Colchester tattooists working on inclusive inking

A Colchester tattoo studio says it’s hoping that more tattooists will follow their lead and work to make people feel as comfortable as possible when getting inked.

Pastel Palace is a parlour that especially caters for those from the the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodiverse individuals, and people with disabilities.

Its owners say that their inclusive approach to tattooing is a much needed change in the industry, and lead tattooist Sam Sparkles told us about this.

“All of our customers agree that stereotypical tattoo parlors are just not built for people like us, so we’ve found quite a nice community in this studio”.

Sam explained what’s different about the studio’s approach to tattooing.

“We ask what people’s pronouns are, if we can refer to them by a different name. We also have a disability access ramp and we can work from downstairs whenever people need us to”.

“We have noise-canceling headphones if it’s too loud in here, we can also dim the lights. We have sensory aids too- so if you’re a bit fidgety and a bit anxious during your experience, you can use whatever just to help you”.

Sam says being inclusive has lead to customers travelling from afar as the Czech Republic to the Colchester parlour and has brought together a community that they weren’t aware of.

“It’s the best type of community that we’ve found - we didn’t know they existed until they started coming to us”.

They added that it’s small steps which can really improve the tattooing experience, and that Pastel Palace didn’t feel it took a lot of adjustment to make these changes.

"It’s sad that the whole world isn’t more like this, there’s such a small effort that you can put into making people feel more comfortable with you and more people should be doing that."

“I hope more people will be taking more steps to making people feel more comfortable in their studios”.

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