Blackpool tattoo artist swaps skin for canvas in new exhibition

Shamack Malachowski from The Ink Den is showing his paintings, videos and sculptures at the neighbouring Tea Amantes cafe in Albert Road.

And the tearoom, owned by Anna Paprzycka, is also raising funds to support Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian bombs who have crossed the border in to the couple’s native Poland.

Shamack said: “I specialize in black and grey realism, in particular biomechanical art, but I do tattoo colour pieces also. I make biomechanical sculptures and also like to create artwork with my airbrush.

“I have been tattooing since 2008, after having a fascination with it since I was 15.

“A lot of my inspiration comes from artists such as HR Geiger, the creator of the Xenomorph and a lot of the Alien artwork.

“I have worked on a variety of collaborations, both artwork/sculptures and tattoos including with Jordan Oterski.

“My aim is to show to people how closely art and tattooing truly is, and how tattoo artists use a wide variety of skills in order to produce the work we put on people's skin."

Shamack held a reception for the exhibition at the tearoom which was attended by local artists and community leaders. Tea Amantes aims to stage an exhibition of different artists’ work every month.

Next month’s will be by Ukrainian painter Anna Ravliuc-Bloomfield who will sell some work to help war refugees. In the meantime Anna is raffling an afternoon tea for two at Tea Amantes and Shamack is raffling a day session at Ink Den worth £600, each on the businesses’ Facebook pages.