TATTOO LED TO ‘BIZARRE’ EXCHANGE WITH LIFE PRISONER

W HEN a Valleys tattoo o artist got a letter from m notorious prisoner r Charles Bronson after r winning awards for tattoos of him, , he was surprised. But little did he know it would d start a “bizarre” relationship with h the prisoner, whose mother lives in n Aberystwyth. Back in November 2015, Matt t Gardiner, from Cwmparc, , Rhondda, beat more than 100 0 competitors at the Halloween Tat- too Bash in Wolverhampton, with h tattoo artists from all over the e country and some from abroad. His tattoo of Bronson won top p prize and he also came runner-up p with his tattoo of Sloth from hit t 1980s film The Goonies. So, he decided to send a picture to the Charles Salvador Foundation, set up to display the works of Charles Bronson, who now goes by the former name. Bronson, who is serving a life e sentence at HMP Wakefield d for robbery and kidnap, was s im impressed by Matt’s work k a and sent him a note saying: g: ““Matt, absolutely brilliant! A m masterpiece! Make sure you send T Tom a copy, he will like it. “No wonder you won a national a award. You’re a bloody star, Charles S Salvador.” But that was just the start. Months later, Matt, 39, was in c contact with Bronson’s former lover, L Lorraine Etherington, who acted as a go-between with Bronson. Lorraine, who described her former fiancé as the “most wonderful gentleman I’ve ever met”, got engaged e to the prisoner in 2015. Matt, who runs the End of the Line tattoo t parlour in Treherbert, said: “I received that letter and that went haywire. At the time, his partner was Lorraine and I didn’t realise he was her partner.

“I got hold of her and got the letter off him. I said I wanted to do something to say thank you, so I did an airbrush of Charlie.

“She was completely amazed by it and said it was her favourite picture. She kept the original but did a copy and sent it to Charlie.

“A few days later, I got a letter with the print back, signed by Charlie with a note.”

Later, Matt also received a surprise in the post.

“Then they sent me something in the mail as a token of their appreciation,” he said. “It was one of Charlie’s original o artworks. w I kept that t really safe.” s But Bronson s also wanted w prints of o pals the Kray K twins, whom he first met at Parkhurst Prison. P Matt said: “I did d a picture of the Kray twins and Lorraine spotted it on Facebook. I sent that to Charlie, so he had the print and sent it back with a note.” In the note he h says: “Amazing, in genius... Matts M a captain of his own ship, I salute him.” Matt also had a signed picture from actor Tom Hardy, H who played Bronson in the 2008 biopic, Bronson, after sending a picture to him too.

Now, looking back, Matt thinks the whole relationship was “bizarre” – but questioned whether he should carry on.

“I did want to take it further and I wrote something on my iPad. But I was 50/50 on it. He’s a prisoner, after all.”

Matt hasn’t had any more contact with the prisoner.

“Since he finished with Lorraine, I haven’t had anything,” he said. “I’ve still got her as a Facebook friend and she’s really nice and down-to-earth.

“But she’s now set up an art foundation on Instagram, and it’s nothing to do with Charlie.”