About The Artist

I knew I wanted to become a tattoo artist when I was 18. I come from a creative background, sinking hundreds of hours into art and music at school before taking up a degree in music. Despite my focus on my studies throughout university, I still held a passion for artwork and occasionally took on commissions from my peers for their music releases and merchandise.

 

In my second year, I turned 18 and got my first tattoo. During the process, I talked to my friend who was doing the tattoo who asked me if I had ever considered tattooing as a career path. Seeing as it wasn't something I was surrounded with while growing up, I hadn't put much thought into it, but the more he talked to me about the culture, the more I realised that it was something that spoke to me.

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I started knuckling down on my drawing abilities and began compiling a portfolio in 2018, trying my best to get as many tattoos as possible to speak to artists about how I should go about building my portfolio and finding an apprenticeship, as well as asking for tips on how I could improve my artwork. During the same year, I started sending off my portfolio to several studios but was rejected by all of them. This caused me to knuckle down on improving my artistic abilities, adopting a stippled monochrome style, very much influenced by some of the blackwork greats in the industry, and before I knew it, I was starting to receive semi-regular commission work but still wasn't quite satisfied with the depth of my body of work to send off to studios.

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When 2020 came about, I finally felt confident enough in my artistic abilities to start sending my work off to studios. I had a couple of places interested, but any offers were revoked by March when the pandemic swept the world and shut down the entire industry. I used this time to try and bolster my portfolio even more and started moving towards a comic book-influenced, cell-shaded style with the use of a bold, minimal colour palette.

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Come 2021, I uprooted my life and left my hometown to move to Birmingham. With this, I noticed opportunities popping up a lot for tattoo apprentice positions, and so I started applying to as many places as I could. I had a few interviews, and eventually, I was taken on as an apprentice at Dark Souls Tattoo Studio in November 2021, where I am still based today.

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Since starting there, I ditched my old drawing style in favour of more established tattooing styles, and this is how I was introduced to traditional tattooing. I started off drawing mainly American traditional, but quickly fell in love with the history and culture of Japanese tattooing. I knew that this was a style that required a lot of research to faithfully carry out the practice, and that was research I was willing to dedicate time to.

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I am only just over 2 years into my career, so have barely dipped my toes into the world of tattooing, and I have come into the scene at a time when it has never been more oversaturated. This, coupled with a cost of living crisis and subsequent recession in the UK, has led to a real struggle for a lot of artists to keep busy and get their work out there. Instead of letting this deter me, I have seen this as a motivator, and has really shown me that I have a massive point to prove if I want to cement my place in the industry. I am trying to stay as versatile as possible so as to take on more work, and am currently trying to teach myself how to tattoo realism so that I can confidently say that I can tattoo any style to a decent extent. I will always have my specialties, but I want to be able to deliver a solid product no matter the style.

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As of 2024, my partner and I are planning on moving away from Birmingham. The primary destination that we have in mind is Bristol, but this may be subject to change, depending on how the industry is looking nearer the time. I can't wait to see what my career has in store, and can't wait to meet all the new faces along the way!