26-year-old Deborah Pow tattoos out of Den of Iniquity Tattoo Parlour in Edinburgh. We love her lifework tattoos from florals to animals and just had to interview her for the blog…
Photo taken by Tegid Cartwright
When did you start tattooing and what made you want to join the industry? I have been tattooing for three years now. I’m sure this is what everyone says but it’s just something I always wanted to do, I don’t remember wanting to do anything else!
What did you do before? Did you study art? Yes I went to college and did an art portfolio course in Dundee which got me in to Duncan of Jordanston where I did Illustration. Art college is obviously not necessary at all for a tattoo artist, but it definitely helped me for many reasons. Firstly I wouldn’t have had the amount of work in my portfolio and most importantly I completely learned how to draw when I was at art college. Life drawing is 100% the best thing I was introduced to and recommend everyone does it! Work wise I’ve always had a part time job since I was 13, through school, university and my apprenticeship I worked in a bakery, milkshake shop, supermarkets and bar work. I think everyone should have to work in retail or a bar at some point to appreciate people and to not be a dickhead to people!
How would you describe your style? What drew you to working in black and linework? I get asked this a lot and I don’t really know, it’s the way I draw and have always drawn so don’t really know how to categorise it! ‘Line-y blackwork’ maybe? Again I’ve always been more drawn to just sitting down with a pen and adding lots of lines and details, I did a lot of print making and painting at university and obviously painted lots in my apprenticeship which I do enjoy from time to time but it definitely doesn’t come as naturally.
What inspires you? I really love old illustrations of anything a bit strange, as-well as looking through books on mythology and anatomy – and of course all things nature!
What do you like tattooing and what would you love to tattoo? Anatomy and dissections, animals, hands, botanics and mythology. Combining two or three of these elements is a dream design for me to draw! I’d also love to tattoo more large scale birds as I really enjoy creating different details in their feathers.
Do you have any guestspots or conventions planned? Conventions I’m doing this year are Brighton, Big North and Leeds! And so far I am guesting with my friends Ben and Rach in Darlington at Luck and Love and revisiting friends at Parliament in London, Salon Serpent in Amsterdam and my second fam at Redwood in Manchester. I’m not sure how many more I’ll be doing because I’m going to go (non-tattoo-related) traveling a little this year but hopefully will squeeze in going back to see the wonderful people at AKA Berlin too! Sometimes when I guest away I don’t actual manage to see the cities in the daytime so I’m excited to be a little tourist this year *sorry in advance for annoying Instagram stories coming soon*.
This tattoos are incredibles, this artist is really good. I have some tattoos that I would like to eliminate and start with some ones like this examples. I’m going to try this:
http://bit.ly/2XiRxuT