When most people decide they want to get a tattoo, they usually spend quite a lot of time researching different designs and tattoo artists before committing. We need to stress at this point that you should always try and choose an artist that has created similar designs and has a lot of experience to prove they know what they are doing.

With this in mind, you can imagine how surprised we were when we came across Ruby Dickinson, who at 3 years old is aiming to become the world’s youngest tattoo artist!

The Welsh toddler has been inspired by her dad, Blane, who runs a tattoo parlour in Penmaenmawr, Conwy. Her dad said he wants his daughter to tattoo him for his 40th birthday in four years time when Ruby will be seven. Since normal tattoo equipment is too heavy for the 3 year-old, Mr Dickinson plans to import specialist light weight apparatus from America to make it easier for his daughter when the big day arrives.

Who knows, one day this might be normal?

Image credit.

When she grows up, Ruby claims she wants to be a tattoo artist just like her dad. To help her practice for her future career she has enrolled in tattoo lessons with a toy kit in her dad’s shop every day after nursery.

The record for the youngest tattoo artist is currently held by Canadian Emilie Darrigade, who at the tender age of five helped to tattoo a bumble bee design on her dads forearm. Her dad Dave was so impressed with her skills that he is already helping her to plan new pieces of work. Ruby’s dad said he would love it if his daughter could beat Emilie’s record.

Fortunately we don’t know any toddlers that we’d be happy let loose with a tattoo gun! If you’re in the same boat as us, and let’s face it if you’re not Ruby or Emile’s dads then you probably should be, you might want to check out our temporary designs. The designs aren’t permanent, so you could even let your little ones have a go at putting them on. But don’t say we didn’t warn you if they start demanding real tattoo equipment for their next birthday present!

You can read the full, original article on Ruby and her tattoo aspirations here.

Here at Tattoo Fashion we’ve seen a lot of, how shall we put this, distinctive tattoos! We’ve discovered these ‘distinctive’ tattoos on hands, feet and even a few faces! So it’s safe to say that it takes a lot to shock us; however when we stumbled across Wim Delvoye’s tattooed pigs, even we were a little taken a back!

Image from Flickr by We Make Money Not Art.

Back in 2005, the Belgian artist opened his ‘Art Farm’ just outside of Beijing, China. On this farm he literally ‘produces’ his art by caring for the pigs and letting them stay there once they’ve finished having their tattoos – how cute! Before the animals go under the needle they are given pain killers to help them get through the session, although it’s a shame they don’t get to choose their own designs!

Photo from Flickr by We Make Money Not Art.

The animals are able to live out the rest their natural lives, as well as lasting a lot longer than pigs who are raised for slaughter; who usually only manage to get to six months! Once the animals pass on, their skins are sold to ‘collectors’. Not sure we fancy hanging illustrative pig skin on our wall….

The designs vary from traditional roses and skulls, to Louis Vuitton logos. Who’s up for betting Victoria Beckham’s a fan? If, unlike Posh, you are a fan of animal tattoos, rather than tattooing animals, check out our animal tattoo designs.

The summer is finally here! At Tattoo fashion HQ this can only mean one thing: music festivals are around the corner! (And perhaps everything else that happens on the few sunny days between May and September!).

To celebrate the colourful festival season, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the more iconic and interesting rock star tattoos of our time.

A thorn in the side or a pruned legend?

Image from Wikimedia by Bubamara.

Rock wild man Axel Rose is famous for many things; including starting riots and spending 14 years and $13 million on making one album! He also has some of the most famous tattoos in music.

The new face (arms, legs, neck, hands, etc) of British rock tattoos?

One young man who almost certainly took inspiration from Mr Rose is Gallows front man, Frank Carter. The twenty-something rock rebel is also a qualified tattoo artist, with most of his body covered in different colourful and striking designs.

The Scottish Standard Bearers

Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro have certainly broken in to the main stream through gigs at major festivals over the last couple of summers. The group are famous for their wide range of eccentric tattoos, as highlighted by front man Simon Neil:

Photo taken from Wikimedia by user Astrojunta.

The One (and probably only) constant in this young lady’s life…

Amy Winehouse may have publicly fallen off the wagon on several occasions in the last couple of years, however, one thing that she can rely on sticking with her though the hard times are her famous collection of classic tattoos. A come back album is supposed to be on the cards for 2010, so keep an eye out for the Beehive, drunken antics and of course tats to make an appearance at some point this summer:

Photo taken from Flickr by user Viernest.

If these have got you in the mood for drinking warm cider in a field somewhere this summer, why not check out our realistic temporary band tattoo designs to get in the festival spirit nice and early!

Here at Tattoo Fashion our Maori tattoos are extremely popular; especially with rugby teams and stag trip organisers. The strong and striking designs are often synonymous with strength and masculinity – images that are fervently conveyed up by the New Zealand rugby team. The majority of the All Blacks proudly display Maori designs as a nod to their cultural significance back home, and although they’re a little intimidating in full flow, we love all of their tats!

We also love stitching up our mates up on stag do’s, and more often than not, Maori tattoos help us look the part during the big weekend! But our boisterous pranks aside, traditional Maori tattoos play a huge part in New Zealand’s proud and longstanding heritage.

To celebrate this strong and fascinating culture, we thought we’d take a closer look at Maori Tattoos to see how and why they’re so popular over here (particularly with slightly dubious stag do enthusiasts, like ourselves) as they are in NZ, where by contrast they are seen as a cornerstone of society rather than just amusing displays of bravado.

Originally a person’s first tattoo in a tribe, carried out at an adolescent age, a Maori tattoo was administered as part of a series of ceremonies and rituals to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. A person without any tattoos in Maori culture was commonly seen as having little status or significance.

Tattoos were often used to mark important events throughout life and were regularly carried out as part of a big occasion with music, chanting and even fasting.

Traditionally men are tattooed on the face, buttocks and legs, whereas women usually have Maori designs on the lips, neck and back. Since the 1990s, Maori tattoos have seen a huge surge in popularity across the globe. Today there are many professional tattoo artists who use traditional Maori tattoo equipment such as small chisels with needles, rather than modern electric tattoo guns.

There are a whole host of celebrities that sport Maori style tats, including Robbie Williams and Mike Tyson. So if you think you’re as tough Robbie or Mike (probably more the latter) check out our temporary Maori tattoo designs and get practicing that Haka!

Tattoo Fashion’s top five (worse) tattoos

We just love discovering really bad tattoos here at Tattoo Fashion. In fact, we would go as far to say that seeing an ugly or comical body design makes our day!

However, we also appreciate the fact that tattoos, like art, is completely subjective; with their individual beauty being exclusively in the eye of the beholder – or who’s sporting it of course. Here are our top five worse tattoos:

1)

Alright, don’t get snappy. You decided to have it!

2)

Not only a bad film, but an even worse tattoo

3)

We’re hoping the owner of this foot isn’t an Ol’ Dirty B*****d too!

4)

Ah, Chewy! You’re a star, but this tattoo make you look in the wars…

5)

No comment

If these pics have slightly put you off from getting a permanent tattoo, why not check out our wide range of temporary tattoo designs. At least they wash off, you don’t have to shave any skin and they most definitely prevent long-term, public humiliation!

All images are from www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment

We all know that students are desperate to raise extra money when they can. Stefan Pretty, a civil engineering student from Perth, Scotland, is hoping to raise £25,000 by transforming his body into an advertising billboard.

However, the money is for the Oxfam Haiti fund, not himself. Stefan – who states he would never have dreamed of having a tattoo – was so overwhelmed by the plight of the Haiti people, he’s prepared to permanently mark his body in order to do his bit for the cause.

He recently launched his website yournameonme.com, which encourages both individuals and businesses to buy a ticket for £1.25, with the winner’s name/brand having their name tattooed on his back. Not only that, but they will be flown to Scotland to watch their ‘prize’ being applied to Stefan!

Image by www.oxfam.org

“I came up with the idea in the shower. It started off with ‘That would be smart, that could work’, but thinking I could never actually do it,” says Stefan. “Once I came up with the idea to contribute to charity, I saw the devastation in Haiti and this is why I chose the Oxfam Haiti fund.”

Support Stefan’s unusual but brilliant campaign by visiting www.yournameonme.com

Some of you may have heard about Augmented Reality, but for those who haven’t it’s a concept that is shaking up the digital world.

AR is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment that is cleverly merged with a virtual computer-generated imagery; resulting in a mixed and animated reality. Make sense? Admittedly AR is a little hard to grasp, but is filtering its way down more mainstream channels, such as games, videos and phones.

As well as inspiring a number of Smart phone apps, it has now entered the music arena. John Mayer, the hugely popular American rock singer, recently embraced AR in his video for ‘Heartbreak Warfare’. It allows viewers to activate their webcam and hold up a printed or mobile version of the singer to their webcam, and if aligned properly, the video will begin playing with you as an extra in the background!

Image by mashable.com

Impressed? Well we certainly are – but AR doesn’t stop here. ThinkAnApp, the Argentinean-based software development company, has set a new precedent with their augmented reality tattoo. Although the tattoo design is a simple barcode marker on the skin, when you view it through a webcam an animated flying dragon suddenly appears. This is clearly just the beginning for AR tattoos and with such software already available, it’s extremely likely we will see more advanced, complex tattoos surfacing over the next few years.

While we all wait for such ground breaking technology to hit the high street (it could be a long wait) you can enjoy our temporary animal tattoo designs in the meantime!

If like us you love tattoos and literature, then get ready to for some super cool news we heard about recently. For those of you who have read The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, you’ll appreciate the fantastic way in which he merges tattoos with technology, and more importantly, how this ‘illustrated man’ is covered with beautiful shifting tattoos that tell many stories; something that only fiction can often depict.

Well, maybe not. The bright sparks at the University of Pennsylvania, US, have created LED tattoos that could now make the illustrated man very real indeed. Researchers have spent the last two years developing a silicon and silk implantable device that can sit under your skin, similar to a tattoo. These futuristic, moving LED tattoos would effectively act as a mini television screen, and with the chips about a millimetre in size (the length of a grain of rice), they cleverly mould to the shape of the skin when saline solution is added.

We are more than impressed by this at Tattoo Fashion, and can’t wait to see where and how this technology is applied next. In the meantime, we thought we’d share our Top 10 best tattoos in literature – books we highly recommend adding to your Christmas wish list this year:

Top 10 best tattoos in literature:

1) Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville
2) Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
3) The Red-Headed League, by Arthur Conan Doyle
4) The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
5) Blackie the Electric Rembrandt, by Thom Gunn
6) Papillon, by Henri Charrière
7) Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris
A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket
9) The Grave Tattoo, by Val McDermid
10) The Electric Michelangelo, by Sarah Hall

Check out our temporary Christmas tattoo packs for cool ways to enjoy tattoos safely just like your favourite literature characters.

It’s that time of the year where the weird and wonderful come out to play, as we think that these pictures typify just that. That’s why the following tattoos will either horrify you, or more worryingly, inspire you. But, that’s the great thing about body art, there is no right or wrong; it’s just down to preference. So, see what you think….enjoy!

Think he may have a bone to pick with you!

This person wasn’t clowning around…

It may keep the vampires away, but it could keep away your friends too!

Count Dracula hates sunlight, garlic and bad tattoos of him

Batboy was looking forward to becoming a bat man

Surely one skull is enough?!

Taking the saying “Eyes in the back of my head” to a whole new level…

 We currently have some great temporary Halloween Tattoo Designs that are a little bit scary, but not enough to scare away your family and friends in the process!

A debate is raging around the Tattoo Fashion office presently: should you cover up your tattoos on your big day? The office is divided into two distinct, almost hostile camps, with both sides refusing to settle for a compromise.

Some believe that it’s your day, shared with friends and family, who love you just the way you are, and are all too familiar with your body motifs. Others, however, think that this is the time when your tattoos should be masqueraded, for the benefit of cameras, memories and the elderly.

The beauty about this insatiable debate is that there’s simply no right or wrong answer. The subjectivity of such an argument will burn a lot longer than the candles in the honeymoon suite, so which side does your view lay?

Up until the last 50 or so years, the combination of women and tattoos was more condemned than divorce, and was unthinkable for any respectable woman to sport such permanent markings. Unless you inhabited a remote part of the Mindoro rain forest, tattoos were synonymous with ancient tribes, sailors and Hells Angles.

Fortunately for women today, the modern world has opened its eyes, evolved, and altered its regime accordingly, with as many women now introducing tattoos to their anatomy as men. So, what’s all the fuss about then? A valid question and one that is still resonating loud and far around our office. In the argument of whether a bride should hide or display her wonderful array of body designs, surely it’s down to one very simple thing: choice?

The majority, if not all, of your guests may even find it strange and alien for you to cover up what is clearly part of your personality, so (like above) highlighting your assets (er, your tats we mean) will inevitably make you look even more striking and stunning when you grace the aisle. If you have concerns about Granny or Grandad then the chances are they won’t be able to see you properly anyway, and are probably more focused on their dietary options come the evening. Be prepared for some shocked faces though….

We want to heat what you think about brides and tattoos, so email us on mytats@tattoofashion.com

And, why not get in the wedding mood by checking out our fantastic Hen Tattoo Designs to add a little bit more fun and attention to your night out!