Ben Fletcher is a 36 year old tattoo artist from Shrewsbury. He was born in the city of Liverpool, but moved to Shrewsbury with his parents when he was just 5 years old. His parents already had family in the area, so they decided to move for a more quiet rural life.

Ben has been tattooing for roughly 8 years. Over this time, he has been lucky to have clients that all chose to have different styles of tattoos, giving him the versatility to work with most genres, although his passion is in the traditional style.
He especially loves to work with American traditional designs because of the timeless look in the skin. American traditional is well known for its simplistic, stylised look, with bold lines and limited colour pallet, using no more than normally 8 colours. These types of designs started around the early 1900s, with the golden age of traditional tattooing starting around the 1930s and was popular amongst sailors and most military personnel. It can be very rich in reference and designs from past tattoo artists, the ones that pathed the way for artists today. Ben is passionate about the history behind the style as well as tattooing history in general.

When working with his clients, he likes them to  know what their end vision looks like for their design. His preference is to have as much information as possible, so they can achieve the best tattoo and experience when they attend their session.

Then it comes down to the trust between client and artist, giving Ben the creative freedom to come up with a design that you are both happy with, so he can achieve the best look for the tattoo. He is a firm believer that the tattoo is only part of the experience and that he and his client must be on the same page and have a similar energy and trust, so you can both work collectively to have the best experience possible, achieving the best work and design for you.

There are many things that inspire Ben on a day to day basis, but when it comes to inspiration for his work, he likes to look through old flash sheets from the past and photos of past tattoo shops, to see the inside of the shops and how they were decorated from top to bottom in flash. He is constantly on the hunt for designs on flash sheets that have not been seen before. Ben thrives in a creative environment and being around creative people. This inspires him to step out of his comfort zone and and see how far he can go creatively.

Outside of work Ben enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with his family and friends. He likes to keep his mind creative and learning new crafts, whether that be painting in a new medium or trying different drawing styles. He also has a keen interest in anything that has been handmade, believing that there is something alluring about hand made crafts.