Medway Tattoo & Piercing
Medway Tattoo & Piercing Centre is situated at 392 Rochester High Street, (the Chatham end!), approximately a quarter mile from Rochester train station, and about half a mile from Chatham train station. Both stations are on the main line from London.
Its location, on the corner of Gundulph Rd./High St is hard to miss, as it has a frontage of about 110ft!. The Victorian building has massive windows, which give the studio a bright and airy feel, and of course lots of natural daylight to tattoo and draw by!
This was to be our first studio, and we opened our door on 20/04/2000, after an extensive refit, mostly done by us, after work!
Our brief was to make the studio bright, clean, friendly, honest and open. I think we achieved that!
The street door opens into the large reception area, ruled over by the reception girls; Abi, Kim, and Aimee.
All our Tattoo flash designs are in 24, A3 size display books, with 48 pages per book, that’s well over 1000 pages of A3 flash on display. I hate flash on the walls; it always looks grubby to me. There is also a photo album on display for each resident artist; Ben and Martin. (see their portfolio’s for examples of work). We find it helps our customers to see designs actually on skin as well as on paper. We encourage customers to pick the artist to work on them, or we will advise one artist over another, based on their speciality in that subject or style.
Also on display is a photo album of Sam’s piercing work, and a large display cabinet with an extensive range of piercing jewellery to view. We are currently expanding our range of organic jewellery, as we have found the more natural materials give fewer problems in some piercings.
A double-glazed 8ft x 4ft window looks directly into the Tattoo work area. Each of our 3 resident artists has their own working area, with separate sinks and facilities. We all prefer this open studio design, as it allows the artists to view other styles, allow the customers to see other work being done, and encourages the camaraderie and team spirit in all of them. The constant stream of jokes and banter are a free bonus!!!
All the Tattoo areas can be screened off for privacy.
The stairs up lead to our drawing and computer area. The computer is mainly used for lettering and word art. It enables us to quickly produce names and words in any size in many fonts, but Old English is still the most popular!
The stairs down lead to the cellar, with its various storage areas.
Off the Tattoo work area is the separate self-contained Piercing room. This is Sams domain, and you had better not even think about going in there unless you are invited, and even then TOUCH NOTHING!
You should be able to make out all these areas from the photos on our site.
The studio opened with a queue in 2000, and since then we have been building a good solid reputation, Tattooing everything from small hearts & flowers to full backs, full sleeves etc.
We do a few conventions every year, usually Gillingham, London, Brighton and Manchester. We have won a few things, but we ain’t trophy hunters!
The studio has an impressive customer base, some customers regularly travelling over 50 miles to see us. This is probably due to the fact that we have pride and integrity in our work, cut no corners and use the best materials and equipment, and have a team of highly talented artists, working together and pushing the boundaries. This in turn encourages other artists to come and see us! That’s how come we have artists from Greece, New Zealand, Finland, Canada etc working with us!.
It is our company policy to use the highest quality products throughout, in both piercing and tattoo. We also guarantee all our work, and as long as you have looked after your tattoo as we advise, and have come back to the artist for the 2 week check up, we will put back in any colour or line lost during the healing process, for free. We encourage one to one consultation with the artist of your choice, and are always there for help and advice on any aspect of Tattoo.
Our pricing structure is based on £70 per hour, with a £35 minimum. For appointment bookings we require a £20 per hour deposit. For example a 2 hour appointment requires a £40 deposit. For your convenience we stock aftercare creams and solutions.
Our hygiene standard is probably the highest in England; to this end we use many disposable products and barriers for your safety. ‘Cross Contamination’ is the major concern within the industry, but all of our artists are trained to lead you through the systems we use. They will show you the various items still in the sterilized bags and the disposables set out before they start working on you, and they will insist that you observe the needles being destroyed and the disposables binned in the clinical waste bin at the end of your tattoo. Just so you know!
Our company motto is; Quality and hygiene Guaranteed.
We use only the best inks, needles, jewellery, consumables and equipment we can find, and while this can cost a little more initially, in the long run it is always worth it.
Remember;
“Good tattoos ain’t cheap and cheap tattoos ain’t good!”
