Why where you work changes everything

I spent years working across London and Cheltenham. Busy studios, shared spaces, the background noise of a working shop floor. The work was good but I always knew something was missing, and it took me a while to name it properly.

It was calm. For me and for the client.

Tattooing at the level I want to work at requires a particular kind of focus. Not just technical concentration - though there’s plenty of that but a shared stillness between two people. The client needs to feel relaxed enough to sit well, to communicate honestly, to trust the process. And I need an environment that lets me give a piece of work everything it deserves. That’s very hard to find in a busy studio where the next appointment is waiting and the phone doesn’t stop.

So when the opportunity came to move to the Cotswolds permanently, I took it without hesitation.

I work now from a private studio on the Barnsley Park Estate, five miles northeast of Cirencester. And for anyone who hasn’t spent time here the Cotswolds is something else entirely. It’s one of those rare places where the pace genuinely slows down the moment you arrive. Rolling hills, honey-coloured stone villages, country pubs, open countryside in every direction. The kind of place people travel from all over the world to experience, and one that regularly draws people looking to step away from city life for a few days. It has that effect on people - and that effect matters enormously when someone is about to sit with me for a full day.

When a client arrives here - and they come from all over the country to do so - the shift is immediate. You can feel it. The shoulders drop. The conversation slows down. The day becomes what it should be - two people focused entirely on making something worth keeping.

A lot of my clients now make a proper trip of it. A few days in the Cotswolds, a session with me worked into the middle of it. I love that. It feels like the right way to do it - the appointment becomes part of an experience rather than something squeezed into a busy week.

I never take the setting for granted. It isn’t incidental to the work, it’s part of it.

If you’ve been thinking about making the trip, it’s worth it. Get in touch and we’ll start the conversation.