TATTOOS
I fell in love with tattooing at age 10. My old man was an acquaintance of Dobbin, a West Wales Biker tattooist who was a genius with a pencil, and as they got stoned and tinkered with Dad's bike in the shed, I was given a roll of wallpaper, some flash, and some carbon to keep my fidgety hands busy.
I never believed that I could become a tattoo artist, having placed Dobbin's precise wizardry on a pedestal far beyond my clumsy capabilities. Yet, 8 years later, that changed. Having been slightly guilt tripped into having a lover's name tattooed, I headed to a local shop and as I watched the stencil paper peel away from my body, the veil of impossibility fell away and I knew that I had found my calling.
Ever since, tattooing has been a kind but stern mentor, ushering me out of a dark childhood and into a life genuinely beyond my wildest expectations. It has been a great friend with thousands of faces, that go through the same cycles of excitement, nervousness, pain, and jubilation, that any tattoo collector will understand. Now I live to serve this incredible artform and community, and cannot express how grateful I am for every opportunity to make some hyperdimensional transformative skin art.
About 4 years ago, I formulated Space Bangers, one-off, one-hit tattoos combining illustrative black and grey pieces inside frames full of nebulous or psychedelic space. To this day, I still enjoy putting these together for any space explorer that crosses my path but my priority is to the needs and wishes of all of my awesome clients. I pride myself on being well versed in all styles after 11 years of experience so I do a very wide variety of work.
Mostly you'll find spacey stuff, or pieces that I've enjoyed enough to want to do more of, on my social media. I know from experience that what I put out there brings more of that type of work in, so in this way I can filter out doing excessive amounts of the same tattoo and in turn allow my enthusiasm for every piece to stay strong.
Here are a few recent pieces that I've enjoyed making, please visit my instagram page in order to see my full up to date portfolio:
@joescustomtattoo
My books are currently closed as I work on my long standing regulars but if you're interested in some bio-psychedelic goodness, I hope to be taking new clients on towards the end of the year. If you are interested, please drop an email to
joescustomtattoo@gmail.com
All the best!
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