{"id":8041,"date":"2015-11-20T15:59:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-20T15:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=8041"},"modified":"2015-11-20T15:59:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-20T15:59:38","slug":"mobile-tattoo-studio-is-inked-into-sprinter-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/8041","title":{"rendered":"Mobile tattoo studio is inked into Sprinter van"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wonder what happened to The Barbus, a mobile barber service we featured on these pages<\/a> back in 2008?<\/p>\n

The standard of the fit and finish inside the firm’s VW Crafter looked pretty good, but I’m not sure it’s as impressive as the mobile tattoo studio of Hinckley-based tattoo artist Tim Bailey.<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

As a former truck and van driver, Tim knows his vans and did not hesitate to choose a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter as his base vehicle — albeit a 250,000 miler purchased second-hand from a local haulier. He’s not concerned about the van’s age and mileage and says that “it’s proved every bit as reliable as I knew it would and still drives more smoothly than many of the cars I’ve owned”<\/em>. Praise indeed for a 13-year old van!<\/p>\n

In order to set up his mobile tattoo business, The Skin Shack<\/a>, Tim spent around 70 hours converting the back of the Sprinter into a fully-equipped tattoo studio that would be fully compliant with health and safety standards and could be registered with the local environmental health department.<\/p>\n

The results is a fully-lined load area with hygienic and easily cleaned plastic panelling, fitted cupboards and work tops, and a sink with hot and cold running water, as well as lighting and electrical services.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/p>\n

As word gets around and more people see his artwork, Tim\u2019s mobile \u2018inking shop\u2019 is now really taking off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to stay within a 20-mile radius of base but it\u2019s proving difficult as I\u2019m constantly getting new enquiries from further afield,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cProspective customers can be a bit nervous about being tattooed in the back of a van but once they see inside they\u2019re invariably reassured. I like to think of the finish as being on a par with an A&E ambulance.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tim\u2019s favourite works are black and white gothic-style designs, although he is happy to fulfil any customer request, either creating a new image from scratch or replicating an existing one. A full back piece takes 30-35 hours of inking split into sessions of six or seven hours, but most commissions are on a much smaller scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Bailey’s mobile tattoo business, The Skin Shack, operates from an outstanding Mercedes-Benz Sprinter conversion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[1974,157,1973],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8046,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8041\/revisions\/8046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}