Tattoo teaser

Here's a snippet from the 'Style Skin Deep' article TruStyle is working on. Big thanks to Gabriela Alicia Lastra and the lovely people at Couley's Tat2 Studio, Gateshead.

The sharp buzz of the tattoo needle is a distinct and evocative noise for anyone who has experimented with body art. A constant electric hum rhythmically fills the room, occasionally pausing to allow the artist to consider her work and ask “Are you okay? Are you going to faint?”

Deep blood red and noir walls are decorated with a plethora of colourful sketches, fresh from the pages of the darkest fairy tales.  Here skulls and zombies are the equivalent of cuddly woodland creatures and snow white would have had no trouble fending off the huntsman with her sharpened axe and demonic grin.

The dark and twisted designs of apprentice tattoo artist and painted lady Gabriela Alicia Lastra are in her simply put words “weird”.

She said: “I’d always been an arty child when I was growing up but never knew that I could do something real with it. I just thought I’d die as some poor artist.”

In soothing contrast to the dark obscurity of the tattoo parlour, the artists sitting in their conjoined booths are all giddy, vibrant characters, sharing laughter and stories from their tattooing past.