A BRADFORD tattoo artist has picked up two top awards at one of the country's top international conventions.

Luke Naylor, 27, from Wyke, won awards for best portrait and best in show at the Ink-A-Gogo International Tattoo Convention in Telford, Shropshire.

Mr Naylor works at the Hand On Heart Tattoo Studio, in Rawson Place, and has been tattooing for eight years.

His portrait of Irish UFC cage-fighting champion Connor McGregor won the best in show award, while his portrait of Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in the film American Psycho won best portrait.

Mr Naylor said that he got into tattooing because he has always wanted to be an artist.

He said: "I have a passion for it, and I enjoyed seeing my old man with tattoos and it intrigued me; I liked the seediness of it.

"I always wanted to be an artist and I wanted my to live forever, and what better way to do that than on people's skin."

Mr Naylor has had more than 100 tattooing sessions since he got his first tattoo when he was 16, but said he sees his the ink work on his body as one large piece of art, rather than individual tattoos.

The convention in Telford was one of the first big conventions of the year, with artists gathering from all over the UK as well as from as far as Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, to share ideas and compete against each other.

"It's like any other convention," said Mr Naylor.

"We mingle with the other artists and then it's pretty much business.

"I work on the tattoos and it's very nerve-wracking, working with people's skin.

"Ink-A-Gogo was good because it's a charity convention, and it helped the Combat Stress charity, tackling mental health problems in war veterans."

Mr Naylor will be visiting about ten other conventions all over the country this year, including three in the next three months, in Nottingham, Scarborough and, one of the biggest conventions of the year, in Liverpool.

"I'll be doing a tattoo duel in Liverpool, where I face off against another artist and we have six hours to finish the tattoo.

"This year's theme is video games. I've got some ideas knocking around but I can't talk about them, they're all top secret!"

Mr Naylor is also planning to organise his own tattoo convention in Bradford, in August.