Tabula Rasa: the female-led Chesterfield tattoo studio of meaning and defiance

This is the voice of Holly Tunnicliffe, 29, who with best friend Dani Rhodes, 31, has created a female driven tattoo studio in Chesterfield called Tabula Rasa. They reflect on their journey as female tattoo artists.

“It was male-dominated before,” Dani adds. “Definitely it’s a lot better now. But without going too much into it, it was really quite rough when we started I would say for a woman. Obviously too, there were women that were tattooed, but it was less seen.”

“So, you had obviously, the public’s view of you, which was like, ‘What the hell?’ mixed with, you’re going into a very male-dominated industry. Which is quite daunting for a young girl. But luckily, I don’t think it’s so bad now… You were met with ridicule and all sorts back in the day when we started.”

Holly nods. “It’s almost like you had to earn people’s respect before they even gave you advice or anything, and that would take ages.”

The conversation turns to that ages ago thing of a tattooed woman being a circus act, such was the perceived oddity of a female with tattoos. If this was a circus right here, Dani and Holly would be taming tigers with their soft-strong defiance.

“Yeah,” smiles Dani. “’Oh, I don’t like them on women’. I hear that so many times. But we’ve been hearing that so long it’s like straight over your head now.”

The warm crackle of ‘yes we can’ between Holly and Dani is apparent. Long time friends, having met way back on tattoo apprenticeships, this welcoming studio is a creation of obvious hard work and artful tenacity, borne of their friendship.

Just two months old, Tabula Rasa already feels established. In the studio, artist Tash Cope, 25, sits tattooing a kooky snail with a disco-ball shell on a lady’s leg. At the other side of the room sits another resident artist, Laura Farmer, 34, working on a design.

When asked why the name Tabula Rasa, Holly smiles as Dani tells it.

“We’d been looking for a long time because we knew it was something we wanted to do together, and obviously it would be our fresh start. So we were looking for different synonyms for that meaning, and it came up… we thought, ‘Oh, that’s really cool’.”

“It just means fresh starts, new beginnings. And it’s our baby, so… Doing this, it’s been such an experience. Trusting each other, to make it succeed, and the leap to open somewhere that’s your own… this is our time, I think.”

Meaning seems important to Dani and Holly. The conversation takes a surprising turn, the idea of meaning becoming clearer.

“Sometimes it does make a big difference to people, just a tattoo,” says Holly. “And I know if you don’t really have tattoos, you don’t understand it, but some people really want them because they mean something.”

“Some of the stories we hear are really amazing, and also quite upsetting,” adds Dani. “You do feel quite honoured sometimes when you tattoo people… When you get to know the people and learn their stories, it’s quite humbling.”

“A lot of women that have been in violent relationships, and very controlling relationships,” says Holly. “I’ve had quite a few recently where they’d always wanted a tattoo, but their partner would never allow it. So they’ve got out of that situation, and they’ve got themselves a tattoo.”

Dani nods. “Yeah. One of the first ones I did in this studio was a lady. She’d finally got away from her abusive partner and she had a little tattoo… Seeing her face after and everything… Yeah, we have ones that we really enjoy doing that are creatively fun for us, but then a lot of the ones that mean a lot to me are the ones like the small butterflies that you do for women.”

Holly smiles. “They mean so much.”

When asked if they could only have one tattoo on themselves both Holly and Dani frown. After a pause, Dani goes first.

“It’s hard because I’ve got my mum’s signature on my hand, and a swallow for my grandad. They both taught me how to draw when I was young… So it would be one of those.”

“I’ve got two. So, this one on my hand,” says Holly pointing to a rose, “Dani actually tattooed it when she was practising years ago.”

The girls laugh, Dani pointing to her mum’s signature on her hand. “You did this too.”

“And then this bit of script I’ve got on my leg,” Holly adds. “It says ‘failure cannot cope with persistence’.”

This feels very poignant. When offered only one tattoo, Holly and Dani choose two. When finding themselves in a male dominated industry, they choose defiance. When faced with the life-changing decision to open your own business, they choose a bloody-minded optimism so assured, they’ve already won.

Holly underlines this: “I don’t think it’s ever the right time because it’s obviously nerve-wracking, so you’ve just got to go for it. But at the same time, you’ve got to know as well that you can do it.”

When offered a time machine, Dani looks to the ceiling, Holly to the floor. After a pause, Dani suggests a trip to ancient Egypt, “to see how everything actually happened”. But Holly has other ideas.

“It’s a bit hard going back. Because if you go back in time, you don’t learn the lessons you have.”

Wise words indeed. Tabula Rasa: ink with meaning, art with defiance.