'Pay for your tattoo with Pokémon cards'

A tattoo artist is offering tattoos in exchange for new and old Pokémon cards to add to his huge collection.

The Pokémon franchise - consisting of animated TV series, movies, a trading card game and the mega-hit mobile game Pokémon Go! - turned 30 years old on Friday.

A recent focus has been the trading card scene, and Martin Moore is hoping to add to his tens of thousands by offering tattoos in exchange for certain cards.

The co-owner of Mavericks Tattoo Studio in Totton, near Southampton, said the offer - which has already been taken up by some people - can help with the cost of tattoos.

Pokemon trading cards have received increased attention thanks to YouTuber and wrestler Logan Paul, with his splashy, multimillion-dollar purchases of ultra-rare cards.

Moore says he has tens of thousands of cards stashed in folders, as well as five Pokémon tattoos.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent on Pokémon Day he said: "I've always had quite an addictive personality.

"I'm a completionist so just having so many sets with the goal of completing them all, the 'Gotta catch 'em all!' slogan, appeals to me in a way of collecting."

Moore is hoping to build his collection even further through his new initiative.

"Times are tough at the moment and the tattoo industry has been dipping down a little bit because it is a luxury and people don't necessarily have the expendable income that they used to," he said.

"But I see all the time people saying, I found my old Pokémon cards in my loft or I just gave a load of Pokémon cards away, and I thought, I could have them.

"That's something that I like, that I'm into, that does have value that people might not necessarily know has value, and I'm a tattoo artist, something I can do for that is to trade for it."

People who are interested in the offer can message the studio with information about their cards for a valuation.

Moore said: "It depends on the cards, it depends on the conditions... even if they don't necessarily want a tattoo, I'm still happy to give them a valuation so they know what they've got."

It is 30 years since Pokémon first launched in Japan - the UK launch was in 1999 - and since then it has reportedly become the highest-grossing media franchise in history.

The series initially started as a series of games on the Nintendo Game Boy - which even in 2026 is still the fourth best selling console of all time.

A popular animated series and the spin-off Trading Card Game (TCG) helped to turn it into a full-on craze so huge the press gave it a name - "Pokémania".

The brand sparked a second global trend with the launch of mobile phone game Pokémon GO, which used a device's GPS and camera to place monsters in the real world, in 2016.

In 2019 there was even a live action movie called Detective Pikachu, featuring Hollywood star and Wrexham AFC owner, Ryan Reynolds.

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