Once again, Vice comes through with a wonderful profile on an incredible tattoo artist.  Valerie Vargas is good.  No, Valerie Vargas is not good, Valerie Vargas is straight up knock you down badass.  Her tattoos are the work of a genuine artist, someone who is fully in control of the mastery of tattoo.  Traditional/Classic American tattoo always has the power to severely impress if it’s done properly.  Valerie Vargas does it properly and then some.  I can’t say enough good things about her tattoo style.  All I know is that I want her to tattoo me.  Watch this tattoo profile.  If by the end of it you don’t want Valerie Vargas to tattoo you, then I don’t know, maybe you’re just plain silly.

If you’ve never heard of the Yakuza, then you probably don’t know much about Japanese tattoo.  Not that the Yakuza and Japanese tattoo go hand in hand, but the Yakuza has played and still does play a large role in the way that tattoos are viewed and utilised in Japan.  It’s a very interesting sub-culture and one that should be studied by anyone within even a minor interest in Japanese tattoo culture.

So check out this documentary on the Yakuza and their tattoos.  It’s a good place to start for anyone wanting a bit of background info on the subject.

Prison tattoos are always cause for discussion around here at Tattoo Blog, but even within that sub-genre world of prison tattooing, there are sub-sub-genres.  One of these sub-sub-genres is Russian prison tattoos.  Illegal in Russian prisons, these homegrown tattoos take on no small amount of significance among prisoners.  Check out the documentary below for a more in depth look into what goes on in some of the most brutal prisons on the planet.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while now, but I keep forgetting.  In that sense then, this news isn’t exactly breaking or anything like that, but I still think it’s worth commenting on.  It’s really strange to me that in 2013 (getting closer to 2014 all the time), simply having a certain type of tattoo can still get you into trouble in some parts of the world.  That’s a really bizarre thing, isn’t it?

Back in March of this year, Antony Ratcliffe of Nottingham, England was stopped by customs and immigration officials when he tried to leave Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport during a 12-hour layover.  He was held in a detention area for an hour and half where immigration officials studied his passport and took turns angrily scrutinising him.

Ratcliffe’s crime?  Having a tattoo on his arm of the Buddha.

‘Despite having a valid two-day tourist visa, Mr Ratcliffe said he was frogmarched to a detention area after immigration officials spotted the Buddha’s head tattoo poking out from the sleeve of his T-shirt.

“As soon as he saw it the chief officer went crazy. You could see it on his face, he looked really angry and said I would have to go back to London,” Mr Ratcliffe told the BBC.’

Ratcliffe, who is a Buddhist himself, was understandably stunned by this reception.  He was eventually released and permitted to fly on to his final destination of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but upon arrival there he was questioned further by Malaysian officials.

Aside from this being completely and utterly insane, it does make a valid point in that no matter how rational and meaningful your tattoo  might be to you, it isn’t always going to be perceived that way by others – especially in foreign countries.  Ratcliffe is 100% justified in any anger or confusion he feels over this experience.  But this should be a warning to others out there with similar tattoos.  Sri Lanka is apparently not a tattoo friendly place to those with tattoos of the Buddha so if you’ve got ’em, it might be best to skip that destination.  Yes, it is sort of like you’re being punished despite having done nothing wrong, but if Sri Lanka isn’t going to support your basic freedoms and beliefs, why give them your tourist dollars?  Go somewhere else.  It’s also worth checking into detailed information regarding various cultures’ stances on tattoos before venturing to various countries.  It could end up saving you a lot of grief.

Some greats for you to enjoy!

Alright, sure, I admit it: I do like to take shots at scratchers now and then on the blog because quite frankly, they deserve it.  Scratchers are scum.  There, I’ve said it.  And I know that it’s at least arguable that some great, currently established tattooists started off as scratchers, but let’s be serious here – there’s no real reason to be a scratcher.  Back in the day when no one knew how to be in contact with anyone else, and the tattoo world was kind of an invite only scene where crotchety old Yoda-esque tattooists had to be sought out and learned from in some far away mountain range or dingy basement, sure, it was semi-understandable why some kid from Shitstain, Idaho would just fiddle around with homemade equipment at friend’s parties.  But those days are gone and the information age is upon us.  You can’t swing a dead cat anymore without hitting someone who runs a tattoo studio.

Yet despite, my disdain for scratchers, I believe that there is a DIY tattoo culture that should be recognised and which has a history practically as lengthy as tattoo itself.  I’m talking about prison tattoos.  No matter where you go in the world, there are prisons and in those prisons are people who have tattoos that were not done by Kat Von D or Tim Hendricks.  These tattoos were done by other inmates, with equipment that somewhere along the line typically included human urine.

Tattoo artist extraordinaire Scott Campbell is someone who understands the culture of prison tattoo.  Some time after a six-week stint in a maximum security prison in which he made tattoo machines, met prisoners and tattooed them, Campbell created water colour paintings of the tattoo machines that he built while in the Mexican prison.  The works were unveiled at a recent solo art exhibit in Los Angeles titled “Things Get Better“.  The art itself is very cool, but Campbell is also one of those highly creative individuals who embraces all aspects of tattoo culture, seeing the art within it all.  I guess it goes to show that there can always be a good side to dodgier aspects of the culture – that art thrives in the most unlikeliest of places.

Still, it takes a great artist to uncover it, so don’t expect me to be singing the praises of scratchers any time soon.  For now though, Campbell’s work is definitely setting a new standard – one that I certainly am totally in favour of.

Without a doubt, one of the things that I love the most about tattoo and the culture of tattoo is its tolerance for all people, from all walks of life.  Black, white, male, female, gay, straight – you name it, everyone is represented to some degree.  It’s a really inclusive environment that always holds true to the concept of whatever you like – it’s your business and your body.  Brilliant.

In keeping with that lovely aspect of tattoo culture, I’d thought I’d include an interview done by the fine folks at Gay Star News with tattoo artist extraordinaire, Louis Molloy.  The man responsible for 85% of football superstar David Beckham’s tattoos dishes out the goods on what makes a good tattoo, his own tattoos and a few other little odds and ends in this short but sweet interview..

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If there’s one issue that I keep returning to again and again on Tattoo Blog, it’s the issue of regulation.  It’s a bit of a thorny issue for many and opinions tend to run deep on both sides of the coin.  I’ve spoken to tattooists who feel that to regulate tattoo is to introduce a bunch of overly bureaucratic red tape that will be consistently reinforced by  government employees who have zero understanding or familiarity with what tattooists actually do.  The fear here is that a level playing field will not necessarily aid tattoo, but debilitate more established artists, forcing them to abandon techniques that while not necessarily unsanitary, won’t pass the outdated and narrow frames of reference that government intervention will bring.  What this will then ostensibly do is force individual time honoured and tested techniques to be abandoned in favour of an across the board standard, effectively killing years of trial and error technical efforts on the part of tattooists.  In essence, the skills and methods that made a tattooist who he or she currently is could be summarily wiped out, placing them under the jurisdiction of the same methods used by one and all.

Not having worked in the tattoo industry myself, I can still relate somewhat to this situation due to my time spent working in various kitchens.  Health inspectors offer a valuable service, but their methods and demands are all too often ridiculously removed from the realities of everyday life in a professional kitchen.  They tend to be more of a burden than an aid in the long run.  That’s not to say that I wish to see health and safety standards ignored in either the tattoo studio or the kitchen, but some standards are capable of doing more harm than good.

On the other hand, the ease with which tattoo equipment can purchased online has had a profound impact on the rise of scratchers.  Whatever negative elements that regulation might bring, I firmly believe that no at all regulation is worse for the simple fact that without regulation, scratchers have an advantage.  That advantage damages the reputability of tattooists who have worked very hard to get to where they are today.  For this reason, I’m glad to see that Pennsylvania is now making concrete steps toward regulation of their tattoo industry.  Yes, the government has no real clue what tattooists do, but if this is truly a concern amongst tattooists, then they should be actively working to lobby for realistic statutes which deal with health concerns in a knowledgeable way.  If for some reason this is not possible, then tattooists will simply need to find new ways under regulation to forge ahead and differentiate their process from others.

Personally, I don’t watch a lot of TV.  My reasons are simple: 99.9% of it is utter crap.  I don’t care what junk you have in your garage that’s worth money, I don’t care about watching bounty hunters looking for dudes, I don’t care about watching rich housewives gripe about bullshit.  So all that being said, it’s safe to say that I don’t really keep up with what’s current on the two or three TV channels that actually show programmes rather than infomercials and other such rubbish.  Bear with me then, if you’ve heard of the programme that I’ve included in today’s post, but it struck me as a sort of interesting concept for a TV series…

Lars Krutak is a so-called “tattoo anthropologist” who travels around the world, looking for completely unique and culturally significant methods of tattoo.  The programme itself is called Tattoo Hunter, and I’m sure that many of you have seen it before, but as I said, it’s new to me.  If you haven’t seen it before, check it out.  This episode is quite interesting as Krutak heads to Hawaii to gain the respect of the Watermen of Waiʻanae on the island of Oahu.  Tattoo has a very lengthy history in these parts and this episode is great insight into what it takes in order to be worthy of such a significant work of art and cultural identity.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget about the old school.  Respect your elders.  I’m sure that’s something that’s been told to many a tattoo artist throughout the years.  How many young, up and coming tattooists do exactly this, well I can’t say.  I do know that it is wholly beneficial for anyone trying to improve their abilities to listen and respect those who came before them.  After all, if it wasn’t for the pioneers, the trailblazers, the people who swallowed their own fair share of shit in the process of trying to do something worthwhile, there wouldn’t be a next generation of tattooists.

With that in mind, I invite you to check out this documentary that deals with some of the greats of the tattoo world and the vanishing history of tattoo.