Tattoo Artists you Really Ahould get to Know | Boo the hand poke artist

     We’ve got a lot of love to give for stick and poke artists, the ones who actually know what they’re doing anyway. Introducing our homegirl Boo, hand poking from Kevin Paul Tattoo. Boo is a young and free-spirited artist who simply enjoys what she does. All the tattoos featured in here are entirely hand poked. No machines involved.

     I’m going to let her take over from here.

     So, I’m a hand poke custom tattoo artist. I love to create unique designs for my clients and not letting the fact that I only hand poke get in the way of the design, by this I mean undertaking large pieces as well as small, utilising line and dot work which I love, but also adapting to smooth shading and colour blends.

I started hand poking at the end of 2009. I did have to take nearly a year out of tattooing back in 2012 as a violent burglary messed with my creative skills! I came back in mid 2013 and have been pushing myself hard since.

I actually thought I was going to be a chair designer, I have a bit of a thing for ergonomics, even down to spoons and the correct balance of them, but when I started my degree down at Falmouth College of Arts, Cornwall, UK, I went to get tattooed at a local studio with one of my own designs. They suggested I should make flash sheets to sell, I started to and then got a bit precious of my art and thought “hey, I shouldn’t be just deigning these, I should be tattooing these.

I managed to get hold of some needles and ink and messed about stick and poke style on my hands and fingers. It took awhile for me to find the right teacher, a studio where I fitted in and then I met Mr. Adam ‘Starfish’ Dutton at Tradition 180 and it all started to fall into place. He has been a massive inspiration to me as well as a major influence, he is a phenomenal artist who had 3 strokes and still creating masterpieces like my arm sleeve.

     It doesn’t seem really relevant these days as so many people jump straight getting visitable skin inked before the rest of their hidden skin, but back even just 5 years in the UK, it could stop you from getting a good and secure job, Adam went ballistic at me when he’d seen I had tattooed my hands before even getting a tattoo apprenticeship,“If you don’t make it as a tattoo artist, you’ve fucked your life,” he shouted at me, well that just made me more deter minded to be the best tattoo artist I could be.

     It was Adam who asked me as a test of patients and passion to only hand poke for a year before he would verse me in machining, he knows the basics of hand poking as he is predominantly a machine tattoo artist, and well after a year I was already head over heals in love with this beautiful, traditional and intimate technique.

     Still even healing time compared to a lot of rotary machine tattoos, hand poke tattoos just take less time. No scabs, which means less of a chance of ink falling out, whether it was picked out or just over saturation of the skin. You could say its more hygienic too, as I don’t have machines, tips and grips to cleanse, I use single use, pre-sterilised needles that I just pop into a needle bin after.

     A typical session is around 4-5 hours and that is only because most of my clients can and are available to sit for that period of time. I do get a good majority of smaller tattoos to do, as people like to dip their toes in the water with handpoking as it isn’t so common, but you defiantly get the most out of me when we have all the time in the world as I get really in to the flow of tattooing, just like most artist I guess.

I’ve tattooed up to 9hours in one sitting before, but I admit, I’m not a machine and I do start to slow down after about 7hours. I should get to the gym more and work my arms and hands, ha!

     I’ve also had other machine artists say I’m wasting my time, not giving any value to the technique and mocking it as its not modern or ‘now’, that I could make more money if I just picked up a machine as it can be quicker.

     I’m really glad, happy and grateful that handpoke tattooing is on the up and people are seeing it for what it can be, a truly stunning and wonderful way to get tattooed, without compromises.