Concept and Brand Story

Made to Suit came about as an idea of meeting more people with in our tattoo industry. Getting a group of artist together, hang the same canvas side by side and talk about our influences over a few beverages.

The idea was simple, we formed the group and then the general public started to notice what we where doing. As the deadline drew near and we hung the first twenty pieces we knew it was special. The sheer size of the artwork gave the room energy and the impact was incredible. With hundreds of people flocking to see the art work on our opening night we knew this would be an annual event. Made to Suit is purely an art exhibit, we are tattoo artists and there are so many levels of artists within our community. Made to Suit has started to showcase and educate our wider community by highlighting a new community of artists that normally get over looked with old stories and taboo topics.

Our logo for Made to Suit is designed around our passion for painting and love of the rich tattoo history with in our community.

For those of you, that don’t know of, or have never heard of the great Omi also known as the zebra man whose real name was Horace, Leonard Ridler sometime between 1927 and 1934 Ridler chose the path to heavily Tattoo himself to further his career As a sideshow freak that would allow him to travel the world with his elaborate bold black pattern to create the look of the zebra man, although he only had the top part of his body tattooed with the patterns the rest of his body was tattooed and covered with flash designs, he was mostly tattooed by George Burchett a famous tattooist in England.. 

Burchett spent up to 150  hours tattooing Ridler with the heavy black pattern 

it’s still blows my mind that he had all this work done so long ago… hence the reason we chose Omi as our logo.. he end up going all the way to further his freak show career and having his teeth filed and his ears and sternum pierced and stretched he would also wearing elaborate costumes. As part of his act he told the crowds elaborate stories that he had being kidnapped tortured and tattooed by tribes in New Guinea,  nobody back then had the knowledge to know whether it was true or not as there were still so much mystery about such places in the world which added to his mystery…

The Great Omi passed away in 1965 after a long and interesting life.. his strong image is still used and looked upon in the tattoo world as an amazing part of tattoo history.. his tattoos were Made to Suit a lifestyle he made for himself which we think is just amazing.