Meet the artist: Rhys Evans

Rhys joined Lunar Ink in 2022. Three and a half years in, he's the artist most clients come to us asking for by name — and he's currently booked five months ahead. We grabbed half an hour with him between sessions to talk about how he works.

How did you get into tattooing?

Through graffiti, weirdly. I was painting walls around Cardiff in my late teens — a lot of geometric stuff, sacred-geometry patterns, that sort of thing. A friend asked if I'd ever thought about putting it on skin and the rest just happened.

He apprenticed in Bristol for two years before moving back to Cardiff. The blackwork-and-dotwork specialism came naturally:

What I like about dotwork is you can't fake it. Lines you can power through if you have to — you can rush them and people might not notice. Dots, every single one is a deliberate choice. There's nowhere to hide.

Your sleeves are wild — how long do they take?

A full sleeve is anywhere from 25 to 45 hours of work, depending on density. We split it into four-hour sessions, usually six weeks apart so the skin has time to settle. The longest project I've worked on was 14 sessions across two years.

"Patience" comes up a lot when Rhys talks about his work — both his and the client's.

The clients who come back the most are the ones who understand it's a partnership. I'm not just inking what they tell me — we're building it together over months.

What's a typical week look like?

Mondays are admin and design. Tuesdays through Saturdays he tattoos, usually two clients a day — one morning, one afternoon. Sundays are off, "religiously".

If you're not resting your hands, your line work suffers. People think tattooing is all about the design — half of it is just keeping your body in shape to do the actual work.

Want to book in?

Rhys is currently taking enquiries for late summer 2026. Send a message via the booking form with reference images and a placement, and we'll get back to you within a week.