Sitting on the sofa in his flat in Walthamstow, north-east London, with his dog Pingu by his side, Chris Woodhead is trying to find space to add another tattoo to his already crowded body.
There is little unmarked skin left – from the tips of his fingers to the soles of his feet, almost every inch is covered in a vast jumble of tattoos of different styles. A pair of dice have fallen just before the toes of his right foot begin, a scorpion extends down his inner thigh, there’s a leaning palm tree, a swordfish arching around a love-heart, and a voodoo doll floats above some ripe, glossy cherries.
Chris has been regularly getting tattoos since turning 18, some 15 years ago. Growing up, he was obsessed with the tattoo-heavy US punk music scene, and later discovered Duncan X, an icon of British tattooing who popularised a style using only bold, black ink to draw contemporary illustrations.
