You know, I’ve never in my life been to Bolton, England. To be completely, embarrassingly frank, I don’t really even know exactly whereabouts in England that it is, either. Correction: I didn’t know exactly whereabouts Bolton was, but now thanks to the modern luxury that is the internet, I’ve discovered that Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, England – western England, to be specific. And since I’m being embarrassingly frank, I might as well admit that I would most likely have continued to not know where Bolton was if I hadn’t discovered a tattooist by the name of Daniel Watson and a tattoo studio called Vida Loca.
In 2007, Watson opened the doors on Vida Loca and today, the shop is sought after, just as Watson’s work is widely recognised and praised for its overall quality. A self taught artist, Watson has earned a living by tattooing a wide variety of tattoo genres, though the style he enjoys and performs the most is Japanese. In fact, this year Watson won the best Oriental tattoo award at the Hull City Tattoo Convention.
Watson’s work catches the eye pretty easily. I was just flipping through a tattoo magazine one day and there happened to be an ad for Vida Loca in the back pages. It was Watson’s work that was on display in the ad that immediately caught my attention. Fast forward a few seconds later and I had located Vida Loca and was looking through Watson’s impressive and gorgeously coloured tattoo portfolio.
As a matter of fact, all the work of all the artists over at Vida Loca looks pretty damn good. The next time that I’m in England, I’m specifically going to make the effort to find my way to Bolton and drop in on the folks at Vida Loca Tattoo. I encourage you to do the same.