IN THE BEGINNING
GINX began with a overwhelming urge to create and inspire. Through all his life GINX creator, Gregory, was mark making in some way or another. Greg always had a pencil in his hand along with an idea.
After some years he took up the needle and went back to the basics of mark making. He went as far back as the some of the original ways of making immortal art with a simple, sharp hand tool dipped in pigment imbuing bespoke and meaningful shapes and symbols in to the skin.
"I'm fascinated by the cave paintings, sculptures and tools first created by man. They're an example of that originality that must've been a necessity to survive. Now its art."
Greg began to make hand-poking tools from up-cycled furniture to hold the needles. GINX then started making its own silver jewellery.
Inspired by the organic process of hand-poking, GINX jewellery reveals the beauty within the natural world the and patterns created by it.
"Tattooing in this way makes me feel like I'm able to connect with my clients on multiple levels through using an ancient and essentially unchanged process to build their identity. It really means a lot to me and I am always so grateful to be involved in their journey of self-expression. "
JEWELLERY
Our silver is 100% recycled — 92.5% pure silver given a new life.
We believe in making jewellery that tells a story. Using cuttlefish bones collected from beaches around the UK, we cast directly into the bone’s natural surface — a centuries-old technique that leaves behind its intricate organic textures, giving each piece a distinctive, rustic character all of its own.
We also work with traditional sand casting, another time-honoured method that produces its own unique natural finish.
No two pieces are alike. Every item is entirely handcrafted and finished with love.
WHY HAND-POKED TATTOOS?
Hand-poked tattoos have a different finish to machined tattoos. An almost raw and organic finish is the result of applying the ink dot-by-dot which gives the style a unique attraction.
Before 1891, all tattoos would have been done by hand and relied on repetition and precision to deposit the ink beneath the skin. Whether the marks are made with a sharp-toothed stick and mallet or striker, or whether they are continuously poked in with the point of a stick, hand-poked tattoos are generally thought of as the less intrusive technique opposed to the machine.
A machine tattoo can pierce the skin up to 3000 times per minute and although hand-poking is a slower process, it is
less painful, quieter and quicker to heal due to less trauma caused to the skin.