Kent has a rich history in tattooing. When I started tattooing in 1981 there were very few tattooists in Kent, for the purpose of this article I refer to a tattooist as somebody working from professional shop premises for at least ten years. When I opened my shop in early 1985 I was one of eight tattoo shops in Kent these were, Painless Jeff of Deal, Don of Ramsgate, a guy in Margate, another one in Folkstone, Charlie Bell of Chatham, Andy Jay in Rochester and Mark Vivien of Dartford. At this time tattooing was a closed almost secret society. Somewhere in the 1990s it started to open up to the mainstream public this was due to conventions open to the public (before they were strictly for tattooists only and anybody outside tattooing e.g. The press, friends etc were treated with suspicion), the media, high profile pop stars getting tattooed etc. but to be fair this opening up to the mainstream public would have happened anyway with the arrival of the internet.

The good thing about modern day tattooing is that tattooing is more artistic, more hygienic, and much more professional than it has ever been but it has lost its mysteriousness its character and to some extent its soul.

The purpose of this article is to give anybody interested in tattooing an insight into what it was like before the “changeover” in the 90’s. Today the tattooists themselves coming into the trade have changed and so have the clients. Today’s tattooists enjoy a certain amount of acceptability and even respectability while in the 80’s and before they were tolerated at best and treated as third class citizens/graffiti artists/criminals at worst. Today I still put down “commercial artist” rather than “tattoo artist” on official documents out of old habit. But having said that when anybody ever asked my profession and I answered “tattooist” they would always say, “How very interesting I’ve never met a tattooist before” now they say “My brother/cousin/uncle is a tattooist”. Because there were so few of us we all had media coverage and looking back at these old newspaper articles and interviews generally the national press gave you a hard time, sensationalized and criticised you while the local press were always very kind. Whenever interviewed by the press tattooists in order to try and give themselves a bit of respectability would always be quick to list their clients as solicitors, bank managers etc etc. Today the clients are literally from all walks of life and this wouldn’t be an exaggeration in the slightest. The old time tattooists were always characters, generally but not always they were ex military personnel coming from an army or navy background, showmen coming from a fairground or gypsy background or even an ex con coming from a criminal background this all helped with the mystique and character of tattooing that just isn’t there today. Before the 90’s a lot of the clients could be a bit of a handful and I would say definitely a lot if not most of the new tattooists that now come from a respectable college background would not have been able to handle the customers! On this note in my opinion the best thing to happen to the tattoo trade was the changing of the drinking licensing laws somewhere in the late 80’s. What’s the licensing laws got to do with tattooing? Well around this time Saturday was traditionally a tattooists best day and it was the law to completely shut the pubs at about 2.30pm. All the drunks could do was go home (if they had a home to go to) go to the bookies or go to the tattooists. So by 3Pm on a Saturday you could have a shop full of drunks, on a bad day you could do more fighting than tattooing!

When the law changed to all day drinking the troublemakers stayed in the pub. Like I said today’s tattooists don’t know how easy they’ve got it tattooing women all day instead of crazy beer monsters.

On equipment: like tattooists there were very few suppliers and most tattooists supplies came from a combination of buying a few bits from suppliers, making your own and trading with other tattooists, for example if you were good at making machines or drawing flash you would swop with your mate in the next county who was good at mixing colour or making clip cords etc. All tattooists drew their own flash, made their own needles and mixed their own colour, this was something you had to do and was considered a trade secret with the public, and the way you made your needles or mixed your colour was considered a trade secret with other tattooists. The trade secret thing was ingrained so much that even though these things are now common knowledge and even if you don’t know you can probably find it out easy on the internet I still cant bring myself to print it here! The attitude of a tattooist was considered as important as his work amongst other tattooists, I still know an old time tattooist who doesn’t respect you unless you’ve done some military service! Going back to flash because everybody drew their own flash if you saw a tattoo done by somebody else it was instantly recognisable and the customer was always impressed that you knew who did it but there were only around eight of us in each county and because most of the flash was hand drawn it was more recognisable than hand writing. The first bit of technology to really help us was the black and white photo copier, when this came out we all thought it was our birthday we were able to share flash on a grand scale. Around this time no tattooist respected copyright because they had been used to ripping off Walt Disney or anything that inspired them from anywhere so most tattooists were happy to share their flash in fact most tattooists were part of a sharing network a bit like file sharing sites on the internet like Napster. This was around the time of the black and white photo copier so although you may not have drawn the flash you still had to colour it yourself this still made your work recognisable by the way it was coloured. Two artists that were good at drawing flash of this time deserve a mention one was Roy proudlove of the Midlands, and a friend of mine from Portsmouth Graham Townsend. Grahams flash was considered an industry standard in the 80’s I don’t know a tattooist who didn’t have any of Grahams work somewhere on the wall, in my opinion Graham can be credited with improving the artistic level of tattooing in this era.

On Territory; from the 19 th century and before until the 1990’s tattooists have always been very territorial. One of the biggest sins in the trade was to open a shop on another mans “pitch”. It didn’t happen much but when it did there would be much trouble and that mans name would be mud within the trade. When I opened my shop in Tunbridge Wells in 1985 Painless Jeff in Deal rung me to tell me I was on his pitch! Deal is sixty miles from Tunbridge Wells! We both discovered that we had both served in the same army regiment and became instant friends. Jeff started tattooing in 1957 and is a true legend. Jeff is on the south coast and called me once to tell me that somebody had opened on his pitch and would I go with him and a couple of others to see the guy so I asked where he was and it turned out he was on the North coast of Belgium!, I couldn’t go because at the time I didn’t have a passport! Most of us have now accepted that tattooing is now like hairdressing and new tattooists that open close don’t even know they are taking a liberty.

On tattooing under 18’s: In 1969 there was a law passed that said you could not tattoo anybody under the age of eighteen. This law stands today but what is interesting is the clients and tattooists attitude to this law has changed relatively recently. Before around the year 2000 most parents didn’t like you tattooing their children OVER 18 but if they were under eighteen they could do something about it i.e. prosecute you therefore most professional tattooists were very strict on the age because if you weren’t you could be in a whole lot of trouble from the police, the local licensing (health) authority and the angry parents. So to this day we are just as strict. But what I have noticed is a lot of modern tattooists think that if the parents give their consent then its ok to tattoo them. Today we get many parents phoning us asking us to tattoo their under age children because they have given their consent, we always refuse but what is funny we get into an argument because we will NOT tattoo them. How times have changed.

On wannabe tattooists: It seems many people watch a proficient tattooist working and because they happen to be good at art they think tattooing is a career for them. Well first of all a pencil pen or brush is light and a tattoo machine is heavy, a piece of paper is flat and smooth while a bikers posterior is wobbly, smelly and hairy. A piece of paper keeps nice and still while as people fidget faint and fart.So its not quite as easy as it seems. But despite this not a week goes past without a wannabe writing in or phoning in asking for an apprentiship . Before the 1990’s there was no such thing as a tattoo apprentiship at least not in the UK. Tattooists were either born into it or in the vast majority of cases completely self taught, the reason they were self taught was that to ask a tattooist advice was considered very disrespectful and the tattooist was always offended at best you could expect to be ignored and a very hostile reception and at worst thrown out of the shop. So most tattooists started by making their own equipment tattooing themselves to start with and then tattooing their mates. Of course the work was usually a very poor standard to start with but in time they covered their early work the best they could. This way into the trade required a great deal of sacrifice and determination and only the most determined made it. IF you made the grade you would then win the respect of an established artist who would help you with advice and a few trade secrets and the best suppliers (who never advertised). As I said earlier attitude to the trade was just as important as doing good work, so if you did good, fast hygienic work and had the right attitude you were well respected. It wasn’t that they wanted to keep people out of the trade it was just that it was so tough for them to get into they wanted others to go through the same hardship and not have a free ride. So if you ask an old school tattooist how to be a tattooist don’t be surprised if he is unhelpful but understand why he is being unhelpful. One of the qualities of being a tattooist is strength of character that is why there were so many ex military personnel in previous years, we get many mums phoning up asking for an apprentiship for their child, how is this showing strength of character if you cant even phone in yourself how are you going to relate to the customers? If you really want to be a tattooist and you are the real deal you will find a way through strength of character and sheer determination, I wish you the best of luck I know you will make it.

Finally: I know times have changed, much for the better and much for the worse. The traditional tattooists ways have now long gone and times have changed. To keep a successful business you must change with the times. Here at Body art in Tunbridge Wells we change with the times (hey we are on the internet), but some things are ingrained, I wrote this piece so you have a little insight what it was like being a tattooist before the 90’s so if I argue with you because I will not tattoo your under age child or I have redrawn a design that you believe is taking liberties with copyright or you have written in for an apprentiship and think me rude because you haven’t had a reply please try to understand and if you can, forgive me.

Sean
Tunbridge Wells
2006 ©