Briscoes lady immortalised as man behind Patrick Gower tattoo strikes again

By Whakatane Beacon

We all know and love Tammy Wells, aka the "Briscoes lady".

For over three decades, she has been a prominent force on New Zealand television screens but there are not many people who would dare to immortalise her in the form of a tattoo.

Rich Nielsen, of Collective Tattoo Parlour in Whakatāne, painted a portrait of the Briscoes lady about two years ago.

Last month, after a full-day booking cancellation, he decided he wanted to see her transferred from paper to skin and knew who he wanted to ink her on – Radio 1XX breakfast host LJ Dobbin.

LJ Dobbin lifts the leg soon to be more extensively covered in Kiwiana-inspired ink. Photo / Supplied

"LJ is a psycho," he said.

"I thought 'she's psycho enough to get that tattooed on her'. She has a whole Kiwiana leg going on too, so it just fit."

Dobbin was happy to oblige but the last-minute call-up did mean she was ill-dressed for the occasion.

"He had to cut my tights, because I didn't know I was getting a tattoo that day and I live out in Ōpōtiki," she said.

"Pulling my tights up just wasn't happening and there were other people in [the parlour] so I wasn't going to sit in my undies.

"So, I said to him 'you're going to have to cut my tights', and he said 'aw, I feel like an ambo'."

Kiwiana is important to Dobbin and she likes to have Kiwi-centric tattoos that mean something to her rather than the "old Buzzy Bee and Vegemite".

Rich Neilsen's tattoo tribute to Newshub journalist Patrick Gower - complete with a missing apostrophe on the word its.

On the back of the same leg, she has a portrait of Billy T James, tattooed by Nielsen. She also has a New Zealand flag tattoo and a to-do list that includes Tangaroa and the Footrot Flats crew.

Nielsen has a passion for tattooing "weird stuff that makes people laugh" and his tattoo of Newshub journalist Patrick Gower saw him make national headlines last year.

Now, he is busy completing a "365 Days of Flash" tattoo challenge on Instagram, where he paints a daily tattoo flash design and uploads it, with "heaps of weird things on there" for others to enjoy.

Dobbin is happy with her new tatt.

"I've had a few tattoos from Rich now," she said. "He's a real hard case; he's always up for a good laugh and a yarn.

"I fully recommend The Collective in Whakatāne, we're pretty lucky to have such amazing artists and such great people as well. They do an awful lot for the community through fundraising too. For example, they did lots of great things to fundraise for Apanui School after their fire."

The appreciation is mutual.

"It's always great having LJ in the shop," Nielsen said.

"You just get entertained all the time. On that day, we had three entertaining ladies in the shop, so it was just a really good time."

He hopes to tattoo more weird and fun Kiwiana designs in the future.