There’s no escaping that artists are perverts.

Maybe is the whole boundary pushing mindset, maybe it’s the constant study of human form, maybe it’s something else. Personally I think that because there’s a breakdown of normality, and an experimental mindset so artists put themselves out there more than others. Try new things and experiment with their surroundings and their own bodies.

Personally, it’s that combination. I grew up drawing and making music, and honestly I was drawing boobs pretty early on! When you start drawing you see the Renaissance paintings, all these beautiful Baroque masterpieces and these incredible portraits that capture something so real and so alive. And what happens is that you start to see that as the pinnacle of technique. I’d still argue that it is. But you set about trying to reach that level of greatness, and that means studying the human form. But very quickly you become numb to the nudity. You look at so much of it that you kinda stop seeing it. It really takes something extra to be arousing.

Couple that with the kids I hung around with, other artistic kids, musicians, skaters, emos, they were all pretty open to experimentation, pushing boundaries and operating outside the norm. So I was encouraged to do things I was experimenting with. We hung out at the skatepark, I drew, played music, drank, fucked and fought. I look back fondly. But that experimentation meant that sex got weird fast. Hormones, drink and a liberal attitude to life will get you there.

Believe it or not, I actually carried a lot of shame around sex for a long time. And that is why this is all so important.

But we’re not here to talk about my sex life, unless you’re a hot alt girl and you can pick up on hints. At some point in 2017 one of my artists told me that he wanted a tattoo of Selma Hayek from Dusk ‘til Dawn, the scene where she’s dancing with the snake. This actually at the time launched the neon thing because of the neon flames in the background of the scene.

Unfortunately I can’t find the tattoo.

But this lead to a snowballing of naked ladies in mt work. So, a few weeks later that artist is tattooing one of my clients, who tells him that her dad wants a naked mermaid and he was inspired to do the nudity after seeing that tattoo, we set it up and when he comes in for it he’s like “we can’t do the tits. I have granddaughters, what am I thinking?”.

Obviously I’m all “Your daughter booked this, obviously she thinks it’s alright…”

She later tells me her dad’s a pussy.

Anyway. I post about the piece on Instagram, and another client reaches out, she’s changing the tattoo we’re doing next because she’s inspired by the mermaid and recognises my disappointment with the scales where there should be boobs. She’s excited ‘cos Samma’s doing sexy now. She wants medusa, boobs out. And she wants her to be fake titted pornstar-esc. I can oblige.

She comes in. “We gotta hide the nipples, I work in a school! I don’t know what I was thinking!”

FUCKSAKE

She’s sorry, she thinks it’s lame and she’s disappointed too. But the tattoo came out sick. I post about that. ANOTHER regular messages me, her boyfriend wants something erotic but is scared to get it. Can I do something about that please?

YES I BLOODY CAN

He comes in and we do this werewolf girl, with her boobs out. It had a Lycanroc at the bottom, you know, the pokémon. And it spiralled from there. People kept asking for it, I kept designing it and putting it out. The bit that I found really interesting was that it was mostly women that were asking for these pieces. When I Spoke to them about why they wanted these pieces they explained to me that they felt they had permission from me to wear them. They all talked about how girls aren’t really allowed to be sexual. If you’re a girl and you like sex, you’re a slut, you’re a whore, you’re disgusting, but They were allowed to feel these things, like these things when they came in. And most importantly for them, I didn’t make it weird.

After it started getting some real traction, I put together this set of designs