if we’ll be releasing anything new, what you can count on is that we’ll definitely continue to publish posts on amazing Lady Tattooers every week.