Freedom is just around the corner

Hey everyone, another fairly pointless update to try and push my website up the google rankings lol! Not much to report since the last one!

As the world slowly decides the systems we have built have lead to nothing but our own suffering it feels like we are in now in a kind of death rattle for capitalism and the illusion of democracy! It is, a funny old time.

Tattooing has certainly become more quiet in the last few months, and I’m not surprised- it is a luxury. The first things to take a downturn when the recession hits!

I’ve seen some tattooists online doing videos, saying why getting tattooed is important and even videos which imply that you should be spending money on tattoos over other things. I think this is kinda bollocks tbh. It is not a necessity and although we would all LOVE to be getting tattooed left right and centre -it’s just not a priority for most people who are struggling right now. Including myself.

A few years ago I decided to take a step back from tattooing full time to build some skills which i felt could be of benefit to humanity and nature, I am still trying to build that skill base, whilst at the same time continue to tattoo as much as I feasibly can.. Earning less money would have been a problem in Bristol but luckily i got a van and decided to live in that to avoid having to pay astronomical rent “for a year” whilst i did these other things. After 1 year I didn’t like the thought of going back- the rest is history!

Trying to live as cheaply as possible is actually pretty great but this has meant that getting tattooed, unless its for swaps right now is out of the window. Which is unfortunate as I have a lot ( a LOT) of unfinished work!

Because of this, I was thinking of doing pay what you can afford tattoo days a couple of days a month for people who need to get work finished but are in a similar situation. If you are maybe the one human who ever sees this blog and you need stuff finishing and you think it’s worth a shot email me!

hannahcalavera@hotmail.co.uk

Oh also as usual I split my time

at least once a month in Bristol, and once a month in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

Lots more travel dates and places on my travel page though!

Tattoos and nature

Hello

long time no blog!

I spent January with a friend doing art at an artist retreat at glorious Mud and Wool in Wales, and since then have been marooned in Bicester whilst Dick Van-Dyke awaits a needed (but very spenny) repair! Luckily the lovely ladies at Allyours tattoo have welcomed me with open arms into their lovely tattoo studio to get back to the craft! It’s been really lovely to chill and not travel for a little bit though!

I have added more dates, locations and tattoo studios to my travel page and all are available to book in at now. Thankyou to all my clients who have been super patient with me over the last few years since I have been pursuing my bushcraft dream but I shall definitely be knuckling down and making it a priority to finish off everybody’s tattoos!

I have also decided to spend some time making some tattoo flash of my special interests in the esoteric, nature, welsh folklore, aliens and psychedelica!

I’m just going to type out some of the places I will be guesting for SEO purposes lol

Daventry, Leicester, Bicester, Oxford, Wales, Ceredigion, Aberystwyth, Wiltshire,

Purple Rose Bristol

Hey everyone!

I’ve added some more “wannados” to the art section,

Here are the tattoos I’d like to make!

Also here is a work in progress from last week I tattooed on my friend Leigh!

It’s a concept piece based on her personality and life experience. I’m hoping to tailor more of my tattoo designs in this way.

Also I got to tattoo Emily’s old Cat pal Lelu on her last week! Old kitties are so cute.

Thanks for looking!

xx

Cardiff

Hello! What a hectic few weeks but very very fruitful! So after leaving Southmead Tattoo Studio I had a few guest spots and a bit of travel, the penultimate destination was Cardiff! I guested with my good friend Patryk  Mazur at his own little amazing studio Surrealistic Sanctuary on City Road.

My biggest thanks to Patryk, I really had the best time and as usual he went above and beyond to help me out. deffo go give his Instagram a follow.

I made some more progress on Dave’s Slow Sleeve tattoo

Sloth is healed and the tortoise is only half done but I am really looking forward to getting more on this done 😀

Also Dave shared with me a photo of his cat Jacob with his tattoo!

I also did a bit more on Mark’s Dia de los muertos gal

It has got a tonne more to go though!

The Cardiff Tattoo convention was also amazing this year. I tattooed Dan’s other Chi Leela on his thigh. He sat for 6 hours with a broken leg (no painkillers) to get this done. He is a hard bastard!

Also amazingly I won an award for best of day!

Me Ruthey, Dan, Dan and Brodie went out afterwards to celebrate like the old farts we are and had a really fancy dinner!

Cardiff was great! I had the best time and hope to be back next year! Such a nice friendly convention!

 

Hannah

x

 

Singapore

So I ran away from Bristol for a month. Singapore is an amazing city, but I also went to Hoi An in Vietnam which was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen….

Here are some holiday photos

Whilst I was there I guested at Bada Bink Tattoo Firm! I had a great time tattooing outside of Europe for the first time!

I got to make this little bee on lavender gap filler on the wonderful Reggie, who gave me a book and lots of cool facts about life in SG

I also got to make this lilac breasted roller on Gee, who was absolutely lovely! Sat like a champ even though it was a painful one! I did

I got to make this tiiiiny Audrey II gap filler on the brilliant Fletcher Taco-Sandwich, who it turns out has EXACTLY the same music taste as me ( For those of you who know my taste, that is a feat.)

Here is a photo of me with all the guys, you can find their work on the Bada-Bink website!

They made me feel so welcome and I had a lovely time. I wish I’d had longer!

I’m back in Bristol now, and although I have plenty of guest spots planned I’m really happy to be home.

 

xx

 

 

Bristol Tattoo

So last week I got to do a guest spot at Legacy Ink in Haverhill. It’s home to some of the best Tattoo artists in the UK and therefore pretty intimidating to a worry-pig like me. I needn’t have worried though, everyone there was super hard working, humble and generally lovely. They made me feel really at home and took me on some GHOST HUNTS (those of you who know me know how much I love shitting myself up with ghost stories!)

I got to make some lovely tattoos whilst I was up in Suffolk, and got booked up really fast! So it means I will be going back in the new year!

I made this cockatoo tattoo on the talented apprentice/jr artist Jess Ashby, she wanted a tattoo to remind her to have fun and not get so stressed out about tattooing!

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And I got to make this palindromic TacocaT tattoo for Ed

He loves the weird ones! And so do I

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I’d love to tattoo more animal/food style tattoos!

I did a few more bud sadly did not get a decent photo of ANYTHING because I am a monster.

Anyway, I enjoyed my guest spot immensely but it is good to be home in Bristol again. I have tonsillitis at the moment (hense the crazy blog updatathon) but can’t wait to be tattooing full pelt again.

x

 

Tattoos this month

Hey everyone! Another update just to showcase some of the recent tattoos Ive been working on.

I got to do this cheeky Totoro cover up on the lovely Becky!Bristoltattooartist (7)

I looove studio Ghibli so this was a real treat!

I also started two pet tattoos on Dave which I will have finished photos of next month! However here is a peek of his pirate cat Jacob!

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And I got a healed photo of Dave’s calf tattoos I did a few months ago

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I finished Austin’s Dandy lion tattoo also!

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Here is a cute little Koala on James! Love the tropical theme at the mo, I really enjoyed this tattoo!

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I managed to get another session on Elliot’s greek mythology sleeve as well. Here are Zeus and Pegasus

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Hopefully more photos in a week or so as I’ll be updating more often in preparation for the move to Bristol. I will be doing a guest spot with some very talented tattoo artists in June and perhaps going to work at their studio come August!

thanks everyone

Hannah

Summer

Hey everyone, long time no update- I’ve been a wee bit busy with all the travelling from Oxford! First update is that I now have a Travel section on my site for guest spots and convention news. Second is that I have settled into the new routine and am having fun in Newbury at Black rabbit once again! As well as starting at Arkham in Kidlington, which is a lovely, chilled out little studio.

So since the last update I went on a portrait painting course in Cornwall. Here are some of the paintings I’ve done, the rest can be found in my gallery.

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Then a week later I travelled to Kerala for a well deserved break. I had an amazing time, by far one of the best places I’ve ever been. I came back uber relaxed after all the stress and incredibly inspired.

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So, even with the post holiday blues I got stuck straight back into work feeling better than ever! I finished off Jessie’s peacock finally.

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And did this cute little fella, covering up some old kanji. I’m loving pissed off looking owls at the moment!

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I made this WW2 bear for Alan, complete with trench knife

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and also made this goat on Norm

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I just bought a new camera too so hopefully I will be putting out much better photos of my work. After chatting to Jess I realised I need to put as much effort into taking photos as I do creating the tattoos otherwise the photographs won’t do them justice.

Thanks for looking guys

xx

Convention Funtime in Manchester

Hey my lovely little sunfish, How are you all doing? Not that you can answer that on this site! Me and Jen have had a busy but tremendously satisfying weekend away from Oxford. To be more precise we went to Tattoo Tea party in Manchester! We had a great time, met lots of really lovely people and generally worked our arses off!DSC_0020

Here is little Madame Silver at the booth before the doors opened, no photo of me as I was having a mini meltdown about my portfolio! And her display was amazing, had much more attention than the tattooing!

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Her jewellery is available on the madame silver website.

The first tattoo I got to do was this cute pug on the lovely Lauren, who sat like a champ.

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Had loads of fun on this tattoo <3. Then I did a shoulder rose on lovely Lauren 2! Did not get a decent photo so I’ll post a pic of that next blog. Then me and Jen pissed about for a bit and ate some food before heading back to the hotel.

Sunday was a bit more chilled out, I did this dia de los muertos gal on Ianvariaig3

Oh my gosh do I love being a tattooist! It was such fun to tattoo, this one got a bit of attention! Only took 3 hours as well! More of these please?

Then I got tattooed by one of the best tattoo artists everrrr, one of my long time faves. Mr Brian Thomas Wilson of scapegoat tattoo in Oregontattooig1 DSC_0115 DSC_0114

all lovely photos of be getting tattooed completely unprepared, wearing horrid pants (and right before a 4 hour drive home)!! Worth it though. Meet my new cheeky goat!goaty

such a beautiful tattoo, I’m so happy <33

So that was our weekend! Now we are safely back in sunny Oxford <3 can’t wait to get back to work tomorrow. So inspired!

laters bean-flakes

Hannah

x

Tattoo Tea party

Hey there you lovely little crumble-pups, hope your February is going as well as it can be- what a horrid month! So me and Madame Silver will be leaving Oxford for the weekend as we attend Tattoo Tea Party in Manchester. It’s going to be so cool, hundreds of great artists all under one roof! If you’re there come up and say hi! I’ll have prints for sale and Jen will have jewellery and lotions on the stand.

Anyway, last week I got to start lots of new exciting pieces! But unfortunately I didn’t get to finish any!! Here are some of the many!

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Started this lovely owl lady on Bryony and she sat like a champ!!sdgfsdfgsdfg

And I started this fox and stag piece on Teddy ( I tattooed him 3 years ago- that swallow on his chest!) More to go, I’m really getting loads more confident with black and grey now, so pleased with this piece.

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And got to start this baby foxy stargazer on Abbie ( who is an absolute star and helped me with my taxes!) loads more to go but hopefully next time won’t be as pinchy! Sorry for hurting you bean!

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And got to start this Harry Potter themed chest piece! So much fun, more HP stuff please!! There should be droves of people in Oxford wanting to get Harry Potter tattoos, this is where Hogwarts is.

I drew this doe that I’d like to tattoo, along with a bunch of other things22222

To have a look at all the sketches I do that I want to tattoo you can go to this album on my facebook page. Keep an eye out and if I ever get a cancellation if you snap one of the designs up I may very well give you a good deal 😉

 

That’s all for now chickadees!