Suddenly, out of nowhere, Juan Puente posted this to his Instagram account:

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Chris is back! This is really exciting, and I can’t wait to see what his time away from tattooing does to his work. It’s so great to see that his work is still so solid already.

If you’d like to get tattooed by Chris, you can email sekretcity@hotmail.com. He’s working in LA, but I can imagine that his availability may not look so good when loads of people realise he’s back, so book in quickly!

Just for good measure, here’s what Chris was up to between 2006 and now. It was still awesome; just not as exciting as his return to tattooing!

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Durb Morrison wrote a note on his Facebook page about Chris which you should sit down and read. Here’s a short excerpt:

Chris Pfouts was inspirational to me personally, in many ways, through his approach to his writing and his outlook on life and his approach to those around him. Chris always had a welcoming spirit and had met many people along his journey. Having touched so many other people along the way, his warm handshake, bright eyes and sincere spirit brought many in the community back monthly to read what Chris had to say in his monthly editorials.

This is really sad news, and we hope that Chris’ friends and family are all okay.

This issue has so many great tattooers in it, it’d be hard to list them all because I’m sure I’d miss someone out. You can read about Thomas Hooper’s horror at finding out someone lasered off a tattoo he did, or about Chad Koeplinger’s chat with Timothy Hoyer about his career (and how to pronounce his name!), or read an update from Henk Schiffmacher on the shop and some beautiful Japanese hand painted tattoo designs by Mr Kato for Horiyoshi I.

There is so much in this issue that you will honestly have to read it a few times. At the same time though, nothing feels drawn out. You don’t care that the interviews are drawn out over several pages, because you’re enjoying reading them. You also don’t mind that you’ve paid $3.99 for a digital magazine, because there are so many pages in it. It’s just a super great issue, and all of those involved in this should be really happy with it.

You can buy Tattoo Culture in many various digital forms, though I would recommend buying it for your computer if you can. Adobe Reader has a ‘full screen’ view which is great for it (tip: press the + key to zoom in so it’s easy to read!), though I guess it would also be enjoyable on any other device. If you’d like to buy the issue (or the first one!), please feel free to click here!

Paul is a really fantastic tattooer, so it’s really fantastic that he’ll donate his time to this, as it is in aid of the Jo & Mya Foundation- a charity that aims to help children and families when a loved one is going through a terminal illness or has died. As someone who has experienced this quite recently, I think it’s a really amazing charity and I support them, too!

If you’d like to win, all you have to do is visit the JustGiving page which has been set up for it, and donate some money- a tenner gets you a ticket, so 100GPB would be ten tickets! Click here to donate- if you don’t want to donate much, you could still donate a few quiz and add a note that it isn’t for tickets- I’m sure Chris wouldn’t mind.

Oh, there are one or two rules, too:

Notes on the Tattoo are – Paul own design, no cover ups & no neck tattoo and A4 size – check out Paul artwork on here, will be 100% original & an amazing piece by an Award Winning Artist

Here’s the kind of tattoo you could be getting:

CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

Shirts and Destroy always has awesome stuff on sale; fact. They feature some amazing tattooers’ work on their shirts, and they’ll even sell prints and other goods from time to time, too. At the moment, they have some really cool stuff from Jondix, Chad Koeplinger, Timothy Hoyer, Thomas Hooper, Three Kings, and Steve Byrne. Even if you aren’t living in the sun right now, you can buy some shirts and show your favourite tattooers some support!

Here are some of my favourites:

Make sure you click here to buy from Shirts and Destroy!

This year, the Sailor Jerry guys are honouring this by letting forty people across the UK who would like to be tattooed with his flash do so for only 12GPB. I know some of you are instantly thinking, ‘great, another gimmick where rubbish shops give away cheap tattoos’- I thought that first, too. However, this time, there are only four shops in the UK doing this, and they’re actually really cool shops. Here’s a list:

Den of Intiquity- Edinburgh

Rain City- Manchester

13 Diamonds- London

Into You- Brighton

If you want to get tattooed on the day, we recommend turning up before the tattooers even do, because there’ll be a queue! There is a ‘death before dishonour’ flash sheet with 10 designs on it, which each shop will have. The first 10 people in line can choose theirs, and then that’s it- everyone else will have to go home, I’m afraid!

So, if you’d like to take part, hurry down to one of these shops as soon as they open on Wednesday- good luck!

The first name I noticed on this was Ed Staples, who is one of my favourite tattooers. If he isn’t one of your favourites, have a read of this, and I promise by the end he will be. There are some other really amazing features on some of the best tattooers in the world, like Horinaka, Dmitrij Chikai, and Nobu. There are also portfolios from Ema Sweeney, Pawel Jankowwzki, and Guil Zekri. Brilliant! Also, the convention coverage is for Vancouver, the North Lakes show, and Ink & Iron.

Oh, and did I mention I’m in this issue? Yep, my column has made its bi-monthly return, and this month I’m looking at the idea of tatto removal!

Anyway, it’s a great issue and you need to buy it. You can get Total Tattoo from all the good newsagents, and also online on various devices. If you click here you can see how to download it.

Click here to buy the prints from Chris’ online store.

Below is a list of their guest spots- anyone in red is fully booked!

Beau Brady – 25th – 28th May

Frank Carter – 8th – 12th June

Jack – 13th – 15th June

Zuno – 24th – 29th June

Civ – 12th – 13th July

Daniele Ceyen – 24th – 30th July

Sento – 6th – 15th August

Miles – 15th August – 15th September

Chad Koeplinger – 18th – 25th September

Paul Dobleman – 23rd September

Steve Boltz & Bert Krak

Mario Desa

There are loads of different ways to book in with each tattooer, so if you’d like to book in, please visit the Frith Street blog here, to see how to book in. You’ll have to be fast- these guest spots will fill ridiculously quickly!