Amynaut Tattoos, a 27-year-old tattoo artist based in Blackburn, UK, has been making waves in the tattoo industry with their unique and evolving style. Having started tattooing at the age of 20, Amynaut Tattoos has been in the industry for 7 years now, with the last 3 years spent owning their own studio, Year 23 Tattoo. In this article, we will delve into their journey in tattooing, including their first contact with tattooing, their experience in different styles, and how they developed their current signature style. Read on to learn more about this talented artist and their art.
How and when was your first contact with tattooing?
I had my first tattoo at 18, from a local artist. That was my first experience with tattooing and then I started tattooing when I was 20, I’d just finished my first year at university when, during the summer, some guys I knew asked if I wanted to apprentice at their new shop. At university I’d been focusing on giant, hyper realistic pencil drawings. A0 paper in size. I was convinced I wanted to go into black and grey portrait tattooing, but my boss at the time told me I would be doing colour, as there were too many black and grey artists in the studio. So I started tattooing one week into my apprenticeship, and started tattooing traditional to begin with. I learned a lot and I think it was a good place to start, but I’m glad to have moved on from traditional, and I’m even more glad I didn’t start tattooing in black and grey full time. I had no idea I’d be much more passionate about colour.
How many years have you been tattooing?
7 years all together! 3 years now in my own studio.
Why your style? How did you achieve or how long did that unification of styles take you to achieve the final piece?
The style that I’m tattooing now is fairly new to me. I started tattooing in this style around two years ago. My partner and I own our studio, so during the pandemic lockdown in 2021, we went into the studio together and tattooed each-other so we would have lots of work to post when we went back to work. I started researching artists that worked outside of my comfort zone, and found a few I liked, so I did a design inspired by what I’d been looking at. I convinced my partner to have it done during this lockdown period, although he didn’t want to at first, I managed to convince him (it’s his favourite tattoo now!). It was so different to what I’d been doing, but the style I had chosen for myself before this one wasn’t gaining any traction. I was spending so much time tattooing for free to try and push what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t working. I was really surprised when I posted that first piece on Instagram, people started messaging me asking me to forget about their ideas and tattoo one of those on them instead. The style was an overnight sensation, and a few videos in that style went viral on tiktok and interest went through the roof. It was crazy! Since then I’ve been adding to it and changing stuff around, really settling into the style and making it my own! I hope that it will keep evolving for me as my interests grow and change, I feel like I’m always going in different directions and branching off every time a new idea comes to me, I don’t think I’ll ever see it as something that is finished or complete as a style, it’ll keep moving with me.
I have seen that you have gone through different styles before achieving the current one. Do you remember the first tattoo you made? How was that?
I do remember my first tattoo! It was on friend who was also apprenticing at the studio at the same time as me. I see him often and he’s always getting it out to show people my first ever tattoo. It was a set of knuckle dusters with teeth moulded into it, and it was not a good tattoo. My lines were so shaky and inconsistent! I’d had one week of watching my boss tattoo before putting my first tattoo on someone, so it was entirely guesswork. I still have it right at the bottom of my Instagram page, I don’t think I’ll ever delete my old work, everything is on there right from the very beginning! It shows how far I’ve come, like a diary. I didn’t have much direction during my apprenticeship from my bosses at the time, so I decided to try as many styles as possible in the early days, so things really changed a lot until I got comfortable doing portraits.
The most difficult tattoo? Why?
Pirate ships. Definitely pirate ships. I will be scarred for life from them. When I had been tattooing two weeks, I was given a really large, dense tribal coverup to do. This tribal covered the entirety of the clients upper arm and left hardly any open skin. I was given a really big, detailed pirate ship scene to cover it with and it was absolutely impossible! I had no idea what I was doing, I had been tattooing for two weeks when I began, the whole tattoo was a disaster and took around 6 months with multiple sessions to finish! Ever since, I’ve had such a hard time with ships. I think I’m so detail-oriented that I feel I have to get every tiny plank of wood or every small bit of rope on there. I can’t simplify things very well to make them readable on a small scale so I try doing all these little micro details and it’s so difficult!
Do you have any artistic training that has helped you progress in this profession?
I did attend university, I did a degree in fine art and I did graduate! I don’t think it really helped with this profession though. I started tattooing during my degree so the degree itself didn’t help me get the job, and the course I took was really focussed on conceptual art and performance art. I had a really hard time convincing my tutors to allow me to study tattooing as an art form. There were quite a lot of other students who were hoping to progress to tattooing from the course, which is probably why the tutors didn’t take it very seriously. I suppose it’s not your standard definition of ‘fine art’ that you’d see in a gallery, but it certainly is an art nonetheless.
Other than that, I did a qualification in colour theory which has helped me massively. It’s given me such a better understanding of mixing colour and understanding tone. To most artists, colour theory is quite self explanatory, but I’d recommend a course in it to any artist. There’s so much to learn about colour theory that I didn’t even know existed before I did it.
What were your references?
I took a lot of inspiration from other artists in the early days of my style. Particularly Mashkow, Daria Pirojenko, Sergey Shanko, to name a few. All incredible artists! I’ve also learned a lot from my friends that has helped me develop my style a lot. Doing collaborations with Mohawk Jesse and Rakhee Tattoos has really helped me understand what I was doing a lot better and helped me understand the theory of tattooing and how the machines and equipment work. They’ve been a massive learning curve for me as I progressed.
Do you have another profession apart from tattooing? Or do you do any activity outside of it?
I’m a massive reader. A lot of my designs of female faces come from how I imagine the protagonist of a book I’m reading would look. I really enjoy horrors and thrillers, and I’m also a massive fan of TV and Film in general. I spend a lot of time at the cinema. Aside from all that I also spend a lot of time on training and nutrition, I’m an avid cook and I love the challenge of recreating my favourite foods with a high protein content, as I do powerlifting. The majority of my hobbies actually have nothing to do with art or drawing, which a lot of people find strange, but I prefer to use all of my creativity within work.
What are you most passionate about tattooing?
The thing I actually enjoy most about the job is the clients. I absolutely love meeting new people and, because my sessions are really long for these pieces, I get to know people really well. I absolutely love hearing about people’s professions, their partners or their pets. I think getting tattooed is quite an intimate experience for a lot of people when you’re in pain, so people tend to talk really freely and honestly, which I really enjoy. I’m not very good at having a professional persona when I work, I love making genuine connections with the people I meet and seeing them again to get the updates on themselves. Most of all though I love seeing people’s reactions when they’re really happy with the piece. It’s really nice to know that you may have helped someone enjoy their own body image more or helped them feel more confident with a piece of work that they will enjoy showing off for the rest of their lives.
The actual subject matter that I’m the most passionate about tattooing is definitely my lady faces. I’m really in my element when I’m tattooing the anatomy of the face. I love everything about it, I love making the women I tattoo really beautiful and striking and adding all the tiny details like the freckles and eyelashes. I find it super therapeutic!
How do you imagine in the future?
I imagine myself working around the world with my partner and coming home to a really beautiful private studio. We love travelling, and it’s nice that we can both do it and work as we’re both tattooists. I hope that the industry continues to grow and conventions continue to be these huge events for us all, I love spending time at conventions weather I’m working or not.
If someone wants to get a tattoo with you, what should they do? Where can he find you?
I have a booking form link in my bio on Instagram, it’ll ask you all the questions I need to send you a follow up email with a booking! I’m always available via DM or email to answer any questions too, all of which is also on my Instagram.
Anything you want to say?
I really hope that anyone reading this article has found it inspiring. If you’re still trying to find your feet in the industry, or settle into a style, keep going because sometimes these things do happen overnight or completely by surprise. Take as many opportunities as you can to learn from other artists and always be humble.
Thankyou so much!