The 25-year-old founder of a tattoo studio estabished as a "safe space" following her mother's attempts at suicide is looking to expand just eight months after setting up shop in Carluke High Street.

Chloe Isaac named her business Self Love Club Tattoo in homage to her mum who struggled before ultimately overcoming mental health problems during the Covid pandemic. Ms Isaac - who began her tattooing apprenticeship between the second and third year of studying criminal law at the University of West of Scotland - said it was during this period that she came to appreciate that tattoos "are a lot more than just images on your body".

Raised in Blantyre and a graduate of Calderside Academy, Ms Isaac moved back home during lockdown but didn't realise the magnitude of her mother's problems until she first attempted to take her life in August 2020. 

"One day when I got up to work I got a phone call from one of our closest friends at the time saying that [my mum] had attempted suicide that night, and I had to go and be there for her," Ms Isaac said.

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"I didn’t really realise the extent of how bad it was getting, and she wouldn’t speak to me for weeks and weeks about it so the only thing that I could think of was to give mum some small tattoos because it’s something that we can talk over."

Circumstances seemed to improve for a while as the two spent time together in these sessions during which Ms Isaac created artwork of positive messages. However, a second suicide attempt took her mother "back to the start".

“So I started tattooing her more often and tried to get her to open up about it," Ms Isaac said. "Sitting down and tattooing, you’re right next to the person, you’re in their personal space, so you don’t really have an option [to withdraw].

"She really opened up to me and basically through the whole three years since the pandemic she increasingly got better. It really helped her confidence and it made her talk more to me and it made us closer.”

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Ms Isaac was working in a call centre at the time, having decided despite earning her degree that a career in law was not where her "dream was at". Having always been interested in art, it was a conversation with her mother about two years after the first suicide attempt that convinced Ms Isaac to set up her own business.

"My mum had a full sleeve top-to-bottom of really, really small tattoos that had built up like a patchwork," she said, "and I was standing there one morning in my house coat pouring myself some cornflakes and my mum was standing beside me and she said to me, ‘Chloe, when are we going to add some more tattoos to my self-love sleeve?’. And I was like, ‘What did you just call it?’ and she said that’s what she called it – her sleeve of self-love.

“She said there’s tattoos on it from the first year of Covid when she was at her severe worst and then there’s tattoos on it from half way through when she was getting better, and there’s tattoos that are present, that she just recently got, and they all showed different stages in her life.

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"She said they were a timeline of what she had been through and how she felt, and she was really proud to wear it and look at it every single day to see how far she had come.”

Ms Isaac registered the business in March of last year, having given up her job at the call centre with "zero pounds in the bank". She found her current premises and successfully applied for a £2,500 Lanarkshire Business Start Up Grant with assistance from Business Gateway, and the studio opened in October.

While there are a multitude of tattooists in business, Self Love Club has pitched itself as a safe space where people from all walks of life can feel comfortable. Ms Isaac describes it as mindful and accessible, with particular attention to customers' comfort including options such as noise-cancelling headphones.

“I would say it’s probably something like 500 or 600 square feet, so it is big enough," said Ms Isaac, who works alogside two other artists, "but I would probably want to go for something like 1,000 square feet just give us a wee bit more breathing space, and a wee bit more comfortability.”

Q&A

Where do you find yourself most at ease? 

Definitely when I’m spending time with my dogs, Hart and Soul, my two Golden Retrievers. They both have such calming and loving energy and make for the perfect companions.  

If you weren’t in your current role, what job would you most fancy? 

I studied criminal justice at university, so it would probably be something in that field.

What phrase or quotation has inspired you the most? 

“Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye” – something my Granny always said to me growing up, and something that I’ll always live my life by.

What is the best book you have ever read? Why is it the best? 

A Glasgow Kiss by Sophie Gravia – a book that truly made me belly laugh and helped me realise what life is really all about.

What has been your most challenging moment in life or business? 

In life, learning to live without my Granny, who helped raise me. In business, starting Self Love Club Tattoo with no prior knowledge of how to start or grow a business. That was really hard.

What do you now know that you wish you had known when starting out in your career? 

Being a tattoo artist is truly the best job in the world, but I didn’t realise how round-the-clock it is. This career will play a huge part in your mental health and will be very stressful and difficult at times. It is a 24/5 job, but I wouldn’t change for it the world.