My name’s Gary, I'm from Dundee, and I’m a photographer
The project I'm working on at the moment
is, I'm taking photos to document
my Dad's work of tattoos that he did from the
start of his career in 1977
to when he passed away in 2006
So the idea started, really it was my
friend that works on building sites
and he would send me pictures from guys
that he met on site and he would tell me
and I thought it was really cool
One of the photos that Ross sent to me
was a guy that had, he had like
an octopus on his arm, it was really cool, it was really colourful
I said
and he said “oh here, he had a stroke and he passed away”
It's sad that, you know
the guy passed away first and foremost, but
obviously as well the tattoo kind of went with him
I think that's why it's important to
document these things because somebody
might want to see those tattoos again
My Dad was as a character, he was
always in the pubs
everyone liked him
he was a very popular man
He bought a machine from another guy that lived in the
same scheme as him and he started
tattooing in my Gran’s back shed
It was mostly just his mates
they used to come in
and they'd sit in my Gran’s living room
it was like a waiting room, and my Gran
my Gran used to give them tea and biscuits and stuff like that
while they're waiting to get tattooed
He got his first shop, I think, in 1980
Yeah he would’ve had thousands of clients over the years
His books were pretty much always full, that I remember
So he passed away in February 2006 when I was 15
Yeah it was rough, I was really close to my Dad
we all were, my brother and my sister as well
I was 15 I was just kind of getting to
know my Dad
as a person
more so than being my Dad
But we were really close, he was, he was
he was more like my friend in a lot of ways
So when he died it was, it was like
losing my Dad and losing my pal at the same time
So I was going through some old boxes
of my Dad's things and I found this 35mm camera
and I'd already had the idea to start
taking photos of people’s tattoos
So I got the camera and I started trying to learn how to use it
I put a post up in a Facebook group
just asking people really
if anyone had any, had any tattoos by my
Dad and would they be willing to let me
photograph them and
the response to that was really
really incredible
I love getting to see his old work and
then also getting people's stories and
people, people have really vivid memories
you know
they can remember exactly
what he was like when they were getting
tattooed and things that he said to them when he was tattooing
So yes it's been a really cathartic experience for me
So I'm going to meet Dean today
who got a couple of tattoos from my Dad in the mid to late 90s
We'll start with that one there on your, on your
nah, just hang your arm, kind of, naturally mate
Anything to do with tattoos
Nash was your man, ken, and I think
I think that from mind he was the only tattoist aboot
that everybody kent back in the day and
probably three quarters of Dundee over a certain age
have got tattoos from Nash Latto
Ken what, if it’s something you want tae do from your old man
100 percent, it’s something special
And the plan is to, kind of, collect as
many of these as I can and
I’ll maybe compile them in a zine or a book
or something like that
It's been a long time since my Dad died
and I'm still grieving him I’ll be
grieving him for the rest of my life
but it's almost like I get to kind of
reconnect with my Dad through people’s stories