Archive Note
Born in 1945, Bone became interested in tattooing as a boy and got his first tattoo at fifteen, a rose and swallow with "mum and dad" lettering, from Cash Cooper in a basement studio in Piccadilly Circus, then taught himself to tattoo from around sixteen with a machine he bought from Aylesbury. He opened his own West London studio in the early 1970s, Den of Skulls at 58 Boston Road in Hanwell, one of London's longest-running tattoo shops, specializing in large-scale Japanese pieces alongside traditional and tribal work. He names influences and figures he learned from or alongside including Cash Cooper, Jack Zeek, Rich Mingins, Bill Skuse, Ed Hardy, and Filip Leu, and around 2010 he received a hand-tapped tattoo in Borneo. He was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the Most Tattooed Man, reported across five consecutive years in the late 1970s, and credits Bill Skuse of the Bristol Skuse family with helping him reach the record. He is frequently cited as a bridge between old-school British tattooing and the contemporary scene.
Lineage
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