When we first saw Carlotta Quast’s patternwork when scrolling through Instagram we were blown away by her immense talent! Once we learnt she was an apprenticeship we knew we had to know…
I started my apprenticeship in September 2018 at Sorry Mom Tattoo Studio in Brunswick, Germany. I’d just quit studying architecture and the shop owners, whom I already knew through my partner Nick, who’s also a tattooer at the shop, asked if I could help out around the shop a couple of days a week. Whilst doing that I started to really get into books dealing with ethnic, tribal and ornamental tattooing styles.A few months later they offered me an apprenticeship.
I’ve always been drawn to tattoos, and I wanted to be heavily tattooed since I was about 14 years old. I managed to wait and I got my first tattoo when I was 18. It was a fairly typical first tattoo – I got a word on my ribs.
Luckily the tattooer who did it, who happens to be my partner today, introduced me to American traditional tattooing which is the style most of my tattoos are in today. My favourite tattoo is probably the sacred heart on my shin.
At the moment I pretty much just do ornamental tattoos. It’s definitely the drawing style that I connect with most. My drawings have more of an architectural mathematical approach. My absolute favourite tattoo style today is different types of tribal. I hope that one day I will have done enough research to feel comfortable enough to offer tribal mix tattoos as well.
The best part of my apprenticeship is the progress I see when I look back. I’ve already come a long way dealing with the feeling of not being good enough and impostor syndrome. But I’m glad I’ve stuck with it and always had such supportive people around me.
As we scrolled through Instagram looking for new artists, budding tattoo apprentice Jade’s four-eyed women drew us in. We were captivated by bedroom scenes, bright pops of colour and striking murals – we had to find out more about this tattoo apprentice, who works at the all-female Heartless Tattoo in Los Angeles…
How long have you been a tattoo apprentice, and how did you get your apprenticeship? I started my journey back in November. I was apprenticing at a shop in Beverly Hills that was black owned, which was really dope. I was there for a few months but unfortunately that opportunity was cut short. Even though I wasn’t there long, I was able to absorb a lot of important information about what it is like to tattoo darker skin, which is very important for me as an artist.
Honestly, I got my first apprenticeship just being at the right place and right time. After leaving my first apprenticeship, I was offered another opportunity to continue my journey at an all Woman of Color shop located in Los Angeles, Heartless Tattoo. The owner of Heartless, Yher, has been a long time inspiration of mine and friend and she told me when I was ready, she had a home for me. I couldn’t be more grateful for my Heartless family!
What advice would you give to anyone wanting to get started in the tattoo industry? I would tell them to put themselves out there as an artist, make connections, continue to practice your craft. Nothing is just handed to you. Living out your dream consists of hard work, dedication, and practice. Also, I would tell them to make sure that this industry is something that you’re genuinely passionate about and that you’re ready to sacrifice for it. Pay respect to those who did it before you and the history behind it as well.
Can you share with us your experience as a woman in the tattoo world, and your experience as a black woman in this industry? So far so good. The shop that I’m at is an all female shop so it’s really nice to be around feminine energy, especially in such a male-dominated industry. As I get further into the industry, I know that there will of course be some hardships for not only being a woman but also a black woman, but I am here for the fight and representation.
What’s the tattoo scene like in LA? LA has so much history and has played a HUGE part in the tattoo culture and history. From Ed Hardy to GoodTime Charlie, to Freddy Negrete and Mister Cartoon, they paved the way for us artists and put LA/SoCal tattooing on the map. It’s crazy I can call this place my home and just be surrounded by so much history. It’s very normal to see people blasted in tattoos in LA, it’s very accessible to get tattooed out here. It’s very normal. You will drive down Melrose Ave, and pass like 10 shops within a two mile radius. It’s quite interesting!
We love your double-eyed girls, what inspires your illustrations? I’ve always been inspired by black women and women of color. The four-eyed girl is how I add a little me into every painting. I’ve been wearing glasses since third grade and being called four-eyes has always been a thing, so I just re-channelled it into my world. When I got serious about my art, I wanted to create something that looked like me and the people who also look like me. I realized that a lot of the artists I looked up to weren’t depicting black women (up until recently honestly). And I wanted to create something that I would’ve loved to see when I was a kid.
Are there any artists or tattooers you look up to or influence your work? There is a list of people who I look up to and influence my work. I can talk about them all day honestly. Tattoo wise, my Heartless family inspires me every single day, I can’t believe I’m surrounded by such talented, cool ass people. I’m also inspired by Doreen Garner (@flesh_and_fluid), Brittany Randell (@humblebeetattoo), K. Wong (@kwongtattoo), and Lydia Madrid (@lydiamadriid). My art influences are Christina Martinez (@sew_trill), @reesabobeesa, Natasha Lillipore (@lillipore), Hailey Losselyongs (@hai_ey), and Tamia Blue (@tamiablue).
What do you like to draw/tattoo and what do you want to do more of? I love drawing my girls and I want to be able to tattoo them as well as my original art.
How would you describe your style? Where do you want to take your tattoos in the future? I would describe my art style as illustrative for sure. But as far as my tattoo style I want to push my work as neo-traditional and show black art in the neo world.
Can you tell us about your own tattoo collection, what was your first, which is your favourite? I’ve been collecting tattoos since my eighteenth birthday. Both my mom and step dad are heavily tattooed so my mom literally dropped me off at the tattoo shop on my birthday. My first tattoo is a hamsa with a Ganesha inside on my rib. That’ll forever hold a special place in my heart since it was my first, however I don’t have any favorites. I think for the most part my tattoos are badass! There’s a couple that I definitely wish were different but I still love them and it’s funny to look back at.
Have your tattoos changed how you feel about yourself and your body? DEFINITELY! I couldn’t imagine myself without my tattoos and I am planning on covering the majority of my body. It’s so fun to look at the pieces and be like holy shit that’s my arm.
I feel like they make me, me. It sets me apart from the rest and at the same time I’m a part of a sick ass community.
We love how open and honest you are about your mental health on Instagram, can you say a bit more about why this is so important to share. I felt like at this time, It was time to share where I am and how I feel. I never liked talking about my mental health because it made me feel like a burden to others, but this time I knew that I wasn’t being open for me but for those who feel the same way and feel alone. I felt like it was important to let people to know that it is okay to be not okay.
31-year-old Chloe Candela, is a tattoo apprentice at Black Market Tattoos Leicester. We love Chloe’s recognisable watercolour style and beautiful ladies, so much so that our editor Rosalie had to get one of her own!
How long have you been an apprentice? I started officially as an apprentice in January 2017, but have been working at the studio on alongside my other job for three years.
You work with your husband, Alex, did he teach you? Yes he did! He encouraged me to get into tattooing, as it was a passion we shared when we met. He’s been really great and pushed me a lot in a good way. Everyone else at the studio has been so supportive, I learn a lot of from everyone.
Your styles are very different, yours reflects your watercolour paintings while Alex creates more traditional pieces. Was there a reason why you didn’t choose to do more traditional work? How did you find your own technique? I think it will take a long time to truly find my way of working as it does for everyone. I really love traditional work and what Alex does, and I’d definitely love to give it a try. But I think one of the reasons Alex encouraged me into tattooing was that I could hopefully bring my own style to it. I’ve been painting and selling work since I was in my teens, so it’s more instinctive for me to go for that style. I’ve been putting my work out there for a while, online, at fairs and art shows. I’m really lucky that now people who’ve supported my artwork in the past are coming to get tattooed and asking for my style, which is amazing. I’ve also been lucky to learn from Del (co owner at Black Market) who does realism, and I think the kind of tattoos I’d like to make sit in the middle of the two.
With your lady heads you blood line the stencil first, why is this? What effect does it create? For the first few tattoos I did, the style was solid colour, no outline, so I tried bloodlining to act as the line work for when the stencil disappears and to make sure the carbon doesn’t contaminate the edge. I’ve carried on doing it as a bit of a safety net for the stencil, and also because it kind of helps me get my head around the tattoo, the area and the clients skin before I start putting colour in. In terms of the effect I think it definitely helps with soft, watercoluryness, because there’s no bold edge.
What inspires your work and are there any artists that you admire? Also do you still have time for your paintings? At the moment I’m quite focussed on tattooing, but I will never abandon painting! I love portraiture and historical painting, and also movies and comics have always been a big influence for me. I love old shit, anything from the 30s through to the 70s. Claudia de Sabe was the first tattooist/painter I discovered who blew me away and has definitely been a major inspiration. My other faves at the moment are Miss Orange, Hannah Flowers, I always look out for them on my feed. Painting wise I adore James Jean, mind blowing painter.
What would you love to tattoo? And what styles would you like to try out? I’d love to tattoo anything! I’m just into trying anything right now. It would be really cool to try something more straight up traditional, and also to try completely translating one of my paintings into a tattoo.
Having fallen in love with Lauren Burrow’s bold and spooky style on Instagram, our editor Rosalie, had to add a piece of Lauren’s girly neo-trad to her collection. Situated in Bedford UK, Seven Magpies Tattoo is home to tattoo apprentice Lauren, realism tattooist Mark Watson and traditional tattooer Sam Childs. I spent the day chatting to Lauren about her love of horror, doughnuts and knee tattoos…
What drew you to the world of tattooing? I always knew from a very young age that I wanted to do something with art, it was all I ever wanted. It was a natural progression into the realisation that tattooing was what I’d love a career in. I think neo-traditional work was probably what drew me in the most, I realised that out of all modern art I’d ever seen that the work I was seeing by neo-traditional tattooists was my favourite, and it was quite life changing really discovering all of that. When I was quite young I fell in love with Art Nouveau and the style, especially the work of Alphonse Mucha. I remember studying it and it remained to be my all time favourite style, influencing my work even more so as I got older.
There’s only three of you in the shop, and you’re pretty tight knit, did you know the guys before you started? I didn’t know the guys before I began my apprenticeship with them, but quite honestly of all things I could ever be greatful for, I’m so happy that I ended up working with them. I love my life at the shop, and I can never even begin to thank Mark and Sam enough for everything they’ve taught me, for being incredibly patient with me and for pushing me to improve every step of the way. Also our days are forever made more enjoyable by winding each other up as much as possible and giving hell with ridiculous amounts of sass which is very funny.
How did you get your apprenticeship and when did you start? What did you do before? I started my apprenticeship with Seven Magpies just over two years ago. I studied illustration and graphic design at the university of East London, but realised very strongly towards the end of my degree that tattooing was what I really wanted to do. During the time that I was putting my portfolio together and looking into it all, I heard that Seven Magpies were looking for an apprentice. It was quite literally the dream job as I’d known about them for a long time, since they are based in my hometown of Bedford, massively admired their work and couldn’t believe that the opportunity had popped up right when I was looking.
I tried my luck, asking if they’d be happy to take a look at my work, which they did. Shortly after that Mark offered me the apprenticeship and I still remember being so over the moon happy and basically in total shock for days!
Are there any artists that you admire or influence your work? I think It’s massively benefited me having the influence and guidance of both Mark and Sam because their styles also vary massively, so between them they’ve always been able to help me out and it’s been awesome to have the perspective from a realistic and neo-traditional view. The guys have always helped me to broaden my view on the industry, encouraging me to look at work from different genres, and I think it’s definitely helped me to appreciate styles like Japanese, realism and far more classic traditional looking work too. Neo-traditional work does remain to be a massive influence for me and it’s certainly where I imagine I’d completely love to end up!
As far as artists that inspire me, there are just so many incredible artists out there and even if they don’t directly influence my work, seeing the sheer talent which is around definitely pushes me forwards to try and improve within my own practice. If I were to try and narrow it down and give a few names of artists that I admire I’d say that Danielle Rose and Cassandra Frances have been two of my favourite artists for the longest time, and the work of Emily Rose Murray is completely beautiful and I love everything that she creates!
Rosalie’s scorpion that Lauren created
I asked you to create a floral scorpion design, because I wanted to match your creepy yet girly style, would you agree that this is your genre? What would you love to tattoo? Do you have any drawn up designs you would like to tattoo? I would say that creepy and girly sums up everything that I love to create entirely! I’d love to tattoo more girl heads as they are one of my favourite things ever to draw. I also love anything with a Halloween theme – all year round, insects, bat heads and cocktails are all things that I’d love to tattoo. I have a flash book of designs which are all things I’d really like to do but there is a sassy, stabby little toad holding a knife that I particularly want to tattoo at the moment and am waiting for someone to claim him!
Would you say your style is influenced by your love of horror? At the moment you’re reading IT by Stephen King, but what is your favourite book or film? Are there any characters that you are dying to tattoo? I love watching horror films, if ever it is up to me to choose a film to watch it will always be a horror! But I think in terms of inspiration for my art Guillermo del Toro’s films strike me the most as they are creepy but completely beautiful. I love Pan’s Labyrinth and Crimson Peak. I also love Tim Burton’s work and I adore his characters because they are so cute but also incredibly creepy! I love Edgar from Frankenweenie and would love to tattoo him. There are plenty of characters I’d be so happy to make into tattoos, Sally or Zero from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice, Edith Cushing and Lucille sharpe from Crimson Peak, Coraline, The Addams family (especially Wednesday Addams) and of course I’d love to do my own version of Pennywise the clown from IT.
Can you tell us a bit about your own tattoos? My favourite tattoos I currently have are a couple by Will Thomson – a lady with a ship in her hair and also a ship’s wheel with flowers. I absolutely love the wolf I have on my knee which was done at our studio by Sam Childs, it’s a massive monster of a wolf head and it’s so angry and awesome. I actually haven’t been tattooed that much, purely because of spending so many years as a student and then an apprentice and not having enough spare income to get what I really want. But I know it will be worth the wait and there are so many pieces I’m dying to get and a lot of artists that I know I really want to be tattooed by. Generally I think I’ll end up getting quite a few spooky and Halloween based tattoos, I’d love a big neo-traditional style sorceress lady. I also adore animals so I’m pretty much guaranteed to end up with a lot of those also!
We spotted the work of 22-year-old tattoo apprentice Tammy Bestwick on Instagram and instantly loved her traditional style tattoos. We chatted to Tammy to find out more about her life as an apprentice at Black Rose Tattoo, Barnstaple, Devon where she works…
How long have you been tattooing? I worked at a tattoo shop in Exeter doing my apprenticeship for two years. I got to do a few small tattoos here and there but it’s only really since working at Black Rose that I’ve been able to tattoo regularly. I started working at Black Rose back in June so it’s just going into six months of tattooing now!
What did you do before? Do you have a background in art? My first job was selling tickets at a zoo. Straight after that I started my tattoo apprenticeship for two years, I did a couple temp jobs where I made some of the most wonderful friends who still come and get tattooed by me now! I studied art at GCSE and A-level but I didn’t find it overly enjoyable, it was more about looking deep into the meaning behind why a square could’ve possibly been painted green and writing essays than actually being artistically creative. It was only since leaving college that I started to draw what I enjoyed.
How did you get your apprenticeship? As soon as I finished college, I took some of my drawings into a tattoo shop that was just over an hour away from where I lived. I didn’t really know anything about tattooing at this point but I’d been interested since I was 13. This shop was just opening and my mind was blown by the work of the tattooists there, I’d never seen anything like it before and so I just knew I had to try my luck. I wasn’t expecting much to come of it as it was the first shop I’d attempted to try work at and I was fully aware I had a lot to still educate myself on and so much more I could try do with my portfolio. A week later and they got back to me and they were willing to give me a trial run! Nothing could compare to that feeling when I found out I was being given a chance at something I’d wished to do for so long.
What drew you to the tattoo world? I started off being fascinated by all kinds of body modifications which then developed into tattoos. Anything a little different or controversial always drew me in. Being creative was the only thing that ever kept me interested so I knew I had to do something with it. I’m quite a quiet person and I love to have my own head space and be free with what’s on my mind, no rules or anyone to answer to. That’s what drawing was for me.
I used to draw a lot with my gramps. He painted beautiful acrylic landscapes and was a signwriter, so that’s definitely where I get my artistic flare from! The tattooists that inspired me to begin with are very different to the tattooists that inspire me now. My tastes and opinion of tattooing has developed a lot.
How would you describe your style, what do you like to tattoo? I’m never really sure how to answer this. Before I tattooed I only ever attempted realism. Currently I do different styles according to the customer’s needs and I’d love to get to the stage where I could do anything anyone asked of me and really challenge myself. Having said that, I’d be perfectly happy if I could only ever tattoo traditional again. That’s what I enjoy tattooing the most, super bold and colourful or just a lot of black! I’d love to get to do more movie related tattoos too.
What or who inspires you? Nature and books but Instagram is a god send for being able to closely follow my favourite tattooists and their daily work. Gem Carter (this is insanely cheesy because I now work with her) has inspired me from day one, before she was even tattooing herself I followed the work she was doing. Currently, I obsess over the work of Sammy Harding, Jack Peppiette and Bradley Tompkins to name a few. But I am completely fascinated about where traditional tattooing began – Ben Corday, Percy Waters, Amund Dietzel. There is just so much inspiration and so much more to be found that it’s overwhelming.
What is a typical day like for you? I very rarely will be tattooing 11-6 at this stage so I take my time with the customers I do have in and the rest is spent providing ultimate banter, replying to emails and drawing!
Can you tell us about your own tattoos? None of my tattoos have any meaning. I get something from a tattooist because I love their style of work, so I’m happy for them to do whatever they’d like to do or choose something they already have drawn! If I get tattooed by someone I want it to be a piece that is distintive to their style. I currently have work done by Danielle Rose, Sammy Harding, a re-work by James Pool (I’m dying to get something of his own too), Sento and mega babe Gem Carter.
