Sian Ruby // Dates TBC
– How would you describe your style of tattooing?
My tattoos are delicate and carefully placed. I’m a handpoke artist and I like to use the textures this creates to make some of my tattoos look ‘painterly’, like tiny brushstrokes. My designs are quite varied, although I tattoo a lot of plants and birds and I love doing abstract tattoos as well.
– If you could tattoo anything, what would it be?
I would really like to do more abstract tattoos, especially larger compositions of different floating elements. I also really want to tattoo someone’s head!
– What influences your work the most?
I am influenced by the history of art, different artistic movements, and by many of the tattoos coming out of South Korea.
– If you weren’t a tattoo artist what profession would you most like to do?
I would like to be a gardener and keep goats!
– What does tattooing mean to you?
I love that tattooing is a kind of collaboration between the person being tattooed and the artist. Tattooing constantly exposes me to other people’s tastes and in the process has expanded my interests and made me more curious.
Working as a tattoo artist makes it possible to have an artistic practice that involves meeting a lot of new people in an intimate and positive context. In terms of the freedom, variety and the sociable side of the work, it’s definitely the best job I've ever had.
The process of tattooing has such a rich history – it’s ancient and crosses many cultures. I'm really interested in ideas around the body, and what it means for people to change themselves: tattoos can be adornment, or they can be a way for people to transform themselves. I used to do site-specific art, which has a lot of similarities in terms of trying to fit a tattoo to the shape of someone’s body, their skin, freckles, scars or other tattoos. I think it’s the ultimate compliment that someone would want to wear your art on their body forever.
