Behind The Art #24: Tattoo Series | Brodie Adler – 🆂🆆🅽

By The Masked Embroider
Instagram: @themaskedembroiderer | Twitter: @TEmbroiderer

It’s been over a year now since my last SWN Behind the Art article was published and with such a gap between pieces you begin to question yourself, lose a bit of confidence and start to wonder whether you’re even still able to think creatively. Maybe I’ve written myself out? Would anyone actually want to talk or hear from me again?

So I can’t tell you just how nice it was to receive a message last week with some gentle encouragement to try and write some new content. And that is why you’re reading this now. I’ve been persuaded to return and to try, try again. In the words of Robert the Bruce. Stirring stuff I know.

SWN Behind the Art is back and I’m going to start of with a continuation of the series I started back on October 31st 2020 Behind the Art: Tattoo series…

During the pandemic many disgusting and despicable revelations came to light regarding some well known wrestlers and we had the Speaking Out campaign trying to force change for the better in the wrestling world and, although there is no doubt still a way to go to make lasting changes, it’s nice to see the wrestling scene back up and running again and looking brighter than ever.

The other nice thing to see is that there are a lot more really talented emerging and established female athletes finally getting more opportunities to showcase their work and getting their chance in the spotlight.

One such talented female athlete is Brodie Adler. She has become a favourite at SWN and has appeared quite regularly on the SWN Podcast with Billy (if you missed them go back and check them out).

I reached out to see if she would like to be my first guest in the tattooists chair and thankfully with an enthusiastic reply she agreed.

So let’s get the story Behind the Art…

Brodie, welcome. Let’s start with the obvious question.

What tattoos have you got?

I have 15 tattoos so far, many more planned!

My first tattoo is my ‘Ugly Butterfly’. It’s basically like a skeleton or an origami style of a butterfly? I loved the look of it… which I found on a zipper originally! I ended up getting some details added to it later on with some skeleton hand grenades and the words ‘it’s all so ugly’ written around it. The route of this is from a band I was in years ago and most of the songs we wrote were against violence and the ugliness of war and this was the main hook line in the song we later released as a single, so its a kind of nod to my old band which started a chain reaction of events for me which got me where I am today!

My other tattoo’s have nowhere near as much background on them because its just stuff I liked! I love Pokémon and still have all my cards, merch and games, so I got an 8-bit Pikachu tattoo! I also have Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas which I got on the same day as Pikachu, so he has a friend!

I have this funky looking black phoenix on my arm which honestly, was a total google images number.

I have a red and blue doctor who tattoo just below my elbow, which says ‘We are all stories in the end’ done in Gallifreyan, the language of the Doctors home planet, Gallifrey.

I think that’s my gloriously nerdy tattoo’s out the way!

I have a small looking square on my right wrist, which is the logo for the band The Blackout, which I got for travelling to their last show in Merthyr Tydfil. Right next to this I have some lit sticks of Dynamite which I got as a flash piece at my first Download Festival in 2019 – which connect to The Blackout tattoo nicely because one of their repeated hooks was ‘We are the Dynamite’. Just going to leave that wee comment hanging there…

I have on my upper right arm a big purple bow with a skull on it, which my friend designed so I decided to get it tattooed. I then have a deaths-head hawkmoth under this which was another flash piece I got for MacMillan Cancer. Next to this is my latest piece, which is a turquoise lava lamp, another flash piece but was more of a ‘Covid has kept me from getting tattoo’s and I need to get it out my system’ kinda thing. The final tattoo on my right arm is a watercolour piece with a pawprint with some fish skeletons and a colour tag with a C in it. I’ve always been a cat owner and all my cats names from birth to current have names starting with a C, so that’s for all my kitty cats. I broke the name thing when we got Dutch but I have something special planned for him!

On my left forearm I have a purple bass clef with a dragon style wing and some stars, another design by a friend of mine. I wanted a bass clef as I have been a bass player for many years and I wanted a wee something for that.

(Bonus story, this was my second tattoo that I got and I wasn’t aware that drinking the night before would affect me when I got it the next day. This was through my phase of mixing Buckfast with cider, and while getting my ink done, I passed out on the poor girl and was transferred to a bed to have it finished. Not my proudest moment!)

My upper left arm I have more watercolour with a cute flower and a boombox. No reason, its just cool to be honest!

I have a piece on my chest which is a kind of treble clef.

On my right calf I have a big Biohazard symbol with a green glow and some shooting stars.

So it’s pretty fair to say you like tattoos then. Haha. When did you get them?

I have gotten them between my 20th birthday and about a month ago.

Who did them for you?

I have never stuck to one artist to be honest. I have had tattoos done at Chameleon Tattoo, Whifflet Street Tattoos, a place in Alloa which no longer exists and I can’t remember its name. Download Festival, Frontier in Cardiff, Kraken tattoos, Good Gear (out of Hepcat).

How long did they take?

On average, each sitting was probably about an hour and a half I think. Except for flash pieces which are smaller and took about half an hour.

The larger piece on my leg took around two and a half hours which was absolutely awful. My pain barrier was well broken before the two hour mark and it was just horrible to sit and take. I got it done in Cardiff so I couldn’t just go home and reschedule, it HAD to be done and dusted then and there!

Do you enjoy the whole tattooing process?

Yes and no. Mostly no to be honest lol! I don’t mind getting the line work done but getting shading and colouring done is the part I hate. If its on my forearm then cool, but when it encroaches over your shin or the bone of your wrist that’s when I become less tolerant! End results always fun, of course. When I was getting my Pikachu/Zero tattoos done, the shop was absolutely freezing and in my opinion there’s absolutely nothing worse than having to get your tattoo done when your sitting shivering, because its like a feeling of ‘ok, I’m already twitching, I’m shivering because I can’t put my jumper on, and my blood sugars plummeting’, it’s honestly the worst way to be when getting it done, in my opinion!

Any tattoos you’ve seen that you admire or are jealous off?

Not that I can think of off the top of my head to be honest. I really love watercolour tattoos though, they’re my favourite so I always admire a good watercolour. I’m not big on the realistic tattoos of big lions or of people etc but I can absolutely appreciate the mad work that goes into them.

And lastly you said you had more planned. Any you can tell us about?

I’ve got a few I’d like, but who knows if I’ll get round to them! My next I want is a geometric fox on my wrist for my nephew. I have also been thinking about getting a Queens of the Stone Age tattoo but a bit hesitant of getting band tattoos these days! I definitely want a Sonic The Hedgehog tattoo, and no doubt I’ll think of more down the line.

Brodie Adler thank you for talking to me.

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