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 Tatau artists are giving gallery-goers a unique piece of Samoan culture.
Sui faiga ae tumau fa'avae is an active exhibition at City Gallery featuring tattoo artists Tuigamala Andy Tauafiafi, Ismael Jaco ''J'' Augustine Schmidt and Bryan ''Juse One'' Visala.
Unique Samoan designs are created and tattooed live in the gallery space, opening up the art to a wider public.
Tauafiafi, a tattoo artist from Taupou Tatau on Dixon St, says the exhibition is a way of breaking down stereotypes that come with tattoos. ''We're not all criminals or gang members.
''We're showcasing something different that's not normally in a gallery. It's an interactive piece where people can come along and, not necessarily get a tattoo, but it's more about being part of it and experiencing it.'' |
 Aug 27th - Book Review - The Woodcut Portraits By Alex Binnie.
Alex Binnie has been a well known fixture on the London tattoo scene since he opened "Into You" one of the first custom tattoo shops in the early 90's.
The book is a record of the 32 portraits in chronological order as the were carved and the prints were hand done by Alex on a Columbian press from London circa, 1844.
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 Aug 20th - What the Hell is going on with Civil Liberties in New South Wales, Australia. Tattooing it seems, and those that play the trade are all being painted with the same brush in the eyes of the law.
What the Hell is going on with Civil Liberties in New South Wales, Australia. Tattooing it seems, and those that play the trade are all being painted with the same brush in the eyes of the law.
Under the pretense of Licensing for tattoo studios, they have enacted legislation to search tattoo studios without due cause or search warrants and have people that work in the studios finger printed. Then, shortly after it is passed police raid shops with explosive and drug sniffing dogs.
As if all that wasn't enough, they now want to ban police for showing visible tattoos when in uniform
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 Feb 11th - Nick Chaboya, “Mark making: A Process of Questions. From Canvas to Skin.” His aim for this is letting go of any limitations that we may be holding onto as artist. As artist, the limitations we believe to exist, do not! If the foundation of a good strong tattoo is present the possibilities for the imagery is endless. I would like to welcome everybody to join me in opening their art to its fullest potential! At the same time giving the client a long lasting and well thought out tattoo that they will be proud to wear for the rest of their lives. With respecting the tradition of tattooing, while also including our unique voices as artists, we can push the art form that we love so much in a new and exciting direction!
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Jan 9th - The Death of the Yellow Pages? Tattoos.com takes a closer look at how Tattoo Studios are spending their money on yellow pages and if it's time to rethink traditional print advertising VS. online marketing.
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 Dec 15th - We interview Alex Adams, co owner of Tattoos for the Individual and co-founder of the Skull and Bones Gallery in Winnipeg. Alex Adams is currently Tattooing at Tattoos for the Individual, a studio she established with her husband Kurt Wiscombe in the early nineties. She is a tattooer, a painter, and now co-owner of the Skull and Bones Gallery, which opened in the summer of 2009. Her tireless dedication to tattooing and art is seen through her travel to conventions around the world and her non stop production both in and out of the studio and gallery.
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Dec 1st -New interview with tattoo artist Mike Austin. He discusses arctic inuit tattooing mythology and doing illustrations for a forth-coming book about the denizens of the Inuit spirit world.
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 Nov 30th - Also, Tattoos.com interviews Canadian Tattooist Glen Paradis, of New Moon Tattoo in Ottawa.
Canadian Tattoo Artist Glen Paradis has been a fixture at New Moon Tattoo for 7 years now. I had met him at several conventions over the years but didn't get a chance to get to know the artist that well until 2008 when he made a road trip with myself, Dan Allaston, Paul Booth, Bob Tyrrell, Kurt Wiscombe, Jack Rudy and a few other artists to Beijing, China for a couple of weeks.
I got to watch him tattoo, and do the social gesturing with the Local artists as well as have him entertain us all with his penchant for car jacking small chinese forms of transportation, much to our amusement, throughout the entire trip.
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Nov 26th - Tattoo Winter Getaways for 2010 - Perusing the malls under the hypnotic guise of Bing Crosby Christmas lullabies being remixed by cartoon squirrels, our thoughts turn to escaping the mindless masses, and joining our tattooed brethren.
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Nov 23rd - Tattoos.com interview with Nick Chaboya, featuring photos of his artwork.
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 Nov 6th Japanese Tattooing from the Past to the Presentby Mieko Yamada
A captivating and extensive tour of the history behind Japanese tattoo culture that traces itsroutes as far back as the Jomon period. Links, photos,videos and meticulous research bring to life a rich and colorful history over centuries that evolved as the modern tattoo bodysuit.
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 Nov 16th - New articles on Tattoos.com WTF? A section dedicated to the quirky stories from the Tattoo World. This week we look into ther world's first Eco friendly tattoo studio and the questionable practice of tattooing your EYEBALL! The St. Louis Old School tattoo convention was a great success we will be posting photos for you this week.
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 Oct 22nd -Traditional
Japanese Tattooing New video and exclusive article from legendary tattooist Kazuo Oguri.
Oguri, known in Japan as Horihide, his tattooing name, is a famous artist and highly regarded as the pioneer that brought Japanese tattooing to Sailor Jerry, and subsequently Ed Hardy, after World War Two. Thus setting the stage for large Asian body suit tattoo design to change the face of western tattooing in the last half of the twenty first century. Here in his own words, with video, is his story.
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 July 16th - Tattoo Artist and visionary Kurt Wiscombe and Alex Adams open the Skull and Bones Gallery in Winnipeg on Portage Ave. to display their amazing talent and hard work. "The space next store to the shop was perfect" Kurt says, "But someone was always there. So when it finally became available, we grabbed it up".
We were there for the opening party. Check out pics and videos from the Gallery.
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 July 7th - World Renowned and celebrity tattoo artist Mario Barth is the owner and chief tattoo artist at Starlight Tattoo, the premier international tattoo organization with six high-end tattoo studios and the online tattoo supply company called, The Tattoo Super Store. We interview the man behind the biggest Tattoo Show on Earth!
Barths also invents cutting-edge products for the industry. He is the creator and manufacturer of the first-ever sterile single dose inks (Singlez ™) which contain his world renowned Intenze Ink Tattoo Colors. Setting new standards for safety and health in the industry, Intenze Colors are the hottest inks in the business. |
Southern Ink Xposure - Cape
Town Tattoo Expo our sister show, was a great success. Check out Video and Photos from the show. opening of the "art of the human canvas" and "Skulls" exhibition, for which local and
international artists were invited to decorate skulls to their heart's
content. |
 China
International Tattoo Art Convention BEIJING 2008 When we landed the Pilot announced "Please do not smoke on the plane, wait until you are in the terminal" that is China, tea and cigarettes. But this post Olympics Beijing is very different than the China I saw with Lyle Tuttle just a year before. I landed with Kurt Wiscombe (Winnipeg) and the Dutchman (Vancouver) to be greeted by Kisen Wang, organizer of the Beijing convention, president of the China Assoc. of Tattoo Artists, and owner of Scorpion Tattoo studios for my second visit here. Within hours I was joined by Bob Tyrrell and Paul Booth, who had visited China years ago when things were really just starting up. Read more here. |
 Tatau - Pe’a: Photographs by Mark Adams
The Ontario College of Art & Design Professional Gallery, (Toronto, Canada) is pleased to present this exhibition from Feb. 15 to May 18, 2008. The exhibition launches with an evening of conversation between Mark Adams and curator Peter Brunt, on Fri., Feb. 15, 6:30 pm.
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 Reinventing the wheel: The tattoo machine goes pneumatic
"Carson Hill is the inventor and developer of the first mass produced pneumatic tattoo machine, operated on air, not electrical motors or coils. So I took a little time to Chat with him about this latest evolution in the science of tattooing."
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 Andy Gubert
Germany has one of the highest ratios of tattoo shops in Europe and competition is fierce, according to Andy, tattoo culture in Germany is huge. Clients and enthusiasts range from all over the cultural spectrum. They even have their own version of Miami ink, "ein familie sticht zu" which loosely translates to "a family that pricks".
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 On the Road with Lyle Tuttle, Day 01
" Lyle Tuttle and I arrived in Beijing the Monday of the show. We were greeted by the organizer, Kisen at the airport with other artists and translators. A camera crew was rolling to document the event. At first it seemed a bit much, but to the Kisen and the tattooists of Beijing it is a momentous event."
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 On the Road with Lyle Tuttle, Day 02
"Jason Goo greeted us with Hailin Fu, one of China's most famous tattooists in Lyle's room minutes later bearing beautiful books of tattoo designs that he and his wife had made of his drawings. They contained hundreds of breathtaking illustrations based on Chinese mythology with the stories accompanying them"
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 China's tattoo revolution & the Dulong Tribe, Part 01
"China is a new world for modern electric tattooing which has only been around for about seven years. However, unknown to many in this industry, myself included, it has a rich history of traditional tattooing among the Dulong, a tribe in the mountain region near the border with Myanmar (formerly Burma) whose population numbers less than 8,000 people." |
 Chinas's tattoo revolution & the Government, Part 02
"If the government does not embrace it's history it will only hinder the development of the artform. I also pointed out that the government Director would be the one looked upon 50 years from now as helping to bring modern tattooing of chinese art to the world as another great part of chinese culture, which is already respected in the form of so many genres whether it is traditional art, paper cutting, architecture or even food." |
 A
Conversation with John Long of Shanghai.
“I believe that people who love tattoo, whichever nation, race or
color they belong to, are all effected by a most basic and primitive desire
which causes them to love and admire tattoo. More specifically, on the
basis of material enjoyment, human beings also wish for a bridge linking
spirit and flesh, and tattoo is just the best way they can find to express
themselves." |
 Beijing
Tattoo Artist Dong Dong reflects- A Sense
of Focus. "There
is continuity in Chinese culture that is impossible for an outsider to
truly comprehend. A sense of integration of race, time and culture resonates
with all Chinese. It is a deeply personal feeling that non-Chinese can
only experience intellectually, not emotionally. An ancient Chinese expression
says, 'No matter how far from the land of our ancestors, we are still
Chinese.' " |
 "Bangkok's
Tattoo Arjan". "Life in Thailand is saturated with superstition. People are convinced
that benevolent and sinister powers direct their destinies and a lot of
time is dedicated to appealing to these powers for help and kindness.
In Thailand the sacred and profane are completely intertwined and interdependent.
For more than 300 years Thai men have visited with tattoo arjan (master),
listened to the teachings and received tattoos in an effort to understand
their destiny and exercise some control over it." |
 Jimmy
Wong- Bangkok Past and Present and the Tattoos of Indochina. Part I
New
articles by Mike McCabe in Asia.
" Today in Bangkok, Jimmy Wong works from his shop on Soi 5 at Sukhumvit
Road in an atmosphere that is about as close as you are going to get to
how it used to be when things were good in tattooing… before the
avalanche of “Looky Loos” showed up." |
 Jimmy
Wong - The Changing Face of Bangkok Tattoo Part
I "There are more young men in Bangkok getting
tattooed with magical tattoos,” Jimmy says. “They think this
will improve the odds in their lives. They get a Gow Yod, the Seven Peaks
tattoo as a first tattoo. It will make them bulletproof or un-cuttable
by knives… Gang members in Bangkok are getting more bulletproof
tattoos… The Bangkok chief of police asked tattoo arjan to stop
giving young men bulletproof tattoo charms. He said the police are having
a hard time to intimidate gang members. The gang members don’t care
what the police say. A few months ago, the police shot a gang member many
times but the kid got up and ran away. He wasn’t hurt… " |
 What
do Angelina Jolie, Allen Iverson, Nicole Richie, The Rock, Paris Hilton,
Tommy Lee and Pamela
Anderson have in common. Tattoos of course!
And they made the "Top Twenty-Five
Tattooed Celebrities in 2005" |
 Traditional Japanese Tattooing
With Tattoo Master Kazuo Oguri. |
 Tattooing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2001 "When you walk
the streets you are walking what was a genocidal battlefield during the
1970s when Pol Pot's insane regime of the Khmer Rouge terrorized the country.
Phnom Penh's population of more than a million was drained and murdered
to under 1000 people. People say when you pick up the soil here, you can
squeeze the blood out of it. " |
 Noom
tattoos South Bangkok 2001"In the old days people who got tattooed
at a certain temple could identify others who got tattooed there too.
They could see the particular work of an Arjan. They would identify with
the others who got tattooed at the same temple. If you got into a fight
in the street and saw the work of your Arjan, you would stop fighting
immediately because you were in the same group" |
 A
Sukhumvit tattooer in Bangkok, 2001
by Mike McCabe, NYC " A young woman who's nick name is Ouy
tattoos on the notorious street called Sukhumvit in Bangkok, Thailand.
Her spotless, sidewalk level booth is open to the hectic street. Huge,
belching busses; tuk-tuk taxis and thousands of cars fly past a few feet
from her small work area. Pedestrians with curious eyes stride past sneaking
peaks at the modern tattoo flash she hangs neatly on her clean, white
walls." |
 So,
ya can't fight city hall?
Tony Dirego, of Chronic Tattoo Studio
is doing just that. With the support of the ACLU and a precedent set
by court rulings that tattoos are a right to freedom of expression Tattoo
Artist Tony Dirego is fighting the good fight with the City of Cleveland
over a 25 year olod ban on tattooing in the rockin city. |
Japanese
Tattooing from the Past to the Present
By Mieko Yamada - "The men of Wa tattoo their faces and paint their bodies with designs.
They are fond of diving for fish and shells. Long ago they decorated their
bodies in order to protect themselves from large fish. Later these designs
became ornamental. Body painting differs among the various tribes. The
position and size of the designs vary according to the rank of individuals....
They smear their bodies with pink and scarlet just as we Chinese use powder
(Tsunoda and Goodrich, cited by Dalby, 1993: 22)." |
 The
Arctic by Lars Krutak "Standing sentinel in the frozen
waters of Bering Sea, St. Lawrence Island fosters a complex of remarkable
tattooing traditions spanning 2000 years. Ancient maritime peoples from
Asia first colonized this windswept outpost lured by vast herds of ivory-bearing
walrus and other sea-mammals... these mariners attempted to harness their
forbidding world by satisfying the spiritual entities that controlled
it. Not surprisingly, tattooing became a powerful tool in these efforts:
for at once the pigment was laid upon the skin, the indelible mark served
as both protective shield and sacrifice to the supernatural." |
| Tattooed
Brazil by Toni Marques. Toni Marques is a Brazilian journalist based
in Rio de Janeiro. He has published a volume of short stories and a volume
of poetry, and has also worked as a freelance journalist and scriptwriter
for TV. His most recent book is O Brasil Tatuado e Outros Mundos (Tattooed Brazil and Other Worlds), published by Rocco in 1997. |
The
New York City Tattoo: The Origins of a Style
by Mike McCabe. |
Enigma
& Katzen
Based on interviews at the Houston Tattoo Convention
(Jan. 18, 1996) and at Northern Ink Exposure, Toronto (June 21, 1999)
Transcribed and edited by Steve Gilbert. |
Tricia
Allen interviews sideshow legend Capt. Don Leslie.
The
Tattoo History Source Book