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King of clean lines, dot work detail and badass girls, Loz Thomas (@lozthomas_tattoo) is a tattooist based at South City Market in London and a good friend of SCC. We asked him about how he first got into tattooing and how he has built up his style to be so recognisably Loz.
Tell us about your introduction into the tattoo scene.
I kind of just stumbled into it to be honest, rather luckily. I took my drawing portfolio along with me into London when I got my first proper tattoo – I just asked a few questions and was being generally nosey. Then the next time I went to the studio they remembered I was keen and needed an apprenticeship. All pretty lucky seeing as I was massively failing college at the time!
You’ve taken a different route into tattooing from the “old school” tattooers. Is this a reflection on you and your interests?
Yeah I was always quite stubborn about following the traditional path. I already had my own style I liked to draw in which you can still see today, and it hasn’t let me down yet. Also as cliche as it sounds, I’m a big believer in doing what makes you happy, rather than believing that everything you are told is the ‘right’ way.
How would you describe your style?
Corrrrr, I guess it’s just a minimal clean style, formed of lines and dots. Clean lines have always been my passion and main goal. It’s taken me a long time to get them to a standard I’m 99% happy with – I’m unsure I’ll ever reach the 100% but I don’t think any artist should ever be 100% happy with their work.
We notice that you draw up a lot of models/influencers, how does this go down with them?
I started doing this actually as a little tactic to pinch followers when I first began, basically just hoping for reposts haha. But now I pick my references just based on cool pictures, so I guess it can only be seen as a compliment if I’m choosing to reference someone for a tattoo that’s going to be on someone for life. I’ve not had any negative feedback yet anyway!
If you could compare yourself to a fashion brand which one would you be?
Hmmm hard one. Id say ‘A Cold Wall’. Clean designs, architectural and brutalist inspirations. Monochrome colours.
Who or what are your biggest inspirations and what makes your work Loz Thomas?
Biggest inspirations, erm… Just general cool stuff really haha. I don’t really know, I just draw what I like. As a lot of my customers have probably realised, if I’m not feeling the idea I usually let people know. So it’s important for me to find the topic of what I’m drawing cool or interesting. And I guess that’s what makes my work mine. I’m stubborn!
Any goals on who’d you’d like to work with?
Tattooist-wise, I’d really like to go and explore America and do a little tour of some cool shops out there. Customer-wise, if Kanye West wants to roll thru for a quick tat let me know haha.
What can we expect to see from you next?
Next up is more clean lines, more bad boy designs but also a lot more CLOTHING. Stay tuned on that.
