Deaf tattoo artist named finalist in local BBC awards

Ms Dalby, who was born deaf, said watching her mother being tattooed cemented her ambition at age nine to become a tattoo artist.

Early on in her career, she said she was told by other tattoo artists that her “deafness would be an issue” because her first language was British Sign Language.

But she said her deaf clients had told her that not one of them had been happy with their experiences of being tattooed by artists who can hear, and there had been serious miscommunications.

Ms Dalby explained that when she herself had got tattoos on her back, she had been unable to lip-read, and some were not as described because English was her second language.