Hi everyone,

A happy Friday to you all out there.  Today I’m putting up a five part documentary series on tattooer Thom deVita, done by the great folks over at Vice Magazine.  A lot of people haven’t even heard of Thom, but his tattoo work is so different than anything else you’ll ever see and this doc offers a glimpse into the life of a man who is a true original.  Sit back and check this out (especially all you young whipper-snappers out there) because it’s well worth your time. Respect to Thom!

Dear Hannah:

Hi.  You don’t know me.  My name is Mike and I write for The Tattoo Blog.  Until a couple days ago, I had no idea who you were.  Apparently you’re the Associate Beauty Editor over at the xoJane website.  My wife is a regular reader of the site and she told me about the piece that you wrote last week called How to Give Yourself a Tattoo For Real.  The title is pretty self explanatory, but for my readers out there who have no intention of reading your article, I just need to clarify that it’s about how to give yourself a homemade tattoo using a needle, India ink and all the other dodgy types of scratcher accoutrement.

Anyway, back to my letter…

As I’ve already said, I don’t know you, Hannah.  You look like a nice person and I’m sure you are.  You say in your online bio that you like to write about make up a lot.  That’s cool.  Here’s the thing though, Hannah: you’re an idiot.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like hurling out insults at complete strangers over the things that they write (well, sometimes I do, but not typically people like you who don’t strike me as particularly nefarious in nature.)  It’s just that, well Hannah, your article was a really stupid and irresponsible thing to write for numerous reasons.  Sure, I get it: you’re a badass, you don’t give a fancy fuck what anyone thinks about your personal irresponsibility.  You’re going to go home, open a bottle of wine, put on some Joan Jett and give yourself some homemade motherfuckin’ tattoos.  Yeah.  Hard as steel, you are.  So when you finished off your article with this:

‘Feel free to tell me how stupid I am, or how unsafe this is, blah blah blah, I don’t care, I’ve already heard it from my mom, who reads all my articles by the way — hi mom!’

I realised that you think people like myself who get angry over an article like this are angry because we give a shit about you personally doing this to yourself.  Just to be clear, Hannah – I don’t give a shit if you want to give yourself awful, unhygienic, prison looking scratcher tattoos.  Incidentally, that’s what what you’re doing is called: scratching.  Scratchers are people who give cheap, shoddy, unsafe homemade tattoos (typically from basements that reek of cigarettes and cat-piss, but it varies).  What a glamorous world for a beauty queen such as yourself to be associated with it!

Tattoo artists – professional tattoo artists, that is – do what they do because they have spent years and continue to spend years honing their craft.  Yes, tattoos are expensive.  The reason for this is because when you pay a tattoo artist for his or her work, you are paying for the safety, quality and skill that enables them to tattoo professionally.  Absolutely nothing about tattoo is based in impatience.  If you can’t wait until you have enough money or if all you really want is ink stained into your flesh by any means, then tattoo is not for you.  Oh, I know you think it’s for you, that you have some sort of right to it, but what I’m saying is that unless you appreciate and respect the art form and are willing to spend the time and money to get it all properly done, then tattoo just isn’t for you.  If you really wanted some Chanel perfume but didn’t have the cash for it, would you just go out and mix a bunch of jugs of fragrant solvents in your bathtub?  I’m guessing no, because that would suck, would probably make you sick and would hardly be comparable to what the professional perfumiers at Chanel can come up with.  So why disrespect the process of tattoo?

Perhaps you think I’m overreacting.  But you know what?  Every single time someone encourages others to get tattooed like this, they are spreading the scratcher sub-culture and that sub-culture gives real artists a bad name.  It drags quality tattooists back to the days where tattoo was synonymous with dirty, unhygienic practices performed in dingy, vermin riddled hovels somewhere on the wrong side of town.   Professional tattooists have spent too much time distancing themselves from that ridiculous preconception to have to put up with some uninformed Beauty Editor ignorantly and wilfully encouraging others to take part in it.  That’s what angers me about your article, Hannah.  Your own selfish ignorance is a form of massive disrespect to people who have devoted their lives to an artistic pursuit that means something to them.  And with a few hundred words on a website, you are effectively taking a big shit on those people’s artistic integrity.

Obviously, aside from the disrespect for the artists, you’re also ignorant of what a problem scratching actually is.  If you’d taken just a few seconds to Google it, you might have realised.  Regardless, it boggles my mind how you could do something so idiotic.  I’m sorry if it seems harsh to say that, but it is idiotic and you’re an idiot for encouraging it.  This isn’t just about you.  Like I said earlier, if you want to give yourself terrible prison-esque tattoos, then that’s your prerogative.  But when you write an article about how to do it and somehow try to convince your very large readership that what you’re doing is cool or badass, you’re effecting a lot of people other than yourself.  So your aforementioned flippant disregard of the entire issue?  It just reeks of the mindset and actions of a selfish, immature brat who doesn’t want to take the time to actually consider what she’s doing.

Stick to make up, Hannah.  Leave the tattooing to the professionals.

Mike

“If you can’t tolerate the pain, you’re not a man.”

– Horiyoshi III

Japanese tattooist Horiyoshi III is a living legend, not just in the Japanese tattoo community, but the world tattoo community.  In many ways, he is the living embodiment of what Japanese tattoo is about.  While statements he makes (like the one above), might not sit well with everyone, he does have a very clear and distinct awareness of what tattoo is.  More than anything else, his experiences, knowledge and insight are invaluable to any tattoo artist or fan of tattoo art, whether they are male, female, black, white – whatever.  The bottom line is that Horiyoshi III has a massive respect for tattoo; something that he sees as more than just art.  If you’ve got a spare 15 minutes on your hands, I highly recommend that you check out the documentary below.  Especially if you’re a tattoo artist.  It very well could change the way you think .

Beauty of a day today where I am, hope it’s a beauty where you are too.  Alright, so I was sitting here trying to decide what to focus on for today’s post.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted to go with  – news story, photos, video?  Decisions, decisions…

In the end I decided that the best option was to just give you guys a first rate tattoo artist to check out.  It’s a nice day to sit back, throw on some music and take a wander through the excellent tattoo work of Chicago based tattooist David Allen.  In addition to being a talented artist, David’s got a great blog with lots of info about him, his work and even an in depth look at the equipment he uses.  He’s all over twitter, instagram, flickr – all that stuff.  Nice to see a tattooist whose online output goes much further than a MySpace page – seriously guys, if you’re a tattooist and all you’ve got for an online presence is a MySpace page, hop in your time machine, leave 1998 and travel back to 2013.  Myspace is whack.  Keep up.  David’s a perfect example of how to do exactly that.

David tattoos by appointment only at Pioneer Tattoo Studio.  Take some time and have a look at his site and especially his work!

DAVID ALLEN TATTOO

BOOM!

And just like that, I’m back.  I don’t know how many of you out there remember me, but I left waaay back in 2011 to see what was going on around the world.  Turns out, there’s a hell of a lot going on.  I met lots of cool people, found out a lot more about tattoo in Korea (more on that in days to come) and saw heaps of amazing tattoos on people from all over the world.  I spent the last month in the Netherlands and now I’m living in Tokyo which has a rather hidden but unbelievable wealth of tattoo talent.  Of course I will be bringing you guys lots of info about that as well as the days pass.

So then, I guess you might be wondering what’s going on with the Tattoo Blog now, then, huh?  Well, I’m here to promise all of you who have stuck with it as well as all of you who are new to it that I am going to do my best to bring you reliable international coverage of all things tattoo, hopefully the odd interview – my Japanese is crap, so I’ll have to rely on the kindness and patience of friends to act as translators – and I’ll also be tweeting, so if you’re on twitter and don’t already follow us, then you need to!!  Follow us now!! @tattooblog

Okay, so there’s lots planned.  I’ve established that.  But this being the first new post and all, I wanted to start off with something simple and to the point.  No big heavy analysis of tattoo or anything like that right now.  So why don’t you just check out this video of the newly opened Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Store.  We’ll see you again real soon!

Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Store from Joao MB Costa on Vimeo.

We got sent a couple copies of the new Ed Hardy DVD, and were a bit nervous when we got the glossy dvd box with free temporary tattoos… would this be about Ed Hardy the artist or about a glittery clothing line by Christian Audigier? After watching I have to say it was a really well done documentary on Ed Hardy as not just a tattoo artist, but truelly an artist of multiple mediums. With a run time of 75 minutes, it really was a quality documentary with only a snippet of Ed Hardy the brand (a weird 2 minute commercial tossed in the middle). It really paints a beautiful picture of the evolution of an artist.

Clip from the documentary:

There was a lot of talk about Ed Hardy’s non-tattoo work and after browsing around I found that a lot of it can be viewed in San Francisco. Some of Ed Hardy’s Work over the last 50 years:

Summary
In 1955, most ten-year-old boys dreamed of growing up to be firemen or jet pilots. But young Don “Ed” Hardy had the wild idea of becoming a tattoo artist. He saw his calling in the mystical images of pierced hearts, flaming eyeballs and bloody skulls. After graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute, Hardy rejected a scholarship to Yale University to pursue his childhood obsession: tattoos. Today, he is revered as the godfather of modern tattooing as well as a respected painter, author and publisher

Today will be my final entry for the tattoo blog.  I might return one day in the future, but for now, I’m signing off as a tattoo blog blogger and venturing out into the wild, wonderful world.  I will be in search of crazy people with beautiful tattoos and beautiful people with crazy tattoo skills.  They are out there and I will find them.  However, for now, I will focus on this one final blog post and try to make it the best yet.  I think I’ve come pretty damn close actually, because it would be hard to find a better tattooist for this final artist profile than Lina Stigsson.

Originally from Sweden (a country that has no shortage whatsoever of amazing tattooists), Stigsson has been living in Amsterdam, Netherlands for ten years and counting.  She went to school at Amsterdam’s Rietveld art school and went on to work for another amazing Amsterdam tattooist, Rob Admiraal.  Today Stigsson can still be found at Admiraal Tattoo and like any great artist, her work seems to continually get better and better.

Mixing a Classic American style with a somewhat Asian feel to it, Stigsson’s tattoos explode with colour and depth.  There is an unbelievable smoothness to everything she does, giving her tattoos the look of a painting or a sketch, but with the thickness and contours of a well placed tattoo.  Though Classic American is a style done by many tattooists the world over, looking at Stigsson’s portfolio, I don’t feel like I’ve seen this all before.  She’s absolutely got her very own original style and that makes Lina Stigsson a tattooist worth seeking out.

Tribal tattoos have been around for thousands of years and they range from very different styles and meanings depending on where you go and which tribes you encounter or study.  I myself have spent a decent amount of time looking into the different meanings of different traditional types of tattoos, but it was only today that I actually encountered a tattoo that signifies that its bearer is a cannibal.  Yes, you read that correctly – a tattoo that signifies that its bearer is indeed the type of person who eats human flesh, aka a cannibal.

How do I know this?  Well, unfortunately, there has been a cannibal attack on the French Polynesia island of Nuku Hiva and it has been revealed that the man suspected of the attack has a tattoo of the Kaioi tribe below his left shoulder.  31-year-old Henri Haiti had acted as a guide for 40-year-old German traveller Stefan Rami, taking him into the jungle to hunt for goats.  Haiti is a guide, registered with the local authorities.  But Rami never returned from the goat hunt and his charred remains were later found at a campfire site by authorities.

‘Fears that outdoor fanatic Mr Ramin had been cooked and devoured erupted after his charred remains were found on a campfire on Nuku Hiva following a goat hunt.

Although locals described their shock at the island being linked to cannibalism, a picture of Haiti revealed that he sports a tattoo of a Kaioi warrior on his left shoulder.’

This story is just plain crazy and at present time, Haiti remains on the run.  Locals claim that there would not be any cannibals on their island and that such a thing has long since gone out of fashion.  Yet it’s difficult to deny that cannibalism is indeed a possibility given Haiti’s tattoo, signifying his connection to the Kaioi people.  I guess it’s true that some tattoos are more dangerous than others.  I would recommend not getting too close to anyone who has a tattoo like Haiti’s and my sincere condolences go out to the family of Stefan Rami.

In the three years that I have been writing for Tattoo Blog, I’ve seen a lot of different things, a lot of strange things and a whole lot of interesting things.  But something that has continued to occur in numerous places around the world is crimes against tattoo shops and their owners.  From bombings to robberies to outright violent attacks, tattoo shop owners have all too often faced off against no shortage of crazies.  I don’t know why this is the case – sometimes I think that some criminals rather stupidly believe that a tattoo studio is an easy target to steal a lot of money from.  Fortunately, something else that I’ve noticed about crimes against tattoo studios is that quite often the criminals don’t get away or are brought to justice – either directly by the tattoo artist himself or by the police and court system.

Most recently, I’ve come across a new attack on a tattoo shop.  This time it took place in Leominster, Massachusetts at the New Addiction Body Modification Tattoo Shop.  In September of 2010, 33-year-old Satron Pridgen and 29-year-old Alexander Rivera turned up at the tattoo shop and attempted to rob owner Joshua Richardson.  The robbery failed and Pridgen shot Richardson four times with a .32 calibre handgun.  Rivera also had a weapon, though it was only a pellet gun.

‘Mr. Richardson was shot in the hand, buttock and arm, and suffered a graze wound of the scalp, according to Mr. McHugh, who said the victim’s left ring finger had to be amputated because of the hand injury.

The court was told Mr. Richardson was in a struggle for his life with the would-be robbers and the holdup attempt destroyed his business.

Mr. McHugh said Mr. Pridgen admitted being inside the tattoo shop at the time of the shooting, but told police he was there to try to buy marijuana. The prosecutor said Mr. Richardson denied marijuana was for sale on the premises and none was found by police.

Mr. Richardson told investigators that Mr. Rivera, a childhood friend, had been pestering him for some time to broker a marijuana deal for him, and that Mr. Rivera and Mr. Pridgen, whom he did not know, showed up unannounced at his shop on the day of the shooting, according to Mr. McHugh.’

Well, for his stupidity, Satron Pridgen was sentenced to 10-12 years imprisonment yesterday.  Meanwhile, Alexander Rivera is still awaiting his trial.  Glad to see that justice was done here and that Pridgen did not get away with what was essential a completely senseless crime.  Nearly killing someone over some weed and a bit of cash?  Enjoy prison, dude.  And let this be a lesson to any other would be criminals out there thinking that a tattoo shop is an easy target.  Tattoo artists are tough as hell, kids.  Leave ’em alone!

In the grand scheme of things, the progressive nature of a children’s toy probably doesn’t really have that much impact on the world.  Still, some children’s toys are bigger than others and some are so iconic that even as we grow from childhood into adulthood, they are still just as instantly recognisable as ever.

That’s the case with a new collector’s edition of Barbie that has recently been released.  The doll, designed by Italian-based, Japanese-inspired brand Tokidoki features a Barbie with a whole lot of tattoos (at least by comparison to past incarnations of the doll).  For some, this is a great step forward for children to be able to gain exposure to tattoo and in this way, lessen the negative impact that society so often places on tattooed people.  Tattooed parents especially can see the benefit in their children gaining additional exposure to the art form.  But there are always the naysayers and in this case, they seem to be striking out at all the old, well trodden stereotypes of tattoo…

‘One commenter, on the Ms Twixt website for parents of Tween-age girls, wrote: ‘Encouraging children that tattoos are cool is wrong, wrong, wrong. Mattel why not put a cigarette and a beer bottle in her hand while you’re at it!”

‘Another, named Jerry, added: ‘I think it is horrible and sends the wrong message to young people. In no way should a tattoo be honored. It is a lifetime brand which will fade and droop over time as the skin ages.’

Not quite sure how tattoos equate alcohol and cigarettes, but whatever, that person is clearly delusional.  And as for the person who stated that tattoo should never be honored, well I don’t think that narrow minded, ignorant parents should be honored and for this reason, his comments mean absolutely nothing to me.  These comments certainly don’t reflect the average consumer either, as the $50 limited edition doll has completely sold out.  This is a great thing and I’m very glad to see hope for a future where the children of today don’t view tattooed people as anything different or shocking or associate any sort of criminality with tattoo.  It might just be a doll, but it’s also a doll with a whole lot of power.