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Rural Ink In the wild Northumbrian countryside, Cerys Williams is making her name known as a prolific tattoo artist.

Portraits and words Ellie Brown

Out of the soft, dense, Northumberland mist emerges a small, heavily tattoed girl who looks like she’s just on the cusp of adulthood.

At first glance, Cerys seems like your average wannabe teen punk rocker, but underneath the heavily inked shell, there is a rebel waiting to get out. Born in the secluded seaside village of Craster, Cerys was brought up like every other Northumbrian child. So how in a world of welly wearing, country bumkins, did Cerys bring to life her own creative canvas?

Craster is a small coastal village that is hidden away from the 2

experimental and avant-garde lifestyles that you see in the big cities, but Cerys was always drawn to the alternative culture. “I remember seeing a man on the bus in Alnwick, he had a giant, multicoloured Mohican and I was like wow, he looks awesome, like no one else I’ve seen.” Her fascination with Indie and retro grew, from music to clothing to piercing and eventually tattoos.

Over the length of her body, Cerys has 14 pieces of art carefully etched into her porcelain skin.

Cerys tells me of her parent’s distaste at her first tattoo. “They weren’t happy about it at all”. Cerys

explains: “It is an extreme look that you don’t see around here”. The worry for Cerys’ family was that the tattooing would be a phase and eventually she’d be a walking colouring book unable to hold any employment down because of derogatory snap judgements.

And they wouldn’t be wrong to think this. Cerys speaks of the public attitude towards those who are heavily tattooed. “People find it quite shocking, there’s a connotation that to get tattooed you are on the dole or drugs, but tattoos are actually really expensive.”

As a headstrong modern-day woman, Cerys knew exactly what

Cerys picture outside her home, Craster harbour.

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“Tattoos are part of my personality and who I am, I like my appearance so much more than I did two years ago.”

she wanted to do with her life aged 16. After looking into tattooing during her first year of sixth form she was set on the idea, she tells me that “I knew that my parents wouldn’t let me drop out to do the job I wanted, so when they went on holiday, I stopped going to school.”

Everyone around Cerys was concerned for her, and doubtful as to whether she could succeed at such a rogue job in a secluded area. Cerys’ effervescence and passion seem to have worked in her favour, as she’s now a fully qualified, self-employed tattoo artist.

But moving forward in her life Cerys has discovered that the tattoos have become an essential part of who she is. “Tattoos are part of my personality and who I am, I like my appearance so much more than I did two years ago.” And it doesn’t seem as though she will stop anytime soon, practising tattooing in a town 4

where the demand isn’t always high, means that sometimes artists must tattoo themselves. Cerys tells me that when you first start the tattoo it’s difficult because of the pain but “after 15 minutes you’re concentrating so hard, you can’t feel it.”

Cerys currently works at Elemental, a studio based in Alnwick. She takes a lot of inspiration from her boss Emma Archbold and co-worker Rees Wade. “Emma and Rees took me in, and I have a lot of respect for both of them”, Cerys explained, “They look so different to everyone else, but they’re so comfortable with who they are, now they have their tattoos.”

Emma and Rees were both quite hard on Cerys and she believes that this is what has given her confidence in her art and made her a stronger person.

But Emma and Rees aren’t Cerys’ only inspiration. A lot of the work she likes, Cerys tells me

she finds on Instagram. “I also have two Asian inspired pieces on my body, Henna on the back of my neck and the Hindu eye on my leg.” Along with culturally inspired pieces, a lot of Cerys’ work is minimal, slightly gothy and all-around whacky. “I just like to doodle and then sometimes I look down and I think actually, that would make a really cool tattoo.”

When speaking about the future, Cerys tells me of her wishes to travel and that she has no desire to open her own studio: “For me, I like to have the freedom to move around if I wanted to, to go get inspiration from other areas and people.” It will be interesting to see where Cerys’ artistic zeal will take her next but she assures me that, “I am sure that tattooing is what I want to do for the rest of my life, I didn’t realise how unhappy I was in my life before I started to tattoo.”

Cerys pictured with Dunstanburgh Castle in the background.

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