At Ritual Art Tattoo we are committed to artistic tattooing. We tattoo unique custom work each time rather than traditional flash. There are six resident artists and we all have our own likes and dislikes, strengths in design and personal ways of working. When you come to Ritual Art, its not necessarily the less booked artist that will tattoo you. We strongly believe that the design that you have in mind should determine who does the tattoo, as artists we will do the best work if we enjoy the subject matter and the style of design. The tattoo industry is such these days that you should shop around for the artist that suits your plan. When you contact us with your ideas, the artist that suits the design will take you on as a client. We have worked this way for many years and have been successful because of this. Our clients naturally want the best artwork there is and we work very closely with them. A great tattoo is a coming together of two minds; a good idea and experience of what works and what doesn’t on skin. If we have a problem with the design plan we are honest and will say so straight away, we will make the tattoo the best it can be with our practised judgement and if we don’t like the idea, we wont take it on. There are things that we won't tattoo, down to individual preferences and opinions, but we are artists and not servicemen! check out the gallery to see our work. Feel free to email any questions you have following the link, and check out our friends on our links pages, there some inspirational artists, well worth checking out.

RITUAL ART NEWS

Rufus Dali is walking!!

Jim and Lizi's little one is now up on two feet, he is a funny little dude with a personality all of his own already! He loves hanging out at the studio and watching daddy and the guys tattooing, he still finds the noise of the machines soothing. He has been to 3 tattoo conventions to date and plans to be at lots more!!

R.I.P Chris "Scars"

Jim's client Chris was in the process of having some beautiful sleeve work done to cover up some unwanted, heavy scarring on his forearms. He was having long day sessions with Jim and they had almost completed one of the sleeves, with a rainforest design with sunrays beaming thru the flora. Tragically Chris past away this summer, our thoughts go out to his friends and loved ones, he was good fun to have in the studio and Jim and him hit it off straight away!

Luna begins her colour outline apprenticeship with Lizi

Luna has been working at Ritual Art tattoo for two years now, she originally came in on the work experience scheme, set up with her school. She was so enthusiastic that Jim and Lizi offered her a Saturday job. She has since finished school and done an art course at college too. She embarked on a tattoo apprenticeship this July with Lizi and will be learning the colour outline style that Lizi specialies in. Concentrating on design and how to construct a well fitting tattoo, on paper,at first. Then tattooing herself, she will be tattooing in the studio next summer. There are some examples of her work in the gallery on this site.

Innerstate

Hell City Fest in Ohio was a brilliant tattoo convention, with a nice friendly vibe. Lizi was a part of the Innerstate project, set up by Guy Aitchison and Michele Wortman, to incourage fine art to be shown at tattoo conventions. The project was an eye opening experience for the public, to see how artistic us tattooers really are! It was nice to work a tattoo convention, within an environment of complete creativity and with electronic music playing from the DJ booth and visuals of art and tattoos on a large projecter, it made for an eclectic rush of creative energy. Lizi completed her painting in the 5 days allocated and got some dancing in with her colour outline pal Michele too! Jim and Rufus hung out and got to know a lot of artists and tattooers there. Jim undertook Art Fusion, a set of four to five canvasses and charcoal, which gets swapped between 4-5 artists every 3 minutes, which makes for a quickly created artwork with a mix of styles. Then travelled with Guy and Michele across state to Hyperspace for some serious tattoo sessions and funtimes. Lizi got her left sleeve started with a large chameleon and cell pattern with plumaria flowers, and second passes on her right sleeve and some new additions to the right arm too. Jim got his hand and arm second passed, so they're even brighter now! Back to work now with a renewed energy and vigor! See you at the studio soon.

Jim and Lizi Stateside

Jim and Lizi will be away for a couple of weeks beginning the 25th may. They're off to the states for some tattoo related fun and frolics! Little Rufus is coming along too to meet everyone stateside. Lizi is entering into a painting jam called Innerstate at the Hell City fest in Ohio, and will be painting alongside around 50 other tattoo artists, all who paint in a visionary style. She is going to be working on a piece to be called "the Motherplant" to celebrate fertility of the natural world and her own past year. She will update the snapshot gallery when home with the finish piece. Check out the link in the links area to see more! The studio is open as usual with David, Chase, Ed and Luna there to run things.

New Apprentice for Jim!!

Jim has taken on a new apprentice, named Ed. he is a professional illustrater by trade at the moment, and has been hanging out at the studio since the beginning of this year. He is just starting to tattoo under Jim's supervision and has tattooed himself, and a couple of friends to date. we will be adding a new gallery for Ed in the new future to show some sketches and paintings..so watch this space!

R.I.P JOHN LOTUS

On Saturday the 3rd January John passed away due to a massive tumor in his chest. The news came as a shock to us, as we had last seen John back in July when Lizi was working on his half backpiece.

John D'Oliviera, aka John "Lotus", was one of Lizi's most covered clients. She worked on two full sleeves and a half backpiece of a spiritual nature including lotus flowers, buddahs, temples and humming birds over the period of 2-3 years. John was a welcome breeze of calm to the studio, a most pleasant man with an air of peace to his nature, which Lizi tried to reflect in his tattoo work. He spent a long time in the chair and had a real dedication to his tattoos, which he started to collect later in life than most, but worked on ideas and thoughts that went well with Lizi's style and they would work closely together on projects.

Lizi has also extensively tattooed both his daughters with floral tattoos and his wife with a thumb tattoo. They are a lovely family and our thoughts are with Janet, Jo and Jen at this incredibly hard time and everyone at Ritual Art Tattoo will miss John Lotus' visits to the studio.

Rufus has arrived!!

Lizi gave birth to Rufus at 3.45am on Sunday the 21st September, after 12hours of labour..with 8 in the birthing pool! He weighed a hefty 9.7 pounds, and has lots of dark hair. He was 2 weeks over due. Both Lizi and baby Ru are doing very well and Jim is having fun being daddy. Rufus is a sweety and has already done his first painting...hand prints!!

Lizi will be returning part time to the studio in 2009. She has a waiting list for clients going, so please contact her through this website for more info with a detailed message of the work that you are after. She will be doing coloured outline projects only.

Jim is now booked until September time and is currently comprising a waiting list for the rest of 2009, so same applies.