Read Dylan’s full answers below
What was your first tattoo?
My first tattoo was on my leg, a stick n poke. Me and my friend when we were about 15 just put some Indian ink and used a safety pin. There was a few (first tattoos). There’s a strange smiley face, and some that have kind of faded. A number 9 which is because I lived in three different houses as I grew up, 9 Pevensey Road, 99 Braybrooke Road and 9 St. Paul’s Road. So it became a number I kind of liked.
And then?
We were sort of doing that a lot when we were younger (stick and poke tattoos). And my dad, he’s got full sleeves and so has my mum, so they were like, ‘come on get a proper one’. But I wasn’t old enough yet. My dad for my 18th birthday bought me a tattoo voucher for a shop in Hastings, Madam Butterflies and I got a pigeon with glasses on and I found out later that my granddad actually flew pigeons, racing pigeons, so it ended up meaning something even though I kind of thought it was a silly idea. I like pigeons. A lot of people don’t really like them. They’re good. I really like pigeons. But I thought I’d put a bit of a funny twist on it by putting glasses on it. I guess that was my first proper one. Funnily enough I bumped into a girl in Hoxton a few years back and she was on the phone and I just saw she had a pigeon in the same place, tattooed, on the upper arm. And I just went over to her and tapped her on the shoulder and showed her mine and she was like ‘oh my God, I’m going to have to call you back’, and hung up the phone, and was like ‘what the fuck, I’ve never seen anyone with a pigeon in the exact same place, or anything like that.
How do you choose your art?
I mean, some of them I thought about for a while, or some of them I’ve got inspiration from somewhere, having been drunk… or I’ll have an idea and it will change into something different. Um, it is just whatever pops in my head and I’ll go with that. I like a lot of popular culture. Music. And a lot of my influences go onto my body in a way. Placement is a funny one. In my head I think about something and then the artist, who ever does it might think completely different. I had a little tiff with Caleb (Caleb Kilby from Old Habits Tattoo) when I first got tattooed by him, because he didn’t want to tattoo his drawing because I wanted it in a certain place, so we had to go with something completely different. But obviously I’ll listen to the artist, but if I don’t want it there, I just won’t get it.
Did you collection advance quickly?
Yeah, I think it was access to a good artist, well Ross (Ross Hell), basically, and my friend Connor, in Australia, had a gun. But it was always kind of sketchy. But when I moved back to London they’re down to tattoo me whenever and my other friends as well.
What artists do you like?
I like a lot of the London scene. Joe Chatt (@ihaveadeathwish), Elliott (@paradisehellbow), some of the Australian bunch, like Paradise. Obviously, Ross (@ross_hell, Steve (@leantohate81), Traphouse (@traphousetattooer) Sean from Texas (@seanfromtexas), Duncan (@duncanxtattoos) and Liam (@liamsparksok). I’m not too into traditional stuff on myself but I definitely appreciate it.
Your most recent tattoo is?
The latest one ‘get fuct/Buckfast’ is a tribute to my favourite drink. There’s a saying that saying, ‘Buckfast gets you fucked fast’, so I was kinda rolling with that. It can also work on the separate hands, saying, ‘get Buck’ and ‘fuct fast’.
Any good tattoo stories?
I had one in my head a second ago, but its just popped out. Oh, I can’t remember.
You’ve got some pretty recognisable hands. Tell me about those.
Yeah, I was at the Ace Hotel, doing stick and pokes… my laundry is in the bath, which is trashy, hipster, music video imaginations (when I got ‘You killed me first’ done). And I ended up, someone bumped into me in a bar in London and they were like, ‘I’ve seen that tattoo on your hand somewhere before’… and I was like, ‘I don’t think you would of done unless it was me’, and they were like, ‘nah, I’ve seen it on Tumblr or somewhere’. And I was like, ‘really, how come?’ And I spoke to my ex; me and her are the only people who have it on our hands. It ended up being re-posted like 600,000 times and it was on all these blogs. It was quite a gnarly saying and a lot of people ask me about it. I think she saw it in a toilet, bathroom, graffiti book or something.
What’s your favourite tattoo?
In terms of my favourite I would say it changes a lot but overall I like the way my hands look as a whole. The way they look together.