Relentless Tattoos: Former Royal Marine Commando turned tattoo artist ready for next stage of ink-redible journey after studio move

Mike Bromilow opened Relentless Tattoos in Parker Lane 12 years ago. Last summer, he and wife Jade decided they wanted to buy their own building within the town centre and house their tattoo studio there.

A property in Brown Street, off lower St James' Street, caught their eye, and following six months of relentless renovating, they opened their doors to the public in December.

"We had gotten ourselves into a position where we could afford our own place. We saw this building, and thought, 'Right, let's go for it'. So much work has gone into transforming it. My old man actually, he lives in Leeds, he's driven up every single weekend to help out. I was working full days, and then coming straight here. But it's been worth it. We had an open day back in December, where we did a tattoo giveaway, and so many people came along to that. We had a lot of good times at Parker Lane, but we really like it over here. It seems like a lot of money is being put into this side of town, and it's nice to see. Obviously, you have the Pioneer Place development, with Nando's and everything, but there are a lot of small independent businesses around here as well."

Mike's journey to tattoo artist and business owner hasn't been what you would call conventional. A former Royal Marine Commando – he has always offered a 10% discount to military personnel – it was only after a chance meeting while on tour in Baghdad he began to develop a passion for tattooing.

"I was in the Royal Marine Commandos from 2000 to 2007. Straight after that, literally four days later, I went to Baghdad where I did five years close protection. Almost straight away, I met this American kid. He had this tattoo kit and I talked him into lending it to me. I took it back to my room, set it up, and away I went. Every night, wherever I went in Iraq or Afghanistan, I'd take it with me and somebody would get a tattoo. A lot of it was trial and error, but I had always been artistic, so it was more getting to grips with equipment. I did thousands while I was out there. Even though I was new to it, people were queuing up to get them done. I didn't think it would lead to a job, though."

Within weeks of returning to the UK, Mike, who lives in Chorley, had opened up a studio in Parker Lane, Burnley, and was tattooing dozens of customers - many of whom are still regulars to this day.

"I'd not worked in a proper studio before. I got that place as soon as I came back and just cracked on. It took me two weeks to decorate it, and while I was working on it I just had a sign outside, Within that two weeks, I had booked up my first week. It was madness, because nobody had seen my work before, nobody had seen the shop.

"I looked everywhere [to open up a studio] when I came back; I just wanted the business to do well. There were too many in certain towns, whereas there were only three in Burnley. I came and had a look, and I thought, ‘Yeah, we'll do ok here'. Over the 11-and-a-half years we were there, the business just carried on growing, and we have a really strong, loyal customer base now."

And that customer base stretches way beyond the boundaries of Burnley, thanks in part to Mike's impeccable reputation for portrait tattoos.

"We have people travelling here from all over the country. We even had one guy who came from Dublin for a tattoo. A lot come from London as well."

Business is better than ever, but the tattoo industry, as is the case with many other sectors, has not been immune from rising costs.

"Everything has gone up," said Mike. "Basically, anything we need to do the job has gone up in price. We've had to up our prices a tiny bit, not much compared to everything else that has gone up - ink, needles, you name it. But we're doing fine. There's a few more tattoo studios in Burnley than there was 10 years ago, but we're more than holding our own."