Archive News
Tatoo artists Stephen and Nancy make their point
Date Published: 24-Jan-2013
The Galway Bay Tattoo studio is far from the dingy and dirty dens often associated with bikers and heavy metal fans.
Located in Lower Fairhill on a corner, it is in fact, one of the nicest shop fronts in the city and is clean, airy and bright inside.
Opened three years ago, it is also an art gallery which not only displays the artwork of owners, Nancy Klein and Stephen Kennedy but that of their friends, a circle they have come to know since they arrived in Galway.
Nancy and Stephen are a couple who were attracted to Galway because of its creative and artistic reputation. They had both worked as tattoo artists in their respective native countries – Canada for Nancy and Australia for Stephen – and now say they have the “best clients” in Galway.
Both had travelled well before they met through mutual friends in Scotland eight years ago and yes, Nancy admits, “it was love at first sight. . . we were a couple by the next day”.
They are both mildly spoken and in their three years here they admit they have become friends with most of their customers!
Nancy says that some days, they just don’t get anything done as people stroll in one after the other for a chat. But you know by the way she says it that she doesn’t mind. They are both dedicated artists who eat, sleep and drink tattoos such is their obsession with their work.
“Yeah, I dreamed last night about a tattoo,” she says quietly to Stephen. Most nights they sit in and talk tattoos though sometimes they might go and see a band in any of the city venues.
They both have workbooks which catalogue their work. Stephen is into portraits of famous people and animals. These tattoos are major works, intricate in detail and can take hours to complete. A large work, like a sleeve, can take hours spread over a number of sessions.
Nancy says she gets tired on her feet, in her lower back and her eyes if she works for more than two hours at a time. “I also get hungry and I just cannot continue,” she says. But Stephen can work continuously for five hours without a break – that’s if a client can take it.
They both love what they do – that is obvious – and when not working on a live canvas, they sit in their office in the back drawing, sketching or painting. Some of their work is on permanent display in their gallery.
Stephen’s canvases show Johnny Cash and Elvis in lifelike images while Nancy’s artwork is more architectural, and equally intricate.
And while Stephen prefers big statements in his tattoo works such as portraits, Nancy’s work is more ethereal involving butterflies, flowers and fairies, though she too has big work under her belt and proudly shows her portfolio.
She does a lot of work on women, particularly on those wanting to cover up old tattoos or scars. Requests to cover up Caesarean Section scars are common, although she stresses that a scar has to have healed for at least three or four years before she will go near it.
They are both very much into hygiene and regulation though Stephen is amazed at how little their trade is regulated. Nancy hates the idea of cross-contamination and is meticulous when it comes to wearing sterile gloves.
They have a sterile container which is disposed of by bio-hazard specialists. They also have an age policy – strictly over 18 – though they know that not everyone in the industry is as conscientious.
“It is unusual that the tattoo artists in Galway get on so well. When we first came to Galway we worked for a year with a couple in the knowledge that we were always going to set up our own business,” says Stephen.
Apparently, the ink supplier often expresses his amazement at the camaraderie between the local tattoo artists saying it is not the case in Dublin or anywhere else.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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