London Tattoo Convention: Street Style

We adore tattoo conventions: everyone united by their passion under one roof, that buzz of tattoo needles and endless inked skin. We love stopping people to have a chat to find out more about their style and what they love about tattoos. Here’s who we chatted to at the London Tattoo Convention

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“This is my first ever tattoo and my first time at a tattoo convention. I went to Borneo for my 60th birthday, and this is to commemorate that trip. My friend had a tattoo done by the artist, and I loved it and I knew my first tattoo had to be done by the same artist, their work is just so different. I love my orangutan, it is even better than I imagined! And it didn’t take long, six hours in just two sessions. The artist is LA based artist, so I got it finished here today.” Tracey Judge

Tattoo by @ivanatattooart

 

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Bio chemist, from United States
“My back piece took one year to complete, in around 11 sessions, and I sat for about ten hours each time. I am filling a space on my arm today, at London Tattoo Convention. Last week I was in Germany for another convention with Russ (the artist) to show off his work. I’m a scientist, I’m trying to progress my career right now and would rather not have my name online. I do not want to be weaponised for my tattoos, in my field of work, not until I am high up enough to hire or fire the people who would use my tattoo against me – I won’t reveal my tattoos until I am in the postion of power. My job involves designing vaccines, and running grad schemes, it’s really full-on, like my life has been lately. Getting tattooed, the whole process of it and enduring pain, is my way of coping with stress. It helps me to navigate through my trauma, like a rite of passage through the years of marriage and school, and recovery. I am owning that!”

Tattoo by @russabbott

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“I am a friend of Rose Hardy, and am helping her at the convention this weekend. When I’m not helping Rose, I am a master stylist and educator at ARROJO in New York. I love my hand tattoos, the details that Rose put into them too.”
@tinachacha

Neck and hand tattoos by Rose Hardy

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@adelebrydges and @noyau_noyau
Adele creates gorgeous erotic objects in her London studio, and this year is her first time exhibiting at the convention. Her heart tattoo was done by CJ at East Side Ink in New York.

“As a leather worker, I take take photos of hands all the time, I work with my hands. My Instagram is filled with hands, hands holding my pieces and  and tools. I want to cover myself in hand tattoos – I just want to be touched and touch everything.” @noyau_noyau
Hand tattoos by @jenzietattoo

It has been another wonderful year at the London Tattoo Convention, see you at the next one.

Inked Girls: The sexualisation of women with tattoos

The female body is sexually penetrative in its very nature. The skin forms a protective layer, but this can only protect so much. The argument that our skin should not be blemished is a prominent one. Tattooing a woman’s skin is a way of reclaiming it, in its purest form it is naked and sexually accessible, and tattooing is a way of gaining control. It is power. However, some might suggest that the act of tattooing is, in fact, tarnishing it.

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Perceptions of tattooed women have always suggested sexual promiscuity and over-confidence, and over time this has become a negative way of viewing these traits. We still view female confidence with an irrational disdain. By those who aren’t within the tattoo community, tattoos are often associated with masculine men, sailors and bikers. It’s certainly how my parents view them. They’re for tough guys. Feminine tattooing breaks these boundaries and The Tattooed Lady performing in freak shows personifies the shock, or horror, of tattooed women in society.

Albert Parry, author of the 1933 book Tattoos; Secrets of a Strange Art, describes a rape case in late-1920s Boston in which the prosecutor, on realising that the woman he was defending had a tattoo, dropped the case. The judge and jury released the two men who raped her on the grounds that they had been misled by the butterfly on her leg. The defendant herself was put on trial, and her tattoo was seen as evidence of her guilt.

This seems to be a theme throughout the history of tattoos on women. Judgement and sexualisation are part of the process. Whether this is due to society’s ideological restraints on women, or whether the act of getting tattooed is depicted as a practice meant for “those at sea and criminals” alone, is uncertain. What is clear, however, is that in the world of two minorities – those with tattoos and women – face criticism at the hand of others.

It is rarely considered that women don’t get tattooed in order to challenge traditional feminism, but instead to enforce it. Common themes in female based tattoo art are butterflies, flowers and gentle animals; symbols of rebirth, and fertility. Instead of defying their sexuality, women can enforce it.

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Tattooing is a fantastic way for women to reclaim control over their bodies, but even the freedom they gain from their tattoos can be culturally written over. For instance, who hasn’t been told that they were, “such a beautiful girl” prior to having their tattoos and who hasn’t faced the implication they are ruining their body? These comments, although sometimes well-meant, once again take away the attempt at personal freedom and expression by the female involved. According to the Sociology MA thesis of A. Ellerbrok, “While 65% of the male tattooees indicated that their family members have reacted positively to their tattoo(s), only 36% of female tattooees indicated the same.”

Women have pioneered the use of tattoos to reclaim their bodies from traumatic experiences, including disease and abuse. Recently, women recovering from breast cancer have sought tattoos, both to create a new aesthetic for mastectomy scars and to express the devastating effects of the disease. Tattoo artist Sasha Merritt, based at Dragonfly Custom Ink in San Francisco, recognises the importance of tattooing in the healing process for women who have mastectomy scars and advertises a special rate for survivors.

The concept of the wild female is underpinned by the implicit understanding that to tattoo one’s female body with apparent ‘male’ body art, in regards to imagery, size, or location, is to take part in an irreversible act of destruction in relation to femininity. The attitude that a woman is “desecrating her beautiful body by marking it with something that’s not feminine” is stated by a participant in an interview conducted with A. Ellerbrok for her thesis. Another said, “Honestly, if I see a woman with a lot of tattoos I think oh my god what was she thinking, she barely looks like a girl anymore”. The latter participant was a woman.

The sexualisation of female tattoos has always been embedded in these stereotypical concepts, and has once again become a hotbed for debate. With the rise of Suicide Girls, and the origin of feminine tattoos being with circus performers, it’s clear that tattoos on women are heavily sexualised: the small costumes and flaunting of their bodies has secured this. After all, the tattooed lady wouldn’t be so shocking if you couldn’t see her tattoos.

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It’s interesting to note, however, that not all women baring tattoos are flaunting them intentionally. For instance, within the fetish community women with tattoos are common, but that is a separate part of their personality not a requirement of their job, perhaps just a reflection on the subculture itself.

An overview of the literature on female tattooing and sexuality suggests that the tattooed female is both interpreted and performed in the context of a highly sexualised media and advertisement-saturated society. According to radical feminist Joan Jacobs Brumberg in An Intimate History of American Girls (1997) we live in “a culture of unrelenting objectification where women’s bodies are used to sell everything” – even children’s toys such as the tattooed Barbie doll. This reflects the extent to which the sexualised female tattoo has become a normalised consumer image within mainstream society. Despite this image, tattoos are still associated with negative sexualisation, for example, the slang term for a lower back tattoo is the Tramp Stamp.

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The clearest example of the sexualisation of women bearing tattoos is the popularity of Suicide Girls, the online forum dedicated to those who live an alternative lifestyle. The website is now a worldwide phenomena; there are a huge number of paid models and an even larger number of paying subscribers, they sell merchandise and are a massive, successful company in their own right. What started off as a way of connecting is now a business, and they have grown from 200 models in 2004 to a huge 2,000 models in 2012 [update: there are now more than 3,000]. Everyone wants to be a Suicide Girl. They highlight the alternative lifestyle, and the beauty of a feminine and often tattooed scene. Sadly, the site chooses to highlight their differences with erotic photo sets, perpetuating the image of the tattooed lady being the easy-to-screw lady. What began with the intention of celebrating the uniquely beautiful has turned into a standardised erotic website with pictures of tattooed women. They tried so hard to be different that they set a new bar for conformity.

Words by Kelli Savill, first published in The Face Issue of Things & Ink which was published in 2013. Mannequin tattooed by El Bernardes, Dominique Holmes and Inma. Photos by Kristy Noble.

An ode to Carbs

We adore carbs in all their various forms: crisps, chips, pasta, noodles, pastry. We think about them all the time. And we’re pleased to see that there are a lot of people who love them as much as we do, so much so that they have chosen to immortalise their carby passion in ink. Here’s a round-up of our fave carb tattoos… 

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@hayleyblackwoodtattoo

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@fakeskintattoo

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@slonenkotattoo

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@melgracietattoo

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@lucybluetattoo

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@jillhollingsworthtattoo

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@keelyglitters

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@j00lie

Hmm, now we’re hungry. Share your carb – or any food really – tattoos with us on Instagram #thingsandink 

Holly Astral: ‘The Art of Tarot’ Project

After seeing sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes pics from some of our favourite tattoo artists taking part in ‘TAROT the art of Tarot’ we couldn’t help but be intrigued!

We caught up with Holly Astral, the woman behind ‘TAROT the art of Tarot’ and Gravity Tattoo Studio to find out more about the project and how you can get your own piece of it… 

Poster for Tarot, The art of Tarot project by Holly Astral

What inspired you to start the ‘TAROT The Art of Tarot’ project? It just came up spontaneously! Me and the girls in the shop love reading tarot, and one day we started talking about how fun it would be to design some tarot cards between us, and the idea for the show just clicked into place! Since I got the keys to the building that is now Gravity Tattoo Shop I’d always said I’d like to hold an art exhibition in the ground floor reception area, and this seemed perfect!

You’ve taken part in exhibitions at galleries across Europe and America, was this part of your motivation for the tarot project? Totally! Before I was a tattoo artist I was a toy designer, and ran my own line of designer toys. During that time I put on a couple of collaborative art shows in London, and one in LA. Each one showcased toys which has been customised by other designers in the industry and were so much fun to put on. My main motivation for this show and those that I’ve organised in the past is to showcase the talent of those around me – I figured I’d put on the kind of shows I’d like to attend.

Poster for the Tarot Tattoo Project

What message do you hope to spread? I’m interested to get the conversation going about tarot cards, and how people view them. I am relatively new to the concept, having dabbled a little as a teenager. I had a very rough start to this year and got into it as I was looking for answers. I don’t believe in divination or mediums, rather my take on tarot is that whatever you latch onto within a reading is your subconscious trying to tell you about a part of your life you need to look a little deeper at, or maybe an answer that you already know and need permission to bring to the surface. We all have the answers to our problems inside of us and activities like tarot reading can help us to bring the answers to the surface.

The Tarot project aims to raise funds for Hula Animal Rescue, does that charity mean a lot to you? Absolutely! We raise money for them throughout the year, and last year put on a flash day to fund raise for them. Gravity is a vegan tattoo shop and animal welfare is important to us, Hula are a wonderful small charity doing great things for animals.

Sneak peak at the Tarot Project Exhibition

You’ve brought together 78 individual artists for the tarot project – how did you pick them? Well at first we were going to do just the 22 major arcana from the tarot deck, so we asked some friends if they’d like to design a card for the show and it just got bigger and bigger! Before I knew it we had the entire deck being created, we were just blown away by the response.

Is there a wide variety of styles, mediums and interpretations? It has been incredible seeing all the artwork come back for the show! We left it up to the artists how they wanted to create their cards – any medium was okay, the only proviso being that it needed to fit in an A4 frame for the show layout. We have paintings, drawings, digital artworks and even a couple of embroidered pieces in the show. Seeing how everyone interpreted their card’s meaning has been so fun to see, with so many unique and interesting designs coming back to us. All the pieces they’ve created for the show were available to purchase for £100 each (a steal!)

Will they only be available to purchase at the show? First dibs on purchasing artwork from the show will be given to everyone who attends on the night of the party (August 24th 6-9pm) with any remaining artworks sales being opened up to the internet in the weeks after the show.

Sneak peak at the Tarot Tattoo Project

Will tarot sets be available to purchase too? We can’t wait to do a reading with them! Yes! Pre-orders are now closed but were available through our big cartel: gravitytattoo.bigcartel.com/product/tarot-cards.

Celebrating the art, design and creativity of tattooing will the tarot project be exhibiting anywhere else before the pieces go to their new owners? Nope! Tarot is a one night event!

Holly Astral - The Art of Tarot Tattoo Project

You used to create your own plush toys ‘Cavey’ and even exhibited at ToyCon, was this integral to deciding to create a physical product from the exhibition? My background in product and the toy industry definitely helped, and I also recognised that not everyone can afford £100 for an artwork and wanted to make an item that everyone could afford, so they can still contribute to the charity. Making the deck of cards seemed like the perfect idea, and a great way to showcase all the great art from the show! We enlisted the help of a local printers to help us make the cards as fab as possible.

This is your first exhibition at your studio Gravity Tattoo Shop, has doing the Tarot project given you a taste for curating tattoo art exhibitions again? Absolutely! We’ll be doing another, different show, next year!

Tarot Tattoo Project Poster

Don’t miss the launch of ‘TAROT The Art of Tarot’ on August 24th at Gravity Tattoo Shop in Leighton Buzzard from 6pm- 9pm or follow over on Instagram for more information!

Interview by Amber Carnegie originally posted on the Barber DTS Tattoo Supplies blog. 

Wee Moody Judy: leather, pink and black tattoos

We’ve been following @weemoodyjudy on Insta for a while, we love her style – think black leather trousers and pastel pinks galore – her beautiful tattoos and her inspirational illustration work. Find out more in our chat…

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Photos: @ryanmormelo

Processed with VSCO with c6 presetWe totally love your style, where do you get your inspiration from? Thank you so much! My style is so intrinsic to who I am, and what I am going through during certain periods of my life. My wardrobe has definitely seen its fair share of experimentations through the years, all of which were fundamental to the development of where my style is today… regardless of how on point (or not!) each look was during that process! As a child I loved to wear my beloved pair of leather trousers and studded heeled boots. Stomping around in them I would feel so “grown up” and empowered!

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Other days, I would leave the house wearing an entirely pink outfit accompanied with sparkly trainers and a cutesy attitude. That juxtaposition has pretty much been a permanent fixture in my style ever since! My style has always helped me to discover a sense of self, and has became a way to visually represent how I feel.

When did you get your first tattoo? What was it and who did it? My first tattoo was a matching one with my late father when I was 19 years old – it was his first one too! We snuck out telling my mum we were having a “Father, Daughter Bonding Lunch,” which she unfortunately was not invited to. We skipped the fake lunch and drove ourselves straight to @blackdottattoo, and met with @tomtomtatts who did our tattoos for us. They were two Canadian rock formations called “inuksuk (inukshuk)” – we got these as a memorial tattoo for my cousin Luke, who was from the North Western Territories of Canada (Yellowknife) and who had died the previous year after just turning 22. I know that will always be my most cherished tattoo.

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What made you feel an urge to get tattooed and what do you like about being tattooed now? From a very young age, I always loved tattoos. Growing up I really didn’t know any adults with tattoos… or visible ones at least! Any time I was lucky enough to see someone with tattoos or colourful hair I was pretty much in awe, and knew I wanted to look like them when I was older. When I was twelve years old I even did a presentation in our school assembly: “when I’m older I want to be” about how I wanted to be a tattoo artist – all my slides containing half naked grizzly tatted men… this still makes my mum laugh. Although I’m not a tattoo artist today, it does make me happy knowing I am becoming that person my younger self always dreamed of looking like. Tattoos make me feel in control of my body, who I am, and how I present myself.

Processed with VSCO with kp3 presetTell us a little about all your tattoos… Currently I am only at the beginning of my tattoo journey, but so far it has been a very enriching and empowering process. My first tattoo with my dad will always be one of my most cherished experiences. I also have a pentacle hand poked on my sternum by @stickaroundtattoo, which I got with my housemates/coven when I lived in Melbourne. Recently I got that pentacle tattoo expanded by @jayrosetattoo to include cobwebs, a spider, and twigs from a bramble bush, which is significant to my childhood. I also have the word CUSTARD tattooed on my side, purely because of the sheer enjoyment I get while eating that golden goodness.

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Do you have plans for more? If so what and who by? Most definitely! I pretty much have my entire body planned out, and I’m very excited to see how my ideas materialise themselves by the artists I’ll be working with. Most of my tattoos are planned to be either botanical, witchy or mythological tales. My next one is going to be of Bacchus by Caravaggio and I’m trusting the lovely @patriciashim with that piece.

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So tell us… What do you do as job and what do you love about it? I am a stylist and an artist! I’ve styled for various freelance jobs, but I’ve just landed my first full -time position. I am fortunate to have a job that not only I love, but one that comes naturally to me. I recently started my own brand @WeeMoodyJudy, where I am selling prints and pieces of cool merchandise! In time I’ll be steadily expanding this to include clothing and accessories too – you can check out my website at weemoodyjudy.com. Being self employed is a tough gig and I often feel overwhelmed, but there truly is nothing more rewarding than seeing your work develop from concept, to design, to a tangible object which can be shared and enjoyed!

Tell us a secret… The name Wee Moody Judy was given to me as a child because I had serious “wee man syndrome,” which in Scotland means I was hella small with a LOT of rage.

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What advice would you give to someone who wants to get tattooed but feels nervous? I’m pretty wimpy when it comes to pain, so I definitely wouldn’t be able to do much to sooth their nerves apart from maybe offer them some paracetamol and tell them that it’ll all be worth it in the end. What’s a few hours of agonising pain compared to a life time of self love?

We love your Insta account, what do you hope to share with your followers the most? I hope to be loving and empowering/empowered by the women and queer people who I follow and who follow me. I want to share my art and looks and to be outspoken through them. I want what I share to be truthful to my own thoughts and experiences. I’ve found that when I’m most honest and vulnerable is when I can communicate best through my work. I use those moments of vulnerability and charge them with my own personal style and humour. I usually describe my work as a “fuck you”, but with a smile! So I hope that my followers can get their own sense of empowerment through the message I’m sending out.

Follow Judy on Instagram or visit her website.