Inklination
Dave our apprentice
DAVE
about the apprentice
David Butler
I was born in Portsmouth in 1967, a flower child, the year of the Beatles "Seargant Pepper" which I still own! I have always been interested in art, always painted and drawn. After passing my 'O-level' in art in 1983 I was advised by my art teacher and careers advisor not to pursue a career in art and forget about art college. I studied briefly as a signwriter and printer before working at Ferguson as a senior storekeeper. During this time I held several exhibitions at Gosport library including drawings, paintings, poetry and photography.
After five and a half years I left to start an Access Foundation course in Art, Design and Media. Although the course was highly intense, I had one of the best years in my life. I studied art history, painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics and photography. This was followed by a degree in art and design which I completed in 1996. During these three years I found my work turning more abstract and sculptural. I visited Australia and studied primitive art, especially Aboriginal 'dot' paintings. Although I have many tattoos, it wasn't until 2009 that I thought of putting my artistic skills to use in the world of tattoos.
I took my portfolio into Inklination and Ceri kindly gave me the opportunity to be her apprentice.
Most Saturdays I help out in the shop, taking bookings, cleaning tubes and watching techniques. This is such a hard industry to break into and I realise I am in a privileged position. I owe many thanks to Kyra, Ceri, Helena and Gez.
Inklination is such a wonderful shop with a friendly working atmosphere. I have designed flash sheets for the shop and have tattooed fruit and practise skins and hope to move on and develop over the years.
I love Japanese Style and black and grey portraits mostly. Favourite tattooists are Kat von D, Bob Tyrrell, Kim Saigh and Hanna Aitkinson. I also like the work of Picasso, Frank Auerbach, Sean Scully, Mark Rothco, Anton Corbjin, the list is endless!