"The essential guidebook to the city's finest
tattoo studios & artists"

The London Tattoo Guide is an illustrated guidebook to 14 of the top tattoo studios in London, including detailed descriptions of their history, culture and atmosphere, interviews with the owners, stunning reportage photographs of the shops at work, resident artist profiles and contact information.  

As an avid tattoo collector and with my ever-deepening interest in the subject, you could describe this book as a labour of love. The original concept for the book was born out of three observations or motivations. 1. With the advent of Instagram, I could see the world's interest in tattooing increasing dramatically. I was convinced that we were moving into an important and exciting time for the industry and I was keen to document that in some way. 2. Friends have always come to me for advice about getting tattooed, which was a reminder that even for something as personal as a tattoo, a referral or strong testimonial still carries a lot of weight. 3. I noticed that there wasn't a central information source that gave people expert insights and advice about the best places to get tattooed. I set out to create a book that would do exactly that and inform anyone who might be planning to get a tattoo in the city. 

The book was then 3 years in the making from sketching out the idea through to holding a printed copy in my hands. This odyssey took me through writing the first draft of the proposal, unsolicited approaches to publishers, finding an agent, shooting the test chapters, getting the tattoo studios onboard, landing a book deal and finally writing the thing. At times it felt like it might never actually happen but now I couldn't be happier or prouder with the finished product. I can only hope that my readers and the tattoo community feel the same.

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The London Tattoo Guide team
- Photographer - Patrick Dalton - http://patrickdalton.co.uk/
- Designer - Stuart Hardie - http://www.stuarthardie.co.uk/
- Editor & Publisher - Kate Pollard @ Hardie Grant - http://www.hardiegrant.com/uk
- Agent - Becky Thomas - https://www.lewinsohnliterary.com/