Skin Deep – September 2019

46 • SKIN DEEP MAGAZINE

studio in your hometown, you were being

spoiled. I digress, back to Dennis:

“I was the first tattooist in Soho to be regis-

tered—before me, and we’re talking early six-

ties so a fair while back, there was a guy in the

market where ChinaTown used to be—but

this was the first studio in Soho that was li-

censed with the health authority. Some more

opened up later but not too many.

“I worked here for the first five years by

myself. It was busy from the word go. All the

original clubs were in this area—it was a great

time to be here. The shop, as part of Soho,

established itself at that time really and it

closely relates to all of those band members

and other people in the music business who

came here for tattoos.”

“I only had a small sign to start off with,

so much of the business was word of mouth,

but then I put up this big sign that’s still out-

side now. I cut it all out by hand and painted

it myself. I did everything myself in here—I

know the place backwards! A lot of what you

see here now is how I originally made it too—

it’s been kept virtually exactly the same for

all these years.”

TALES FROM THE CITY

Darryl and Dennis

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I’vE^ aLwAyS^ tRiEd

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