Mural by Ink Kingz Tattoo and Piercing Academy owner brightens up Pontefract

The mural is a traditional sailor Jerry style eagle that took three days to complete.

James and his apprentice Caeman Smith decided to paint the mural to cover up graffiti tags that blighted the side of the shop.

They didn’t ask permission of the landlord, Barry Atkinson, before painting the mural but thankfully, he likes it and said on social media that it “looks amazing”.

James said: “The mural took us three days to do.

"Before it, somebody had sprayed a load of rubbish on it.

“We thought we would use it to our advantage.

“We didn’t actually ask the landlord, we did it and hoped for the best but thankfully he likes it.

“Our inspiration comes from Rachel List who goes around Pontefract and the five towns painting murals.”

James specialises in photorealism which means his tattoos replicate a painting, portrait or object.

Caemon is in training to be a traditional tattoo artist which features black lines, saturated colours and simple but classic designs featuring animals and insects, skulls and daggers, and ships and pinup dolls, for example.

James has been a tattoo artist for over ten years and opened his shop in 2020 in between lockdowns.

Since then, he has welcomed nearly a dozen apprentices into his shop teaching them how to tattoo safely.

James is set to open a second tattoo shop in Leeds in the next few months and has big plans regarding the expansion of his tattoo apprenticeship scheme.