I'm Grace Neutral, I'm 26 years old,
and I'm a handpoke tattoo artist.
I was like, kind of an alternative weirdo in school
and I was really interested in tribal culture
and my mum's an artist, and she had all of that in her art shop
I was just exposed to this whole other world of beauty out there
that I didn't think would ever exist.
I got my tongue done first,
one guy was holding my tongue out
and then the other guy just got a scalpel blade
and cut my tongue in half!
Then I got my ears done, got them pointed like a pixie.
Then I got my belly button removed
As a romantic gesture, a very long time ago,
I set it in resin in a heart shape
and gave it to someone who I thought was special.
I went on this... journey, I guess,
I had to prove to myself on so many levels
that I could deal with this, because if I can deal with this
I can deal with anything, you know?
I was really lucky to be asked to walk for the Ashley Williams show
in London Fashion Week.
It's not something that I have ever done anything like that before,
I'm a tattoo artist first and foremost,
that's my bread and butter.
Eyeball tattooing is done not like other regular tattoo
It's done by an injection and they just inject the ink
under the layer, over the white of the eye
and the ink just sits in between that layer, and that's it.
This is a scrapbook that i made,
I guess the most interesting page would be this one
I woke up the next day and I opened my eyes for the first time
to see them completely purple. It was pretty exciting.
Where is it? Here it is!
So the skin from my face
that we peeled off my cheek, which I then ate afterwards
because, well, you know, why not hey? When in Rome.
I guess I do kind of a niche-y style in the way that I tattoo
because I don't use a machine, I just tattoo with a tattoo needle and a stick
I'm working on a friend, Miranda, at the moment who's letting me do her
full torso, and I've already completed a sleeve on her.
I love tattooing my friends, it's like, one of the most
rewarding things I think I could do.
I have a setup at home always, so I can tattoo in a clean environment
I have everything I need to create a little mini studio
Do you feel like any other extreme modifications will catch on,
like tattooing has for example?
It's quite hard to say really.
Each time I get another modification, it makes me feel a bit more like myself.
I guess it's just depends on who starts doing it more,
because the more educated people become on it,
the more people start practising it.
It's so refreshing to meet, like, people who are a little bit younger than me,
who I, kind of, see, like, a bit of myself in you, you know?
I was similar to you when I was younger and started my journey and things like that
For years, I was, kind of searching for this comfortable place in myself,
where I can just sit back and kick it, and feel...
just feel good about where I am, who I am, what I am...
Just imagine if everyone was themselves, how different everyone would be,
and how refreshing it would be to walk out the door every day,
and the people that you would meet!
And you wouldn't... Noone would be scared.
The only thing that's important is when I see myself,
I'm happy, and I can go to bed at night
thinking, like, I truly am myself.
And when you're 100% yourself, then...
I think you're at your most beautiful, you know, so...
That's all I could really ask for.