Tattooer Archives - Page 6 of 11

July 2, 2018

Careers: Tattooed Social Media Representative

25-year-old Mikaela is a Social Media Representative at LUSH in London. We caught up with her to chat work, her tattoo collection and being vegan…

How long have you been working for Lush? How did you get your current role? I’ve been working at Lush for about three years now. I started on the shop floor at the flagship Oxford Street store, then joined the in store events and branding team. I’ve always wanted to bring my love of photography into my everyday job, so jumped at the chance at joining the social media team. I’m now a social media rep, and support events and branding when needed!

What do you love about your job? I love working for a company that’s so accepting of everyone, and encourages individuality. It’s a company that cares about their products, what goes into them, where ingredients are sourced and of course is fighting animal testing which is incredibly important to me. Lush also creates and supports a number of campaigns each year and isn’t afraid to use its voice as a popular brand to make people think, and I think that’s great. It’s also quite a tongue-in-cheek company at times so there’s always an element of fun involved.

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What sorts of stuff do you do? What projects do you get involved with? On a day-to-day basis at Lush, I do a lot of community management on the store’s social media pages, shoot photo and video content etc. Outside of work I try to do as much photography as I can, the majority of which is portrait work and it’s something I’d eventually love to be able to do full time.

I’ve also been vegan for two years now, so that’s a big part of my life. I’ve been trying to get fitter and healthier so spend a lot of time at the gym with my badass female, tattooed, vegan trainer @princessoftheunicorns!

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Can you tell us about your tattoos? Do you have any future plans? I’ve been getting tattooed since I was 19, my first one was a tiny heart on my wrist. I then ventured into getting bigger and more colourful pieces. My first ones being by Gemma, Amy Savage and Adam Ruff. They’re mostly quite traditional, lots of hearts and a few lady heads! I also have portraits of my dogs on my calves and two Fall Out Boy inspired tattoos. I also have a dotwork Maltese Cross on my ankle that I got in Malta, which is quite sentimental.

I think my favourite is still the first colour tattoo I got by Gemma, it’s a locket with my mum’s initials either side that I later had a key added to underneath. I have so many ideas for tattoos that I still want to get. I want to finish my sleeve and get my knees tattooed next, but I definitely know why I’m maybe putting that off a little bit!

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Can you show them off at work? How would you describe your fashion style? Not having to cover up my tattoos at work is another thing that I love about working at Lush. Everyone is encouraged to express their individuality and tattoos are no exception. I’m around so many tattooed people at work that I sometimes forget that they can still be a problem at other workplaces. Everyone loves seeing each other’s work as well and discovering new styles and artists as a result!

I don’t really follow any kind of fashion in particular, I mostly wear black, occasionally dipping into a little Bettie Page 50s feel when I have time to put the effort in – but mostly keep it a little bit dressed down “goth” I guess.

What kind of reception do your tattoos get? Most of the time I get a really positive reaction, people love how colourful they are and finding out why I got certain pieces. I do get the occasional negative comment or dirty look but I’m pretty used to it now, and nothing will ever make me feel bad about them when I know how happy they make me!

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Has being vegan influence your tattoos or job? Does it influence the company you work for? I would probably say that I became vegan as a result of working at Lush. I’d always had a bit of a guilty conscience when I used to eat meat but once I started working at Lush with lots of vegans, I learned so much more about the meat and dairy industries that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

In terms of tattoos it means that I have to think about whether tattoo ink being used is vegan and aftercare, which hasn’t been too difficult so far. I don’t have any vegan-related tattoos yet, but I’m sure I will end up getting one eventually. I’ll definitely be getting more animal tattoos!

May 18, 2018

Interview with Santa Perpetua

Tattoo artist Santa Perpetua creates impressively abstract tattoos in her private studio in Brighton. We chat to Santa about how her tattoos tell stories and how her career started…

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How long have you been tattooing and how did you start? I think art has been part of my life since I was born. My mother is an artist too, and she basically introduced me into this world. I grew up with art books, pencils and brushes around, art museums were my playground and drawing was my first way to connect with myself. But my interest in the tattoo industry started a while after that. It began when I got my first tattoo piece done in my home town: Montevideo. By that time I was 21, but I didn’t immerse myself in that world until 10 years later. A bad economic situation at that moment, my university studies, my current job as a designer and photographer, my passion for drawing, moving to Spain and some other personal circumstances made the task of starting to tattoo a bit difficult.

So although I really was into the idea of becoming a tattoo artist, I had to postpone it for a while. It became possible when I finally got settled in Barcelona and since 2008 I’ve been developing myself in the profession. Strange as it might sound, I didn’t like tattoos before. I got my first piece done in the early 90s and the level of tattooing was not as good as it is today.

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But for some reason, I felt the need to record a permanent memory on my skin, so I made a really simple, silly, too small and too detailed for its size design and I went for it! When I was sat in the tattoo chair, I had a very primitive introduction to tattooing and I completely felt in love with it! I always liked to try different media to make my drawings, and tattooing was another one of them. When finallyI was able to start, I knew immediately that tattooing would be part of my life for good. Since I started I’ve never stopped learning, creating and loving this profession.

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Your style is incredibly abstract, how would you describe it? Well, I don’t think we should label things in art. From my view, art allows the emotional expression of the artist to become real. My pieces could fall into abstraction, avant garde, conceptual, graphic art, contemporary tattooing. But if I had to describe them, I’d say that my artworks are just my personal approach to things. I always tell stories that are beyond a particular situation or representation. I love speaking about life, death, and emotions through my artwork. If someone comes to my studio asking to have a bird done, I always ask why they have chosen a bird. I am interested in the motivations behind the tattoo rather than the elements of it. My intention is to build a solid idea, as timeless and universal as possible rather that making just a “pretty” or “cool” image on the skin. I know it might sound a bit ambitious, but my approach to tattooing is more artistic than aesthetic.

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Are you inspired by any artists? I am mad about the Dark Ages. I absolutely love that time in history. I get inspiration from the way in which art and artists were conceived – the artistic expression is divine and the artist is just a tool to represent it. But beyond that, and even admiring lots of tattoo colleagues, I mainly get my inspiration from dreaming, and also from music and painting. The list of artists on both branches is pretty long and super varied. But summing up, I’d say that everything that is well made catches my attention.

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Would do you like to tattoo? Do you have a wish list of designs? After 10 years of working as a tattoo artist, and almost five years doing it in the UK, I could happily say that I have reached the point in which I do exactly what I want to do. It has been a super thorny path to achieve, but today people tend to give me free reign on all my designs. Thanks to this I’ve managed to evolve technically and artistically. Every tattoo project I take is a challenge that pushes me to improve and do my best with it, and that is extremely pleasant to me. I do not have a wish list of designs, but I do have the wish to carry on being blessed with people who connect with my artwork and trust their skin in my hands. I am immensely grateful for that.

April 23, 2018

Apprentice Love: Chloe Candela

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.

April 15, 2018April 17, 2018

Interview with Elle Donlon

30-year-old tattoo artist Ellena Donlon works out of Sweet Life Gallery in Birmingham and creates traditional tattoos. We caught up with Elle to chat Korean tigers, as well as what and who inspires her work…

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How long have you been tattooing? I started my apprenticeship September 2015. Prior to that I went to the University of the Arts in London studying a degree in Fine Art and I think I graduated in 2012. Graduating was a tough time, I never really enjoyed my degree as I felt I had to stop drawing and painting to make way for more conceptual work to please the tutors, that meant I lost a lot of direction, so I decided to figure things out and move back to my hometown, Birmingham.

What inspired you to join the industry? Did you do anything related to art before? Me and my partner opened up a record shop and as I started to get tattooed again after a good 5 year gap, I realized that tattooing would be my dream job. I started to seek out an apprenticeship, which took a long time, but I persevered it was the only thing I could think of that I wanted to do with myself, and that was worth waiting for.

Can you describe your style? Starting off my apprenticeship my style was very different to what it is now. Then it was purely a case of turning my style of illustrations into tattoos. I’ve only ever really had traditional tattoos on myself, and as my career has progressed my designs have evolved into a stylised version of western traditional.

We love your Korean style tigers and animals, what inspires these? What influences your work? What inspires you? Korean style tigers! They’re so freaky I love them, I have a huge one on my back done by Will Geary who has a crazy good imagination, it’s actually bonkers. I guess I’m drawn to beautiful oddities. I see no point drawing things how they are in real life, the world can be very monochrome it’s up to artists to mix that up, so I guess that’s why I’m drawn to them.

Also you create more traditional women and flora is this inspired by something completely different? I get inspired by a lot of religious imagery particularly from Asia, I love south western tribal art, alchemy and witchcraft and the 70’s! But I must say my biggest push are other tattoos artists. Some of my inspirations are Walter McDonald, Dan Higgs, Robert Ryan, Windle Berry and Gregory Whitehead. All of these people adopt this weirdo traditional style, which is what I hope to one day pursue. I love that surreal style it pushes me to work harder with my own and attempt to think in different ways.

But my true loves are Claudia de Sabe, Rachel Rhatklor, Valerie Vargas, Wendy Pham and Lizzie Renaud. Apart from Wendy Pham these women predominantly tattoo traditional ladies and lady heads. Ladies and flora have always been my favorite subject to draw even before I tattooed, I can draw and tattoo them forever no inspiration even needed, it just cheers me up. I don’t really see my lady heads as a separate thing per se, but they certainly come a bit more naturally to me than my animal or surreal work.

Is there anything you would love to tattoo? I’m desperate to do more famous lady heads. I Would love to do anything from a John Waters’ film, Dolly Parton, Cher, Poison Ivy from the Cramps, the girls from B-52s, Kim Gordon if any of those trigger anyone’s fancy!

Can you tell us about your own tattoo collection. My personal collection is predominately traditional. The thing I love so much about a traditional tattoo is that is gets better with time, like fancy cheese! In my opinion this is the style (alongside Japanese traditional and tribal) that celebrates the body so perfectly, it is timeless yet has still evolved with each decade. I love Dan Higgs, I have tributes from both Nick Baldwin and Teide who are both fans of his work and I think they’re my favorites. Me and my partner are going to LA later this year we’re hoping to get tattoos from Derrick Snodgrass, And I’m saving my hands for Rachel Rhatklor, if I ever get chance to go over to Australia or she guests over here.

Do you have any guest spots planned? I will be guesting at Crooked Claw in Sheffield in April and Death’s Door, Brighton in June, with some other exciting ones in the pipeline!

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…

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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.

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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

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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!

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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.