Why Hackney Has Become One of London's Tattoo Hotspots

People ask me a lot why we're still here in Hackney after all these years, and honestly, it's because Hackney found us as much as we found it. When we moved the studio to Lower Clapton Road, this end of E5 wasn't exactly known as a destination for anything, let alone tattooing.

I'll be straight with you — Hackney Central by day is still a bit rough around the edges. You've got Poundland, Primark, and stalls setting up through the day selling mostly food, the odd vintage clothes rail. It's not polished and it's not trying to be. But by night it's a completely different story. A whole run of new arches has opened up nearby with genuinely great bars and breweries, and the nightlife here now rivals anywhere else in East London. That mix — scrappy by day, buzzing by night — is honestly part of what I like about this area. There's a realness to it you don't get somewhere like Shoreditch anymore, where every other unit is a chain pretending to be independent.

There are a few other studios around, though not clustered right on top of us, and between us all there's a decent range covering everything from bold traditional through to fine line and illustrative work. Clients who make the trip out here tend to know what they want, or at least they're ready to have a proper conversation about it rather than pointing at a flash sheet. That matters more than people think.

If you head the other way from us, towards Victoria Park Village, Broadway Market or over into Hackney Wick, you get a completely different flavour — more independent cafes, more of that creative-studio energy Hackney Wick's known for. It's worth knowing the area isn't just one thing. Hackney Central is scrappy in the day and lively at night; a fifteen-minute walk in either direction and it shifts completely again.

If you're thinking about getting tattooed and weighing up where to go, my honest advice is to look at the work, not just the postcode. But if you're already around here, you're in good company. We've been tattooing out of this part of East London since 2009.

Good Times Tattoo is at 8 Lower Clapton Road, Hackney, E5 0PD. We don't take online bookings — every tattoo starts with a chat, either through our contact form or in person at the studio, so we can talk through what you actually want before anything's booked in.

Tattooing East London since 2009.