Route 66 is an American legacy.  One of America’s very first highways, it inspired everything from songs to memorabilia to a spot in the 2006 Pixar animated film, Cars.  The highway covers a total distance of 2,451 miles or 3,045 kilometers.  Although the route was officially removed from the United States highway system on June 27th, 1985, it still retains a historical significance in American culture and portions of it have been declared Historic Route 66.

So as you can see, with all this history behind the highway, there is no way that people are going to forget about it.  Car enthusiast Ron Jones, however, is one such person who certainly couldn’t forget about Route 66 even if he tried (not that he would ever want to, of course).  Ron loves cars and he loves Route 66.  Since 2000, Ron has been collecting tattoos of some of the pitstops, cities and landmarks that dot the famous route.  Now, 10 years later, Ron has managed to cover himself in no less than 82 different Route 66 themed tattoos.

Ron travels to various car shows in his customized red, white and blue 1956 Chevy, showing off both his car and his tattoos.  Although he’s received some negative opinions of his tattoos as well as his passion for them, there is still plenty of positive attention and appreciation for this 61-year-old’s passion for ink.

“A lot of guys have tattoos of devils and skulls and some things satanic, but that just wasn’t me.”

Though Ron says that he’s running out of space on his body for more tattoos, I’m personally wondering what kind of tattoo he has planned to coincide with his 66th birthday when it comes.  I’m guessing that it’s going to have something to do with a certain route, but that’s just a hunch.

Lately I’ve been pretty busy and I haven’t really had time to think much about the new year.  In case you’re reading this and you didn’t know: it is in fact, a new year.  Yes, that’s right, it’s no longer 2009.  It is now 2010.  I’ve never personally been the sort of person who gets all excited about a new year, but the fact of the matter is that a new year is like a clean slate, you can start all over fresh and new and try to do the things that you some how failed to do last year.

When I sat down and started thinking about all the things that I want to accomplish this year, I realized something: the new year is the absolute best time to get a new tattoo.  The idea of getting a tattoo that represents a goal that you want to achieve this year or in the near future or maybe a tattoo that reminds you of something that you’ve been through in the past year – these are all perfect ways to either stick fast to your goals or hold past memories closer than ever.  I was reading this article and although the article itself doesn’t say much of anything new, this part in particular made me nod my head in agreement:

For Soumya, tattoos are far more effective than New Year resolutions: “A new year is a time for resolutions and reflection. A tattoo can help remind a person of something he or she wants for a lifetime. So your reflections will remain with you not just for a day in the coming year, but beyond.”

Sure, it’s hardly a new concept to get a tattoo to kick off the new year, but it is a concept that somehow just seems right.  Every year people make resolutions knowing full well that they won’t stick to them.  Maybe it’s time to get your resolutions or reminders of your resolutions stuck on you?

The major players in the fashion world have always had a way of taking the trendy and transforming it into part of their designs, lines, whatever you want to call them.  If you’re too young to remember grunge, then head over to wikipedia and look it up.  However, for those of you who do remember grunge, you might also remember how several months after grunge really blew up with regards to the mainstream, grunge inspired wardrobes began making their way onto catwalks across Europe and the United States.  The end results were awful, a tired and bland offering of something that had been new and was subsequently suffocated by clueless corporate bandwagon jumping.

Well, give it some time and that infamous corporate bandwagon jumping will always come back to the current zeitgeist in hopes of continuing the tradition of overcharging the rich.  Yes, for the great price of just $75 US, the wannabe tattooed can forgo actually stepping into a tattoo studio of any sort and instead get a package of fifty-five different Chanel designed temporary tattoos.  Seventy-five bucks for some temporary tattoos: wow!

I think the most surprising thing about all this is that it took them so long to jump aboard.  Oh well.  The tattoos will become available online as of March 1st,  just in time for spring.  What better time to be a total poser/human billboard than spring?  Yahoo!

Here we go again.  Every now and then (and more often than I’d like to admit) the Tattoo Blog has news of some idiot somewhere improperly or illegally tattooing others.  Well, it’s officially a new year and I guess that means that it’s time for another such case.

Patty “Jo Jo” Marsh and Jacob Edward Bartels of Summerville, Georgia were arrested on December 28th after tattooing their six children, aged from 10 to 17.  Last Friday the couple were bonded out of jail on $10,000 property bonds.

The tattoo in question was a small black cross between the thumb and index finger of each child’s hand.  One child was also tattooed with the words “Mama and Dad”.  For their part, Patty “Jo Jo” Marsh and Jacob Edward Bartels simply can’t figure out what they’ve done wrong.

“‘I’m their mother. Shouldn’t I be able to decide if they get one?,” Marsh said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after being released from jail on bail.

“They weren’t hurt by them,” Marsh said to the paper.

“We would never do anything to hurt them….I don’t understand why this is getting ‘blowed up’ so big.”‘

Yes, it’s very difficult to figure out just why this is getting so “blowed up”, isn’t?  I mean, aside from it being illegal in the state of Georgia to tattoo anyone under the age of 18.  It might also have something to do with the fact that neither Patty “Jo Jo” Marsh nor Jacob Edward Bartels are licensed or trained tattoo artists.  How do I know that?  Well, considering that they tattooed their children with a plastic pen tube and a guitar string, I’d say it’s obvious.  In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and venture to guess that neither Patty “Jo Jo” Marsh nor Jacob Edward Bartels are licensed or trained at anything, period.  I’d also venture to guess that if you’re a parent and can’t understand why things are getting so “blowed up” after you illegally tattooed your children with crap equipment and zero ability, then it’s probably best that you aren’t permitted the responsibility of raising children in the first place.

Uncle Allan is awesome.  Seriously awesome.  I’m not biased, either.  Sure, I actually do have an uncle named Allan, but he isn’t a wicked tattoo artist like this one.  Still, my uncle Allan is a pretty cool guy.  But I digress.

Uncle Allan does the majority of his tattoo work from Conspiracy Inc. Tattoo in Copenhagen, Denmark.  He’s a 31-year-old artist who is full of life, travelling regularly and pulling off some of the finest tattoo work that anyone could ask for.  At the moment however, Uncle A is no longer taking bookings because he’s just so damn busy.

Besides his tattoo work, Uncle Allan does a lot of travelling about the world and while he’s travelling, he takes photos.  His photos of different spots and objects around the world are great, thanks in no small part to his artist’s eye.

He keeps both a lively blog and a MySpace page with more information about himself and his busy life than I could ever tell you.

Uncle Allan’s work uses lots of colour and vibrancy, even when he seems to be tattooing the most dark and evil looking images.  Still, his use of colour in no way diminishes the impact of his art and I’m sure that anyone who is lucky enough to sport an Uncle Allan tattoo will tell (and show you) the exact same thing.

I want to go to Denmark.

Growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mario Desa claims that in his early years he hadn’t thought much about being anything more than a gang banger.  Thankfully, Mario eventually found punk rock, skateboarding and graffiti – three staples that greatly aided in his transformation to becoming a tattoo artist.  In fact, from the early age of 13 Desa was interested in getting his own tattoos done.

Desa has been tattooing professionally since 1997.  In his early, formative years, Desa says that graffiti played a relatively large influence on his tattoo style.  These days however, graffiti tattoos don’t interest him, although he does admit to trying to bring a little of the graffiti style back into his tattoo work, in terms of colour combinations and blends.  What does interest him more now, seems to come from outside of tattooing:

“Now, more so, I look outside of tattooing, like Henry Darger, Fred Stonehouse, Mexican art. It doesn’t really show up in the tattoos, but there’s a hint. Mentally, I am thinking about some of their stuff, and trying to bring back some of my graffiti influence; as far as color combinations and blends, but not necessarily graffiti. I don’t really like doing graffiti tattoos.”

From a stylistic point, Desa’s favourite work is American Traditional, however, as with all great tattoo artists, he can pretty much pull everything off.  Portrait work is the only tattoo form that he will refuse to do, as he believes that anyone seeking out a portrait tattoo should go to a portrait tattoo specialist.  Makes perfect sense to me: an artist that is aware of their boundaries is in my books, a wise one.

Mario can be found at The Chicago Tattooing and Piercing Co, in Chicago, illinois.  His hours are as follows:

Tuesday, 4pm-midnight
Wednesday, 4pm-midnight
Thursday, noon-6pm
Friday, 4pm-midnight
Saturday, noon-6pm

Lastly, you can check out his tattoo work, artwork and prints by visiting his website, Permanent Luxury.

Scott Sylvia started working in a tattoo shop as a teenager, after his good friend Aaron Cain got him a job.  Aaron showed some of Scott’s drawings to the owner of the tattoo studio where he worked and that was that.  From then on, Scott Sylvia has worked his ass off, following his own personal mantra of “work fucking hard at everything you do and stay inspired.”  I can’t think of much better advice for anyone, anywhere.  That just sums it all up.

After much hard work and planning, Sylvia opened up his first tattoo shop, American Graffiti, with fellow tattoo artist and friend Eric Hogan.  Sylvia was in his early 20’s at the time and working like a madman when the offer to work for Marcus Pacheco at Primal Urge came along.  During this time, Scott worked on perfecting his own style while also gaining a new and fresh outlook on tattooing by being immersed in the creative environment in which he found himself in.

As of 2004, Sylvia works in San Francisco at Blackheart Tattoo, which he owns and runs with fellow artists Jeff Rassier and Tim Lehi.  Scott is apparently one of the innovators of the “American Power” style that is a modern play on the Classic American tattoo style.  The buoyant and deeply colourful pop that make up Sylvia’s work can be seen all over the American Power style, giving an otherwise classical look a completely lush and original beauty.  I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that fans of tattoos and tattoo artists alike have a lot to thank Scott Sylvia for.

Take a look at some of his stuff, here.

After searching unsuccessfully for quite some time online for even a little bit of information on tattoo artist Ben Corn, I came to this conclusion: Ben Corn seems to be a man of few words.  Which is okay, I guess, considering that he makes his living tattooing and not giving speeches about himself.  So while there may not be a lot of biographical information about Ben out there, there are a lot of photos of his work to be found, which is pretty much the most important thing.

Therefore, I’m not going to be able to tell you much about Ben Corn.  I don’t know what his favourite food is or if he has any pets or what music he likes to listen to.  I’m sorry if you’re upset by this news.  What I can tell you is that Ben Corn’s hometown is Norco, California, he’s 33-years-old, he works full time at Big Bear Tattoo in Big Bear Lake, California and he has been known to tattoo over at Mark Mahoney’s Shamrock Social Club in West Hollywood, California.  Oh yeah, he’s also a phenomenal tattoo artist.

Big is the first word that comes to mind when I look at Corn’s work. Everything feels larger than life – the sort of work I would expect to have seen on a viking or a pirate way back in the day.  Skulls, ships, huge black and grey scenes of chaos and beauty.  Corn’s work does it all with a smooth and detailed depth that explains why he doesn’t say much about himself – he’s too busy kicking ass with his monster works.

Go Ben, Go.

Let’s be fair: we all can’t agree on everything.  Style and taste are two very big points of contention and when it comes to things like tattoos, there are so many different opinions over what is cool and what isn’t that it’s pretty much pointless to argue about it. 

However, a pub in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is taking strict measure to ensure that its definition of good taste and style remains intact amongst its patrons.  David Frazier, manager of The Pint pub dislikes tattoo inspired clothing like Ed Hardy so much that he has added it to the list of items banned by the pub’s dress code.

““It’s associated with douchebags,” [says] David Frazier… According to Frazier, the aesthetic has been linked to bar fights. “Weekend millionaires? Those aren’t the types we want in here.”

And it’s not just Ed Hardy that makes the No-Go list, either.  Gang colours and blingy jewelry are also out.  Sure, gang colours makes sense and blingy jewelry isn’t my cup of tea either.  To be honest, I hate Ed Hardy clothing, too.  I think it’s tacky as hell.  But while I agree with Frazier that Ed Hardy clothing is often associated with douchebags, one can’t help but wonder why Ed Hardy wearing douchebags and “weekend millionaires” are seemingly so attracted to hanging out at Frazier’s pub in the first place.  Are they playing excessive amounts of Nickleback there, perhaps?  That would do it.

Anyway, this article doesn’t really elaborate on what sort of pub The Pint is, but if the remainder of the article has anything in common with the pub, I would guess that it’s the sort of place where tattooed folks go and drink.  If that is the case – and this is purely speculation, of course – then I think it’s sort of hypocritical of tattooed people to reject and judge others based solely on their appearance.  Am I sticking up for Ed Hardy wearing douchebags?  Well…kinda.  I mean, god knows I’ve been on here griping about places that restrict people with tattoos from entering many, many times before.  It would be silly of me to not apply that same standard to anyone else.

I guess the bottom line is that David Frazier can run whatever kind of pub that he wants to and it’s perfectly within his rights to dislike Ed Hardy just as much as the next guy.  But if you have any tattoos on your body, Mr. Frazier, let me just say that I think it’s not such a good thing to be so judgemental.  Maybe that guy who’s wearing Ed Hardy got it as a gift and he doesn’t really like it, but he’s just trying to be polite to the gift giver.

Then again…probably not.