UNDER THEIR SKIN

JAY HUTTON AND ROSE HARDY JUDGE A NEW COMPETITION FOR TALENTED TATTOOISTS…

As one of E4’s Tattoo

Fixers, Jay Hutton encounters some of the most unfortunate artwork committed to human skin. So this show should offer him some welcome relief, as he and New York-based tattoo artist Rose Hardy put a group of professional tattooists through their paces in a search for the Tattoo Artist Of The Year.

What can we expect from the programme?

Jay It’s a competition where we get 10 artists together and we push them to their tattooing limit, out of their comfort zones with different tasks and challenges.

Rose Jay and I are there to judge each challenge and give the artists feedback, while whittling down the group until we have a winner.

What sort of challenges will they be set?

Rose Each episode has a client challenge where the artist must follow a specific theme. Then there is a style challenge, so for example they have to do a Japanese, American, or realistic tattoo. We’ve invited some experts in these styles to help us set the challenge and judge them – which definitely made the artists more nervous!

Jay Some of them excelled, and some of them weren’t so great – plus, if you’re given something that you say you specialise in and then you don’t do it right, you’re in a position to be going home. The show is full of drama!

Why does the first task involve tattooing a piece of pig skin?

Jay It’s the closest thing to human skin – plus the skin won’t complain and will keep still, that’s the main thing! It was a way of easing them in gently, but the smell wasn’t great – I think some of them were a bit put off by that!