Did I mention that I like body art?

I'm really, really proud of my bodyart choices and I'm going to attempt to remember my bodyart history as I add captions to the photos...

I have been blessed with nice lobes! My mother used to admire them when I was a kid (no joke). I got my ears pierced at a department store in Manchester when I was 11 years old - both lobes with a single stud - I was out with friends and it was sort of a dare. My parents didn't freak out; in fact they hardly noticed. I removed the right one after a few weeks due to hassle from other kids at school - y'know the sorta thing... a ring in whichever side means you're queer. I used the stud to pierce a second hole in the left lobe and bought a pair of 9ct gold hinged sleeper rings which I wore in them for 11 years without giving them much thought other than "they look cool". I always thought, however, that the two piercings were spaced too far apart and always intended to remedy that by piercing a third hole between them but never got round to it until (11 years later) when I started to visit a head shop that did gun piercings for a couple of quid. I got the middle pierce and another one a little further up the ear making 4 in total. At few weeks later I had my left nostril gunned and had 2 more pairs of studs gunned in the left ear making a row of 8 - the last 3 in cartillage. I could only afford cheap sterling silver sleeper rings and I bought a range of decreasing sizes going up the ear. The rings would be all over the place in the mornings rather than hanging down in an orderly fashion.I remember them giving me a lot of pain and all the rings went black after a while.

I had also started getting into the idea of getting tattooed. I had been reading the tattoo magazines and any books I could find in the library about tattoo history, styles and culture - especially Borneo tribal and "Celtic" knotwork which were the big thing at the time. I had done a lot of my own designs but I hadn't yet visited the local tattoo studio - Danny's in Nottingham - that was the craziest experience! It was a hot summer's day and I was in town as usual. I went in with ideas based on my own unique and simple designs but when I started browsing through the modern flash that was available I got tattoo fever! There was a lot of tribal and a whole lot of Bernie Luther flash (y'know, Travellin' Bernie) which was real hot stuff and made the most of modern techniques and styles. Now, I was thinking "what you see is what you get" and that money was burning a hole in my pocket. I gawped at the flash for what seemed like hours and finally picked out a celtic/tribal armband of thorns for 40 quid - very cool! I told the nice mister what I wanted and where I wanted it (right arm, above bicep) and queued up with the other customers - I think there was two people before me (I can't remember what they had chosen but I can remember that it was not the sort of thing I would go for). I was really interested what it would feel like (as, I'm sure, every body is first time round) but I was sure that it would be bearable - and lo and behold, it was! I got chatting to the artist geezer about the tattoo expos and about the work of Guy Aitchison and the Leu family. I was really pleased to find the tattooists so easy-going and chatty. The tattoo just sorta happened while we were talking and I got cling-filmed and went home well happy. My good humour was jolted a little when I was examining the new work at home under the shower - some of it was a bit crooked, some was a bit too bunched-up, some a little stretched out, and what's this? The guy had missed off a couple of little lines - one section of the knotwork which annoyed the hell out of me because it seemed so damn obvious. I felt rather amused by this also; I go and ask somebody to tattoo an exact copy of a picture into my skin. Does he know that this stuff is permanent? Should I expect him to treat my skin as preciously as his own? Well, I wasn't too impressed by his choice of artwork on himself! I gradually came to understand the reality (and the comedy) of the situation. The guy is just working every day, ploughing the same old designs into the endless stream of punters, with the occasional bit of custom work here and there. He doesn't really specialise in any particular style and if his heart's not in it... well, his heart's not in it (regardless of whether my heart's in it)! Two days later I felt that had learned a lot and I went back down to the studio and pointed it out to the geezer. He stared at it and said, "Oh yeah! That celtic stuff does my head in. I can't work it out", and he took me back in for the shortest of tattoo sessions. I was totally impressed by his honesty and realistic outlook and we chatted tattoo mistakes and urban myths for a while and I stayed and had another tattoo done - this time a Yin-Yang symbol in fire and water just below the band on the same arm - to give some colour and a bit of an oriental style and all the while I was just laughing to myself inside, "This stuff is permanent! It could go wrong!". I was totally hooked!

More fun at Danny's

So I was hooked. I was getting the idea. I was reading all the tattoo-related material I could find. I was interested to see how far I could go. I was designing tattoos and I was drawing like crazy. I was also totally poverty-stricken but I could cut back on the non-essentials. My next tattoo visit was a month or so later to get...

ANKLE TATTOOS!

Yup! I was going to see how much this fella hurt. Fifty quid - that's how much it hurt! I hobbled home after a couple of hours of concussion-flavoured bone hammering.

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I went back to Danny's to get my Converse All-Star logos. Why? Because they're the original basketball shoe, they're non-leather, and they're great for skating in - its a tribute. They even have Chuck Taylor's signature.

It was bearable but not-at-all pleasant! Danny said I was very brave - I held onto that thought throughout.

Dunstable 1992

That year, I went to Dunstable Tattoo Expo for the first time. I got the details from a poster at Danny's shop. And arranged a hire van to take a load of moderately-interested friends down for the Sunday afternoon session. We had a great time. It was really, really wierd to find the place totally crawling with fascist skins - the sort of people we would normally get a van together to go out and fight! It was crazy just watching them.

I saw, and gawped at, Jack Yount there although I didn't know who he was at the time - that was my first real life exposure to heavy piercing. I browsed through the piercing magazines (as did everybody else) with mouth agape but didn't make any connection like it was my sort of thing. I watched a lot of tattooing, took photos, drank beer, smoked fags, and generally smelled all the smells of the Dunstable Expo. I also collected masses of artist's business cards and I sorta became rather interested in who could do me the best possible tattoo work within reasonable travelling distance. I figured that Mickey Sharpz in Birmingham was the next step.

To Be Continued...

• Going to Mickey Sharpz for the belly tat
• Piercing World and Mark Morrell - getting serious about piercing
• Louis Molloy - the big project

In the meantime, here's a whole bunch of semi-sorted pictures...

ear.jpg 17 Kb 593x405,16M Left ear - summer 1994.	I was getting my jewellery from P.A.U.K./Piercing World magazine.
belly.jpg 18 Kb 362x496,16M	My first "body" pierce was my navel. I had just had my belly tattooed with a Celtic/Tribal piece by Nick Cartwright at Mickey Sharpz in Birmingham and I was looking for a body piercer. I phoned Pauline Clarke at Piercing World magazine and she put me in touch with Mark Morrel in Birmingham. Mark opened my eyes to the world of piercing and over then next few years he performed many skillful pierces for me.
naveledit.jpg 19 Kb 478x423,16M	Here's my navel nowadays - the top pierce has migrated due to gravity leaving a "hole" in the tattoo. I wear 4 x 1.5mm and 1 x 2.5mm micro BCRs in the "loop" which is now wafer thin but not considered dangerous (it still has a blood supply and some feeling). The bottom pierce I did myself about 6 years ago - I did it real deep and it hasn't budged.

The tongue!

On the day I went in for my PA, I asked to have my tongue done too!

I had never met anybody with a pierced tongue - I had only seen them in a book!

I asked for it to be placed as far back as possible without affecting my gag reflex!

It was pierced at 2.5mm and fitted with a 20mm long SS barbell.

I couldn't talk for a week - I couldn't eat for two weeks!

The development of the tongue piercing came much later - it now stands at 11mm and each stretch is more difficult than the last.

The Backpiece!

My biggest and most important project - I had to get this just right. I got some photos of my bare back taken and made lots of enlarged photocopies upon which I sketched the shapes and structures.

At the time, I was going around and visiting studios and bodyart events, talking to artists and customers, checking out the custom work, and just hanging around getting a feel for different artists' abilities. I had a fairly paid job and no real responsibilities and I was willing to travel to get the right work done. I was seeing some amazing work in the magazines by Guy Aitchison, Louis Molloy, Filip Leu, Claus Fuhrman, and others. Louis was by far the most accessible - about three hours journey away and I had met a few of his customers and examined his work in the flesh. I phoned up and gave him a vague description - "a sort of structure", "bio-landscape-tree thing", "rocks and teeth" - and mentioned the artists whose work that had influenced me. He asked me to send my drawings and I made an open-ended appointment for last thing on a Saturday afternoon. I was going to be travelling by train so he gave me the appropriate directions to the studio. On the day of the first appointment I was almost sick with nerves - a gibbering wreck! I took the train from Nottingham to Manchester Victoria...

To be continued...

Iban flowers.

Right arm half-sleeve.

Left arm half-sleeve.

Goodbye last nipple pierce!

Tattoo and piercing pics - as yet undocumented!