Only skin deep - women share the stories behind their tattoos

“Tattooing is the second oldest profession - the first is prostitution,” she laughs.

“People get tattoos for all sorts of reasons and everyone is entitled to do whatever makes them happy.”

I met with Sonya at Red’s Tattoo Parlour in Colchester to find out more about her love of tattoos.

She looked glamorous with raven hair in an 1940s up do and bright red lips.

Sonya started up the tattoo parlour in 2005, originally in Manningtree before moving to premises in Colchester last year.

Now she has tattoos all over her body including her arms, back, legs and in recent years her hands.

She says: “You have to be a certain type of person and have an outgoing personality to carry them off. I have always been a loud mouth and especially as I have got older I have become more confident in who I am.

“I waited until I turned 30 to get my hands tattooed because before that I always had the option to cover the tattoos up with clothes - but now I never feel the need to.”

Sonya, 32, got into tattooing through a love of drawing.

She says: “I always loved art and I studied it at A Level and then I studied art at Colchester Art Institute. In my early twenties I taught myself how to tattoo. I would try out designs on pig skin and some of my friends and family let me tattoo them with Chinese symbols and simple designs.”

Once she started researching Sonya became more interested in the culture and history of the artform.

She says: “When you start getting into it there is such a rich history of tattoos. There are ‘new school’ and ‘old school’ styles and modern techniques are so much more intricate and they are becoming more advanced all of the time.”

Sonya’s tattoos represent different times in her life.

When Sonya moved the parlour from Manningtree to Colchester she had the lyrics of Kenny Rogers’ song Gambler tattooed on her back - ‘You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run’.

She adds: “I also have the stamps of all the places I have been to on holiday - Florida, Holland, Australia, Turkey, Egypt and the Gambia.

“When I got my first tattoo I was very young and it was more an act of rebellion. Now I own the tattoos I wear and they are an expression of my life and who I am.”

Even Sonya’s marriage to her husband Glyn Uren this year would not have been complete without a tattoo.

She says: “We got married in Vegas and after the ceremony we headed straight to the tattoo parlour!”

There are downsides to having visible tattoos and Sonya says she has been discriminated against in the past.

Sonya says: “People do treat you differently - we were on holiday in Hawaii for our honeymoon and the staff were really rude to us. We were treated as though we didn’t have enough money to be there. Which we did - or we wouldn’t have been there!

“Tattooing your whole body means that you can be limited on where you work and even who your friends are because people react differently to you.”

Working in the industry has impacted on her whole life.

She says: “I met my now husband Glyn when he removed a whale tattoo from my back! My whole life is woven in with tattooing - my relationship, work, creativity, friends and family.

“It is a profession in that I get into the shop early and I am here all day and then I clean up and go home. But it is also my passion and I love it.”

Being a tattoo artist comes with its own pressures.

“It can be stressful because you want to get the tattoo right because you are creating something permanent on a person’s body - but I feel that same pressure whether it is a £30 tattoo or a £13,000 tattoo.

“It can become very addictive and I always say my tattoos are a work in progress.”

Visit www.redstattoos.co.uk for details.

After surviving breast cancer, great-grandmother Barbara Giblin, 58, decided to mark her experience with a tattoo.

Barbara, who lives in Stanway with her husband Joe, had a pink ribbon, the international symbol of breast cancer awareness, tattooed on the front of her right shoulder with the words “I am a survivor”.

The tattoo raised sponsorship money for Colchester Hospital, which helped her after she was diagnosed with cancer last year.

Barbara says: I wanted a tattoo to remind me that I was a survivor and to show to myself, and other people, that it is possible to get through it and recover. It was also a great way to raise money for the hospital.”

The tattoo means a lot to Barbara and is still significant to her today.

She says: “Even now, every now and then I catch sight of it coming out of the shower in the mirror and think to myself ‘yes, i did it. I survived’.”

Barbara was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 after finding a lump. She had the lump removed and underwent radiotherapy and has now been in remission for two years.

She says: “I can’t see myself having any more tattoos - I think it would d take the significance from this one.”

Carly Halliwell let her kids loose with a tattoo needle on her leg for a series of tattoos she would never forget.

She says: “I let all my children tattoo a self-portrait on my leg. I wanted to have a tattoo that reflected who they were at that exact time in their lives.

“I nearly passed out with the pain a couple of times because held it at the wrong angle but I am so glad I did it.”

Carly, 36, who lives in Hullbridge, runs Narcissism tattoos in Rayleigh with her husband John.

She says: “When I met John he was already into tattoos and we were both artistic but he is very naturally gifted. He taught himself how to tattoo and then later taught me.”

For her first tattoo Carly decided that she would be brave and get a big tattoo on the back of a tribal dragon.

“All my other tattoos have special meanings behind them except the dragon. For me it was a rite of passage to me, I wanted to show that I had a big tattoo and that I could brave the pain.

“I have an image of Audrey Hepburn because it reminds me of my late nan and when we used to each her films together.”

The mum-of-four uses time in the tattoing chair to relax.

She says: “Having a tattoo is one of the most selfish things you can do as a mum because in those minutes no one can disturb you and it is completely your time. With four kids ‘me’ time is not something I get a lot of!”

Carly believes it is never too late to get a tattoo.

“I’ve tattooed a lady in her eighties. She came in three years ago saying that she had always wanted a tattoo but her husband had never let her. He had died that week and she wanted one!”

Brief history of tattoos: * Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice since neolithic times. "Ötzi the Iceman", dated circa 3300 BC, bore 57 separate tattoos.

* Tattooing spread among the upper classes all over Europe in the 19th century, but particularly in Britain where it was estimated in Harmsworth Magazine in 1898 that as many as one in five members of the gentry were tattooed.

* Winston Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, had a tattoo of a snake around her wrist, which she covered when the need arose with a specially crafted diamond bracelet. Carrying on the family tradition, Winston Churchill had an anchor tattooed on his forearm.

The East Coast Tattoo Convention is now in its ninth year. The next one is due to take place on November 17 and 18 at the Highfield Grange Holiday Park‎, London Road, in Clacton, CO16 9QY. Visit ww.eastcoastexpo.co.uk for details.