‘I’ve tattooed everyone from a GP to a single parent’: York Tattoo Convention

IF you turned up at the New Earswick Indoor Bowling Club this weekend looking for a game of bowls, you might have been just a bit surprised.

The club was heaving – but with body artists, not bowlers.

This weekend has seen the club playing home to the York International Tattoo Convention – as it has done at this point in June for several years past.

Every inch of the giant indoor space was taken up with body artists plying their trade.

Bodies reclined everywhere, arms and legs invitingly exposed for the tattooists to create their art.

Rob Billington’s leg being inked with an elaborate space opera design (Image: Stephen Lewis)

Flower designs, abstract patterns, Viking scenes, Tom & Jerry, Mr Bean – all were being inked with great care onto exposed and willing flesh.

Rob Billington, whose outstretched leg was being carefuly covered with a colourful space opera design featuring a female astronaut by tattooist Simon Cooke, joked that he hoped Simon had got the Postman Pat design right. But then, at Simon’s startled look, he admitted: “I love Sci Fi!”

Convention organiser Pam Green – a tattooist from Scunthorpe – said there were no hard and fast rules about what made a good tattoo.

“You get a bit of everything!” she said. “Tom and Jerry, Mr Bean, Ragnar Lothbrok (from the TV series Vikings) tigers, oriental designs, patterns…”

Sophie Earnshaw, known as Earny, inking a design onto the outstretched leg of Nikki Gratton (Image: Stephen Lewis)

The people getting tattooed are just as varied as the tattoos they choose, she added, because getting a tattoo has become much more socailly acceptable down the years.

“Thirty years ago it was all a bit back street. But now it is socially accepted.”

She gets all ages (as long as they are over 18) and all types. “I have a tattooed everyone from a GP to a single parent.”

They all have one thing in common, however. “They all want to be a bit different.”

For Pam and her family, tattooing is a way of life. She’s a tattooist, as are her husband and three grown-up daughters.

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Convention organiser and tattooist Pam Green with her granddaughter Willow (Image: Stephen Lewis)

She started the tattoo convention 13 years ago.

At first it was held in Catterick. Then, in 2011, it moved to York Racecourse.

For the last few years, though, New Earswick Indoor Bowling Club has been the convention’s home.

People came from across the UK and even further afield for this weekend’s convention, Pam said.

“We’ve had some people from Germany, and from France. We have Americans here, and people from all over the UK. They come from everywhere!”

Tattooist Kieran Hadley inking a nature design onto the back of client Mylo (Image: Stephen Lewis)

And between them, they help to raise some serious money for charity.

In the 13 years since the convention started, Pam reckons it has raised about £80,000 for charity.

She expects to raise £8-10,000 this year – money which will be split between the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Special Olympics.

Three cheers for body art…