Ink artists and bar unite for Beyond Blue

Fighting depression with ink, Bunbury bar Lost Bills and South West Tattoo Studio had a huge response for their Flash Day and Art Auction on Sunday raising money for Beyond Blue.

The inaugural event had a live tattooing ‘flash day’ at the bar and a silent auction featuring works donated by South West artists.

Lost Bills general manager Mathew Blake said the event hit its tattooing capacity within the first 30 to 45 minutes of opening and by the end of the day 49 tattoos had been done.

He said the event had easily surpassed its goal of $3000 though the donations, art auction, a raffle and tattooing proceeds were still to be counted.

South West Tattoo artist Holly Saville said she had been busy since she started at 11am with a line out the door of people signing up for tattoos.

“We’ve had such a big response that we’ve actually got three other tattoo-ers working back at the tattoo shop to pick up some of the tattoos,” she said.

Tattoos ranged from $50 to $150 designs, and every tattoo helped keep Beyond Blue’s phone lines open, Ms Saville said.