Author: louis santos

Feminine Japanese Tattoo

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I Tattooed Ruth last year, we first did a humming bird Tattoo on her arm. She was really sure what she wanted, however she gave me a lot of freedom to work as well. The first Tattoo was a sucess, i spent a lot of time on the drawing, so i wanted to make sure the second tattoo was also made with the same approach of the first one.

I like having Ruth in the studio, she has a good energy about her, and so does her husband Mark. I have also been tattooing Ruth’s husband, Mark. And when Mark approached me to get his full sleeve Japanese Cover-up Tattoo, Ruth wanted to join us and get a Japanese Dragon on her leg. 

Ruth’s son was born in the Chinese Dragon Year, so the Tattoo represents her son in Chinese culture. 

I tried to make the dragon Feminine looking to fit with Ruth, so i did not do many bold lines as i would usually do in a Japanese Dragon. I try to look at my client and do something that fits them.

Ruth was great as always, she knows what she wants however, she gives me freedom to draw, work and express myself within her request. 

I really enjoy having Mark and Ruth in the studio, they are a really nice couple. They also invited me to their wedding which I was really happy about, it was a lovely day, in a gorgeous place in Scotland. 

Thank you Ruth, it’s always a pleasure having you in our Tattoo Studio in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Memorial Tattoo in Bury

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Small and meaningful Tattoos in Bury

Tattooing is a job that requires people interaction, one to one experiences, and being involved in this client relation, it always brings meaningful experiences that are quite remarkable. 

The reason why I chose to write this blog, it’s based on the past few experiences I have been experiencing with clients coming to get tattooed in our studio in Greater Manchester. Being a Tattoo Artist, it makes you realise how different the reasons are, when people get tattooed. Some get tattooed because they love a specific piece of art, or because they want to be reminded about someone who they love. 

I would start mentioning about “Claire” she was the daughter of my client “Louise”. 

Louise walked in the studio, and I liked her honesty, she said “I would never had a tattoo done, if it wasn’t for my daughter passing away” It was her first time walking in to a Tattoo Studio, and I wanted to giver her the best experience as possible. So I listened to her request, explained the tattoo process. You know when you get a feeling about something, I knew she was going to book in. 

She said she was gonna think about it, and asked to look at our work in the studio. I showed Louise our Facebook page, she looked at it on her phone, and spotted our Business year award post, and the post was made the same day as her daughters birthday, and she decided to book an appointment. 

Tattooing Louise was quite emotional as in the consultation when I was planning the design with her, she cried when I was doing the design for her. And when I was tattooing her, she was getting emotional too. It must been so difficult to Louise. Her daughter Claire was 51, and she had a rare heart disease, and it was untraceable, so by the time it was found out, it was too late, so she passed no long after. 

I’m glad to be able to contribute to Louise’s experience, to have a memorial of her daughter for a lifetime. 

Tattoos sometimes have such an important meaning, people go through such unexpected difficult times, and being able to contribute to memorial tattoos, I feel like I’m giving something back for their loss. And I want to do the best work possible, so they can walk away with something that they love. 

Thank you Louise, you were great.

Alex Furguson Signing my Art Work

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Louis Santos Tattoo Blog

Alex Ferguson Manchester United Portrait Paint.

As I love football, I have a business painting football t-shirts, called Football Hype. I also like to read books about people who I admire their achievements, Alex Ferguson is an example of leadership, hard work and victories, so I bought his autobiography to read. While reading his book, I painted a Manchester United t-shirt with Sir Alex Ferguson’s portrait. I was happy with the outcome, I end up framing it, and putting it up for sale. 

The guys I work with, had an idea of giving the paint to the landlord, as he is a Manchester United fan. So after we gave him the paint, he mentioned he knew Alex Ferguson personally. He had this idea, of asking Alex Ferguson to sign the paint and donating it to charity. 

I thought it was a great idea, as it was going to be donated to cancer research charity. As much I was happy about the paint being donated, I wouldn’t imagined it would raised £2,800 for the cause. Which I was even more happy about, and I wouldn’t imagined be happy to donate even more in the future. 

When our land lord gave the paint to Alex Ferguson, he explained to him the portrait was painted on a Manchester United t-shirt, because a lot of people when they look at it, they don’t realise the paint is on a physical t-shirt. I have to of course, stretch the t-shirt, to make sure it’s possible to paint on the surface, I transfer the image to the t-shirt and start the paint process. 

When you do art and tattoos in Manchester out of love, everything else flows, I never expected for this to happen, I did the portrait just for fun and joy, and it end up being signed by the person himself I painted , and donated to charity, which it made me even happier. 

Thanks Stuart for giving the paint to Alex Ferguson and making this happen. 

Alex Ferguson is one of greatest managers in football history

Tattooing a Retired Fire Fighter

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A 70 years old Retired Fire Fighter First Tattoo

One good thing about my job is meeting interesting people and this time it was worth writing a blog about it. Some people dedicate  their life for serving others and I was honoured to meet a  70 year old retired fire fighter from Ramsbottom, looking for his first tattoo and funny enough, I felt like we did have something in common. 

He mentioned about how he felt about how the job had changed in the past 10 years, it wasn’t the same as it used to be, he said all the fire fighters were local lads who used to genuinely care for the community, then everything changed, new people arrived to be fire fighters, who didn’t really respect or care about being a fire man, they came along and  started to do the job, just for the wage, also he mentioned, it wasn’t the same anymore, and I can easily compare that to tattooing. 

It’s my passion for tattooing that keeps me going, I love the physical act of tattooing, and I love the interaction with some clients. However, because the tattoo industry itself is not what it used to be, I’m afraid. So when i was doing this fire fighter tattoo, i could understand where he was coming from. So that’s when he turned around and said, this tattoo is to remind me of the good times. The good times as a fire fighter. 

I do remember the good times in the tattoo industry when it was all about the art. Everyone was learning how to paint, I used to go to a tattoo convention and watching my favourite tattoo artists painting, it was like I was on holiday, and I understood, the more I learned about painting, the better my colour tattoos would become, and the more o drew, the better artist I would become. That was such a simple foundation that every tattoo artist understood from back in the day, and everyone was pushing forwards that, I remember when I wanted to learn about oils. I would obsessively by books, by DVD of my favourite artists painting, before you tube became what it’s now. I was hooked about art, and I could feel that people around me was on the same boat, and that was the reason why I wanted to become a tattoo artist. Because I knew that art was attached to it, and I loved it.

Nowadays you don’t need to be a good artist or even be able to draw to become a tattoo artist. A lot of youngsters looking to enter the tattoo industry carelessly don’t aim at the foundations, sadly ignore the roots of what makes someone a good tattoo artist. Being a good artist it allows to approach different areas of art, like sculpture, video games, spray paint, oil paint, all sorts of art forms can be embraced with a good drawing skills. 

I once opened an art magazine and I was looking at a profile of an artist from Japan and his drawings were amazing, and reading his article, he mentioned, “I have been drawing for 15 years, without even touching colour, just drawing, imagine how strong his foundations was, now from that point on, he would be able to pick up a tattoo machine and an oil paint brush and have higher potential than someone that hasn’t done all that previous work. 

That’s why I still insist in the importance of drawing in any area of art. And I’m starting to feel like I’m an old school guy insisting on something that no many people longer are doing, however, I’m not going to stop doing something that feels right and I can feel my artistically capabilities increasing, which it will be beneficial for my clients.

Thank you 

Tattoo Studio in Bury

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Bury Tattoo Studio 

In this blog I would like to share and inform the advantages about getting tattooed in our studio in Bury, Greater Manchester. So sit and relax and enjoy our weekly tattoo blog. 

Every tattoo studio in Bury works in a different way, everyone has their philosophy and approach to tattooing. Some places focus more on making money than the actual client experience, so let’s dive in to the advantages about getting tattooed in our tattoo studio in Greater Manchester. 

1- We are in the town centre of Bury, which it allows our clients to have access to coffees and shops around Bury, we are walking distances from “The Rock” in Bury which it provides a big choice of restaurants, cinema and shopping in general. Bury has such a vibe of community and it’s a bisecting to visit. 

2- In our Greater Manchester Tattoo Studio. Each artist in our studio has a private room for themselves, so each client has a tattoo experience with privacy, when each artist have their own room, also is beneficial for the client as the tattoo artist will open the doors for more concentration. The better your tattoo artist concentrates, the better tattoo you will collect. 

3- In our Bury Tattoo Studio, each of our artists have been tattooing for 20 years or more, which it makes a big difference when a tattoo artist have experience, experience in tattooing counts with an artistic background experience, the more experienced the artist is the better artist they are going to be. In order to deal with the human body, experience really counts in tattooing, as years and years of tattooing will make a difference when dealing with the human body. 

4- All of our artists can draw and paint, drawing is really important as a tattoo artist, which it gives the client an opportunity to get something unique and personal. Having the ability to draw also enhances the quality and flow of the tattoo, and how the tattoo speaks to the human body. 

5- We have traditional tattooing values, which it means respecting the trade, respecting the craft and respecting the clients, we prefer to turn work away that we know that’s not going to last on skin, like Tik Tok trades and temporary fashionable tattoos that are temporary to the skin. A lot of tattoo studios will do those type of work knowing that the tattoo will not be there in 5-10 years, and not bother to let the client know the truth, we prefer to let the client know the truth, we prefer to let the client go, and get the respect of the client in 5-10 years who realised after their tattoo did not last. 

Come and have a unique Tattoo experience in our Tattoo Studio in Bury, Greater Manchester. 

Greater Manchester Tattoo Artist

Bury Tattoo Studio

Half Sleeve Tattoo in Bury

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Happy New Year everyone 

2025 was a great year, thanks for everyone who came by to get tattooed in Bury. I’m enjoying my life in Manchester, I have learned a lot about art and life in general in 2025 and met some really nice and interesting people in Manchester in the year of 2025. I’m exited for 2026, just being able to be focused on my work and having time to draw and paint my art it’s a blessing, a lot of people say I work a lot, but when you love what you do it doesn’t feel like work. I hope 2026, brings a lot of joy, health and success to everyone who works hard and try to push the boundaries of their work. 

In this blog i would like to talk about the experience I had with Ash. Ash first walked in the studio looking for a half sleeve to represent his 2 daughters. He wanted a black and grey half sleeve tattoo, so he was sent in my direction for me to do it. That’s the advantage about getting tattooed by our tattoo studio in Bury, is that every customer gets directed to the best artist based on their request, so the customer always collects the best work possible, so the client always wins.

It’s quiet rare to see this philosophy in a tattoo studio in Manchester, where you get sent to the best artist based on your request, a majority of Tattoo Studios each artist look after themselves, and even take work they never studied or are even interested in. 

So I was happy when Ash got sent my way based on his request, as it was his first tattoo, I was happy to explain everything to him, and answer any questions he had. It was a big step for his first tattoo, but I liked how he approached it, as he wanted to do it properly, it gives me hope, when I get a first timer tattoo collector willing to get a piece of art and not cut corners and trust the process. 

In our consultation i guessed it would take 2 sessions, it ended up taking 3 sessions, however he was patient and stuck with the process. 

As soon as we had our consultation i sensed Ash was a chilled guy, and patient, usually patient people are the ones with the best tattoos, because they are willing to put the time necessary to make their tattoo as good as it can be. 

When I get a client getting a full or half sleeve tattoo in Manchester, I want to spend as much time as possible on the tattoo to make sure it’s as good as I can deliver. I believe it comes down to how much you care about what you are doing and with tattooing is no different. When the tattoo looks finished, but you add a bit more time to it, that little touch up session makes such a difference. And I’m grateful for the clients that come back and allow me to add more time in the tattoo, and it make it as I believe it should be done. 

While tattooing Ash, we had the same interest in music and Sports, it does lighten the energy when you meet someone new, and they have the same interest as me. Ash is a big football fan like  I’m so it was easy to talk to him, we both support the same football team as well in the Premier league, so football was a good subject to talk about while the tattoo was happening, and we had similar taste in music too, I’m pretty easy going with music, I usually I play music what my clients like, but sometimes some clients have a great taste in music so that really eases the tattoo process. Ash was also in to the supernatural, he actually does sometime quiet brace is to stay in haunted places, what a brave guy, I’m spiritual and definitely interested in the supernatural, but staying over night in a jointed house is just on another level, so respects for you Ash, you are a brave man. 

That was the bravery that open the doors for him to have faith in the process, getting tattooed as many sessions as needed to deliver the best tattoo we were capable of, and why not, if it’s going to be in your body for the rest of your life, why not, invest time and as care as possible.

Thank you Ash, you are very welcome in the studio, and I look forward to see you again and tattoo you again. 

All the best 

Clock Tattoo in Bury Manchester

A sucessfull Tattoo Requires Faith from both Client and Tattoo Artist

Tattoo Academy is not recommended

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Tattoo Studio Bury

Tattoo academy is a Scam

I have decided to work on this blog, in order to help and protect parents who don’t know what to do when their kid wants to be a tattoo artist. I have had so many parents approaching me, asking me if I could train their son or daughter to enter the tattoo industry, and i can tell how the parent have no information about how the Tattoo Industry works, and all they want to do is to help their kid to follow their dream. And that’s exactly what Tattoo academy does, and in this blog I’m going to explain how.

I’m the kind of person who believes in doing things properly, that’s why sometimes I have concerns tattooing some clients because not everyone has the same mentality and philosophy as me. I’m grateful for all my clients who have allowed me to spend the time necessary to take the tattoo to the best it could be. 

Training someone up to be a tattoo artist is something really serious to do, so serious that not everyone can see that. Training someone to be a tattoo artist is like giving a weapon in the hand of someone who could be responsible or could not be responsible. So giving someone a tattoo machine because they paid a few thousand pounds, is letting anyone who pays the money carry a weapon with them, and that’s dangerous to tattoo collectors. 

Training someone to be a Tattoo Artist in a couple of weeks is not realistic. You can not teach a skill full trade like tattooing to someone in a couple of weeks. Tattooing requires a strong artistic background, drawing is so important, and some tattoo academies are informing their students that you don’t have to draw to be a tattoo artist. Having an experience tattooing in a busy studio, everyday, you have to deal with the human body, designs have to flow in the clients body that curves so much, having to make designs flow and fit to someone’s body it requires drawing skills. Dealing with issues during a tattoo process it requires drawing skills, so basically teaching someone to tattoo without drawing skills, is like getting to the top of the mountain without climbing it, and missing a very important foundation in tattooing.

Having to draw before tattooing it takes time and dedication, and it’s the time and dedication that doesn’t work in nowadays philosophy, finding ways to make quick money by skipping steps, the make it happen faster attitude, and the get there cutting corners path, of courses online, it hides the reality of what a career reality really is. 

I have been tattooing for 19 years and I’m still developing everyday as an artist, and I’m one of the few tattoo artist who still draw traditionally, I do it for inner fulfilment and skills development, in order to try to give the best for my clients. 

Tattoo Academies are run by Tattoo Artists who cares about nothing but money. A lot of Tattoo Studios are not hiring anyone who’s been to a Tattoo academy, and the reason why is because Tattoo Artists who had former apprenticeships by other tattoo artists do understand what it takes to be a professional Tattoo Artist. And that means being in a Tattoo studio everyday, and being around that environment for years and years to come. 

Learning from good artists it means earning the respect from good artists, and hanging out with artists you can learn from, it means earning the respect of good artists and that’s not an easy thing to do. They have to see that you are a serious artist too, and to be a serious artist it takes a lot of sacrifice that not everyone is willing or having the courage to do. 

My advice to someone wanting to be a Tattoo Artist would be, focus on learning art, drawing and painting, build a good artistic portfolio, and get tattooed by the Tattoo Artist you want to learn from, because when you get tattooed by the Tattoo Artist you look up to, you are getting an amazing piece of art and building a relationship with that artist, and if your art work impresses the Tattoo Artist who you are getting Tattooed by, the tattoo artist who are getting tattooed by will offer you an apprenticeship, because they will not want to see your talent being wasted. 

I did train someone, I did it once and I will never do it again, I tried to do it properly but as soon as he picked up a tattoo machine he stopped listening to me, once he got what he wanted, he wasn’t the same person anymore. Money changes people unfortunately, he became greed with money, his clients would spend thousands with him getting full sleeves,  and he would still charge his clients for a t-shirt. If a clients is spending so much money, getting a half sleeve or a full sleeve from you, you give them a t-shirt. His tattooing was still developing and he was charging his clients £100 per hour, way over charging based on what he could do, but unfortunately I gave power to someone who runs before they can walk. I was expecting to respect him when I saw him tattooing, but to be honest even if i tried I couldn’t. 

That’s why if any youngster asks me for a Tattoo Apprenticeship is a no from me, because I have too much respect for tattooing and it won’t be easy to find someone who I would be proud of and respect after I gave them a career. 

Bury Tattoo Studio

Cover-up Tattoo Manchester

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My Cover-up Tattoo Journey

Big Cover-up Tattoo Work in Manchester

In this blog I would like to talk about the last experience I had with a cover-up tattoo. There’s a lot involved in order to achieve success  in a cover-up tattoo, so I hope in this blog, talking about my experience approaching this cover-up tattoo in Bury, hopefully it could help and guide those looking for a cover-up tattoo in Manchester. 

Cover-ups is more than a fresh skin tattoo work to do. I would say it’s at least double the amount of work, than approaching a normal tattoo. That doesn’t mean I don’t like to do cover-ups, to be honest I love the challenge to do a cover-up tattoo. 

Approaching a cover-up tattoo requires a lot of thinking and planning, thinking about tones is a big thing to consider, as the tones you will add on top of the cover up, it has to be darker than the tones that already exist. So the darker the tattoo that needs covering up is, the harder it’s to make the job work. 

Paul got his tattoos a long time ago, so I could see there was a lot of black on the tattoo, however, the black was quite old, not so solid. His old tattoo there was a lot of black on it, however, we would have to see which image he wanted to cover his tattoo with. In order to find the right image for a cover up, the image needs a lot of texture, texture is the perfect example to make a cover up tattoo work. Examples images of that are, dragons, snakes, nature, patterns.

Paul showed me an image of a  monkey with sunglasses on the beach, really fun image, the image he chose it was fun, it had some details in it, and it looked like it was possible to cover-it up, however, I knew I had to contrast the image a bit more in order to achieve the cover up request. 

In this post I will upload an image of the reference Paul gave me, and the image of the finished tattoo, as you can see the image of the finished tattoo, it looks a bit darker than the reference image, and that’s due to, I had to contrast the image a bit more to give more depth, to be able to cover what he had. Depth and contrast is really important in a cover-up, and in most cases when the client gives me a reference, I have to add depth to it, so basically I do every tone darker than what’s meant to be. Darkening all tones it makes the image clearer, it’s good for longevity and it works well for the cover up.

Tattooing Paul was a good experience, he was very appreciative of the tattoo work he got done, that’s a good tip for when you get tattooed, be appreciative of the tattoo you have, be appreciative of how much work you got done as well, tattooists work so hard to give their clients a good quality tattoo, and sometimes when the session is over, the client only focus on the parts of the tattoo that hasn’t been done or needs finishing. Focus on what you got done, understand that you chose that artist to tattoo you for a reason, so if that means coming back to get it finished, as soon as it’s done properly so be it. It’s not about how long it takes, it’s about how it’s done, some tattooists work really fast, and try to impress the clients with speed, however, speed does not mean quality. It’s very very rare, when a tattoo artist works really fast and does amazing work, a majority of tattoo artist’s who work really fast cut corners, and that’s something you don’t want to happen when someone is marking their body for the rest of their life.

Thank you for reading 

In this image you can see his previous tattoo, before i started working on the cover-up

Cover Up Tattoo Manchester

Feminine Tattoo Sleeve

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Bury Tattoo Studio

Butterfly and Cherry Blossoms Sleeve Tattoo

Sometimes clients can come in the studio, with a Tattoo already started by another artist. A consultation is really important to discuss the possibilities about what is realistic and what’s not, what can be done to meet the clients expectations, in this process of evaluating a Tattoo work, done previously somewhere else, honesty is the best policy. As you can’t get your clients hopes high, and make your client believe something that’s not possible, the best way is to evaluate your approach and let the client know realistically, the different options they have.

Amanda approached me with a Cherry blossom tree and butterfly that needed to re-work. At first she mentioned about getting rid of everything, so I recommended to laser it off, as it was quiet bold, and a cover-up process, the chances of it not working could been high. So she agreed with going ahead with re-working what she had and extending it afterwards. 

I believe that’s the best way to approach a tattoo started by another artist, is to re-work everything the client has, so the tattoo looks more like I have started, then when you carry on, everything else flows and it looks like it’s been done by one artist. 

I believe we spent 2 full days re-working everything Amanda had, and I realised Amanda was very patient, and willing to spend the time necessary to achieve the end result. 

After we re-worked everything previously started by another artist. Amanda requested to carry on with her tattoo with the intention to get a full sleeve. At first she mentioned about carrying on with roses, and I thought it was a good idea, I took a picture of her arm, and decided to put roses on top of her arm on photoshop to have a feel of what was going to look like. Finishing the photoshop idea, I realised the roses didn’t really look right next to the cherry blossoms, so if something doesn’t feel right, I have to deviate from the plan and try something else, I thought carefully and realised that, cherry blossoms only grows around cherry blossoms, there’s no other plant that grows next to cherry blossoms. So I let Amanda know that it was better to carry on with cherry blossoms instead of roses. 

I enjoy doing roses tattoo, however, in this case I had to pay attention and respect what was previously tattooed in my clients arm. I believe that’s the best way to approach a tattoo that has not been started by me, it’s to not think selfishly and just do whatever I want, it’s to understand that something else has been started, and is it worth it for me to re-work it? Because sometimes the answer could be no, it’s not worth it. The reason why I chose to go ahead with Amanda’s request, was based on her open mindset, and I could tell she was willing to listen to me, and allow me to work with a peace of mind. 

So I worked on a cherry blossom photoshop idea, and it felt right carrying on with cherry blossoms, I sent the idea to Amanda and she seemed really happy to go ahead with the new idea. 

As we started to carry on the cherry blossoms on the other side of her arm, the tattoo didn’t quite connect at first, as we were working in a different part of the body. I chose to carry on with cherry blossoms but more of an in focus large cherry blossoms in order to give perspective. So at first the tattoo seemed a bit separate than the one we started, even knowing it was the same flower. So that’s when sometimes other people can get in the way of the tattoo, and say things that could discourage the tattoo collector in carrying on with the project, but in Amanda’s case it was different, as she didn’t listen to what others were saying about the unfinished tattoo, and had faith that when we finished with the tattoo it would look right, so sometimes I have to be grateful when you get strong minded clients, who are willing to stick through the process no matter what. In the end of the day, only the ones who stick with the process get the end result. 

So Amanda definitely deserved to get the end result, and I hope to work with more clients like Amanda, who have faith in the process and in my work too, when you have this combination everything else just flows so easily. You have a nice tattoo and your Tattoo Artist enjoys tattooing you. 

Thank you Amanda 

Greater Manchester Tattoo Studio

In order to achieve a full sleeve, it requires a lot of patience and faith, from both client and Tattoo Artist. Faith in the unseen.

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