Tierney Beames

Tierney Beames is a self-taught hand poke tattoo artist. From oranges to humans, he's poked them! Over the years Tierney's performed dozens of tattoos; on close friends, girlfriends, himself... Tierney is truly a master of poking skin. We met Tierney on a blurry morning after the night before, outside Liverpool St Station. Here's what we think, we remember him saying...

What made you first think, 'Id like to Tattoo Something'?

TB: TBH I suppose I had that general tattoo interest, we had a spare room in an apartment were I used to live. That became our studio and it went from there.

Did you see any artists and think, that's cool... I want to do that!?

TB: err.. There's an artist called Jenna Bourma, she goes by SlowerBlack on her Insta. Her work is crazy, she creates massive back pieces, all stick and poked. Following her work, and seeing what she could do defiantly became a drive for me.

Can you show us your first poke?

TB: Me and my girlfriend did matching tattoo's, both little planets. It's such a weird sensation, it obviously hurts... but you can't stop. The next day I poked a bigger planet on the opposite side...

Have you ever got half way through a poke and had to commit, even if you thought it might look shit?

TB: Haha yes! Being able to tattoo, and having a fresh set of needles and ink around when your mates are drunk usually leads to this feeling! It's always alright though, once they've come to terms with it...

Instagram, thumbs up or down for tattoo artists?

TB: I rate it, Instagram provides a massive base of easily accessible art. Its a whole load easier to find tattoo artists now. Everyone's got their style, and you can find inspiration everywhere. Its defiantly been a driving force behind tattoo's hitting mainstream society.  

We think Stick & Pokes on the up, have you noticed the poking resurgence?

HB: Hand poking is so much more approachable, stick & poke is defiantly seeing a resurgence. The intimate nature of stick and poke takes away a world of stress. I've had machine tattoo's, there's always an uneasy feeling that just isn't there with stick and pokes. It could be the lack of machine noise I suppose...

Say I had a tattoo idea and wanted you to stick and poke it, how would I sort it?

HB: Send it over! Aha, I'm always looking to poke fresh designs... My Instagram @stubbornincorporated stays pretty updated with flash and availability, so keep an eye on that too. I'm currently jumping between London and Sheffield if anyone's interested.

Want to get inked by Tierney ?

E-mail        stubbornincorporated@gmail.com

Instagram           @stubbornincorporated