Aces High, Shotton - Leader Best Tattoo Studio 2026 finalist

After a week of nominating, we rounded up the top 10 from across Wrexham and Flintshire.

This is a mix of businesses that have impressed with their creative skill, customer service and studio vibe.

Now our readers get to help crown the winner by voting for their favourite.

Voting forms will appear every day in the Leader newspaper from Monday, August 31, for a two-week voting period ending Friday, September 11.

Who has the most ink-fluence, or made a last impression? Make sure your top choice doesn't miss out.

Ahead of revealing the winner, we find out more about each of the finalist...

Aces High Tattoo Studio - Chester Road West, Shotton

Aces High is the longest running studio in Deeside, having been going for 22 years.

It was started in 2004 by co-owners Kiran Parmar and Charlie Jones, who had both worked for various other studios before teaming up.

Today, making up the team are Val Marinov, who has been with Ace High for eight years, and Bex Cox, on board for the last four years.

Bex Cox and some of her work (@bex_aceshigh).

Kiran said: "When the studio first opened we were a traditional style studio, where you came in and picked a design and waited your turn to be called.

"As tattooing took off and became more popular, we became an appointment-only studio, and slowly we transitioned to a solely custom work studio with a unique design drawn for each person."

Back in the early days Kiran was pushing the Japanese style, tattooing as much as he could. It wasn't a widely known style in the area but with the persistence of time he quickly became known as the go-to guy for Japanese tattooing.

Val Marinov and examples of his work.

Fast forward a few years he has now been officially recognised by an elite tattoo community in Japan, and has been named a Horishi, which is the highest honour a Japanese tattooist can get anywhere in the world.

Kiran (horitsuri) is actually one of only a handful of Horishi in the whole of the UK, and to top it off he is the only UK Horishi that does Tebori work on a daily basis. Tebori is the ancient traditional way of tattooing in Japan before tattoo machines were invented. This is done by attaching handmade needles to a bamboo stick and literally poking in the designs by hand.

He added: "It takes a lot of graft to do it. It's a very highly skilled form of tattooing that is almost extinct in the world now, with only about 100 artists worldwide."

Aces High co-owner Kiran Parmar (@kiran_horitsuri).

But the artists at Aces High can cater for every style imaginable: Kiran offers traditional Japanese tebori and machine style Japanese, dot work and geometric, traditional tattooing plus every other style; Charlie offers her bright colour new school, neo trad, black work and fine line tattooing, as well as her "very inviting attitude where her customers love to come and vent and call it tattoo therapy". Their resident black and grey realism artist is Val the "realism demon" from Bulgaria. And rounding off the team is the "sweetest soul" Bex, who can turn her hand to literally anything but serves up super fine line and stipple work to her clients but secretly loves to do bold cartoon style pieces.

Ace High co-owner Charlie Jones (@aceshigh_charlie).

Kiran said: "With our vast experience from working in tattoo studios around the UK and Europe, and attending and working tattoo conventions around the world, we have found we are unbelievably blessed with incredible clients from the local community and from the furthest reaches of the UK, and even regular clients travelling all the way from Europe too.

"If it's your first piece or that final piece to finish your bodysuit, Aces High is your one-stop destination that does it all."

The top 10 finalists for Leader Best Tattoo Studio 2026:

• 12 Needles Tattoo - Overton Arcade, Wrexham

• Aces High Tattoo Studio - Chester Road West, Shotton

• Bevinks - Saints the Studio, Padeswood Road, Buckley

• Black Sheep Tattoo Studio - Brunswick Road, Buckley

• Bones Daily Tattoo - Dock Road, Connah's Quay

• Divine Tattoos - Chester Street, Wrexham

• Fern & Fae Tattoo Studio - Abakhan Fabrics Hobby & Home, Llanerch-y-Mor, Holywell

• Tattoo Dr - Colliery Road, Chirk

• Taylor Made Tattoo Studio - Ruabon Road, Wrexham

• Wrexham Ink - Chester Street, Wrexham