Elle Venom - NSW Model

Welcome Elle, tell us a bit about yourself for those that doesn’t know you?

I’ve been modelling for about seven years now and started getting tattooed when I was 18 years old and I always wanted to be heavily tattooed but when I first started. I was a bit more careful about it and a bit more scared. I started getting more tattooed in my early 20s and kind of hit that point where I stopped worrying so much I suppose and found some good artists and glad I didn’t start getting heavily tattooed when I was young because thankfully don’t have any mistakes or regret.

When did you get your first tattoo, describe it and have you added anything to the tattoo?

My first tattoo was the one around my stomach/hip and its just a little Marilyn Manson symbol because I grew up on Marilyn Manson, he was my life as a teenager. While I don’t necessary support him anymore, he was a very big part of how I grew up and who I was. I didn’t add anything to it because it’s just a little symbol and I tried to get something small and hidable for my first tattoo.

Let us look at your tattoos in more detail, firstly I must say they are all colourful, decretive with some of them in your face. Let’s start with your left arm tattoo which looks partly like a Japanese warrior but there’s more to that story, what would that be?

My left arm is almost a sleeve and I didn’t come up with that design what so ever, I got to the point where I had no ideas to tattoos left and I had been getting tattooed by my artist for a few years now and I whole heartedly trusted her. I told her that she had complete creative freedom and asked her to design me a sleeve. So that’s what she came up with and I had absolutely nothing to do with it and funnily enough it’s one of my favourite tattoos and she did an amazing job. Her name is Brea Lanyon (@brealanyon) And does beautiful work, neo traditional is obviously my favourite. I think I first met her at a tattoo expo and I really wanted to get tattooed by her but she was all booked out so when I saw her come back the next year, I made sure to book in early. She’s been doing my tattoos for a good two years now.

I have to say I love the vampire woman on upper right arm with the bat above her and the three candles around her. Does she play an important part in your life?

That’s another one of Brea’s and pretty much the only prompt I gave for her was that I wanted a vampire woman. I always wanted to get one of her portraits because she just does the most amazing portraits. She’s from Melbourne and I’m from Sydney and I knew I wanted a portrait of a female vampire and I looked around Sydney and contemplated a few other artists, obviously getting tattooed by her isn’t quite as easy being interstate but I never found anyone as good as her so I managed to book that one in when she came over to the tattoo expo. She just does the most beautiful female faces so I really wanted her to do it and I’m just a horror movie fanatic I love vampires.

Let’s move down to your left thigh with 4 separate designs, firstly Frankenstein, then what looks like a heart locket, moving over to a skull entwined with a rundown old house (probably haunted) and finishing off with a dog on a freaky looking tractor with a bat and an orange moon above him. Please explain each of these?

The tractor one is just a funny silly story. My partner who lives in Texas is a tattoo artist as well so when I went there last year, I wanted him to tattoo me but we hadn’t really come up with any ideas. Just on the holiday he showed me this ridiculous country song called “She thinks my tractor’s sexy” and it’s the dumbest song I’ve ever heard. It became a running joke of the whole holiday and when it came to the last day, we didn’t know what he was going to tattoo on me. Now he has a Shiba, the dog on the tractor is a Shiba so I said tattoo the dog on the tractor but make it like a goth tractor because it had to fit in with the rest of my tattoos. It’s just a silly memento tattoo but I love it.

Frankenstein is just one of my favourite stories, he wasn’t really a monster he just wanted to be loved. People didn’t love him because he looked a bit funny and is like the story of every alternative person’s life. We actually had to study it in High School English and I fell in love with the story so I wanted to get Frankenstein monster on me. The little love heart was a flash sheet tattoo at Sexpo last year and it doesn’t mean much and I’d only been to one Sexpo before with my ex and he was a shitty person and it was an awful day and it was nice to have a little memento with my now partner for our anniversary and it was an actual fun day. As for the old house that was just a haunted house done by Brea and I just wanted a haunted house on me.

On the side of that shin bone of that leg are two love hearts that says, ”Haunt Me” with a spiderweb and bats. I think by now we can assume you love your horror tattoos but they aren’t gory ones?

Like I said before I like my neo traditional tattoos, I’m not a colourful person but when it comes to tattoos, I really like colourful tattoos. That and Frankenstein’s monster was done by one of my friends who unfortunately doesn’t tattoo anymore. Haunt Me is a song by one of my favourite bands Wednesday 13, so that was a fun little tattoo for them. On the front of your left shin is what looks like a snake shedding its skin from its head? It’s the Sandworm from Beetlejuice and my friend that quit tattooing was actually supposed to tattoo that for my birthday a few years ago but she literally quit tattooing a week before my birthday. I ended up getting it done by someone else called Nae Nebula (@naepiernebulattoo) Who tattoos in Newcastle and does a lot of like alternative and horror tattoos but in the style of colourful.

Then there is the word The Venom, at first, I couldn’t figure it out and then when I looked on the other leg you have ‘Thank You For’. Please help us understand why that name and how deep is the word to you?

That was supposed to be part of the dagger on my right shin as well and was all going to be one tattoo and was supposed to be a My Chemical Romance tattoo but the artist couldn’t figure out a way to fit the writing in there that didn’t look weird. So, we did the dagger and then we did that as a kind of separate thing and it’s a My Chemical Romance tattoo because I also grew up a giant emo kid and the band was a huge thing for me. Thank You For The Venom is one of their songs and that’s part of me, there was a club growing up called Venom that I basically lived at, it was a metal club so a little bit of ode to that as well.

If we move over to the right thigh there is a coffin with the number 13 on it plus the words “Life’s A Grave, Dig It”. Firstly, please explain the significance to the words and does the number mean anything personal to you?

That was my first big tattoo and was very special to me because I remember writing the email of what I wanted from the tattoo artist and it sat in my drafts for months. I wanted to do it but was scared as the first big one is always scary. But Life’s A Grave, Dig It is a lyric from a Wednesday 13 song as well. Next to that is a Tombstone with the words ‘Eternally Yours.’ I obviously like my spooky themes and Eternally Yours is my favourite song by Motionless In White so that is what the script is for and I got it done by an artist who has now moved to New Zealand. I remember finding him, his name is Anthony Von Ratcorpse (@ratcorpse), he does specifically traditional horror tattoos and I absolutely adored his style and he was from Melbourne. I’d always wanted to get tattooed by him and I was following a Wednesday 13 tour in Melbourne and I thought fuck it I’m going to get it done while I’m here. It’s still one of my favourite tattoos.

I have to say I love the design on your left calf with the guy with no face but instead it’s a photo of an old house, very creative?

It’s Edwards Scissorhands and the House on the Hill from the movie but the artist Abbie France (@abbiefrance.tattoo) did this flash sheet that was a bunch of different movie characters. It was their faces but at the back it was whatever house or location they lived in from the move and she did a heap of them. I love Edward Scissorhands of course and I though the design was super different and had never seen anything like that before.

Published In Baddass Kulture Mag #3 June 2024