Mobile Tattoo Parlour Launch

‘I Will Always Have You’ aims to map the tattooing culture of Knowle West by documenting the tattoos of local residents and examining the power of their personal narratives. We are working with the Knowle West Media Centre and digital agency Play Nicely to create an online archive of tattoos, the most fascinating of which will be showcased in an exhibition at KWMC in September.

To aid in the collection of the tattoos, we designed a mobile tattoo parlour with a difference: instead of inking people up, it digitally collects their body art. The mobile parlour was launched today outside Marked Up, the Knowle West tattoo studio belonging to Mark Allen, with 90-year-old local resident Joe Cook, who started having tattoos when he turned 80, cutting the ribbon.

The mobile parlour will tour different locations around Knowle West from Tuesday 10 June, and will then be installed at Knowle West Media Centre from 1 July, where people can visit it over the summer.

For more information visit the project page I Will Always Have You and to add your tattoo to the website visit www.knowlewesttattoos.org.uk