Made In Manchester

I’m gonna keep this one short and sweet, people; don’t go to Made In Manchester. In a previous review I wrote of Metalmorphosis, the piercing and tattoo heaven in Selfridges, I mentioned that I’d had a pretty cruddy experience when getting my second tattoo. That experience was here, Made In Manchester. From the word go, it doesn’t look the best; it’s a careworn shopfront on the edge of the Northern Quarter, and the interior is pretty bleak too. The closest comparison I can draw is with the waiting rooms in Northern train stations, but with peeling yellowing ‘flash’ posters on the walls. The ‘stdio’ space is a weird narrow side room that did not look clean (though I am not casting aspersions on the health and safety conditions here; I am sure that it is kept clean). The surroundings didn’t put me at ease, and nor did the tattoo artist, who was gruff and had taken it upon himself to re-​jig my sketched design. The tattoo itself didn’t turn out great, for a simple black and white line drawing it has a few too many flaws for my liking. Which kind of sucks when it’s permanently etched onto your skin.
All in all, this is not the place to go if you want to feel confident, and if you want a friendly service. I cannot vouch for the quality of other tattoos, but in my personal opinion, my tattoo was a huge disappointment. Steer clear, go to Metalmorphosis instead.

Without a doubt Manchester’s première tattoo parlour. Though you know the staff love their mums and that the equipment is clean and sterile, Made In Manchester manages to retain that air and menace that you want from a tattoo parlour– not a place for little Beckhams, here be pirates arrrrr!
Though not the cheapest tats, the prices reflect the quality of the work and as your body art/​mutilation is going to last at least until you can afford a years worth of laser surgery I’d imagine getting a good job is high on your list of priorities.
Saying that, if you are the type of person who writes up priority lists then tattoos probably aren’t for you.