OUR HISTORY

Barry Louvaine opened his House of Living Art tattoo shop in South West London in the mid seventies.The adopted son of circus family he moved on to the travelling fair. He had a sign writing fairground background and was looking for a career that not many others could do. With his sign painting foundation, he claims to have opened the 11th shop within the M25 area. Now there are hundreds.

A great showman and story teller Barry was keen on any publicity and despite his somewhat dubious banter at times he could charm almost anyone. He made a name for himself tattooing celebrities at the time, doing stage and tv make up and appearing as a tattoo talking head on daytime tv talk shows.

As a tattooer , he travelled to tattoo conventions in the USA and later put on his own tattoo conventions at what was then the Hammersmith  palais, and Chelsea football club.

During his career he remained in his Earlsfield shop and his tattoos are still walking the local streets, though now we are tattooing Barrys old clients grandchildren at his shop. 

Barry died in 2001 and his biker funeral is still remembered  and talked about by those around at the time.