We’re more than halfway into our worldwide Tattoo Tour with events, so far, taking place in London, Los Angeles, the Netherlands and Canada. It’s been our biggest tour to date, but no tour is complete without a closing party. Our final event takes place Saturday 6th August at @idletorque, Lutterworth UK where you can expect more flash tattoos, burgers, beers & products that will also be available to buy on the day. Follow our social channels for further details & updates.

We went out for a little ride & caught up with a friend of the brand @ethanjonestattoo who will be one of two artists tattooing on the day.

My name’s Ethan, I grew up in the midlands and started tattooing around 9-10 years ago. I started an apprenticeship at a street shop in Tamworth called Nala. They gave me my first opportunity tattooing and I'm still close with the owner. I then moved to Modern Body Art in Birmingham and The Circle London, working between the two for around 4 years. Eventually, 3-4 years ago I opened my own private studio here at 'The Yard' in Cotesbach, near Lutterworth. 

I never know how to describe my style of tattooing. I suppose its illustrative designs with classic European/American traditional rules and techniques. I hate the term 'Black work' because it’s so vague and doesn't really describe anything other than the colour, but it seems to get labelled as that a lot.

I know Lee, Jord and a few of the others at P & Co through tattooing really, and also the motorcycle scene. I tattooed Jordan’s wife a few years back and have since tattooed a handful of the P&Co crew.

It's a great set-up here. My studio is tucked away around the back of the yard with no signage- which is a pain in the arse directing first-timers here, but I also love that it's something you'd never guess existed in this environment. We all get along great. We are a bunch of businesses that have similar visions about how we want to work and operate. I'm close with Jack at Idle Torque and I do his branding and t-shirt design work. Our businesses work really well together in an organic way.

Honestly, no. I wanted to be heavily tattooed from a really young age. I watched a film when I was around 5-6, where someone got branded for some kind of punishment (I seem to remember it as being an early musketeers film). Anyways, as a kid, I thought that's what a tattoo was. That sparked my interest and I found the idea of having them exciting. In the same way, I wanted long hair and to dress like an outsider and listen to alternative music. Art was something I seemed to be quite natural at from a really early age. I was useless at anything academic and had/have a short attention span if I'm not interested. I studied graphic design and fine art after high school. I got tattooed by a guy up north when I was 19-20, he looked at my paintings and noticed I had a decent knowledge of tattooers and the culture. He then said 'Have you ever thought about being a tattooer?'. That’s when it clicked. A few years later I got an apprenticeship and here we are.

I think I approach tattoos like a graphic designer. But I use fundamental tattoo techniques to guide my designs. If you look at my work and then at religious artwork, there are massive influences. But I will look at anything from old scientific drawings, advertisements and branding, artwork and illustrations from all periods and genres. I try not to look at tattoos too much when drawing designs because you end up just copying a version of what you've looked at whether you mean to or not. Although stealing the odd trick or two is something we should all do, just be respectful in how you do it. Some of my favourite tattooers are - Duncan X, Austin Maples, Paul Dobleman, Rich Hardy, Danila Lacalle, Michele L'abbate, Rafa Decraneo and the list goes on. There are so many amazing tattooers around. I just want to do nice tattoos that will look good in 20 years' time.

I'll be tattooing outside Idle Torque with my buddy Joe @joegarey_tattoo. We're going to set up a dart board and a 'Get what you hit' game with 20 custom designs for the event. So hopefully, we get to do some fun tattoos and have a laugh whilst doing them! Bikes, beers, food and tattoos - What's not to love.