At the start of this year Spadgerina came across tattooist Dan Morris, on Pinterest. Instantly falling for his sweet, sweet style she very nicely asked me if I’d buy her a tattoo for her birthday. Let me tell you, it’s very hard to say no to a face like this.  She cheekily booked the appointment a few weeks earlier than her actual birthday saying “It’s still May, what more do you want?” — I let that slide because I’m such a nice guy.

Before finding Dan, Spadge already had the concept for her next tattoo. She’d been inspired by a line from some Mark Sanders lyrics:

“I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance, never settle for the path of least resistance”

It’s a pretty long line and she’s got some pretty skinny (Sparrow like) legs, so she wanted a visual representation of the words rather than getting the actual text tattooed.

Dan works out of Rain City Tattoo Collective in Manchester, so on Thursday night I drove us over. I took my “backpack studio” with me in the hopes that Dan would let me shoot a portrait of him after he’d finished the piece on Spadge’s leg. Surprisingly he came across as quite a reserved guy when we met him, so I was stoked when he said yes.

I LOVE taking environmental portraits! Especially in a location like this; I think it tells you so much more about the subject. To make this shot a little bit different I mixed free lensing with strobist lighting; I’m pretty happy with how it came out.