Inked revolution Podcast | Uk tattoo fest Milton Keynes Live Interview with The Voodoo Doctor

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now, if you were at UK Tattoo First, you would have walked past a person who was dressed head to toe in Victorian clothing with a big old top hat on and his face painted like a voodoo skeleton, and that person would have been the voodoo doctor. Now, what the voodoo doctor sells is just wonderful, beautiful artwork. He has ethically sourced spiderwebs that they get from their own garden, and then he makes art out of them. He puts them on antiques, um, old Bible pages. We're talking like 18th century Bible pages. I'm looking at my wall now, and I've got some of his artwork there. I've got a bride of Frankenstein on an old Bible page, and she's got a big old spider web in her head. The things that he does is just magnificent. So thank you so much for talking to me. This is an interview with a voodoo doctor. Stay to the end because he tells you where you can find his artwork online and in real life.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

So I am the Voodoo Doctor, and um my name is Albert, tell you that. And uh I do real preserved spider webs.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Okay, so how do you get real preserved spider webs?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

So uh the actual method of preserving them is a secret, but uh all the webs are from our garden. We have over 300 spiders, six different species.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

So you're not afraid of spiders then?

SPEAKER_02 1:20

No, definitely not.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Have you ever had a spider bite you?

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Uh maybe when I was about uh ten years old. Yes, yes, I think I was ten years old and I got a little spider bite. I was uh putting my fingers where I shouldn't.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

So where did it come about of you deciding I want to make a business of preserving spider webs?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

So it all started. We collect all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff in our house. I made uh a couple of little preserve webs for our house for ourselves, and then uh people said it seen it on uh social media and they keep asking where where did I get them from? So uh it started from that, so I started making more and more and uh started with uh mates, close friends, relatives, and now it's um we sell worldwide and we do often like um events, tattoo conventions, and gothic alternative markets.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So with the spiderweb, so it's not just a spider web on uh in a frame, you also have it on vintage pieces of kind of artwork, paper, literature, kind of explain that a little bit because I can see it and I know what it is, so explain it to somebody who can't see it.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

So, yes, so we use a lot of like antique and vintage uh materials. So uh it's all started again. Uh we got an antique Bible from the 1800s, and that's how I started it. So I was looking at uh our webs and I was looking at the Bible pages, the illustrations in particular, and I was thinking to myself, I think it will look good together. And uh so that's how I started kind of like combining them. And the other thing I like to do is um combining my art with um spider-related stuff, like in literature as well, because even in the Bible, there's uh two bits we're actually mentioning spiders and webs in the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Oh, I love that so much. So, would you say, like the alternative community, what would you say to anyone on the outside looking into the community? What would you say that we're like?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Um, weird and wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Is that what you no, that's perfect! No, that's perfect. Like, so what is your favourite thing, would you say about the alternative community?

SPEAKER_02 3:27

I don't know, I like the fashion, I like the clothing, I like to meet new people because uh in uh in the arts scene when when we go in selling stuff as well, you see all sorts of different people, you see goths, you see ladies and like fellows as well in uh Victorian kind of clothes, and you see the rockabillan like people as well, metal heads. So I love the all the whole the whole scene, so it's it's just the whole look of it and the whole vibe of it, it's really good.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

It's almost like all the little off-bits of the scene and how we all differ, but we all come together because we all support each other.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yes, that's it, that's it, yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Okay, so the last thing is I am going to uh create a playlist to play on my radio show of UK Tattoo Fest. So if you could choose any song to go on that playlist, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Oh my god, so it'll be hard to choose because I like rockabilly and blues. Right, and um, so I like a lot of uh because I play harmonica, yeah, so I like uh anything like Muddy Waters, so maybe like uh Hoochie Coochie Man or I like again Jimi Hendrix and again quoted to the my business name as well, Voodoo Child. So stuff like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Okay, so I will choose one. So if anyone wants to find um find you and how to buy your artwork, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

So we do have a website, it's uh the voodoo doctors.co.uk, but it's quite often off because we have markets almost every weekend of the year. But uh I always encourage people to find us on social media on Instagram and Facebook. So on Instagram it's the Woodedoctors Woodedoctors and uh Woodedoctors, yes, sorry, Woodedoctor. So yeah, I I need to check. So yeah, it is Woodedoctor, and on Facebook it's called the Wooded Doctors Shop. And uh we also stock in uh two shops, physical shops in the UK. So there's one in uh Manchester in the Afflex Palace on the third floor, it's uh in a nevermore taxidermy shop. Wow, and we also stock in uh Birmingham in uh Digbeth in uh the Goths Playground shop.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, oh I know where that is. Yes, I've got a few friends who do that there. I love that. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. Right, what I'll do.