Archive Note
Leslie "Les" Skuse was born in Bristol in 1912 and learned to tattoo in 1928 from Joseph Hartley, generally described as the only tattooist working in Bristol before him; he worked alongside Hartley until the Second World War, served in the Royal Artillery tattooing troops, then returned to open his own Bristol shops. In 1953 he founded the Bristol Tattoo Club, the first tattooists' association in the United Kingdom, created in part to raise the public standing of the trade, which drew an international membership and corresponded with American tattooists, becoming a hub of the mid-century trans-Atlantic network. In 1955 he organized what is widely reported as the world's first tattoo competition and was voted Champion Tattoo Artist of All England that same year; these club and competition events are frequently cited as precursors of the modern tattoo convention. He was the founder of a multi-generation Bristol tattooing family, and on his death in 1973 his Mina Road shop and the running of the club passed to his son Danny, with later generations continuing both.