Artists

Life & Death Tattoos - run by tattooist John Lewis with Craig MacKay, Rich Jones, George Geary, Jimbo, Aaron Breeze & Phil Beaman

John Lewis

Owner & Tattooist at Life & Death Tattoos. Specialising in black & grey portraiture/realism, lover of skulls, roses as well as anything creatively different & weird.

John's background is a million miles away from tattooing starting in caring for children with disabilities but has always had a long standing admiration for the industry and art involved. When the opportunity presented itself John bought his first tattoo machine & began tattooing from a one room studio, 3 years on Life & Death Tattoos was formed in the heart of Shrewsbury - Shropshire.

Richard Jones

Rich started tattooing at Life & Death Tattoos in 2016, he enjoys working on traditional designs, geometry and floral motifs.

He also enjoys the stranger side of tattooing and the work of Daniel Higgs, Robert Ryan, Chad Koeplinger and Jeff Zuck, which have led him to creating large scale paintings in a more surrealist style.

Aaron Breeze

Aaron began his journey into tattooing back in 2014 at Life and Death Tattoos. Since then, he has explored many styles ranging from black and grey to Japanese. Although he still enjoys tattooing in these styles, much of his work is traditional in style with a muted colour palette.

Alongside his work at Life and Death, Aaron has been lucky enough to tattoo at many guest spots and conventions both nationally and internationally.

Craig MacKay

Craig is a Tattooist, Illustrator and Graphic Artist born and bred in Shrewsbury. As well as designing and producing artwork for the music industry his illustrations, portraits and designs have also been produced and sold globally for the likes of Robert De Niro, Ed Sheeran, Stereophonics, Arnold Schwarzenegger & many more.

After studying Illustration and design at Salford University Craig went on to work work as an illustrator and then moved into tattooing specialising in black & grey realism and portraits. As well as being a Tattooist and Illustrator Craig also works as a Musician and Drummer playing in bands such as ‘The Hollow Earth Theory’ and ‘Arceye’.

Jimbo

Jimbo has been a tattooist now coming up 11 years where he specialise in black and grey tattoos. He approaches each tattoo on the day as a one-to-one design consultation. Here he will discuss ideas, thoughts, processes and future tattoos until you are perfectly happy with your design.

Tell him what your ideas are and he will create something that will surpass your own imagination - as they say two minds are better than one. He puts his passion, detail and imaginative approach into all of his tattoo pieces to give his clients something truly unique.

George Geary

I've been working at life and death studios now for 4 years. It was always my ambition to find a job where I could combine my love for art with a discipline that would help me hone my skills and push me to become a better artist. I was very lucky to be around tattooing from a young age, due to watching my elder brother tattoo from the age of 14. As I grew up beside that environment it became obvious that this career path was what I needed to find that discipline I wanted.

After completing my training under many talented artists in the first year of my time at Life & Death Tattoos, I have now settled into being a member of the diverse team. And I am truly grateful for the opportunity to work with artists in a creative environment that can help push me further into finding a style of work I want to produce, whilst having relationships working with the customers who also constantly push me to be better and evolve my style to create something unique.

Phil Beaman

Phil is a black and grey artist with over seven years experience tattooing at eight quality studios throughout the Midlands. With a passion for attention to detail, hyper realism and portraits, Phil likes to add subtle colours against the black and grey to create an exciting contrast. Outside of tattooing, Phil has also exhibited his artwork in locations such as Soho, Carnaby Street, Brixton and Camden at various exhibitions, private events and festivals.

Alongside this he also completed a degree in Illustration, developing multiple disciplines which are used exclusively with each client to produce high quality one off tattoos.