The ability that tattoos have to be everything to everyone is quite simply enough, uncanny.  It’s such a malleable art form and it works on so many levels that I honestly can’t think of anything quite like it.  I know that I don’t need to sit here and list all the different forms we’ve seen tattoos take and all the different reasons that they’ve taken those forms.  But I do feel it’s at least somewhat relevant to say that despite all these different levels on which tattoos function, they aren’t always welcome by everyone.  By that I mean while some might feel it’s completely appropriate to take up advertising for various companies and corporations through tattoos on their bodies, others might call that whoring out an artform.  Hey, I’m not saying that’s what I believe necessarily, I’m just sayin’, that’s all.

Anyway, it’s funny that I would use the term “whoring” because this post is oddly enough, about Lady Gaga.  I’m not really familiar with Lady Gaga other than one late night after I had missed a flight and I was stuck in a hotel room.  I turned on the TV, and there she was, singing that utterly terrible Poker Face song.  If you don’t know who Lady Gaga is, then I would say consider yourself lucky.  But no matter what anyone says about Lady Gaga, she knows how to do one thing very well and that one thing is market herself.  She thrives off controversy and outlandish behavior.  So I guess it makes sense that with the run up to the release of her third album, Lady G is planning to have the name of the album tattooed on her body.  Photos of the tattoo will be publicized and used to advertise for the album.

Nothing new in way, of course.  Many musicians have had their band’s name or the release date of their first album or even the name of the album itself tattooed on to their flesh.  I guess the one way in which Lady Gaga differs from all the others is that she is actually using this strictly as a marketing scheme.  What do you think?  Is it taking things too far?  Or is it completely irrelevant what anyone wants to tattoo on their body at any time, for any reason?

I’ll leave you with this while you contemplate your answer…

A bit of a heads up here for anyone who has been tattooed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada within the last four years.  As of June 18th, a public notice has been put out by the Hamilton Public Health Department regarding two unlicensed tattoo artists: Stephen Baxter, tattooing from a home at 181 Jackson St. West (or perhaps even from an alternate address) and someone who simply goes by J.R.

No news in this article pertains to what exactly Baxter had been doing (aside from tattooing illegally), but this J.R. sleazeball apparently hasn’t been sterilizing his equipment for 4 years.  That is absolutely disgusting, not to mention completely reprehensible.  I just wanted to help get the word out there, so if you or anyone you know of has been tattooed by either of these guys, then you need to get yourself down to a medical clinic and get some blood tests done.

Man…I don’t know who to blame over stuff like this.  I mean, yeah, first off you have to blame the artists.  Actually, fuck that, I’m not even going to call these guys artists.  Artist is a word that should only be applied to people who care about their art-form and their clients.  Not bothering to get licensed or to sterilize your equipment is nothing but total disrespect for everything that being a tattoo artist entails.  These dudes are scratchers, plain and simple.  Anyway, blame has to fall on them first and foremost and then it has to fall on the health department for not picking up on this sooner.

I guess my biggest question is this: should tattoo artists be allowed to run studios out of private homes?  I’m sure that there are many responsible and professional tattoo artists working out of private homes.  The problem is that it just seems to me like it’s more difficult to maintain any sort of health regulations on these types of operations.  If tattooing from a private residence were illegal, then wouldn’t it make it much easier to see who was breaking the law?  I mean, it would automatically cut down on the guess-work if tattoo studios were only permitted in public, commercial areas.  Anything beyond that and the health officials would know what’s up.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just naive.  But I do know one thing: something needs to change – and fast.

Meeting Diau-An was a bit of a convoluted experience. I was getting tattooed by another fellow, his work was impressive but his work ethic was not. After having half of my leg done, my wife was considering starting a sleeve. The artist broke numerous appointments and in the end she had had enough. We walked down the street into the next shop we found. Low and behold it was the shop of one of the best artists in Taiwan, Diau-An. We fostered a relationship over many hours of tattooing. I have both of my arms and entire left leg done by him and my wife has two ¾ sleeves as well. Needless to say we spent many an hour together. Even though the communication wasn’t perfect, we managed. Once I had decided that tattooing was what I wanted to do, I ended up spending some time in his shop, observing and drawing. An apprenticeship was there to be had but we had already made plans to move back to Canada and those plans were already in motion. I’d say that what inspired me most was how Diau-An embodied tattooing. He carried himself with a lot of dignity in all aspects of his life, he wanted to educate other artists throughout his country. After thirty years of tattooing I could tell that this man still loved what he was doing. He wasn’t set in his ways and was still learning each and every day. I’ve never had the opportunity to observe another artist quite like him.

I’m pretty sheltered from the tattoo scene. I know a number of other artists, but wouldn’t say that I participate in a community. I probably should get out more, but certain personality traits tend to carry themselves into all aspects of your life. I grew up in the middle of nowhere; time alone means a lot to me. Tattooing is an intense social experience and at the end of each day I’m pretty mentally exhausted. Time at home drawing usually takes precedent over getting out and socializing. In the end I can’t really give an opinion on the tattoo scene here. Almost every artist I’ve met has been receptive and open, there are a lot of genuinely good people tattooing.

In the end the push for betterment comes down to me. I could always settle for “good enough” but I’ll draw and redraw even after my client is happy with the design. I’m not looking for approval from some outside source, we should be our own worst critics and if we aren’t, then we’ve become complacent and are simply going through the motions. As for inspiration, it can come from a lot of different aspects in life … travel is always great, shattering your ideas of what is “normal” is always a growing experience. Artwork in all mediums can be inspirational, across cultures and time periods. Of course seeing other tattoos and other tattoo artists, that’s an amazing source of inspiration as there are so many great artists out there.

As seen in previous answers I have to pay homage to master Diau-An of Tawian.  Also, I’ve always loved Filip Leu, all that he has done and continues to do in the realm of tattooing.  Ed Hardy, Bob Shaw, Sailor Jerry, and Horiyoshi III, the past continues into the present.  Dana Helmuth, Scott Sylvia, Jeff Gogue, and Shige … all are amazing.

My initial passion for tattooing was all leaning towards the Japanese tattoo. The layout and flow of large scale Japanese pieces will always hold a special place in my heart. Having said that, I’ve come to appreciate the traditional American style as well. One point, single sitting, bold and simple pieces are a lot of fun to do. So, to summarize, I love large scale Japanese work or single sitting American traditional. That’s not to say that I don’t find enjoyment in most every other tattoo I do as well.

At this point I couldn’t say one way or another. Vancouver is a great place and your average tattoo customer seems quite educated in what they want. Also, my wife and I have discovered mountain biking so leaving the North Shore would be quite difficult. When you look back ten years ago I’m sure you couldn’t have envisioned where life has taken you so who knows where we’ll be in another ten. Perhaps here, perhaps not.

I get to create art on a daily basis and I get to make people happy. It’s a rewarding job and for the most part it’s hard to call it a job. There’s always room to grow and learn, there is no ceiling to what you might accomplish in tattooing. There aren’t many things that I hate about tattooing, once in a while I dislike the fact that my entire life tends to be overwhelmed by tattooing and the hours that I’m in the shop are equaled by the hours I’m working on drawings at home. That’s when I need to step back and find that balance, it would be a short career if there wasn’t some down time here and there.

Before getting into tattooing I tossed around a few other ideas. I was teaching English in Taiwan and had a few years to ponder the next move. I though about continuing on and getting my M.F.A. and then perhaps teaching art at a University level, when I thought about how flaky art school tended to be I ended up changing my mind. Industrial Design also caught my eye but in the end it seems that I always knew (or hoped) that tattooing was what I’d end up doing. And here I am.

Tell us about Tattoo Union!

Three years is a long time to wait for anything, especially if that anything happens to be part of your livelihood.  After being told that they could not open a tattoo shop in a Tempe, Arizona strip mall and being denied the necessary permit to do so back in 2007, Tom and Elizabeth Preston decided to fight the Tempe City Council in court.

The first lawyer that the couple hired told the Preston’s that the case couldn’t be won, that it would cost too much to fight the City Council and not to bother trying.  Fortunately for the Preston’s, they didn’t listen to such advice and instead joined forces with Goldwater Institute attorney Clint Bolick.  Not only did Bolick win the case, but he will be among the first people to be tattooed when the Preston’s Body Accents Tattoo and Piercing Studio has its grand opening.  Bolick plans on getting a small scorpion tattooed on his index finger – the finger he uses to type his legal briefs.  According to Bolick, it will be his first and last tattoo.

‘”This is the ultimate David-versus-Goliath story,” Bolick said. “The city of Tempe acted in a . . . heavy-handed manner to keep a legitimate business out of a strip mall that has lots of vacancies. When the Prestons move in, it will be a signal that the little guy has rights, too.”

Preston considers the settlement an opportunity to show Tempe neighbors who fought his permit that the tattoo industry is an upstanding trade.

“This shows you can’t just shut down a business because you don’t like it. We want to show people what we’ve already done in Mesa, that our studio is a place where police officers and working people come for tattoos because it’s safe,” he said. “All kinds of people have tattoos; we’re not going to bring any (negative) effects to the neighborhood.”

The Prestons own Virtual Reality Tattoos in Mesa.”

Way to persist with something that you truly believe in, Tom and Elizabeth.  I wish you all the best with your new studio.

Wow.  Sometimes great things happen in the tattoo world, sometimes not so great things.  I guess what follows could land in both categories, although it’s a bit of a stretch to say that much about this is “great”.  This past Tuesday evening, three armed suspects attempted to rob Atlanta’s West End Tattoo.  The shop owner (whose name doesn’t seem to have been released to the media – and for good reason, I suppose), managed to get his hands on his own 9mm handgun.  A gutsy move on the owner’s part, no doubt, which ended in the owner shooting and killing one of the robbers.  The other two robbers fled West End Tattoo shortly after the firefight began.

“It appears three suspects came into the West End Tattoo parlor and attempted to rob the owner and at some point, the owner managed to retrieve his own weapon,” Maj. Keith Meadows told WSB-TV. “It was at that point that the individuals exchanged gunfire.”

The owner, who had a 9mm handgun, fatally shot one suspect. “The other two armed suspects fled the business on foot and remain at large,” said Sgt. Curtis Davenport, a police spokesman.

It is possible, but not confirmed, that the owner wounded one of those two suspects, Davenport said.

I guess the reason that I say that this is both good and bad in a way, well the bad is pretty much obvious – I mean no one likes to see someone get killed, but the good or somewhat good is that the shop’s owner protected himself and his shop from criminals.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending the idea of shooting someone, but when it comes to either the good guys or the bad guys going down, I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I’m rooting for the good guys to come out okay.  Naturally this is no one’s ideal situation, but it could have ended up even worse than it did.  It’s especially strange for me when I see this type of story because this kind of thing just doesn’t happen where I’m from.  Yeah, there’s robberies, but you very rarely hear of the owner of a store fighting back in this manner.

As someone who spends a lot of time digging through the tattoo related news stories, I can say with some accuracy that the number of stories that I see in the news about tattoo shops being robbed are surprisingly high.  Hopefully an incident like this will serve to discourage further tattoo shop robberies.

What the hell is the deal with Six Flags in Arlington Texas?!

A few weeks back I posted about Samantha and Matt Osborn, a Texas couple who were refused entry into the Arlington amusement park because of Samantha’s tattoos.  At the time, security at the Arlington Six Flags park claimed that the six-shooter tattoos on Samantha’s chest were just as offensive as a swastika.

Well now Six Flags Arlington is back in the news again and yup, once again they’ve denied someone entrance into the park as a result of their tattoo.  Sam Torres was initially stopped by the Six Flags security because of a handcuff bracelet that he was wearing.  Why this caused a problem, I don’t know, but once they started in on that, they noticed a tattoo on Torres’ arm of a topless woman.

“We walk up to the front and I show them my season pass. They pull me to the side and say they’re going to have to talk to the manager,” [Torres] said.

But that’s not all.

“One of the female workers says, ‘What about his tattoo?’ and then he was like, ‘Oh yeah. That’s a pretty vulgar tattoo. You have to cover that up,’” Torres said.

A spokesperson for Six Flags said Torres was not allowed inside the park because the tattoo of a topless woman on his arm was inappropriate.”

Come on.  First of all, you can’t tell me that kids are quite frankly, going to give a crap about some guy’s bracelet or tattoo while they are in an amusement park.  I used to go to Disneyland a hell of a lot when I was a kid and I can tell you one thing: the Pope and Kanye West could have cruised by on a skateboard, sharing a banana split and thumb wrestling, and it wouldn’t have even remotely distracted me from the fact that I was at Disneyland. Amusement parks are heaven on earth for kids and no single tattoo or handcuff bracelet is going to change that.

Second of all, the dude had a season pass!  How are you going to throw out a guy who loves your amusement park enough to have bought a season pass?  That’s crazy!  The Six-Flags management is literally throwing away business.  How stupid can you get?

I can tell you one thing for sure, that’s it for me.  If I ever visit Texas, I won’t be stopping by Six Flags in Arlington.  Even if I have a serious hankering for a roller coaster.  Maybe if they start to learn how to respect their customers I’d go, but until then, no way.

Lately I’ve been busying myself with the World Cup, checking out all the games and trying not to let the noise of the vuvuzelas get on my nerves.  One thing that I’ve noticed since the tournament began is that a lot of pro soccer players are tattooed and I’ve seen more than a few good tattoos on these players as a result.  But beyond the hype of the World Cup and the hordes of visiting fans trying to survive the day to day in Johannesburg, something altogether different and dare I say completely retarded has just come out of South Africa.

I’m talking about what the media is billing as the world’s most expensive tattoo.  The “tattoo” in question has been created by South African jewelers Shimansky and it entails 612 precisely cut .5 carat diamonds, which were then placed on a model’s back in a little pattern thanks to a mild adhesive.  So the tattoo isn’t really a tattoo, it’s just a USD $924,000 temporary tattoo.

Nonetheless, Shimansky has officially created the world’s most expensive tattoo which I guess impresses people who give a shit about wasting lots of money on completely pointless things.  That’s so awesome.  Just when you think that the ultra-rich have reached the highest levels of complete and total callousness, they push the bar just a little bit higher.  Maybe the Shimansky model can show this beauty off around some African diamond mines.  You know, so that the workers can see the fruits of their slave labour.  I’m sure it’ll go over really big.

One can only hope.

I found Adam Barton’s website sort of by accident.  I was just doing my thing, looking around the internet for tattoo artists that I might be interested in checking out.  When I came across his site, I knew from the very first image in his portfolio that this was an artist worth paying attention to.  The more I continued to look through his portfolio, the more convinced I became that Adam Barton does some seriously outstanding work.

Without getting all verbose about Adam’s stuff, all I really need to say is that the second I saw his tattoo work, it grabbed me.  It’s bright, very clean and lean and it effortlessly manages to grab your attention.  If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself and see what you think.  The guy can tattoo.

What more can I tell you about Adam?  Well, he (understandably) doesn’t like to be personally contacted about scheduling or availability stuff – he prefers you contact the shop where he works with that: O’Reilly’s Tattoo in Santa Cruz, California.  And he likes to work on vintage cars.  A lot.  He’s also got a blog that gets updated now and then so that you can keep up with him and the stuff that he likes.

Check him out, he’ll throttle you with his sheer awesomeness.

Kids grow up so fast.  Or so I’ve been told.  As with all aspects of life that slip by all too quickly, there’s really nothing you can do about it.  Tattoos however, are always great in this respect because you can take moments or memories from a time that is quickly passing you by and immortalize it on your body.

Which is why it isn’t all that surprising but still cool nonetheless that Stu Allen, a 34-year-old father of three from Preston, Lancashire, England has been making something of a habit of getting his children’s drawings tattooed on to his body.

“I got bored of sticking them up on the fridge. They were getting knocked off and ripped. I thought what better way of preserving them than putting them on my skin.”

And hey, he’s right.  It’s a perfect way to maintain that link to a time when his kids were kids.  Anyone who’s ever said that tattoos are a bad idea because sooner or later you’ll regret what you’ve had tattooed certainly never considered this.  There’s just no way that any parent would regret having tattoos like these done.  I think it’s awesome.

I wish that the crummy news website that originally published this news blurb actually took the time to publish a couple photos of Allen’s tattoos along with the blurb.  I don’t know about you, but I want to see some tattoos.  All I can do is say that Stu, if you’re reading this and you want to show off your tattoos, send me some photos and I will post them on the blog.

Here’s a question for you: how many times have you or someone you know of been turned down for a job because of visible tattoos?  Truth be told, I don’t know anyone who has been outright refused a job because of their tattoos, but I do know plenty of people who have been told to either cover up their tattoos while at work or risk losing their job.

Well employment is one thing, but how many people do you know of who have been refused entrance to the military because of tattoos?  It’s always a complete mystery to me why anyone anywhere should be refused or have to cover up their tattoos when working or dealing with the public.  But the military?  Man, that’s extra bizarre.  What, are the Taliban going to totally be turned off from waging war when they spot some tattooed soldier across the battlefield?  It’s just mental.

Regardless of how stupid I may think it is, being prevented from enlisting in the military because of tattoos was a reality for Liam Midgley of Chesterfield, England.  The twenty-three-year-old had a tattoo of stars that ran from his neck, just passed the base of his ear.  Midgley’s dream in life has always been to enlist in the army and when he was refused, it was quite a blow.  Luckily for Midgley though, the tattoo was removed for free by a man named Barry Crake, who removes tattoos for free for people who are struggling to find work as a result of their tattoos.

“Wannabe Infantryman Liam explained: “I found him on the internet. I saw a few blogs from lads who’ve been to see him as well. He’s an absolute legend. Without him, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

He added: “After it’s removed, I’m going to go back into the recruitment office and get the ball rolling for me to get in.”‘

All’s well that ends well, I guess.  One would think that the military doesn’t really have too much room to be choosey when people are voluntarily signing up to risk their lives…

But, I guess they do.  And that’s just too bad.