Lord of the Rings fan gets first tattoo to mark 70th birthday

Tom Hall is based near Lockerbie and entrusted Carlisle tattoo artist Troy Slater to create his first-ever tattoo ahead of his 70th birthday on Saturday, July 27. 

Tom has been a Lord of the Rings fanatic since he was just 12 years old and managed to get his hands on the first book in J. R. R. Tolkien's series, The Fellowship of the Ring, which also celebrates its 70th anniversary after being originally published on July 29, 1954. 

Ahead of his 70th birthday, Tom was on hand to explain more about how he discovered his passion for all things Middle Earth and Mordor.

He said: "I suppose for me as a 12-year-old it was massively different to anything else I had read.

The Eye of Sauron as depicted in Peter Jackson's adaptations of J. R. R. Tolkien's novels (Image: Lord of the Rings) "I read the Lord of the Rings before the Hobbit so I got it the wrong way round, it was just something about it, the characters were incredible, and it was the way that he brought everything vividly to life.

"You could see the characters, you could see the landscape, the dangers, the atmosphere and he created a new world with new languages and it was unique.

"It gripped me all the way through and since then I must have read it so many times and each time still at this age I see things that I missed."

Tom has had the idea for his Lord of the Rings tattoo for 55 years and ahead of his 70th birthday decided that the time was right to bring his vision to life in ink. 

To do this, Tom enlisted the help of Carlisle tattoo artist Troy, who works at Focus Ink on Bank Street and expressed his delight at the result after 10 hours of tattooing. 

He said: "The first idea has for this tattoo was something quite simple with a spider and its web with the rings caught up in it.

"This is when I was 15 and I had a couple of friends who were also fanatical about the book as well and at school we would write notes in elvish.

"Over the years it evolved and didn't take this kind of shape until the incredible Peter Jackson films which put images to things in the book like The Eye of Sauron. 

"The concept for the tattoo was mine but the final application was Troy's and I am still buzzing about it. It is so much better than could have ever imagined."

Troy Slater brought Tom's vision to life in ink (Image: Neon Blooded Photography) For Troy, it was a pleasure to bring Tom's vision to life and he discussed his pride at being able to make his birthday that much more special.

He said: "It's the best part of the job because it can be so much hard work and then when see somebody buzzing like that, that just makes it.

"I knew this was going to be a really cool tattoo and Tom is a lovely lad, he was so open-minded and had this vision which he had had for a long time and for that reason, I wanted to stay as close as possible to it."