Tattooed Zoë

Work started in completing my sleeve in January 2017.  This was the first time I had gone to a different tattooist in about twelve years.  I had followed Jo Harrison's career ever since I first met her about twenty years ago.  It is absurd that it took me so long to ask her to do some work on me.

The top one third of my arm was already complete so she had the remainder to do and I hadn't realised how much would be involved.  Then she became pregnant and for several months she was not available to continue the work.

Happily she is now the mother of her second child, River, and my arm is finished and here it is.  I think it is strong piece and distinctively Jo Harrison.

So what next?  Next month Jo is working at the Bristol Tattoo Convention so she will do the outline for the rest of my right leg.  It is inked down to my knee so far.  In that one day on 9th June she will aim to complete a full outline, which may or may not include my foot depending on the time she needs.

Then …

I was walking my three dogs at Ashton Court this afternoon when I spotted a Whippet playing with a couple of other dogs.  My Salukis quickly took a keen interest and as I approached I could see a striking woman with tattoos on her face.

Paula Castle has set herself up at home with private work, even though she tattoos internationally.  The Bristol tattoo scene is a rather closed one, and not easy safely to break into.  Her work appeared in the National Tattoo Exhibition at Falmouth, Cornwall last year, so she is gaining recognition.

As I ever I am drawn to face tattoos and asked her about them.  It was that that led to me learning that she is a tattooist.  Paula comes from Leicestershire and in that area she thinks her face tattoos cause more of a stir than in the rather more cosmopolitan city of Bristol.  Not that she appears to have suffered anything worse than people staring at her.

She calls her studio Black Sheep.  https://www.instagram.com/paulacastletattoos/?hl=en  She sees he…