ALEX JEWERS

Hi, my name is Alex Jewers, the following is a brief history of my introduction into the tattoo industry. 

I left art college in 2015, throughout my childhood and academic years I always had a keen interest in art. I started drawing when I was about 8 years old - I would sit at the dining room table drawing my favourite cartoons characters pretty much till I went to bed.

I never had much interest in football or whatever hobbies kids are told they should enjoy. Drawing just seemed to invite me and was something I strive to improve every day. 

After my school years, I went on to study fine art in Newcastle. It was there I realised I wanted to get into portrait art. I fell into it by doing a few drawings for my lecturer's as Christmas gifts, it wasn't until then I realised I could actually make a career out of my art although at the time I had no idea of the exact career path I would take, I suppose I was hoping to wing it in art college (thankfully which I did ) and then fall onto my feet and land a job I suppose in graphic design or something along those lines. 

It wasn't until I finished my course at Newcastle that I had the urge to try tattooing, I worked part-time in a shop in the metro centre for about 2 years every hour. I wasn't there I was drawing. I had an urge to get better and better and these days with social media, you’re bombarded with a lot of insanely talented people and I strived to be able to draw (and still do) like some of the biggest names in the industry. 

2 years later I decided that all the drawings I'd accumulated I would piece together in a portfolio, the majority being photo realism. So, that's what I did. I put together a portfolio of my work and decided to try and find an apprenticeship in tattooing. 

 

Maybe it was meant to be and I was at the right place at the right time. My sister Emma who is 3 years older than me had a best friend, who is still her best friend to this day, anyway... We were on a night out together in Newcastle. A group of us and my sister mentions the fact that her best friend’s dad, Chris, owns a big tattoo studio over in Durham and is a tattoo artist himself. Why she didn't mention this a year prior I still will never understand. I woke up the next morning with a banging headache and a stone-cold pizza by the bed, grabbed my phone and went through the pictures that I had on my phone from the night out found a picture of myself and Chloe - Chris’ daughter. I made it my profile picture. Chloe had given me Chris’s details the night before and I thought it’s not what you know, it’s who, and message him ( it was years later Chris told me it was the profile picture the got his attention he said that I must’ve really wanted it to do something like that and he admired it, said it was a ballsy move). Later that day I went to the studio Chris owned alongside Buzzin Guns Durham, and met Chris for the first time. I showed him my portfolio, which looking back definitely wasn't my best work. Chris said he could see potential and decided to take me on as the shop's apprentice where I built up stronger drawing skills and developed my style for black and grey realism art further.

6 years on I've managed to build a solid client base at Buzzin Guns Durham where I get to focus on my style and take on awesome projects which I'm very grateful for and will continue to do so!