A mum-of-two has spent thousands on getting tattoos over the last 20 years, guessing that she’s sat in the tattooist’s chair for around 200 hours in total.
Tattoo-loving Alex Derbyshire, 38, has been fascinated by body modification since childhood and jumped at the chance to get legally tattooed as an 18 year old.
Since then she’s been tattooed from head to toe – including her armpits – and vows to be completely covered by the time she turns 40.
The single mum, from Bolton, said: ‘I’ve always loved tattoos. Before I was old enough to get one, I was dying to know what they felt like.
‘I have no idea how much I’ve spent in total – it must be quite a few thousand pounds – but that’s been spread across two decades, during which, on average, I’ve had one to two large pieces done a year.’
Her first tattoo was a subtle Celtic design on her lower back. Over the coming years, she added 16 more small inkings around her body – all of which could be easily covered by clothing.
But when Alex, who works in a customer-facing role as barber, entered her thirties, she decided that she no longer cared about what other people thought.
Instead, she went ahead with face, toe and armpit tattoos as well as ‘blackout work’, which is a solid opaque design spanning her neck, back and arms.
Alex says: ‘I have had the odd nasty comment, with people telling me I’m stupid for spending so much money on them, but that doesn’t bother me. To me, tattoos are a hobby and an art form – why shouldn’t I show them off?’
As social media became more popular, Alex joined Instagram in around 2013.
There she discovered an entire community of fellow tattoo enthusiasts, showing off their pieces and she herself now has nearly 20,000 followers.
She said: ‘I never thought I’d end up as covered as I am now.
‘When I first started getting tattoos 20 years ago, they weren’t as common as they are now, and not as appreciated as an art form.
‘I was really inspired by the people I was seeing on Instagram – especially other women.’
Now almost completely covered, she hopes to have all her work finished by the time she turns 40 in December 2022.
She has all the actual designs she wants done, it’s just a case of filling in the gaps with more blackwork on her ribs and right leg.
Her inkings include several pieces dedicated to Pink Floyd, her favourite band – one of which is under her left armpit.
She also has Johnny Cash lyrics on her foot, a skull and butterfly on her neck and chest, and a portrait of Sweeney Todd (a nod to her job as a barber).
Alex believes that her high pain threshold is crucial to getting the work done.
She said: ‘The most painful places I’ve had tattoos so far are my back, armpit and my toes. I didn’t expect that to hurt quite as much as it did.
‘I have a couple of tattoos on my face – mainly little linear designs done in white ink, so they aren’t super visible – which was a very strange sensation. You can feel the vibration going through your whole body the second that gun touches your skin.
‘The longest I’ve ever sat without a break is probably around six hours to have my neck tattoo done.’
Alex’s children are big fans of her tattoos and she anticipates they will follow in her footsteps, especially her youngest son Liam.
Alex adds: ‘I absolutely love all the work I’ve had. It’s taken years to get here, and I can’t wait to be fully covered.
‘I think then I’ll be finished, like a completed piece of artwork.’
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