Art of Zen strikes gold for talented Buckie tattoo artists
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TWO Buckie tattoo artists have been enjoying an award-filled year at national competitions.
The Halloween Tattoo Bash over October 14-15 at Wolverhampton proved a happy hunting ground for Shannon Chalmers, who works at Zen Ink Body Art on the town's High Street, when she was proclaimed the winner of the Best Colour category.
Shannon was following boss Shaun Doherty's example, who returned north from the Great British Tattoo Show at Alexandra Palace in London proudly clutching the trophies for Best Realism Tattoo and Best of Sunday in May. For both artists, it was their first awards at a convention.
It was glory at the first time of asking for Shannon, with the Halloween Tattoo Bash being her first venture into convention competition.
She said: "I went down with a positive mental attitude and was just going to do my best.
"It was super surreal when I won, Shaun was shouting over to me that I'd won and it didn't really sink in at first.
"There're four different judges looking at your work and they go into a lot of the technical details of the tattoo."
Shannon, who has been with Zen ink since 2019, won the day with her amazing take on Murdoc from the Gorillaz, adapting the animated band member to suit her artistic style. Prior to the convention, she created the design and sized it up on Callum Jordan before tattooing it onto his lower leg over the course of just under two days.
It was a case of all or nothing in Shannon's category – there were no runners-up prizes.
Shaun joined Shannon in Wolverhampton with client Michael Crane, although success was not to come his way on that occasion. However, it was an altogether different story at Alexandra Palace when two trophies were won thanks to his stunning leopard tattoo.
"It's my first two awards, I'm absolutely over the moon," Shaun continued.
"There were a lot of good artists down there.
"I felt relaxed and good about the design, I spent a lot of time studying it and sizing it up on the client. It took the whole two days and I finished with about 15 minutes to spare."
Category winners were then entered into the Best of Day award and the winners from this were in the running for the Best of Show.
Shaun, who set up Zen Ink in 2016, added that he was looking to move to a bigger premises to accommodate his expanding client base and was hoping to recruit a piercer plus a tattoo artist.
To find out more about what Zen Ink Body Art by visiting their Facebook page or emailing zeninkbodyart@gmail.com
