Jessie Stanhope

As an aspiring tattoo artist, it felt necessary to include elements of tattoo imagery in my work, drawing inspiration mainly from the American traditional style which really kick-started the mainstream practice of tattooing in the western world, and the Japanese style which has long been admired and revered worldwide. My work consists mostly of screen prints that are made by sketching out my design first and then hand-drawing the positives needed to burn the screens. This method of making is important to me as it gives the work an imperfect finish and ensures that no two prints will be the same. I also find the process of screen printing to be similar to that of tattooing with the use of stencils and building up an image in layers. The Biro drawings in the series were made using a tattoo machine that I modified myself in order to accommodate the pen cartridge as opposed to a needle. This method produced an interesting result, creating the build up of depth and texture in an otherwise flat plane. I’ve chosen to base the designs around certain tarot cards as I feel that tattoos are as much of a story telling tool as tarot and both are incredibly personal to whoever receives them. I also created one card myself, The Artist. This card is the most personal to me as it represents the way I would most like to express myself as an artist and where I would like my creativity to take me in the future.