ROXY’S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS

Meet Roxy, the owner of London's first all-female staffed tattoo studio.

Owner of London’s first tattoo studio with an all-female crew, Velvet Underground Tattoo, Roxy Velvet is as metal as they come. With ten years of fetish, burlesque and circus performance under her belt, all it took was one particularly wild night out to send her spinning into the world of tattoos. A pal set her up on a machine, applied a stencil to his arm and said, “Go on then!”.

Roxy didn’t have a single tattoo at the time. But what followed was “A life-changing moment” and resulted in her packing in her performance career, moving to Thailand and subsequently Sweden. It was over this period she trained with Thai Art and Stockholm Ink. Once she’d put in the graft with her training, Roxy started running her own studio. She quickly decided that she wanted it to be an all-female enterprise.

“In the beginning, I thought very carefully about the kind of studio I wanted to run and the experience that I wanted the clients and artists to have. The way I see it, women haven’t been given much opportunity to develop and establish their own ways of doing business, particularly in traditionally maledominated industries. As a society, we’re moving towards more ethical, less environmentally damaging commerce and an increasing focus on employee well-being.

I think women have a huge part to play in that, but unfortunately, many are held back by sexism, harassment and the wage gap. I was curious to see how a group of strong, independently-minded women would work together, albeit with some trepidation.”

A quick scroll through the Velvet Underground Instagram page shows off the range of tattoos and styles offered up, plus some of the more bespoke requests. Roxy enjoys the challenge of “working with people’s ideas to create something unique” and refers to some of the art she’s currently working on, including a “sleeve of Manta-Ray skeletons, a Paradise Lost inspired leg sleeve and a kitsch Jesus back-piece.” Hopefully, not all on the same person...

So as an avid rider, has Roxy got any bike-inspired tattoos?

“I’ve got a few strategically placed tattoos covering various motorbike-related scrapes and burns, including an old-schoolstyle pulled tooth on my ankle.” Not technically moto culture, but we can make exceptions.

the way I see it, women haven’t been given much opportunity to develop “ and establish their own ways of doing business.

Roxy was an early adopter of two wheels, getting her first manual bike aged 19. “It was a Suzuki RV125, which was in pieces in my boyfriend’s Dad’s garage. He said he’d rebuild the engine if I did the electrics. I was well out of my depth, but I really wanted that bike. So I figured it out somehow.” Since then, Roxy hasn’t looked back. She even managed to squeeze in an impromptu three-week road trip through Vietnam just before we went into the first UK lockdown in 2020.

“We started by flying into Ho Chi Minh City from Bangkok, where we picked up a couple of bikes and then made up the route as we went along. Our original plan to ride to Hanoi was a little far-reaching. We hadn’t accounted for Tet, Vietnam’s New Year and most important national festival. Having been delayed by some minor incidents (me losing my bike keys in a waterfall) and slowed down by ‘Brad Pitt-Stop’s roadside beard trims, we rolled into Hoi An just in time for the Tet celebrations to explode, and it was joyous!”

“We dropped off our bikes at the rental company’s Hoi An garage, continued by train to Hanoi and picked up a couple of custom bikes there from a local. Vietnam is full of surprises, culture and wonderful people. I highly recommend it.” Roxy’s eyes were constantly flitting around and admiring some of the Mutts in our Bethnal Green store, so we asked her what her favourite thing about them was. “I love the custom feel and retro-inspired styling of Mutt bikes. As a fairly slight, 5’3” woman, the size and weight of a bike is always a bit of a consideration for me, especially for city riding. Mutt bikes are perfect in that respect while still having a satisfying gravitas about them. They look great, sound great, turn heads, and are ideal for getting me through the traffic in style when I’ve slept through my four alarms. It just makes you grin every time you ride it!”

If she had her way, Roxy would make a custom Mutt inspired by a suitably dark legend. “Hel or Hela. The Norse Goddess of The Underworld, who is in charge of the souls that don’t make it to Valhalla”. And when it comes to an anthem for listening while she rides? ‘It would have to be Venus In Furs. We have one of the lyrics, “different colours made of tears”, in neon on the studio wall’.

See you out on the road, Roxy.