Armed with just a chopstick and a needle, Sarah Lu is one of the most sought after handpoke tattooists in the UK. But her inking hasn’t always been easy.

Daughter of first-gen Vietnamese immigrants, Sarah Lu had a flair for drawing but her parents wanted her to pursue a more secure career. So she wound up working in advertising.

After 15 years in the industry, she still felt the need to get more creative, so she jacked it all in and set off around the globe to learn the ancient art of handpoke tattooing. She steadily got to grips with the technique on basic designs, but felt the method was holding back her potential to go bigger. So she switched to an electric machine. “I tried three times and I couldn’t do it. I thought I’m not going to be able to tattoo these epic pieces, because of this bloody machine.”