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By Alesha Capone

17th November 2009 11:05:04 AM

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Artistic inside and out ... Sunshine tattoo artist Sharky Alien is devoted to his craft. 38971

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SHARKY Alien’s body is a work of art.

The Sunshine tattoo artist and body piercer, who gave himself his first tattoo at 12 years old, could not guess how many tattoos he has.

“Over the years they’ve all merged into one,” said the Braybrook resident, who owns and works at Sharky’s Alien Tattoos and Body Piercing.

The building is familiar to some of Sunshine’s population, well-known for the enormous fake redback spider attached to the door-handle.

The 49-year-old tattoo artist has kept the tattoo trade in the family, as his son Mimmo, 21, and two nephews also work with him.

One of Mr Alien’s tattoos, featuring bubbles and flowers, was done by his son, when Mimmo was only 11 years old.

“My daughter inked her first tattoo on a Barbie when she was eight and half years old,” Mr Alien said.

Over the past three decades, Mr Alien has seen tattoos become more socially acceptable.

After tattooing himself as a child, he befriended several qualified tattoo artists who taught him the trade.

Despite his many years in the business, Mr Alien said people’s requests for tattoos never ceased to amaze him.

“I once had to tattoo Coca-Cola on someone’s eyebrows and a swear-word on another person’s tongue,” he said. He said one of the most popular tattoo requests from customers was for the name of someone they loved to be stencilled on their skin.

“I tell them, ‘Love hurts. It hurts when I do it, it hurts when you split up and it hurts when you come back for me to cover it up’,” Mr Alien said.

The tattoo enthusiast, who also has 10 body piercings, once even had a nervous customer urinate on him.

But nothing could deter Mr Alien from his chosen field. “I want to keep tattooing until I die,” he said.

For more information, see www.myspace.com/tnt_tattooing

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