Fresh tattoo? Here’s how to care for your newly inked skin
Eight tats in, I’ve worked out a failsafe way to ensure they are healed and glorious in a fortnight
March 2024
Oops, I did ink again: how to get a tattoo you won’t regret
One in four people regret their tattoo. How can I choose the best laser removal?
Katie Lee, Claire Coulstock and Samantha Reeve
January 2024
The beauty Q&A
I want a tattoo, but fear I’ll regret it. What should I do?
Got a beauty dilemma? Our expert is here to offer advice. This week, is a dry run the answer to Alex’s anxieties about getting inked?
Shock of the old
Shock of the old: 10 trailblazing and transgressive tattooed ladies
From the Siberian princess to the American heiress, some remarkable women have had themselves inked for love, art or money
Are tattoos about to become uncool? Soon many young people will know them as something their parents have
Jason Murphy
If they become the preserve of only young Australians who can afford one, tattoos will start to lose their edge
December 2023
On my radar
On my radar: Radie Peat from Lankum’s cultural highlights
The Irish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist on her favourite tattoo artist, the TV show she watches with her children and a pagan one-man show
October 2023
You be the judge
You be the judge: should my daughter stop getting tattoos?
Kathleen has never liked Mona’s tattoos and piercings; Mona says she’ll do what she wants with her body. Who should stop needling who?
September 2023
On my radar
On my radar: Jamie Lloyd’s cultural highlights
The award-winning theatre director on being stopped in the street to talk about his tattoos, the influence of the musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and the play he’d love to direct
August 2023
Brief letters
Tattoo tribute to my suffragette heroine
Project to tattoo human rights declaration on 6,773 people comes to UK
June 2023
River of ink: the visual histories embedded in tattoos of Australian service personnel
Exhibition by the Australian War Memorial tells the stories of soldiers and sailors for the first time through their body art
April 2023
Indigenous tattooist becomes Vogue’s oldest ever cover star at 106
Apo Whang-Od appears on front of Philippine edition and is credited with keeping batok form of art alive
March 2023
Brief letters
Whatchamacallit breaks all the rules
Brief letters: Wordiply woes | Hearing aids | Spellchecking Ofsted | Old Testament tattoos | Cheese | Ineptitude for hire
The Catholic church offering free tattoos? It’s a cross I’d be happy to bear
Bidisha Mamata
A monastic group in Vienna is offering to ink followers: with its cycle of pain and regret, it’s pure Old Testament, says Observer columnist Bidisha Mamata
Queensland to ban Nazi swastika tattoos as part of crackdown on hate symbols
Exclusive: State will join NSW, WA and Tasmania in banning tattoos with hate symbols ‘that seek to invoke fear’
February 2023
Pass notes
Nothing says ‘We are an item’ like a naked selfie – just ask Eric André and Emily Ratajkowski
The comedian and the actor have just started going out. That didn’t stop an unusually revealing ‘couple launch’ on Instagram
November 2022
‘My parents weren’t impressed at first, but now I do my mum’: meet some of the world’s best tattoo artists
Tattooing is constantly evolving and the most-sought after artists are superstars. Here, five of the best reveal what the craft means to them
October 2022
‘Like being burned with cooking oil’: how tattoo removal became a booming business
Man sues Cardi B for $5m for using his back tattoo in lewd cover art