A KEIGHLEY tattoo studio has made its mark in a top competition at Blackpool.
Em Higgins, owner of The Little Tattoo Rooms, picked up two awards.
The accolades were in recognition of a second place in the Small Black and Grey Realism category, with a pet portrait, and in the Best Female Composition section with a black-work floral and bird piece.
The Little Tattoo Rooms – based at Fleece Street, and part of the Royal Arcade – opened in April, 2019.
Since then its team has grown to five and its services include tattoos, piercing, solid gold piercing jewellery and scalp micro-pigmentation.
Em said it had been a challenging few years – due to the periods of lockdown during the pandemic, and she had needed to undergo three major bouts of surgery for ongoing endometriosis complications.
But she says the team is “incredibly proud” of what the business has achieved and that the awards success was “still sinking in”.
Em was attending Tatcon Blackpool, a two-day international tattoo convention, with colleagues when she entered two awards categories – and was amongst the winners in both.
“To be honest I think it’s still sinking in!” says Em.
“To achieve the awards is mind blowing and to do it with two such special pieces means the world to me.
“Pet portraits have an incredibly special place in my heart, and the Best Female Composition piece for my client Fiona has honestly made such a huge improvement to her body confidence – it makes my heart so full to see the difference in her and to be able to help my clients with that!
“Placing second in both of the categories has me absolutely buzzing. I’m super excited to help put Keighley on the map and look forward to attending more conventions in the coming years!”
The studio also stages charity days.
In October, 2019, it held a Tatts for Cats event.
And in March, 2020, just before the first lockdown, it held a fundraising day for Endometriosis UK – a charity close to Em’s heart due to her suffering with the condition.
The annual Tatcon Blackpool convention – held at the Norbreck Castle Hotel – features more that 160 tattoo artists, plus traders’ stands, live bands, DJs, family entertainment and trophies in various ‘best tattoo’ competition categories.
Attractions this year included a circus show, Punch and Judy, face painting and stilt walkers.
