Crowds turn out for funeral of Bristol tattooist
Danny Skuse, the renowned Bristol tattooist, was making his final journey. But his art can still be seen upon people from all over Bristol and beyond, many of whom attended his funeral.
"Danny did this wild cat for me over 30 years ago," said a man in a leather waistcoat, who simply gave his name as John.
"I'm now 57, and it still looks good. His dad, Les, did my first ever tattoo, which says 'Mum and Dad'."
Nearby, a man in dark glasses called Spike, aged 45, said: "Danny first tattooed me when I was 18. It was a dancing skeleton. I've had it recoloured, and it looks like new."
Danny, who died aged 71, was the son of Les Skuse, the man who did so much to legitimise tattooing, through setting up the British Guild of Tattooing, and supporting legislation making it illegal to tattoo anyone under the age of 18.
Yesterday's order of service revealed that when Les was dying in 1973, he asked Danny to go back from the hospital and rename his studio in Mina Road, St Werburghs, Les Skuse Jnr.
Danny became widely known as Les Skuse Jnr, and also took his father's place as President of the British Guild of Tattoo Artists, and a chairman of the Bristol Tattoo Club. His coffin, adorned with white lillies, was brought to Westerleigh Crematorium in a carriage pulled by two black horses, and was carried in to the song Danny Boy.
The funeral cortege had set off from St Werburghs, where until 1990, Danny ran the Mina Road tattoo parlour originally set up by his father.
Now Danny's eldest son, Jimmie, 47, is continuing the Skuse tattooing dynasty.
He runs the Les Skuse Tattoo Studio in Temple Street, Keynsham, which also has a small museum containing items from his grandfather's former shop, including tattoo machines dating back to the 1920s, colour pots, and business cards.
"Everyone in the tattoo world used to call my dad 'The Legend'. He must have tattooed hundreds of thousands of people," said Jimmie.
"The name Skuse is synonymous with tattooing all over the world. Anybody who knows about tattooing knows the name Skuse.
"When my grandfather set up his first shop in Lower Ashley Road in 1928, a lot of people used to do tattoos in their front parlours. In the early days he had to keep two jobs going because tattoos alone wouldn't have brought in enough money."
Jimmie said that his grandfather, Les, gave his father Danny his first tattoo at the age of five.
"It was of Spot the Dog on his forearm," he said. "It was during the war, and my grandfather came home from leave and tattooed him and my uncle Billy, so that if they were in a building that collapsed during the bombing they could be identified.
"I think that when he was younger tattooing was so much a part of my dad's daily life that he took it for granted. It was only when he got to about 11 or 12 that he became really interested in tattooing."
Danny opened his first tattoo booth in Brighton in 1961, but returned to Bristol to work as a tattooist with his father Les, and to raise a family with his wife Carole, his childhood sweetheart, whom he met when she was 14.
The packed congregation at the crematorium, many of whom were standing, heard that the couple had been married for 53 years, and that Danny had kept a tin of love letters dating back to when they first met.
The couple had three children: two sons Jimmie, and Nicky, 45, and a daughter Julie, 44. They also had six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
After his retirement in 1990, Danny still did some tattooing on tours with his friend, the tattooist Ron Ackers.
"They went all over the world, to Japan, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany," said Jimmie.
"People would come up to him and want to shake his hand and women wanted to kiss him. He was regarded as a celebrity at tattoo conventions."
Danny successfully battled a brain tumour and underwent a triple heart by-pass. He was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in October 2008, and died in the Bristol Royal Infirmary after contracting bronchial pneumonia.
He died knowing that the Skuse legacy would be continued by Jimmie, who set up the Les Skuse Tattoo Studio in Keynsham in 2004.
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