We spoke to this month’s cover artists Raffa and Benji, a.k.a. Pink Menace about Pride, collaborative art and grassroots queer groups in Notts…
Tell us a bit about yourselves…
We are Raffa (Ike the Tike) and Benji, partners in life and art! Together we are Pink Menace, a queer creative collab endlessly busy printing prints, marketing markets, workshopping workshops, and planning all kinds of queer mischief! Pink Menace was born in 2025, just after the Supreme Court ruling on defining biological sex – we hosted our first fundraising workshop, screen printing t-shirts with our unapologetically trans designs. We now have a full time studio in The Carousel, which hosts our workshops, and where you can grab our freshly printed t-shirts from!
What is the story behind the cover?
For us, Pride means community, loudness, and unapologetic, radical defiance. There are only five characters in our illustration, and they met each other at Pride. They might be different, but they support one another by any means necessary. To each: what they need – from each: what they can provide. They will celebrate with all of those outcasted, and deemed deviant and unworthy.
The background is made out of a collage of flyers, stickers, posters from Nottingham queer events (including SLUR Fest; Nightmare! Nightmare! Kill! Kill!; Monarchy Madness, and Man Club), representing the vast amount of grassroots queer groups and activities that we have happening in the city.
What inspires you as artists?
We are inspired by the beautiful weirdness of human bodies and experiences. Trans and queer bodies are regularly front and centre of our work. We try to inspire action through our designs, drawing inspiration from the movements of the past and present, intersecting the struggle for queer and trans rights, environmental, class justice, and always speaking out against imperialism and war.
Tell us about some things you’ve worked on in the past…
We recently moved into DreamLand Studio and started tattooing from there. On our first day, we raised £500 for gender affirming care. Check our Instagram and get in touch if you would like a tattoo!
Late last year, Benji and Maritsa from Moonbuns decided they didn’t want to only showcase queer art within Pride month, because we know that Nottinghamshire has an incredible cohort of queer artists, and so we started organising Nottingham’s Big Queer Market. These were a massive success, with our last market hosted at Backlit Gallery – featuring eighty queer artists, creators, and designers, as well as free drag life drawing! It was wonderful, seeing everyone out in their best queer garbs. Our next market will have photographers capturing you looking your best! It is on July 24-25 at Backlit Gallery – see you there!
Pink Menace’s secret ingredient is… being a duo. Raffa is perfectly happy being the doodley-printey-painty goblin locked in the studio – Benji takes on promotion, social media, organising, and everything that requires talking to people
Do you have any tricks for getting started and staying inspired as a creative?
It is difficult, but the secret no one tells you is you do not have to do it alone! Pink Menace’s secret ingredient is… being a duo. We have complementary skills and are able to make it work by sharing the load and playing by our strengths. While Raffa is perfectly happy being the doodley-printey-painty goblin locked in the studio – but avoids all things social media like the plague, Benji takes on promotion, social media, organising, and everything that requires talking to people – and of course, tries to keep Raffa on a deadline. Keep immersing yourself in what feels right, keep engaging and creating, and things will fall into place.
If you could sit down and chat with any artist in your field, who would it be and what would you talk about?
In Bologna – where Raffa lived for a while – there is a collective who run an annual street poster art festival called CHEAP. Every year, hundreds of illustrators, graphic designers, and visual artists submit their art for a chance to be printed and pasted on the city’s massive public boards. Their themes are poignant and relevant, making bold political statements by design (excuse the pun). We would love to sit down with them and learn how such a festival takes form!
Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers?
We are currently fundraising to support transgender young people to continue to receive medical care following the cessation of their current healthcare provisions in July 2026. You can find out more information, as well as how to support us, on our Instagram.
Find Pink Menace at the Nottingham Big Queer Market on 24-25 July at Backlit Gallery.
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