I’ve never stood with a surfboard tucked under my arm looking out upon the ocean when it more resembles a mill pond and thought “wow that looks exciting!”, much the same way I rarely look at a flat piece of paper and become inspired to draw a tattoo. For most a design will be drawn on paper and then transferred on to a persons body looking for the flattest area so as to not distort the image too much. I’m afraid I would find this boring to say the least and I find it curious as to how tattooing is more about the look of a tattoo than the overall look of a persons body. Of course I still tackle some of my design on paper but only rough concepts to use as reference when drawing on to a person and all the while I’m sat at a desk with a pen in hand and a pad spread out front I’m visualising the fit and flow of black ink across that person. It’s what makes tattooing so special, not only working on another human being but also on a 3d living breathing canvas. I recently saw a great write up about why some of us choose to freehand tattoos and although it’s not written by me the sentiments in the article are true to me. You can find the link here.

When people approach me about a tattoo I often get left with plenty of freedom to create the right piece for them and with this freedom I always try a capture an underlying message, something that I will have consciously or subliminally picked up during the preparation stage and it’s in this message that a persons tattoo will become them. It’s why I find it important that a design is not too restricted by the person receiving it as I feel the end result would reflect this energy.

Nick is a fellow martial arts enthusiast with a long passion for fitness and with this a strong mind set so it was important that when designing his tattoo I had something appropriate in mind. I therefore looked to a Marquesas Islands for inspiration as they have produced some of the most striking and bold tattoos known to man. When I proposed my design to Nick he was on board %110 and loved the idea of what the tattoo would represent as well as what could be obtained from the process of it all. We took the design up, around, down and across his body to ensure we got the perfect fit, allowing chance for growth in the future if required. This past weekend I met up with Nick to explore some of North Wales and we spent time together drinking beer and discussing ideologies, touching on what it meant to choose blackwork and the rite of passage it is to get tattooed. So after climbing rock faces and scaling waterfalls we finally sat down on the beach to soak up the last of the sun, when I looked at Nicks tattoo I thought of those on the Marquesas Islands, their black ink that had inspired me and how just maybe I had captured some of the essence of what it is to tattoo.

Thank you for reading.

H