Nikole Lowe is best known to those outside the inner circle of tattooing simply as the 'hot blonde one on London Ink’, the diminuative blonde having won fans the world over with her ferocious laugh and wicked sense of humour. But to anyone else with more than a passing interest or a dolphin on her ankle, Nikole is one of the finest tattooists in the world, owner of Good Times Tattoo in London and proud owner of both leg and arm sleeves by Filip Leu. With a waiting list of over three years, Nikole's detailed, colourful Japanese style work has won her legions of fans and her shop Good Times has been a a runaway success from the start. Boasting artists such as the amazing Saira Hunjan, Danny Kelly, Nick Horn, Piotrek Taton and Miles Monaghan, Good Times is a conoisseurs's tattoo studio, a far cry from the dodgy seafront shops of yore.
do everything in New Zealand. It wasn't really until I came here that I started specialising more. So I started off with the Maori stuff then moved into mostly flowers and butterflies then it kind of progressed in Japanese because the flowers and butterflies needed backgrounds. Mainly I do Japanese these days. Do you ever get bored of doing the same stuff all the time? Yeah I'm always trying to change it. People are quite open now to letting me just go for it, if I say I want to try something new then they're always pretty up for it. I did a Koi fish on the London Ink show once then after
In speaking to Nikole I was struck by the dual aspects to her personality; both supremely confident and self depracating, Nikole often referred to the fact she'd succeeded due to being in the right place at the right time. But to describe Nikole Lowe as lucky would be to flippantly dismiss her hard work and dedication to tattooing; her success is entirely her own, a direct result of hard graft and talent. Nikole and I caught up in her light and airy second home to discuss her shop, career and the difficulty of tattooing cats. How did you originally get into tattooing when you were back in New Zealand? I got into tattooing by accident, I was young, I was broke and I used to draw a lot, so I went to sell some designs to a tattooer and he basically fell in love with me. It was just a case of right place, right time. His receptionist was pregnant and he needed someone else so he offered me an apprenticeship. He obviously saw something in me and I never looked back. Then I moved here in 2000 and started working at Angelic Hell on Frith Street. I was there for a while then I went to Into You for a couple of years before setting up this place. That was about three years ago. How long were you at the shop before they let you start tattooing? I was an apprentice for three years but they let me start tattooing after the first year. But heaps of days I did nothing and if you don't work, you don't get paid. From what I can tell you started off doing a lot of butterflies and flowers and then progressed into Japanese work? Well when I first came to the UK I did a lot of Maori stuff, the traditional New Zealand stuff, plus I did basically everything as you kind of have to be able to
that all I got asked for was Koi fish. I got so sick of them that I decided that I wouldn't do another one for a year. So I had a year off just to get over it with no Koi fish because it was basically like every day. I mean you can only do it so many ways, it's a great tattoo but not if you are doing it every day. What was the TV show London Ink like?
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