Celebrity tattoo legend '˜fixes it' for Mansfield inker

Lee Ainsworth, 34, who operates at the Monster Shop on Leeming Street, was contacted by Channel 4’s Tattoo Fixers star Stephen ‘Sketch’ Porter after he saw his work on Instagram.

Tattoo Fixers features Sketch and top tattooists Alice Perrin and Jay Hutton, who transform extreme inking disasters into walking works of art, as clients with regrettable tattoos visit their pop-up parlour for a badly needed body art consultation.

Lee has now started as an occasional guest artist at Sketch’s Reppin Ink salon, where his realism tattoos have gone down a storm.

He said: “It was quite daunting tattooing at his shop because of who he is.

“When I went down I tattooed nothing more out of the ordinary than what I do at the Monster Shop, but I did love it.

“I was actually offered a job but I decided it is too far away.”

Lee first went to the shop to tattoo Sketch’s customers on Friday, August 25, for three days and is going back down to tattoo again in October.

He said: “Me and Sketch had never met in person before.

“Sketch is on of the most down to earth guys I have ever met.”

Unlike Sketch, who started his body art career after buying an ink gun and tattooing his dad, Lee’s broke into the profession after the owner of Monster Shop saw his ability as an artist.

Lee said: “I had always done painting and the owner of the Monster Shop saw my drawings and suggested I try tattooing. So I gave it a go and it worked out pretty good.”