Embracing female tattoo culture
The tattoo artists at The Family Business, on Exmouth Market in London, have been busy tattooing Olympians with the iconic rings.
Check out their specially-created blog to see who has been under the needle – The Family Business Olympic Journal. You can also watch a short film of some of the athletes, including swimmers Steven Kent and Emily Seebohm.
I really Hope Mo Farah pops to the tattoo parlour for some ink after his amazing double Olympic gold (he’s my highlight of the Games so far) #GoMo.
The Many Faces of Sarcoma – 18-24 June 2012, Sarcoma Awareness Week.
This rose tattoo belongs to James from Papercut Pictures, not only have I worked with James on the London Tattoo Convention series, but he is also my boyfriend, so this is a difficult and emotional post to write.
James’s sister Katherine died from the rare form of cancer sarcoma just over a year ago. James wanted to get a tattoo in memory of his sister and Katherine had a rose tattoo down her side. It sits on his chest so she is always close to his heart.
Tattoos can mean so many different things and capture very different emotions. Katherine got her rose tattoo before she died, so she could live life to the full and experience as many things as possible. James got his rose tattoo, so that he always carries with him a memory of his sister.
Katherine’s rose tattoo was done by Snappy Gomez at King’s Cross Tattoo Parlour.
James’s rose tattoo was done by Steve Vinall at The Family Business.
Sarcoma UK is the main charity in the UK dealing with all types of sarcoma. Sarcomas are rare cancers that develop in the supporting or connective tissues of the body such as muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, blood vessels and fat.
Sarcoma does not discriminate – there are around 3,200 new cases each year in the UK.
You can support Sarcoma UK’s campaign by uploading your own picture to The Many Faces of Sarcoma. You can also watch Papercut Pictures’ film All in it together – living with Sarcoma, Katherine features in the film, unfortunately she died two weeks before the film was launched.
All In It Together – Living With Sarcoma from Papercut Pictures on Vimeo.
From start to finish – this is the story of my beautiful new cameo tattoo.
I blogged about my inspiration a couple of months ago: Beautiful cameo tattoos. I have always found cameo and vintage jewelery extremely pretty and I used this to inspire me.
I picked Andrea Furci at The Family Business to design it for me, his art is very feminine and soft, with a traditional tattoo feel.
Here is the photo story of my cameo tattoo – from bare wrist to lovely new tattoo.
Once the tattoo is stencilled onto my wrist, I check the position in a mirror and see if I approve. I approved without hesitation, it felt right as soon as I saw it.
Now of course comes the hard bit…the pain…
How it felt
It is very difficult to describe what the tattoo process felt like, I am sure it differs from person to person…but I didn’t think my tattoo hurt – hurt is the wrong word, it just felt uncomfortable. I could feel a burning sensation on my skin, but more than that I was fascinated to see how the tattoo transformed – from stencil to outline to colour. Watching the ink go into my skin and seeing how accurately Andrea Furci could tattoo. So many intricate and delicate little details, yet never straying outside the lines. Such clean lines and vibrant colours.
The grand unveiling…the beautiful tattoo with full, vibrant colour – reds, blues and warm yellows.
Now, I would quite like Andrea to design a man in a cameo frame for my other wrist, maybe with a top hat and pipe, facing into my cameo lady.
Thanks Andrea, I can’t wait to get tattooed by you again in the future.