A POPULAR city tattooist died of natural causes, according to his grandmother, who has described him as a “beautiful person”.

Jack Allender’s body was discovered near to Barbourne Brook, Worcester, on August 21, last year, but the cause of death has only just been officially confirmed to his family.

The 29-year-old’s grandmother, Linda Burrows, said she had not yet been able to bring herself to read Jack’s full post mortem but described his death as a “sudden thing”.

“Obviously, people are going to assume the worst things, but it was natural causes,” she told the Worcester News.

“It wasn’t a heart attack, but I don’t want to say anymore about it,” the 69-year-old, who lives off Rainbow Hill, continued.

“We’ve struggled from the outset [following Jack’s death] – you wait and wait [for the coroner’s result], and it opens everything back up again.

“Waiting for the result has been an absolute nightmare.”

Asked if not knowing the cause of death of her grandson, who she raised since he was eight, had delayed the grieving process, Linda answered: “It probably did, yes.”

A talented artist, Jack opened his own studio, The Mad House, in Pump Street, in December 2017, explained Linda, who had helped him get set up.

“We got that from a really bad stock room and turned it into a studio – we did that between us, all the painting and everything – all the planning,” she said.

“That was his dream and he did get that. I was very proud of him. He’d always wanted to be a tattooist and then he bit the bullet and started his own studio.

“He didn’t have any staff. The tattoo community, they have guest spots, where they’ll do a stint at another studio. But he was solely on his own for the majority of the time.”

Since Jack’s death, the studio has been taken over by others, with a different name, and Linda is no longer involved.

“We didn’t want them to use the name,” she said. “It was our choice of name. It still exists as a tattoo studio. It would’ve been a shame for it to close or become something else.”

Linda said she was overwhelmed by the amount of people who attended Jack’s funeral at Worcester Crematorium in September.

“It was absolutely rammed. I was speechless at how popular Jack was and how much he’d touched people’s lives. They are such lovely people.”

She said people in the tattoo community are often misjudged as “thugs or nasty, but they’re not”.

“Jack was a beautiful person, right from a young age. He was creative, he was musical, he played in a brass band, in a guitar group while he was in Wales at university.

“There wasn’t much he couldn’t do,” said Linda. “He could pick up a penny whistle and give you a tune, even when he was little.”

Jack had studied Music at college in Worcester before going on to Cardiff University, during which time Linda said he got his first tattoo.

“I didn’t know he had had it done until he came back,” said Linda, “then he just kept getting more. He was covered back to front. They just appeared.”

She said, although he was embarrassed by it later in life, he had been a fashion model at one time, and she’d kept all the catalogues he’d appeared in.

Linda said she’s kept all the news articles featuring Jack since his death in a scrap book for his six-year-old daughter Penny.

Jack lived in the Arboretum and, though not still in a relationship with Penny’s mum, saw her often.

“They were very close,” said Linda. “He was a brilliant dad, you couldn’t fault him. She looks just like him. I don’t know what she’s going to grow up like.”

Jack and Penny shared a love of heavy metal music, said Linda, who, following his death, found a heavy metal CD in the car they shared and often listens to it with her granddaughter.

Linda, who took full custody of Jack from her daughter, said she was always close with her grandson who became like her youngest son.

Fighting back tears, she said they would often go for coffees before he went to work in the mornings.

“The hole Jack has left in me is immense. He was my link to a normal life,” she said, adding: “It’s such wasted talented.”

“I miss him, it doesn’t go away. He just got into everybody’s lives, he put a lot into his short life.

“He was everything: quiet, funny, a mixture. Everybody has down times and up times, but he was fine.”