🚨WARNING: Tattooing and needles.

I got my first tattoo on my shoulder blade when I was 18. It was one of those generic tribal stickers that everyone was getting in the Naughties.

It was also the start of an addiction. I have two half sleeve tattoos. Both done in London at varying stages of my life.

In 2021 I moved to Australia and found myself spending time with people from the Pacific Islands. On my first day at my new gym, one of the trainers from New Zealand asked me where I’d had it done. When I said London, I could see the look in her eyes. She was polite and didn’t say anything to cause me any embarrassment, but I knew I’d crossed a line. Over the next couple of years, with more and more exposure to the nature of what tattooing means in Maori and Pacific Island culture, I realised that this tattoo was not OK. It was cultural appropriation at its worst.

So I started saving up to have it removed and covered.

Over the course of more than a year I sat through 6 removal sessions, and then something like 40 hours of tattooing to have it covered.

The new design is based on the Barnard family coat of arms; a knight behind a shield with a depiction of two bears. There is also another variation of the crest that uses a unicorn (representing ‘good’) which is helping a bear battle evil, a griffin.

I worked with Natalia @rotloser, a fantastic Colombian artist and one of the best here on the Gold Coast, who came up with the designs for my new half-sleeve and shoulder, and then tirelessly brought it to life over 10 tattoo sessions.

Thank you also to @erazalaser for taking over the mantle and helping lighten this tattoo enough to have it covered.

#tattoo #tattooartist #tattooart #tattooremoval

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