MY HISTORY WITH TATTOOS
The Beginning
I was awful at Art in school. I could not get into it, I got bored, I messed around instead of applying myself - I hated it. Some people (aka my mum) find it funny, then, that I became a tattooer. While I understand this perspective, it doesn't tell the whole story. Tattoos are unlike any other kind of art. They are strong, they have history, they are powerful - they adorn our skin. And unlike art in school, I absolutely love them.
Tattoos and I
I started getting tattoos as soon as I could (legally anyway), and before I understood that were both good AND bad tattoos. As such, at the age of 18, while on holiday in Santa Ponsa with my friends, in a grimy tattoo shop, I got my first tattoo - the Batman symbol on my ass cheek. Original, I know.
Even though I quickly realised that my first tattoo was a bad one, I knew I would get more. And so, over the next couple of years, I gradually started getting tattooed more and more often. I also started to learn more about traditional tattoos, and soon decided that this was really the only style of tattoos that I wanted.
It was this interest in traditional tattoos, specifically, that sparked the initial thoughts that I might want to become a tattooer, because although I had always loved tattoos, my original career plans were much different.
A Tattooer? You Must Be Joking
I mentioned previously that I hated Art in school. What I didn't mentioned, though, is that I was also terrible at it. I would scrape by with C's and sometimes maybe a low B, but, by and large, I struggled. As such, my career plans never involved any artistic ideas. No, they involved computers.
Upon finishing secondary school, I began a degree in Computer Science at Queen's University Belfast. To cut a very long story short, I endured a miserable two years, before saying 'Enough is Enough' and dropped out. This left me with a conundrum, though - 'What am I gonna do now?'
Dropping out of Uni coincided with me getting tattooed more often, and really developing a love for traditional tattoos. The bold lines, the bright colours, the simplicity - these tattoos drew me in like nothing else. And so, when I dropped out of Uni, quite naturally I began to dream of tattooing these classic images. There was quite a lot of disbelief when I began telling people of my new dream career. I was awful at drawing and I had never shown any artistic inclination. So, I challenged myself to draw for two hours every day - and I did.
Slowly, over the course of a month, six months, a year, two years - I got better at drawing, and began painting flash too. I worked a few menial jobs and drew and painted in my spare time. It took about 5 years, but finally my dream was realised - I got a tattoo apprenticeship.
The Beginning... Again
What I didn't realise when I first got a tattoo apprenticeship was that the real, true, sometimes demoralising hard work was just beginning. Even though I got on well with the guys in the shop, I was treated well (some apprentices get a lot of abuse, kind of like a hazing - thankfully I didn't) and I was good at flash painting at this point, the actual struggle of learning to tattoo was very real, and very different. I would do free tattoos on volunteers and have no idea how anyone could get good at it. I would blow lines out or they would drop out, my colours would be patchy. It just seemed impossible. There were many meltdowns in my car on the way home from work, my girlfriend having to convince me to keep going, that I would get better. And, thankfully, she was right.
As time progressed, as I did more tattoos, they did, gradually, get better. Eventually I was allowed to start charging apprentice rates for the tattoos, and I was now doing tattoos that I was proud of. After a while of this, my boss was happy with how I had progressed and passed me - my apprenticeship was over and I was now a 'real' tattooer.
Am I A Tattooer Now?
Passing my apprenticeship and being a fully fledged tattooer was a big deal to me. The five years of work to get an apprenticeship, plus the year and a half as an apprentice, had all paid off. I was now getting to tattoo people and make some money doing so. I kept painting flash, I tattooed anyone who asked me to tattoo them, I kept grinding. With that desire to work hard and push myself, also came a desire to spread my wings a bit and seek out a new challenge. Thankfully, it wasn't long until that challenge presented itself.
In June 2023, A Sailor's Grave (the busiest shop in Belfast) posted on Instagram that they were hiring. I knew this was my opportunity to push myself and so I applied. Lorn, the shop owner, got back to me pretty much immediately and asked me to meet her. So I did. We met for an hour or so and had a pretty informal job interview. I had no idea how it had gone, she made me sweat for about a week, to the point of me feeling like I didn't have the job, but eventually she asked me when I wanted to start. I had the job, my God it was a relief.
Let's Keep This Ball Rolling
Getting the job in A Sailor's Grave was the best thing that could have happened to my tattoo career. The shop is constant with walk ins, which was exactly what I needed when I joined. The experience I gained doing 5, 6, 7 walks ins a day was immense. It also allowed me to meet a lot of amazing customers, building up my own clientele at the same time. It was definitely very stressful at times, but I'm glad I was able to push through and take all the lessons that were there to be learned. This is the mindset I try to carry with me into work everday - you can never master tattooing, it'll teach you something new everyday. So I just want to keep working hard, keep learning, and hopefully I can keep this ball rolling.