Stockton Heath local returns to town to open tattoo studio

Jake Harry Ditchfield, 30, was born in Stockton Heath and grew up there, living in Warrington until his eventual move to University in Blackpool.

The shop, called Gild the Lily studio, has been set up by Jake, with the support of his partner Josh King, 30, from the Wirral. Josh will also be providing walk-in piercings alongside Jake’s tattoos.

The Stockton Heath reisdent fell in love with tattoos after getting his first during his first year of university when he got a set of antlers on his calf.

A highly realistic tattoo done by Jake (Image: Jake Ditchfield)

Following six years performing tattoos at Wonderland studio in Blackpool, Jake is now returning home to Warrington to set up his own studio.

‘Gild the Lily’ is a symbolic name, with Jake saying it represents his perspective on tattoos.

He said: “To gild a lily is to take a lily and paint it gold, making something that’s already beautiful more so. This is what tattoos do.”

Lily is also the name of his grandmother, giving it a doubly emotional meaning.

By setting up the studio alongside his partner Josh, Jake reiterated that the couple are working hard to ensure the studio is ‘a safe place for everyone’.

His tattoo style is predominantly ‘fine line’, an increasingly popular and beautiful form of tattooing.

An example of some of tattoos Jake Ditchfield has done in the past (Image: Jake Ditchfield)

This ability was recognised in August, when Jake was invited to be a guest artist among some of the best fine line tattooers in the north at a pop-up event held by Harvey Nichols in Manchester.

The exclusive event, held alongside Debut Studios, ran from June of 2022, and saw the Stockton Heath tattoo artist appear for two days.

Gild the Lily studio is open now, and can be found on Cairo Street in Warrington town centre