Prior to tattooing, my background was in illustration and design. I was lucky enough to begin my tattoo apprenticeship in 2017 at Sunderland-based ‘Triplesix Studios’, where I worked part time until 2020 while completing my PhD in design and working as an associate lecturer on illustration and visual culture programmes. My PhD research is the World’s first to utilise tattooing practice as a research method, and was described by examiners as, “…the most in depth, detailed, and considered account of tattooing practice in the academic literature”.

I took a break from tattooing to finish my research and briefly relocated to Vietnam, where I was working as a lecturer in design studies at RMIT university. I returned to the UK in March 2022 due to a family matter, where I began working as a lecturer in HE creative arts at Stockport College. I found I was missing the tattooing process, and keen to return, joined Flesh in January 2023.