We are so proud of Jen Stewart for having been chosen as part of a group of artist featured in the Hamilton Arts Council “I Am An Artist” initiative. The council’s aim is to promote the arts in Hamilton and broaden public understanding of artists to encompass all makers – not just visual artists.

A walk down King William St Art Walk in downtown Hamilton, just a stones throw from the shop you will find a series of banners with photos of featured artists spanning every artistic industry from film, theater, literature, music, dance, multi-media as well as contemporary craft like tattooing!

Hamilton’s reputation as a vibrant and growing community of artists is becoming world-renowned. With the popularity of monthly Art Crawls as well as the annual Supercrawl phenomenon in September, the influx of artist and makers to our city is nothing short of a renaissance. As the old manufacturing industries die off our city is embracing culture and art as its new steel.

Tattooing has always been on the fringes of what is considered “art”. With a long (and sometimes sordid) reputation routed in the underground, many people have difficulty recognizing it as a unique and viable art form. The unprecedented popularity of recent exhibits relating to tattooing at the Royal Ontario Museum is evidence that the craft is being elevated in the eyes of the public and the art world. The rich, colourful history of tattooing and the evolution of the tattooing process to its modern day incarnation make for an interesting study.

The growth of our industry and subsequent acceptance into mainstream culture could not have been possible with out the perseverance of talented tattooers like Jen Stewart. Forging her career in Hamilton, Jen has been tattooing with us since we opened our shop in 1999. A career spanning 2 decades has allowed her to develop her flawless skill but it is sheer talent that has her creating beautiful, flattering and aesthetically pleasing tattoo designs. Jen’s specialty is bold, vibrant, colourful pieces. Her favourite thing to tattoo are flowers and it is what she is best known for. Although Jen is primarily focusing on portfolio worthy, large scale pieces she can be persuaded to do smaller tattoos as well!

You can view more of Jen’s work on her Instagram page @poppyjen

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