Imagine an extraordinary body of work by a dedicated tattooist, essentially an artist, a man who became, through illness, unable to use a tattoo marker, and turned to something completely different. At the notable, externally-decorated Ruby’s Rooms on the seafront, you can see this unique collection of work.

Xed (pronounced Zed) Le Head was for many years revered as an innovator and expert in the world of tattooing. “A tattoo God. A Legend” wrote Touka Voodoo of the Stockholm Alternative, a Bespoke and Holistic tattoo parlour. Xed’s tattoo work was internationally famous, exhibited in venues as far as Eastern Europe and Japan. He loved it and dedicated his life to it.

Soon after he met his wife Wiggy, disease began to disintegrate his spine and he was confined to a wheelchair, with only limited use of his arms. However, Wiggy became his carer and amanuensis. She prepared his canvases and his paint and his tools and he developed a way of working by squeezing paint out through an icing tube, on to computerised designs on canvas or board. He worked incessantly – the paint is thickly layered and the resulting works highly textured – and as he finished one outline in these mandala-type creations, they set it to dry and he began another, going back to the previous one when the layer was dry, and so on and so on, having six or seven in progress each day. The result is this unique collection, which must be seen to be appreciated. The photographs don’t do justice to their detail or their viscerality.

The domestic space at Ruby’s Rooms, run as an arthouse-led bed-and-breakfast, is two doors away from where Xed lived and worked, and he and the owners were friends. The show is therefore more than simply an objective demonstration of work; it’s a tribute to him, his work, his life and his friendship.

While many human beings carry his art around on their bodies wherever they go, this particular body, of artwork, is left to posterity. I have to confess that I’ve never understood the reason for tattooing. Self-adornment, I can appreciate. But the idea of a permanent blue picture on your pristine, precious, vulnerable skin, for ever and ever – not for me. I’d want to wash the pictures off after a while and replace them with new ones, and, like the sand designs of the Holi festival or the sand Mandalas of Tibetan Buddhists, their impermanence and their mutability would be part of their statement. But Wiggy patiently began to explain to me what her tattoos meant. “They’re a record of my life that I carry with me”, she said. “Each one is significant. Each one contains a story, an episode.” And I begin to understand, just a little. If Art is about Life, if Art in general is a permanent and significant chronicle of social and historical events, then the unique personal adornment of tattoos is exactly that, but for one individual.

Xed Le Head and Wiggy met because initially she went in to be adorned by him. Their joint creative journey has been unique, piquant, and ultimately uplifting even after Xed’s death. On her face is inked a symbol which, she tells me, is a special Tibetan design. She says that since she has had it on her cheeks many people have been attracted to talk to her; that the symbol has been for her a means of communication and connection. Xed taught her everything about its meaning and significance to the Buddhist religion. He also taught her how to tattoo herself. Each of her self-tattoos therefore make her, her art, her persona, her self, into a one-ness. For her, the blue marks are an extension of spiritual awareness. The thing she can’t understand, she says, is when someone walks into a tattoo shop and says he wants that picture on his arm or his forehead (or buttocks or left ear, or whatever piece of his body happens to be available).

This exhibition was a learning experience for me. What happened to Xed Le Head was unfair; what he has left behind is, like his body art, a permanent, life-affirming memory. Perry Rule, editor of Total Tattoo magazine, recently wrote:

“He was a visionary, an innovator, and an influencer in the truest sense of the word – but more than that, he was a friend. And there are many, many other people who will say that too. We will all miss him. Fly high, fly free Xed.”

A Tribe Called Xed is showing at Ruby’s Rooms, 54 Eversfield Place, TN37 6DB. Total Tattoo website at totaltattoo.co.uk Contact for details for this and future exhibitions and for rooms, Kate Jaggers at rubyandnorm@gmail.com, or Rubysrooms.com 

Imagine an extraordinary body of work by a dedicated tattooist, essentially an artist who, unable to use a tattoo marker, turned to something completely different. Ruby’s Rooms on the seafront (the house that’s decorated all over – and recently redecorated – using some of Xed’s designs) is showing this unique collection of work.

Xed (pronounced Zed) Le Head was revered as an innovator and expert in the world of tattooing. “A tattoo God. A Legend,” wrote Touka Voodoo of the Stockholm Alternative, a Bespoke and Holistic tattoo parlour. Xed’s work was internationally famous and his designs have been exhibited in venues as far away as Japan. He loved it and dedicated his life to it.

Soon after he met his wife Wiggy, disease began to disintegrate his spine and he was confined to a wheelchair, with only very limited use of his arms. Wiggy, however, became his carer and amanuensis. She prepared his canvases and his tubes of paint and supported him (in all senses) while he developed a way of working by squeezing paint out through what was essentially an icing tube.

He worked incessantly – the paint is thickly layered and the resulting works highly textured – and as he finished one outline in his mandala-type creations, they set it to dry and he began another, going back to the previous ones when the layers were dry. The results, all built up in this way, can be seen in this unique collection; they must be seen to be appreciated as the photo doesn’t tell even half the story.

The obvious place for the exhibition was Ruby’s Rooms on the seafront, two doors away from where Xed lived and worked and Wiggy still lives. While many actual human bodies carry his art around wherever they go, this body (of work) is left to posterity. The space at Ruby’s Rooms is enormous, another local domestic space given over to Art where the space itself becomes part of whatever is on show.

Exhibition A Tribe Called Xed:: 1 Feb 2025 Open house 1-4 pm Ruby’s Rooms TN37 5DB
RSVP rubyandnorm@gmail.com

The Nightstand by Andrew Harston

A trip to the ‘Calais Jungle’ refugee camp ignited Andrew’s passion and creativity in a kind of spiritual awakening: he spends much of his time now exploring human connection, and the way art can bring people together, heal their wounds, express their deepest and dearest experiences.  

This spirituality can be seen partly in Andrew’s recent exhibition at HIP’s new haunt, the Crippled Badger (next to Bay Spice, on a corner, roughly opposite the Pier), which considers some of the people who use Dom’s Food Mission (check out www.domsfoodmission.com), revealing aspects of their humanity through portrait. In these works, Andrew masterfully translates his subjects’ stories into facial contours, indicating an impressive skill and empathy. At the same time, the drawings allow empty space, and through it communicate an isolation, an absence, a lack that must surely be felt by the homeless human, never fully sure where their next meal will be found, whether their survival needs will be met.   

Marina, Hastings by Andrew Harston

His latest exhibition will bring together samples from years of his landscape painting, to go on show at Ruby’s Rooms (54 Eversfield Place), an art and design-led guesthouse. There they will act as ambassador to the many creative luminaries who pass through the doors on their way to Hastings’ galleries, theatres and manifold other attractions. 

In his paintings, he expresses a style and appreciation for space similar to Edward Hopper. His ‘the Night Stand’,showing a view from Hastings Pier, is reminiscent of something like ‘New York Movie’ or ‘Nighthawks’, evoking that same sense of loneliness in an urbanised – and so theoretically well-connected – world. The Ruby’s Rooms private view will be on 21st March. 

You can find some of Andrew’s other landscape work at See Spray Gallery on Queens Road.  His ink and acrylic landscapes, like the portraits, provide a fresh and clear perspective on their subject. Colour is used only where necessary – encouraging certain feelings in a shared sky, above a detailed black and white world below. There’s an on-going, though sometimes more subtle theme of isolation with much of Andrew’s work: the need to recognise, appreciate and collectively overcome it.  

• Follow Andrew on Instagram @andrewharstonart

By Kate Jaggers 

There are SO many awesome creative people in this wonderful town, all with their own exceptional talent, drive and amazing projects on the go. Our aim at Crippled Badger is to make a creative community space with some essential media facilities like free meeting rooms and podcasting facilities where we can all come together, exchange ideas, record and celebrate this great output. By uniting, it is possible to have a bigger impact on society that all these individuals involved, working so hard, truly deserve. The staff of Hastings Independent Press, as the cultural voice of our community, are among them. Our café bar serves coffee and must-try home-made mango lemonade. On the cooking front we house many young chef talents, and give them a platform to shine, experimenting with the latest street food. We also provide a more permanent space for small businesses such as vegan cake producers Cherry Cart, who have previously had to rely on ad hoc local markets. We undertake to donate 10% of profits from the café and bar towards social change projects.

Andrew Hartston at work

This month we are highlighting the great work of Dom’s Food Mission through a series of artwork pieces by local artist Andrew Harston. The portrait exhibition capturesthe faces of the varied selection of people increasingly reliant on food aid as they visit Dom’s distribution points. The aim is to raise awareness of such essential projects in our community and of how people can get involved in them. The co- working space is not just about working either. Our aim is to have a whole lot of fun too, in accordance with the spirit of this area, we have some amazing live talks and entertainment we are planning too….

Edit: on the venue’s name, Kate says ‘It all comes from my daughter, she’s 11, aspires to be a vet, and gets very upset with the amount of road kill we see on the regular journey we do to Kent to her father’s house. We decided to do something positive about this and I said the next business I do will be about helping animals and / or people more.

‘The Crippled Badger signifies those around us that need support, in this modern age of tech and time poor individuals we spend too long looking at our phones, social media and looking forward. Crippled Badger is all about taking time to celebrate what we have in our community and looking round you and helping those that may need a little support hence we donate 10% of all profits to social change projects, currently Dom’s
Food Mission.

‘It refers to the very helpless animal that no-one ever stops to help, no-one. It has zero association with any humans or plus disabled community.’

• Crippled Badger is open daily from 10am (except Thursdays) at 67 Eversfield Place, TN37 6DB. Learn more on Instagram.

• Kate Jaggers is also founder of the art and design-led guesthouse, Ruby’s Rooms, at 54 Eversfield Place.

Known for his remix work for the likes of Bjork, Noel Gallagher, Justice, Paul Weller, and for his chart-topping band Lionrock, Justin has had over thirty years’ experience at the forefront of electronic music. Restlessly innovative and strongly opposed to resting on his laurels, Justin defies labelling. His DJ sets take in the full spectrum of visceral, jacking dance music, whilst his celebrated ‘Temple of Wonders’ radio show on Soho radio travels to the outer reaches of Dub, Afro Beat and Psychedelia on a monthly basis.

Sun Bubble from Justin Robertson’s Maps, Signs and Sigils collection

Specially curated for the Ruby’s Rooms, ‘Gathering Atoms’ is a selection of pieces from Justin’s last four collections: The Explorer’s Chronicle; It’s Alive; Alone; and Maps, Signs and Sigils. The work covers a number of themes from the mythology of science, through the consciousness of objects around us and how they direct us, to the power of the imagination, the pros and cons of isolation and the secret life of atoms.

There will be a launch party at Ruby’s Rooms on Saturday 17th August from 4pm to 9pm, where there will be a chance to see the art over cocktails
and canapés. RSVP to rubyandnorm@gmail.com is essential.

Justin will also be venturing out to do a couple of DJ shows. On Saturday night he will be taking his dancefloor-detonating blend of body-jacking house and cosmic disco to The Fountain (93 Queens Road, Hastings, TN34 1RL) from 10pm. Then on Sunday it’s a trip around the far corners of the musical universe at The Marina Fountain (26 Caves Road, Saint Leonards, TN38 0BY), taking in Dub, Disco and the sounds of the universe from 2pm till 6pm. Entry is free to both events.

“The area is so alive with creative energy and has been for years, so it’s a great pleasure for me to be able to dip my toe in the current and get involved with this vibrant scene. Hopefully this weekend will just be the start of a happy relationship.’ Justin Robertson 

Ruby’s Rooms is an inspirational art and design-led seafront guesthouse. It is owned and designed by Kate Jaggers, who has been curating content and spaces in the music, arts and youth sector for almost 20 years. She has deep family connections to and a love for this rich artistic and cultural pocket of the south coast.

Working with locally sourced materials and furnishings and a team of East Sussex craftsmen, Kate set upon restoring and modernising the magnificent six-storey Victorian house which now provides apartments, rooms and experiences for modern living, while serving the best locally produced food and drink. Kate believes your place of rest should be as inspiring as your place to play. Design collaborations with creative talent ranging from tattoo artists to fashion labels, ensure each room offers a very unique experience. 

The Gathering Atoms exhibition and collaboration with Justin Robertson is a major example of the ongoing ‘artist residencies’ at Ruby’s Rooms for all to enjoy – not just residents. 

The Dotmasters was part of Banksy’s Cans Festival in Waterloo (2008) and is a founding member of C6.org, who made headlines across the globe in 1997 when they locked one of their members in a surveillance box for days, with only 15L of water to drink. He’s more recently collaborated with the Mutoid Waste Company on various projects and made a success out of High Class and Up Market Trash gallery shows, which involve stencilled and mixed media variations on the title as theme. And he’s no stranger to painting full facades like the front of Ruby’s Rooms, having been contracted to cover large private and public spaces across Europe. Not only a painter, he sets up unfair funfair installations at events around the country: before coming to this show in Hastings he set up an Unfairground at Glastonbury festival. 

Stella Dore and Ruby’s Rooms frequently pool their resources to bring more community-focussed art and projects to Hastings. The owners and designers of Ruby’s Rooms are a collective who have been curating content and spaces in the music, arts and youth sector for almost 20 years. They used locally-sourced materials and craftsmen when renovating the house, and collaborated with local artists of all kinds when designing and filling the rooms. Kate of Ruby’s Rooms and Steph from Stella Dore have each had success outside of Hastings but maintain a strong relationship with the town and its people. They’re both keen to make sure everyone benefits from their achievements, not just a few notaries in the arts community. 

• We’ll soon be hearing more from Kate about her plans for “breaking new art barriers on the Hastings seafront”, but in the meantime, see Dotmasters’ work at 54 Eversfield Place and in Stella Dore Gallery, 64 Norman Road, open tonight 6.00pm-9.00pm, usually 11.00am-4.00pm Tuesday to Friday and 11.00am-5.00pm on Saturday.