Shangri-La Tattoo Parlour

.voor het leven.
I love neither needles nor pain. In fact, I have a fairly (ir)rational hatred of anything that may pierce my skin and develop seething rage during blood tests. Needless to say, I was quite surprised when waking up one morning to find that I knew exactly what design I wanted and where I wanted it, although not quite as the point where I found myself wandering in a daze in the general direction of Nam Caphe having booked a 3 hour appointment.
Finding the right parlour was initially a bit tricky — a friend had recommended Frith Street Tattoo, but there wasn’t much there that did it for me. However, when I found Shangri-​La on Unilocal and had a flick through their stuff, I instantly knew that it was exactly my kind of place. Beautiful Asian inspired pieces? Check. Dark, European, bleak woodcut-​esque stuff all in black? Check. Perfect. As Janine mentions, Lesley Chan owns Shangri-​La: her Asian-​inspired artwork is really something and I absolutely love the style; still, her portfolio is extremely varied and I’m glad that I was steered in her direction as I do think she was the perfect person to do my piece. There are currently 4 other artists working in Shangri-​La (Liam, Caleb, Ryan, and Rafael) — looking through the shop’s tumblr, they’re clearly a talented bunch and I really like a lot of the work I’ve seen on it.
Having moved recently, the upstairs ‘reception’ space is a bit sparse, but the downstairs (where the magic/​buzzing happens) is pretty homely and I felt comfortable in there, and there’s a good, pretty laid-​back atmosphere. Oh, and the staff put on a great selection of music which always helps.
I was a bit nerve-​wracked on the way to my appointment, but I calmed down pretty quickly when I got there, and Lesley did an amazing job making everything as easy as it could be for me, even with the buzzing of the tattoo machine (which I couldn’t help but feel sounded like a giant enraged mosquito). I thought it would feel like an eternity but it went past quickly save for the last 20 minutes (with a little help from a friend who made sure that I was topped up on lollipops/​a lollipop stick to bite down on).
As for the end result, I really couldn’t be happier — Lesley added a fantastic amount of detail which left me extremely impressed. This may or may not be my last tattoo, but if I do go for another one, it’d be highly unlikely that I’d want to go anywhere else but here. This was a great first time experience and I couldn’t recommend it enough.
(for the record, I got a Unilocal Elite badge with my name on it tattooed on my chest. YOLO).
(not actually, but I had you there for a second, right?)

Funky little parlour with sofas to wait and books to flick through. There is some tattoo-​inspired art to buy as well.
At the moment two main artists are here:
Leslie Chan, the shop owner, is a stunning New Zealand/​Chinese lady and that mix shows through in her art — contemporary asian is probably a tag you could give it but let’s not pigeonhole such a talented artist. She is booked up several months in advance — I had a half sleeve by her and here’s how the process went: I went into the shop around August time, and I waited in the shop and in the next door café until she was taking a break from tattooing her client for that day, and just talked to her giving a general idea of what I wanted. She sent me some sketches of what she wanted to do a few weeks later, I then called her and booked some time in — which was January. My half a sleeve took four sessions and you need a week in between to let the skin heal. At the time her day rate was £250 but I know she was just about to put that up. The time depends on what you have and she will let you know that before you book any time. I made a few comments about the piece and she adjusted that before placing the transfer in pieces on my arm — it fits round my body shape as all good tattoos should and that is because of the time and care she took at this stage! I found out about Leslie’s work in a magazine, and fell in love with her style — and this is how she works, you need to give her as free a range as possible and trust that she is way better at knowing what tattoos better than you do! Really this is how it should be with tattooists — that you go to the one whose style you like and work with them from there.
Andrew May is there as well — he works in any colour as long as its black! OK I have seen him do one tattoo with colour in… but his style is strong and dark. He wears vintage suits, has a long beard and often sports a bowler hat — I’m sure you’re getting the idea of his tattoo style from that! He can be booked but also handles the walk-​ins if you just want something small.
The pair have a strong working bond and it makes the time spent there very chilled and funny — with tales and gossip about being a tattooist. They also have great taste in music!

I was marked for life by a nice boy
Shangri-​La was recommended by a friend who has lots of body art: It’s great, all women. I called ahead and was told to pop in between 12 and 6, and that if it was simple they could probably help me right away; or make an appointment for a bigger piece. I was a bit surprised when I found two blokes working there but it turns out that (female) owner wasn’t around and instead I saw Rich, who did a fine job of the tattoo I wanted.
I liked the décor — Japanese and old school sailor style tatt drawings on tracing paper pinned to the wall, peeling wooden advertising signs, and a curious amount of taxidermy; I liked the atmosphere and Rich listened closely to what I wanted beforehand (to the point of rightly correcting me about what I’d briefed him on halfway through) so I went ahead with it despite being told beforehand that I’d be charged the minimum fee of £50 for a simple design. I received advice on how to care for the tatt and walked out feeling exceptionally happy.
Cash only — no cards. There’s a cashpoint in the Grocery shop next door.