Joker Tattoo

For anyone that has a tattoo or is considering one, you’ll understand that choosing your artist requires much more consideration that choosing a barber or restaurant etc.
Tattoos are for life so it’s important you find not only a great artist, but also one you feel comfortable with.
Not only will be spending possibly hours, up close and personal with your artist, but even before you get to that point, you will likely have gone through some sort of consultation with each other — this is where you find if this the artist for you.
My first visit to Joe @ Joker was 3 years ago. I’d visited almost every reputable tattoo parlour in Belfast when I stumbled upon Joe. Not only was I impressed with the quality of his work, but what was more important was Joe took the time to discuss my ideas and put me at ease. I still remember him saying «I wouldn’t put anything on you that doesn’t look f-​ing cool!»
That was 3 years ago and today I’ve been back for about my 10^th appointment.
Joes work can be seen on his Facebook page
but here’s a bit more that you wouldn’t necessarily find out — Joe is first and foremost a good, honest, decent fella & this is important because you may need to spend hours upon hours in his company and you need to be comfortable.
He earned a living as an artist before taking up tattooing about 12 years ago, and his background comes through in his work.
His parlour is spotless and adorned lots of his work and interesting trinkets.
Upon visit, you will likely be greeted by Mo — Joe’s sister. Mo is lovely. Really friendly.
Joe’s apprentice, is Dean. Apprentice might be the wrong word for Dean as he’s about 30 and his work amazing for someone in such a position. Again, Dean is good lad, extremely chatty and welcoming.
There are some great artists around Belfast at present and it’s the subtle differences that will make feel comfortable and choose one or the other and for me Joe made me feel more at ease and seemed genuinely interested, more so than anyone else.
All this aside, I’ve been delighted with the results each time. I’ve posted a pic of today’s piece.
Also, my sessions tend to be 3 – 4 hours long and on many occasions Joe has actually bought me lunch, completely unexpectedly. Would you get that anywhere else?