PEOPLE queued for hours at four tattoo studios to get inked in memory of talented tattooist Jack Allender, who died aged 29.

Friends of the Worcester man, who died last month, rallied round to help raise funds in support of his family – including the memorial tattoo idea.

Worcester Tattoo Studio, Circle of Swords, Lock & Key and Rings and Needles, all in the city, opened specially on Sunday with customers given the option of several designs to choose from.

These included the logo for Mr Allender’s studio The Mad House, on Pump Street – while a hand-painted baseball bat by Kiah O’Rourke is also being auctioned off on Instagram to raise further funds.

Katie Gunston, who co-owns Circle of Swords with Loz Phillips, said: “There’s a misunderstanding that tattoo shops are all at logger heads with each other.

“That’s not the case. All the shops get on and with something like this we’ve really come together for Jack.”

She said Mr Allender had “always got time for people” and was a “great artist”.

The Trinity Street studio opened from 11am until 4pm with six artists working round the clock to tattoo over 30 people.

Regular artists Mr Phillips, Hanan Qattan and Piers Lee were joined by Lock & Key’s Adam Hudson and Joe Turner and Cookies’ Tom Winfield for the day.

“Each artist has done their own sheet of flash,” explained Ms Gunston. “They can be done in 20 minutes to an hour. The point of flash is it’s quick and easy and you can bash it out.”

Katt Lepak already had over 16 tattoos – some done by Mr Allender – before having his shop name under a rose inked on her leg by artist Mr Winfield on Sunday.

“It’s a good cause,” she said. “It’s really sad but it’s brought everyone together.”

The 23-year-old, who works at Heroes bar and Boston Tea Party café, both in Worcester, queued from 10.30am until 2pm – with her tattoo then estimated to take around 45 minutes.

Mr Winfield said the majority of his customers that day had previously been tattooed by Mr Allender.

Friend Ryan Porter has also set up a page to raise money for Mr Allender’s family at gofundme.com/tay6q-jackslegacy.