Nine Tails Tattoos

This glossy tattoo parlour specialises in highly skilled Japanese body art. It's a little different though: there's no nu-metal music savaging the stereo, no glossy photos of body art littering the walls and no fluorescent lighting to sear your eyeballs. The shopfront is unassuming and looks more like that of a boutique art shop than a hardcore ink den. In fact, Kanae Nash’s neat, chic parlour in Hoxton is positively Zen. Nash inks alongside her resident tattooist, Mie Sato, who worked with her at Mo Coppoletta’s The Family Business in Clerkenwell. Nash is firmly inspired by traditional Japanese body art and – despite her warm, feminine work space – most of her clientele are men in their thirties and forties who are serious about tattoos. She specialises in extraordinary works that she designs specifically for each customer, working with the sinews and contours of their body to depict geishas, dragons, warriors and similar motifs. She will typically take a whole back as a canvas for her intricate work – so it’s not a place you’d come to for an ‘I love Mum’ heart or a dolphin on your ankle.