“Parents can feel the judging eyes of the public” tattooist from Salford supporting Autism

A tattoo artist in Salford has held an autism awareness event in his shop to encourage people to support autism.

The Old Empire Tattoo owner Joel Mitchell has shown support towards the autistic members of the community, by tattooing autism-related images on customers.

This event was held on Tuesday, because from 1 to 7 April is Autism Awareness Week. Various activities are being held to collect money and raise awareness for Autism. More on this can be found here

Joel said: “Some of my customers have children or family members who have autism and they used tattoos as it helps them emotionally.

“It also gives them space away from having to live with a small child that has autism as parents find it hard to get away from day to day interactions and sometimes they need a bit of hibernation to themselves.”

Joel has designed different type of tattoos that represent autism, such as the jigsaw puzzles or jigsaw puzzles in a heart or a ribbon.

Thank You to all who came down to the #studio today to show your support for the #AutismAwareness #TattooEvent including #SalfordNow #Radio who was super helpful raising awareness by covering the event. We’ve had a ball today with all the stories & banter see you all soon. #OET pic.twitter.com/ODwnKiQPHb

— Joel_Tattoo_12 (@Joel_Tattoo_12) April 2, 2019

Joel also expressed how tattoos are a cross-pollination of religion, culture, energy, anarchy and rebellion.

He said that: “When the Manchester bee came around a lot more elderly people that may have looked down on tattoos have commemorated the connection to tattooing through the Manchester bee.

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Joel has also said: “That is the same with autism as some members of the public do not have an awareness that the child has autism and is not having the best day,

“And parents can feel the judging eyes of the public as they cannot always express to everybody in an Asda aisle that their child has autism.”

Old Empire Tattoo is known to cover such events. Next week the parlour is planning to hold a collection of semi-colon tattoos to show awareness for suicide.

The photographs have been provided by the owner of the Old Empire Tattoo Joel Mitchell