Tattoo flash 12 - Six one
Hello and welcome to the Balloon Ace tattoo studio.
Check out this month's tattoo flash for some Balloon Ace inspired ink!
Six one
Six years of Balloon Ace, one year of the Balloon Ace tattoo studio!
This blog article celebrates one year of the Balloon Ace tattoo studio, our monthly conjuncture of balloon related randomness.
The last year has been a blast!
Belbal brought back the legendary B120 (14") balloon and started making soap colours again. Qualatex balloons ceased production. Tuftex balloons became almost unobtainable. We introduced a the bulk balloon concept store '99 Red'. We also celebrated our six year anniversary of selling balloons where we brought you 'Ace Day' giving you the opportunity to be randomly selected to receive unique and rare Balloon Ace merch.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported us over the last year.
It has been a tough year with the cost of living impacting many people and therefore limiting people's disposable income to purchase balloons. Throughout this time we have tried to help where we can.
Despite many supplier price increases over the last year we have kept our prices as low as absolutely possible. Our profit margins are now lower than ever. But as we have said previously Balloon Ace is not about the money. Balloon Ace is about the balloons. We will endure what the world throws at us to be the best and most affordable balloon shop possible.
You are the reason that we do what we do!
Without you there is no Balloon Ace!
If your regular balloon shop isn't as committed to balloons and low prices as we are, perhaps it's time for a new balloon shop?
So what's in store for the Balloon Ace tattoo studio over the next year?
In all honesty, the Balloon Ace tattoo studio was a project which was never planned. We were going to do a blog based on punk and skateboard subculture. The blog was going to feature unique balloon related photography reminiscing over our memories of our own youth. We have an affiliation with tattoos through our musical influences, our years skateboarding, surfing and associates with the punk rock scene.
The Balloon Ace tattoo studio was nothing more than a few sketches, on an iPad, reimagining some of the tattoo flash of the legendary Jerry Sailor into some balloon related tattoos imagery. It was not meant to be anything than a creative process to find a new tattoo inspired balloon design.
But we are lovers of both tattoos and balloons. On scale of 0-10 where 0 is no tattoos and 10 is a stupidly ridiculous amount of tattoos we probably feature somewhere around a 9 or 9.5.
We noticed that the theme of tattoos or tattoo artwork was never explored by any other balloon shop, ever!
Balloons and tattoos have nothing in common.
Any why should they?
Tattoos are for rebels and delinquents, balloons are for parties. Or so mainstream society would have you believe.
Tattoo needles burst balloons with ease.
Balloons and tattoos are like chalk and cheese.
They just don't go together for so many reasons.
Except!!
Tattoos are creative and a form of self expression. Most people get tattoos because they want a well drawn permanent reminder of a person or life event.
The key selling point of tattoos is their rebellious nature, uniqueness and beautiful artwork.
And for some the painful process from the gentle hum of needles reciprocating at 100 times per second packing ink into your dermis is part of the ritual.
Tattoos are organic, they require care otherwise they fade. Despite the permanentness of tattoos they are inherently fragile and even the best drawn tattoos fade, stretch and distort over time.
Just like a balloon, a tattoo never remains beautiful forever.
We soon realised that the Balloon Ace tattoo studio could be its own thing. It could be more than artwork and be a theme, a subculture within Balloon Ace. It could be anything we wanted it to be our better still. It could be anything it grew into.
Everything at the Balloon Ace tattoo studio is organically grown. It is not preplanned. This article started with no ideas and no pre-conceived direction. Its just a word salad of thoughts typed into a computer!
Enough waffle! Back to tattoos!
Our 'Tattoo' logo was devised in 2019 when we opened and has remained the mainstay of our balloon prints from then until now. Our 'Tattoo' logo balloon remains as popular now as it has ever been. At times when we retire the design we get so many requests to bring it back. So its probably safe to say that our 'Tattoo' logo balloons will be available for a long time to come.
Last month we released our tattoo logo balloons on Belbal 17" balloons as part of out plan to diversify our logo balloons away from our favourite Belbal 14" balloons. These 17" balloons are available to purchase here.
We plan to expand our logo balloons going forwards and it is likely we will feature other tattoo inspired balloons.
As an extra bonus this month we have been fortunate enough to start collaborating with the very talented online content maker, Brianna Olivia. We have also been lucky enough to have interviewed Brianna about her balloon modelling.
Check it out!
The Brianna Olivia Interview
Many thanks for taking the time to spare the time for this interview.
How did you come up with your performance name of ‘Brianna Olivia’?
I’ve always loved the name Olivia and when I decided to go public about my kinks and my love for fetish creation I made an Only Fans account. On the day of setting up my account someone called me Brianna in the town centre and then released I wasn’t who they was looking for so I decided to incorporate that with the name I loved.
You have been an online content maker for many years, specialising in many types and styles of content, what attracted you into modelling with balloons?
Honestly from a young age I’ve always enjoyed the noise and sound that come from a balloon when rubbing them or grabbing them and rubbing my fingers down the side of the balloons and the more I opened my eyes into the fetish world I love sploshing and is very much a kink of mine and I starting filing the balloons up slime and using them in my content and then I got asked to create looner content and haven’t looked back since.
What are the things that you like about performing and modelling with balloons?
I love the reflection the sound of a really blown up balloon hitting the floor when you are rolling around and playing with them balloons are very therapeutic.
What are the things that you dislike about performing and modelling with balloons?
I wouldn’t say dislike, but the popping of the balloon makes my heart race and sometimes if it’s a really loud one it makes me jump.
Social media and various other online platforms have made balloon modelling more accessible to the wider masses to such an extent that numerous mainstream media channels have run features on balloon models. What are your thoughts on the impact of social media and performing with and / or modelling with balloons?
I think it’s any content that shows such a great kink is always good to be pushed out via social media after all a lot of people don’t realise they have these kinks or offer explore them on their own but knowing there is a community that are there with open arms and want to talk about sooner videos I think it’s great.
We hear about online stalkers and people who exhibit predatory behaviour to people making online content for social media. Do you worry about your personal safety from being so visible in the public eye?
Of course that is always a risk and a huge problem as stalkers and predators really will always portray themselves as the nicest person until they gain your trust and that is where they come to involved & very dangerous as their behaviour becomes unacceptable and very worrying.
So to answer the question yes, I think to a certain degree you have to worry about your safety.
How do you cope with everyday people knowing about the type of work that you do?
I have only ever told my closest people around me what I do, and they have always been so supportive.
Some people are afraid of balloons, be it the sound, smell, texture or unpredictability of balloons. With the amount of balloons that you work with, do you ever get scared?
YES!! I do get scared but it’s a fun scared like when you sit down and watch a scary movie and something jumps out. (adrenaline jump)
What are your favourite ways in which to use balloons?
I love filling them and popping them and blowing them up to their max and grabbing, bouncing on them anticipating when they are going to explode.
Over the years you have used many types, shapes, brands of balloons. Have you got a favourite balloon?
I’ve used some unbranded balloons, but I have to say Balloon Ace have very quickly become my favourite balloons for a number of reasons from the thickness of the balloons, the variety and of course how big they can go.
If other people are looking at getting into balloon modelling, are there any tips that you would give them?
Always smile and show the balloons some love would be my advice. Also try wear clothes that don’t clash with the balloon colours.
If people want to view your online content where are the best places to look?
ONLYFANS, CLIPS4SALE
My link tree is here!
Have you got any closing thoughts that you would like to share with us?
No real thoughts, I’m just excited to be on this journey alongside Balloon Ace.
Until next month
Next month our plans are to include the following:
- More balloon related tattoo flash
- More balloon related factoids
- More musings from the team behind Balloon Ace
As always, we welcome everyone to participate and get involved at Balloon Ace. We exclude nobody!
As a reminder keep sending your photos with Balloon Ace balloons so that we can feature them on our BAT Punks Instagram.
Pump some punk rock into your balloons!
We are Balloon Ace!
Thanks
Nicky & Glen