About Matt Bowler

It felt like a right of passage to get my first tattoo, like an initiation into the world I had grown up in. Tattoos were an alternative way of viewing the world, an act of rebellion and it’s amazing to think of now, but then, if you were tattooed, people would stare, take pictures, point at you, even cross the road to avoid you. It was so strange, almost like you were famous, but when people took the time to talk to me or get to know me, I’d always smile when they said “Oh, you’re a really nice man!”

At that time, if you were heavily tattooed, in shops, the security guard would follow you around, you wouldn’t be allowed into pubs, it was a serious decision and it put you on the fringe of normal society. It was a lifestyle choice that segregated you from the mainstream.

But that was my home, that world, those people, they were my family. And in that world I also found that I was accepted for me, it was a strong community who took care of each other. So I always knew tattoos were going to be a big part of my life.

Of course now it’s great because tattoos are accepted everywhere.

So because I’d been at the tattoo studio so often from such a young age, everyone knew me and I started to help out at the studio.

When I was helping out in the studio originally, you couldn’t buy all the elements you needed like you can today, so I learnt how to work with pigments and create different inks or how to build your own tattoo machine and the needles, we used to have to make our own needles because you couldn’t buy them, so I know the process back to front and inside out of every aspect of tattooing.

I’m very particular about the materials I use, so even though you can buy everything much more easily now, I’ve learnt through the last 20 years of trying many different products which are the best quality that I can rely on to create the standard of tattoo I want to provide.

I’ve always drawn, I love creating art, and being in the tattoo world from such a young age, being surrounded by people who not only enjoy art but wear art, become the art, integrate it onto and into themselves, obviously that influenced me a lot.

There are many more tattoo artists now, a lot are artists first who then became tattooists, but because I’ve been so immersed in this world from such a young age, the art that I love is tattoo art, I do paint and draw separately, but I prefer to tattoo. Give me a choice between a paintbrush and a tattoo machine, I’ll always pick the tattoo machine. You could say I’m a tattooist first and a traditional artist second.

At one point I was trained in stonemasonry so I also have experience of three dimensional art, sculpture and carving and I think that’s part of why I love tattoos so much. It’s more organic, less clinical, each piece of art lives, it moves, it takes on additional character, it weathers and ages, the light changes as you move so the art looks different all the time.

I can do the same tattoo on two different people and it will look different, not because the art is drawn differently but because of the person’s skin texture, skin colour, muscle definition, positioning on the body, how that part of the body moves and the personality of the person comes through in each tattoo.

There’s a reflection of the person that adds to the art and I love that about tattoos!

There’s also a constant evolution that’s happening with tattooists and tattooing.

I’m always striving to do the ultimate, clean, perfect tattoo. I’m never happy, I’m always pushing, always trying to improve and get better. I’m always looking at new techniques, new artists, new styles. I love finding pictures that other artists have done and studying them, looking at how they created a certain effect, I’m always looking to push the boundaries as much and improving.

But I’m always thinking and considering how the tattoo will live and last.

I won’t do a tattoo that I know, 10 years down the line, will look poor. And I think my clients appreciate that about me. I’ll advise them not to get the tattoo in one place because it’ll wear much worse there than on another part of the body.

All tattoos look great when they’ve just been done, but you want that quality to stay and last, you don’t want to have to keep needing to pay to have it touched up or covered over if you don’t have to.

That’s one of the things that my experience gives me over other tattoo artists, I know the body, I know tattooing, I know what works and what doesn’t, I know how tattoos age and how the body ages and I’ll talk you through all that information before I agree to tattoo you.

From a young age I’ve seen tattoos that are 25, 30, even 40 years old and I’ve seen the ones that faded and blurred and I’ve seen the ones that stayed crips and clean and look like they were just done last week, so I know what to consider and what to advise you around for the best, longest lasting effect.

Being immersed in the tattoo world for so long, loving it for so long, there’s nothing I haven’t seen, and it’s part of the service I offer my clients.

I’m still inspired by the new developments in tattooing but I still keep focused on that key standard of creating a tattoo that will last the test of time.

I want the quality and integrity of my work to speak for itself over time rather than doing something that looks amazing right now for social media, but give it two years and the condition starts to degrade.

I love seeing clients of mine from 20 years ago and their tattoo still looks just as good as it did when I first created it.

I don’t edit the photos of my tattoos, I don’t use filters or photoshop or special lighting.

I pride myself on being honest, that’s very important to me. It’s not about the money or the number of followers, the magazine features, it’s about creating something that looks great, lasts a long time and fits the person who wants it.

I love to tattoo. Tattooing makes me happy. All kinds of tattooing.

But if I have a choice, I lean towards a more illustrative style of art. I love looking at strong, bold illustrations printed in old books.

I prefer to work in black and grey than colour, but I do still enjoy working with colour.

When I’m working with a client on their tattoo, I’m purely focused on what will work best for you.

Many tattoo studios describe what they do as custom tattoos whereas I call what I do bespoke tattooing. If you bought a suit direct from a tailor, they would call it a bespoke suit which means that the suit is fitted to you, your style and your body. And that’s how I look at the tattoos I create. It’s done with you to fit the artwork and story that’s behind it to your body and your personality.

I want the tattoo to represent the person, I want it to reflect who you are.

So when I have a consultation with you about your next tattoo, I do want to ask you some personal questions, I want to get to know you, I want to understand how you live life. It does make a huge difference to what we create together. 

Being around tattooing for so long really helps with this as well as advising how we can work with the design and style that you want while building in enough integrity and strength into the tattoo that it will hold up and last for a long time.

It’s not just the experience of drawing the tattoo that matters, it’s the experience of dealing with people who’ve had a bereavement, who’ve lost a child or a parent or a wife or husband, someone who is struggling with the way their body looks, or struggling with their emotions or a divorce or some past trauma that they’ve been through. 

How is this tattoo going to help that person deal with life better?

That’s a part of tattooing that is just as important to me as the artwork.

And it works the same way for those positive life experiences too like when you’ve just got a new job or launched your own business or got married, all the emotion and hopes and fears and dreams, they’re all important elements of a good tattoo.

A good tattooist knows how to connect with you and really get what you’re going through and why this is important to you.

I take that part of what I do very seriously and I know that’s one of the reasons that my regular customers keep coming back again and again.