Drawn the night before, on skin by the weekend

Four hands, two rooms, one wall of sheets

Iron & Ivy opened on Oldham Street in 2016 with one chair and a folder of drawings. There are four artists now and the folder is a wall: sixty sheets, each drawn once, tattooed once, and never repeated for anybody. Mari Okafor and Cal Brennan share the front room and take the custom work. Ines Falk draws most of the sheets, and Dan Whitlow covers the second chair on Thursdays. All four charge by the hour on custom work and agree the rate before the drawing starts. What they will not do is as fixed as what they will: nothing copied from another sheet, no faces, nothing over ink that has not settled, and nothing on skin that is inflamed.

Manchester

• “Bold line, healed three years, still black at the edges. I have had finer pieces fade on me and this one has not moved.”

• “I claimed a sheet on a Thursday morning and sat for it the same afternoon. No waiting list, and no pitching an idea.”

• “They turned down the cover-up I asked for and explained why. Two years later I am glad they did.”

What people ask before the Thursday

How does a Thursday walk-in work?

The new sheets go on the wall and on this page at ten. Pick one, bring it to the counter and pay the deposit, and it comes off the wall for you. One sheet per person, first come. It is drawn for a date, usually within the fortnight, and it is tattooed as it is on the sheet.

Can I change a flash design?

The size can change to fit you, and it will be placed where it reads best. The drawing itself is not changed: a sheet is drawn to be tattooed as it is, which is why it is priced as one piece. Change the drawing and it becomes a custom piece, quoted separately, with its own date.

Do you take custom work as well?

Yes. Each artist takes one custom piece a week, drawn for the placement you name. Send the idea with the placement, the size and any ink already there, and you will hear back within a week. Custom work is quoted by the hour, agreed before the drawing starts.

How long does a bold piece take to heal?

The surface closes in about a fortnight and the black settles by eight weeks. Keep it out of the bath, the pool and the sun until then. You leave with a second skin and a written sheet, and if a line needs closing up inside the first year it is free.

What will you not tattoo?

Nothing copied from another artist’s sheet. No faces, and nothing on the hands or the soles of the feet. No cover-ups over ink less than a year old, and nothing on skin that is burnt, inflamed or still healing.

How do I wash it in the first week?

Warm water, unscented soap, the flat of your fingers, twice a day. Pat it dry with a clean towel or let it air, then a thin layer of balm — thin enough that the skin is not shiny. Do not soak it, do not scrub it, and do not pick at the flaking, however much it itches.

Can I swim, or go back to the gym?

Not in the first fortnight. A pool, the sea and a bath all put the piece under water it is not ready for, and a hard session under a fresh wrap is how a heal goes patchy. Walking and lighter work are fine from the day after; anything that has you sweating into it can wait until the surface has closed.

Will it need a touch-up?

Sometimes. A line can drop out where the skin bends, or where a scab came away early, and that is ordinary rather than a mistake. Send a photograph once it has settled at six weeks and we will book the touch-up into a session — not before, because a piece that is still healing cannot be read.

The door

Oldham Street, under the hanging sign

Walk in on the Thursday from ten. The counter is on the left, the wall is on the right, and somebody will be free to take the sheet off it for you.