About me

Hi! My name's Shaun - though you probably know me as Openmind. I'm a tattoo artist and illustrator from the (not always) sunny south coast of the UK - Bournemouth.

I've been drawing ever since I can remember, creating products and apparel from the age of 16 and tattooing for just over 11 years. I own a studio called Mystic Workshop and work with two incredible people, Jack and Dan.

Over the years I've flicked between doing tattooing and running an apparel business. At points I found the two things impossible to do at the same time, mainly because both were being ran separately with completely different goals in mind.

However, recently I realised a way of being able to run both at once: By creating products and tattoo designs that come from one place.

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My Artwork and Tattoos

I tattoo using a method called whip shading. It's a traditional tattoo technique where you shade confidently with black in order to tattoo a peppery effect. It's traditionally done with a wide needle called a magnum, but I use a small liner to give more control over tone. Over the years I've grown entranced with this method and use it to create a sketchy, textured feel to my pieces.

I draw using a mixture of digital mediums, swapping between a graphics tablet with Clip Studio Paint and an iPad with Procreate. Both methods have their quirks but using both offers me flexibility to work remotely or in my studio.

I'm inspired by the natural world, spirituality, myth and fantasy. I love experimenting with pops of a single colour, muted palettes and glowing elements with a dramatic level of contrast. For the last few years I've been working on a fantasy world where all of my original designs originate from - want to have a quick look?

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View my portfolioMy worldbuilding project

A Brief History of Openmind

Nowadays, Openmind is my artistic alias.

Back in 2012, it was a name that I felt resonated with me at quite a dark time in my life. To keep an 'Open Mind' was a mantra that I wanted to live by in my earlier years.

Originally Openmind was the name of a hobby-business that I opened up after college. I sold T-shirts with a few designs on them around the theme of spirituality - This was one of two original screen prints, named 'The Web'!

Festivals and Colour

The clothing brand took off around the same time that I started my tattoo apprenticeship. 2014 was the boom of sublimation, a method of garment printing that made incredibly vibrant and complex designs possible. I chimed in to this just as the method became well known.

The first years were fun, messy and - as you could imagine - quite tricky to balance with learning tattooing.

This is the stand at Nass Festival just over a decade ago... Time flies 🥹

  • The Crossroads

    It felt good selling t-shirts and meeting lots of new people. It also felt good learning tattooing (at a place called The Gallery where my mentor Koral guided me for 10 months).

    I was at a crossroads but ultimately decided to drop tattooing to focus on the brand.

    It was at this time that the organic cotton all-over prints arrived alongside a series of wood cut products. The releases were constant and limited. It worked well!

    However in the back of my mind, I missed tattooing. Clothing was fun but art was my expression. It became a constant battle between doing something routined and technical, and something creative that took a lot of effort to get off the ground.

  • The Attempt

    For a few years, I tried to do both! 'You know what, this isn't too bad' I'd think. Product release, day session, product release, day session. It was functional however something was lacking.

    At the start of your tattooing career you cannot choose what work you want to do. You have to listen to what people want and take on pretty much anything that was going. Rightly so, however it can be exhausting when you have an artistic identity you want to show the world.

    Quite similarly, as the business was growing I felt I had to listen to what customers wanted. So much so that I forgot to listen to myself.

    Yes, it was working, but it lead to chronic burnout. I decided to focus on tattooing.

A Helping Hand

My friend Elexa saw a local article mentioning the closure of the business and decided to reach out to offer a hand and partner up. It sounded like a great idea and we were determined to make it work! The website was better than ever with a robust selection of goods and Elexa, being a technical person, took the pressure off of advertisements and packaging.

...and then 2020 hit. Remember that worldwide issue that happened? 🦠

Logistically, this made starting up very hard. Sadly it was back to the drawing board, so to speak. We both agreed that we needed to focus on the thing that was helping us survive and not lead to further burnout.

A World of Inspiration

At the end of 2020, something happened. The UK endured its third wave of restrictions, and that meant that yet again tattoo artists weren't able to work. Living alone meant there wasn't a huge amount I could do other than think, game and draw.

I've always had an interest in Roleplaying Games and the fantasy genre, a need for structure and a penchant for psychedelia. This brief space in time bred the idea to create a fantasy world, one that would scratch the itch of artistic inspiration and rule making, all while helping to guide my style. It would be a place that I could put things in to and get things out of.

Four years later, things have come full circle! I'm here to provide cool things and to tattoo cool things, all from a place that doesn't exist. Sounds interesting, right?

View my Worldbuilding Project