Oh man, will the ancient stereotypes of tattooed people never end?  Just die already.  Jeepers.  Sure, we can sit here and tell ourselves day in and day out that tattoos are completely mainstream now and that everyone is adjusted to seeing tattooed people in the workplace.  Unfortunately, as much as I’d really love to believe that, it just still isn’t true.

On one hand, yes many jobs are currently becoming increasingly tolerant of employees with tattoos, but once you cross over into jobs that are supposed to reflect some sort of imagined standard of how “civilized” society should behave, it’s a whole other ball game.

Take for example, the Lothian and Borders officers (those are police officers, by the way) in Scotland.  A recent policy that governs these officers declares that all officers must cover any and all visible tattoos on their bodies.  The Lothian and Borders officers are the very same officers who guard Queen Elizabeth II’s Palace of Holyrood as well as the Scottish Parliament.  At any rate, a group of these officers are not taking this new tattoo ban lightly and are protesting, with plans to appeal the ruling using Scotland’s Human Rights Act.

“Until recently the Edinburgh-based force, responsible for security at The Palace of Holyrood and the Scottish Parliament, only took action against tattoos that were racist, offensive or sectarian. One tattooed officer said: “We’ll have to wear long-sleeve shirts, even in summer.”

I say good luck to these officers and their protest against an outdated and just plain ridiculous stereotype.  These men are on the force, they have passed their exams, they have proven their worth and what’s more, they have dedicated their lives to protecting the Queen of England and a handful of Scottish politicians.  They clearly aren’t a threat to anyone.

Hey, I’m sick of seeing the Queen’s face every time that I take a bill out of my wallet to pay for something.  But I deal with it because that’s just the way things are.  One would think that the same sort of tolerance could be shown for the Lothian and Borders officers and their tattoos.  The tattoos aren’t going anywhere.  The powers that be don’t have to like them, but they can’t force the officers to cover up.  It just isn’t right.  Deal with it, folks.

Given that I regularly profile so many different tattoo artists here on the Tattoo Blog, I just realized today – and found it quite surprising, actually – that I can’t remember the last time (if ever) that I’ve done a profile on an artist who more or less sticks to black and grey.  To me, black and grey tattoo work is like black and white photography – it enriches the image and gives it a whole other worldly and highly unique texture.  Naturally this only occurs when the art is done well, which is why a good artist becomes all the more memorable when they clearly have a strong command of the black and grey tattoo.

Amanda Ruby has not been tattooing for long.  In fact, throughout the years while many tattooists were honing their skills in apprenticeships or as lowly scratchers in dingy basements, Ruby was working in advertising, her art typically gracing brochures and covers.  She spent the first 21 years of her life in Zimbabwe before finally deciding to move to England.  After bouncing from job to job for a while and really not finding the enjoyment from her art that all artists naturally crave, she ended up in Folkestone, working a rather unexpected apprenticeship at Squid Ink.  Within 3 months of this apprenticeship, Amanda did her first portrait and the rest, as they say, is history.  That was 2 and a half years ago.  Not long ago at all and certainly not a long time to be tattooing for.

Regardless of the short length of time that Amanda Ruby has been tattooing for, her black and grey work is really nice stuff.  In her own words, Amanda likes to mix pattern work with realism – a style she feels is genuinely her own and one which she hopes to continue to improve upon.  She works with a constant eye on what can be improved, what works and what doesn’t and always seems to be thinking ahead in terms of getting better as a tattoo artist and providing the best work possible for her clients.  Check out some of Amanda’s wonderful black and grey work and consider popping into Squid Ink if you’re ever in the Folkestone, Kent, England neck of the woods!

Hey, not to generalize, but tattoo artists can certainly behave as a responsible and progressive lot.  Sure there’s crummy tattoo artists out there who aren’t really doing anything for anyone other than a few crummy flash tattoos now and then, but hey, that’s a very minor percentage of the artists out there.  In truth, tattoo artists are continuously working to push the boundaries in everything from their art to the methods in which their art is portrayed and displayed.

Enter the Rites of Passage Tattoo and Arts Convention, taking place this 2011 from the 28th to the 30th of January.  What truly separates ROP from other tattoo conventions is the method and intent of the entire gathering.  Rites of Passage isn’t just about seeing phenomenal tattooists under one roof and hanging out.  I mean, it is about that but it’s also about so much more.

“The Rites of Passage Festival aims to take you on a journey to lands forgotten and cultures undiscovered to re-explore the real reason people get tattooed in both the modern and ancient world. In doing so, it celebrates not only the creative energy that links us to ourselves and each other as a modern tribe – it enables us to explore how we can reconnect with our natural environment in the same respectful ways as our ancestors, and re-establish the balance our Earth needs for its survival while we go about living our modern lives.”

In layman’s terms, this is a festival and not just a tattoo convention.  It intends to create a dynamic between the natural environment, artists and the people who appreciate tattoo art.  There will be music, public speakers, various types of performers as well as visual artists.  The best part about the entire festival however, is that it’s doing its best to ensure that the entire event is 100% organic.  By that they mean that the festival will showcase as many organic and eco-friendly products that they can.  Organic produce, eco-friendly tattoo products, recycled goods, it’s all going to be a major part of what Rites of Passage is all about.  Plus, in addition to all the great stuff that will be found at the festival, it’s nice to know that 100% of the profits from Rites of Passage will go toward buying agricultural land which will then be replanted with virgin rainforest.  Not bad at all, right?

Oh yeah, one last thing that I forgot to mention: the entire festival takes place in Melbourne, Australia, which means that come January you’ll most likely be itching to get out of the winter weather and hit the gorgeous summer weather that Australia is known for.  Plus, Nick Baxter is going to be there – I mean…do you really need any more of a reason to go???

No doubt about it, tattoos have the ability to deliver very political messages.  This has always been the case and it certainly will always remain the same.  Recently in Turkey however, a specific political tattoo has really grown in popularity with those who oppose the current direction that the Turkish government seems to be heading.

According to this article, people all over Turkey are visiting Tattoo studios, many of whom don’t particularly like tattoos, simply to show their support for a growing movement that wishes to keep church and state separate.  As a matter of fact, sixty-percent of the people who come into Instanbul’s Inkstanbul Tattoo shop (gotta love that name), have no other tattoos.

What do all these people want tattooed on their bodies and why?  Nothing more than the signature of Turkish politician Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, tattooed as “K. Ataturk”.  Ataturk was the founder of the secular Turkish state and a well respected innovator in terms of Turkey adopting more of a European approach to everyday life.  Today many feel that the secular way of life is in danger of being edged out in favour of a more Islamic republic.

“The Justice and Development party (AKP), the current ruling party in Turkey has its roots in political Islam, and has exacerbated fears among opposition secular members that the party holds long-term plans to transform the country from its secular establishment to an Islamic republic.

“Just like it happened in Iran,” Arti said. “They got rid of the shah and it became more religious and conservative. AKP is trying to do the same in Turkey.”

The increased frequency of young Turks asking tattoo parlors for Ataturk’s signature, “K.Ataturk”, tattooed on their bodies comes as a reaction to the upcoming June constitution referendum in Turkey. “

Though I don’t know a lot about this situation in Turkey, I find it really interesting that people are willing to tattoo themselves in opposition to a melding of church and state.  I know that in my own country people would never commit such a dedicated move to express their beliefs.  Not only that, but I’ve seen many different forms of protest in my life, but I’ve never seen something like this.  Good luck to them and their cause.

Using tattoos in the service of advertising for a product is nothing new.  We’ve seen it time and time again, but it’s at least nice to see that just as tattoos and the tattoo scene itself has been allowed to evolve and transform, so too has the method by which tattoos are now being used in advertising.

What I’m talking about is a new advertising campaign for a line of Pilot brand pens.  The point of the campaign is to illustrate (no pun intended) exactly how fine of a tip that these pens have on them.  In order to do this, the Barcelona based Grey Agency have taken to tattooing Lego people.  You know Lego people, right?  Those tiny little guys that you used to play with when you were a kid?  Yup, those ones.  The end results are nothing short of amazing – even if tattooed Lego people isn’t something that gets you excited – you’ve got to admit that the work is really quite impress given the size of the er, canvas that the artists had to work with.

I must add however, that if you think this kind of stuff is cool, it’s really nothing compared to the stuff that the multi-talented Dr. Lakra has been doing for years.  If you ask me, the Grey Agency full on stole Dr. Lakra’s thunder here.  I don’t know too much about the Grey Agency, but me thinks that at least one person there was more than a little familiar and inspired by the work of the great Dr. Lakra.  Check out the Doc’s work here and see for yourself.

The topic of scratchers brings out a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people.  It’s fair to say that it’s a highly contentious subject with some feeling that scratching is a valid method by which to become a tattoo artist and others (myself included) who are of the opinion that scratching is just plain unacceptable.

However, probably the biggest challenge facing those of us who want to eliminate scratchers from the tattoo scene is the easy availability of tattoo machines on the internet.  If you’ve got access to the internet and few spare bucks, you can have a tattoo machine delivered to your front door in a mere matter of weeks.  From that point onward anyone can tattoo all they want.

Despite this easy access to tattoo machines and the alive and well scratching scene, I’m not really so interested in talking about that this time.  What I am interested in talking about is whether or not it should be legal to tattoo yourself with equipment bought on the internet, with no professional training whatsoever.  At the moment in England, that very notion is causing a bit of a controversy.  Tattooing one’s self is becoming a bit of a trend, according to an article at BBC News.

“The law says you can tattoo yourself, but tattooing others must be supervised by a licensed premises. Both tattooist and client must also be over the age of 18. The regulations aim to ensure health and safety procedures are followed, with the correct kit and equipment used.”

With the rising popularity of DIY tattoos, many people are calling for a change in the law that will make tattooing one’s self – DIY style – illegal.

“Many have been done with kits bought over the internet for as little £60, they say. Environmental health professionals fear that amateur tattoos have a high risk of infection, and are calling for them to be banned.

“If it is cheap and cheerful, it is going to be nasty,” says Andrew Griffiths from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

“I don’t think they should be available at all because I think they present a great risk. If it is possible to ban them then I think that is what we would like to see.”

Now, there are of course, at least two sides to this argument.  On one hand it could be said that banning people from tattooing themselves prevents health problems, and the spread of blood born diseases.  On the other hand, it could be argued that no one has the right to tell people what they can or can’t do to their own bodies.  Tattooing others without proper equipment or training is certainly out of the question, but I do think the question needs to be asked, is it okay to tattoo yourself regardless of your ability or experience?  What do you think?

Fact: two great things about summer are tattoos and beer.  If you don’t happen to drink alcohol, then I guess you probably don’t agree with that.  Sorry.  But for those of you who do drink alcohol, I know that you know how good a nice cold one tastes on a hot day.  Actually, to be honest this article doesn’t really have anything to do with summer.  I just wanted to mention how awesome summer, tattoos and beer are.

Anywho…Don’t lose faith in me just yet, yes there is a reason why I linked tattoos and beer together in this post.  You see, this coming September in the Scottish city of Aberdeen, a Scottish brewery called “BrewDog” will be launching their “BrewDog Bar”.  BrewDog is already quite notorious around Scotland for creating some insanely priced and insanely strong beers.  Their most recent publicity stunt however, involves free beer for life for anyone who gets a tattoo of the BrewDog logo.  Yes, you read that correctly: FREE BEER.  FOR LIFE.  According to BrewDog co-founder and managing director, James Watt:

“We’re going to have a tattoo artist in the pub on the opening night and we’re offering free beer for life to anyone who will have the BrewDog logo tattooed on their body.”

Needless to say, the campaign to see faithful beer drinkers tattooed with the logo is not going over very well with many.  The Scottish Licensed Trade Association for example, recently called the very notion of a lifetime’s worth of free beer in exchange for a tattoo “abhorent”.

Okay, yeah, it’s a pretty stupid idea.  The thing is, I would be very surprised to see BrewDog actually go through with it all.  I think these people are greatly underestimating exactly how many people would be willing to get a tattoo in order to have free beer for life.  Once they see how many beer devotees there are out there and how much money they stand to lose as a result, something tells me that they’ll be backing out of the deal very quickly – or at the very least, limiting the amount of people permitted to participate.

Until such a time however, if you’re a beer and tattoo lover then you might want to consider taking a visit to Aberdeen, Scotland this September.

Many times on the Tattoo Blog I have spoken about the need to eliminate the barriers between tattoo artists and other more conventional artists within the art world.  While I continue to stick to this belief, it wasn’t until I discovered the work of Adrian Lee that I began to think about things just a little bit differently.

First off, I need to say this: Adrian Lee is a phenomenal tattoo artist.  He also paints, but for the time being, let’s just stick to his tattoo work – which is just like…it’s like…oh man, I don’t even think that any explanation or definition of Lee’s tattoos can do the work justice.  It just is what it is – and what it is knocks you directly on to your ass the second that you see it.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, I was talking about tattoo artists and other, more conventional artists.  Well, when Adrian Lee talks about understanding tattoo as its own medium first and foremost, I have to say that I am going to listen.

“You really have to start over again, you have to learn to draw completely again, you have to really humble yourself, which is really hard to do; but if you don’t, you’ll never cross the mediums.”     – Adrian Lee

Lee really seems to understand the skills that are inherent to being a great tattoo artist.  He’s humble enough to learn these skills and hone them despite growing up in a very artistic family.  His mother is an artist and his father is a musician, which meant that Adrian had a head start in so many ways in terms of being exposed to originality and the ongoing desire to create.  Yet rather than assume that tattooing is simply part of the greater sphere of artistic endeavour, Adrian Lee took the time to understand tattooing for what it truly is and to appreciate it in its own right.  And that, I can now see is so vital to being a great tattoo artist, much more so than simply being accepted as an artist by the entire artistic community.

In 1995 Adrian Lee opened NewSkool Tattoo Collective, along with his close friend Paco Excel, in San Jose California.  NewSkool Tattoo Collective is home to some of the greatest tattoo artists in the world, in my opinion – including Adrian, of course.  Have a look at Adrian’s work and believe me, you’ll be blown away.  My only complaint about Adrian Lee’s work is that there isn’t more of it on the NewSkool website.  Then again, I guess every great artists knows that you always leave ’em wanting more.

Summer is of course, one of the best times for tattoos.  People are showing more skin so there’s more opportunity to check out other people’s art and there’s just something about hot weather that makes people want to get a new tattoo.  But while all the real tattooing is going on for us adults, we often forget about the little people out there who love showing off their tattoos in the summer as well – even if these tattoos are not of the permanent variety.

Yes, I’m talking about temporary tattoos again.  Granted, temporary tattoos are nowhere near as interesting as real tattoos.  Sure thing, there’s no argument there at all.  However, I figured that surely there are tattooed people out there with children and that this piece of news could be of some use to them.

Now then, I don’t know about you, but I can appreciate a decent SpongeBob SquarePants temporary tattoo, especially if that temporary tattoo happens to glow in the dark.  For their part, kids love it as well.  But if you’re a parent of a child who wants to cover his or her body with SpongeBob glow in the dark temporary tattoos, then you’d better take a look at this post over at Montana With Kids.

According to the blog, a mother let her two young boys spend their money on SpongeBob SquarePants glow in the dark temporary tattoos.  The boys wore the tattoos for a couple of days, but when the time came to remove them, nasty hives and rashes were left behind in the shape of SpongeBob.  Thankfully the kids didn’t require any medical treatment other than an over the counter cortisone cream and anti-histamines, but damn – even that shouldn’t be necessary when all these guys were doing was wearing a tattoo of one of their favourite cartoon characters.  We’ve seen a far more uncomfortable and serious burning into flesh from black henna, but black henna isn’t something that kids have as much easy access to as temporary tattoos.

So if you’re a parent, you might want to be a little more cautious this summer about the temporary tattoos that your kids stick on to their bodies.  You never know what’s in those things.

Who says that tattoos can only be done on skin?  Certainly not Steed Taylor.  The New York based artist holds a firm belief in the ability to alter the definition of what exactly “skin” is.  Steed sees roads as the skin of the cities in which we inhabit.  That’s right, roads – as in the ones you travel down every day.

“If roads are considered the skin of a community, then a road is to the public body what skin is to the private body. If people mark their skin as a means of commemoration, communication or ritual; then a road can be marked for the same reasons.”      – Steed Taylor

How does one go about tattooing a road?  Well, with paint of course.  In fact the entire procedure borrows much from the idea of graffiti, which is fitting as many tattoo artists were once graffiti artists or continue to paint graffiti in addition to their tattoo work.  Taylor has tattooed roads in New York City, North Carolina, Arizona and Beijing, China.  His most recent work will take place this weekend, July 24th-25 on the 800 block of Vermont Avenue N.W. (between H and I streets) bordering Lafayette Park and McPherson Square in Washington, D.C.  The design, a 60-foot-wide, 300-foot-long Celtic knot, will represent community interdependence.

I myself really didn’t think that tattooing could go in any other direction than being what it currently is: a method by which to permanently etch art on to flesh.  I guess I was wrong though, because Taylor’s concept for tattooing roads really appeals to me.  Imagine a city where the roads were as covered with art as are the tattoo sleeves seen on people.  What a very cool look that would be for any city.

If you live in the D.C. area and you’re interested in helping out this weekend with Taylor’s street tattoo, you can get more information on the entire thing by emailing info@galleryplanb.com or steed@steedtaylor.com.