Thom deVita Appearance and Pop-Up Gallery at Kings Ave Tattoo
In honor of Tattoo Age’s Thom deVita episode, VICE is holding an art show and sale at Mike Rubendall’s Kings Ave Tattoo shop in NYC from January 11th-13th. Thom’s one of a kind creative rubbings from tattoo stencils, art boxes, signed books, and more will be available for purchase. The legendary artist himself will also be present to talk about his art and Scott Harrison will be tattooing Saturday and Sunday… (more…)
Carl Zimmer: Science Tattoo Emporium (A Fossil Emblem)
Carl Zimmer is a blogger and writer for both The New York Times and Discover Magazine, which also hosts his blog, The Loom. Zimmer writes on a wide range of scientific topics. He is the author of 12 books, the most recent of which is Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. When Zimmer asked on his blog how many scientists out there had tattoos, he was inundated with photo submissions and commentary, which he has collected into the neat book you can see and order below. It’s our pleasure to share some of them… (more…)
Myke Chambers: Westward Expansion
By Myke Chambers
If you’re familiar with 19th century American history then you should know a little about the westward expansion of the Euro-American and the ensuing American Indian wars leading to the near extinction of all Native American culture.
Now I’m not going to go into all the horrific atrocities committed by the Euro-American against the American Indians, all the countless promises broken and massacres of women and children. Please understand I’m in no way saying the mass genocide and all the horrors done to the Native American in the past and in the present in any way compares. That wasn’t the purpose of this at all. I myself am part Cherokee. What is happening with tattooing is obviously nowhere near as horrific as what happened to the native tribes. No, I have another purpose for bringing this bit of history up. You may be asking yourself where the hell is he going with this and what the hell does American history have to do with tattooing… Bear with me, and while you do look for history repeating itself… though not on such a horrific scale… (more…)
Paul Booth’s Last Rites Gallery Presents: Sarah Joncas (VIDEO)
Last Rites Gallery’s NEW Video Interview Series brings you into the conversation with the best artists of dark surrealism…
Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Update: New Pop-Up Gallery Location
Statement from Henk Schiffmacher:
Patience my friends, patience…
“Patience? If I wanted any patience I would have become a fucking doctor” my old friend, Vancouver’s most notorious tattoo friend, used to say.
But nevertheless, hang in there: we are on our way. We negotiate, send letters, get mails, threats, fooled and cheated and the only reason why we keep going is to see what the heck is next. First of all, the fight is not over. The divorce, in fact… (more…)
In Japan, Tattoos Are Not Just For Yakuza Anymore
By Nathalie-Kyoko and Jake Adelstein (Original story appears on the Japanese Subculture Research Center’s (JSRC) website.)
Tattoos are as Japanese as sushi, samurai and yakuza but in recent years with the crackdown on organized crime (the yakuza), tattoos have become increasingly socially unacceptable while many younger Japanese and people living abroad have embraced tattoos as a fashion item. In December last year, the government of Saitama Prefecture submitted a bill to revise local ordinances to prohibit tattoos under the age of 18. A fine of up to 500,000 yen will be levied on the violators of the law. If a space is provided to tattoo on young people under 18, there is a fine of up to 300,000 yen for the tattoo parlor owners. If the law is passed it will go into effect February 1st, 2013. Japan has waged many fruitless wars in the past and the latest war is a war on tattoos. Kicking it off was the mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, the son of a yakuza boss, who as most yakuza are, was probably heavily tattooed… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Building a Solid Portfolio
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: Your portfolio is your most important tool. Why? Because it gets you the JOB. Your portfolio is what sells your skills… (more…)
Victor Farinelli: Ink Master Review (Finale)
By Victor Farinelli Well, the end is finally here. In the two-episode finale of this season of Ink Master, I have been left wondering the meaning of life. Well no, not really, but it has a good ring to it. Our contestants are finally whittled down to the last four. In the first of the two episodes, the contestants did not have to do a flash challenge. It was straight to the elimination challenge. They had to demonstrate all the different aspects of tattooing to see who gets to go to the live finale… (more…)
Carl Zimmer: Science Tattoo Emporium (The Jokes Physicists Tell About Chemists)
Carl Zimmer is a blogger and writer for both The New York Times and Discover Magazine, which also hosts his blog, The Loom. Zimmer writes on a wide range of scientific topics. He is the author of 12 books, the most recent of which is Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. When Zimmer asked on his blog how many scientists out there had tattoos, he was inundated with photo submissions and commentary, which he has collected into the neat book you can see and order below. It’s our pleasure to share some of them… (more…)
Vice: Tattoo Age Thom deVita Episode V (VIDEO)
In the final part of Thom deVita’s Tattoo Age series we have to cover a lot of ground. So please sit back and prepare to go from the days before tattoo artists wore gloves while working to Thom’s current life as an artist. Enjoy. [More info on expanded page]
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Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Update
Statement from Henk Schiffmacher:
What’s up at this very moment? We still have no access to the collection. There are no artists working in the museum, and the shop is declared a no-go area for the tattoo world. A small group of big shots out of the real museum world and university are negotiating the release of the collection. But the schizo character of the opposite side makes it difficult. We have good hope and are already looking for a new location. Soon we will open up a temporary location for our merchandise and office somewhere in town. Meanwhile, your support is much appreciated and needed. Stay away the fuck away from the museum! It’s not ours anymore, it’s now in the hands of un-tattooed people!
Thanks to everybody who has been incredible generous and has been donating to our funds!
Henk Schiffmacher and crew…
Victor Farinelli: Ink Master Review (Episode 11)
By Victor Farinelli It is getting down to the wire. Just a few more episodes to go until one of the contestants gets a $100,000 paycheck they have to pay taxes on and a feature in Inked Magazine. “Inked.” I hate that term. It is just as bad as “human canvases.” Hey man, I am going to go down to the tat shop and get inked! YOLO! Then, I am going to go watch The Hobbit! FRODO! (more…)
Vice: Tattoo Age Thom deVita Episode IV (VIDEO)
In the new episode of the Thom deVita Tattoo Age series we explore the neighborhood in which Thom live and worked, the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We also go into the types of tattoos Thom did, and what it took to talk someone into getting tattoos that were a little out of the norm. [More info on expanded page] (more…)
Victor Farinelli: Ink Master Review (Episode 10)
By Victor Farinelli
Just when I start to think that some of these cats are humble and are willing to learn, then they go say some arrogant stupid shit. The show starts off with Jesse fucking saying, “You know what coasting is? That is what I did for the Japanese challenge… I would rather lose for doing me than win for not doing me.” Then why the fuck did he want to be on the show? It’s not some fucking highfalutin serious goddamn art exposition. It is a fucking game show. Period. End of fucking explanation. I will take “Douche Bags” for $200 please, Alex. At the end of the season the winner gets a paycheck they have to pay taxes on. If you got into this for any other reason than the money, and being on TV, you are fucking fooling yourself. You do what you have to do to play the game because at the end of the day, that’s all this is… a game. If it was not on Spike, it would be on the Game Show Network… (more…)
Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Winning Battle to Regain Access to Collection and Facility
(Courtesy of The Board of the Foundation Amsterdam Tattoo Museum)
Dear Friends,
As you all know, the museum was struggling to survive. During the last weeks lots and lots of people from all over the world expressed their support. Many people, shops and companies even showed their strong commitment by giving a financial contribution to push the museum through these difficult times. The response was heartwarming! We incredibly appreciated the many thousands of messages on Instagram, Facebook, etc.
At this time, we are proud to inform you that we (partly due to the continuous pressure from the tattoo world) are in process of reaching an agreement with our business partner Partners aan het werk. We expect the contract for a three year partnership to be signed early next week… (more…)
Vice: Tattoo Age Thom deVita Episode III (VIDEO)
In part three of Thom deVIta’s epic Tattoo Age series, we take look at his personal history and how he came into tattooing. We also hear from tattoo legend Angelo Scotto on the history of tattooing in New York City… [More info on expanded page] (more…)
Victor Farinelli: Ink Master Review (Episode 9)
By Victor Farinelli
This week’s episode opens with Sarah bitching about the judges not giving her a good honest critic. I call bullshit. The judges have actually done a pretty good job of telling this motley crew what they did wrong and what they need to improve on. I have been in a lot of shops in my years and have observed a lot of apprentices on their road to Tattooville, and I have seen some who have been torn new assholes for the tattoos they have attempted to do… (more…)
Depot Town Tattoo: Toys for Tats 2012 (VIDEO)
By Dawn Cooke This event is about donating a toy to a child in need. Every year around Christmas Depot Town Tattoo holds a toy drive. Front Street Tattoo, Mike Emmets shop in Traverse City, Michigan does the event also every year. Clients bring in a toy valued over $15 bucks and get a tattoo valued at least 50. We usually do 100-120 tattoos that day. We do this as a way to give back to the community. The toys go to Carrot Way Community Center for low income families who are struggling to get on their feet. They also go to Methodist Children’s Orphanage to kids who don’t have parents and kids who live in foster care… (more…)
Dan Henk: What’s Wrong With the Whole ‘Tattoo Artist’ vs. ‘Tattooer’ Crap
By Dan Henk
People love clichés. They love to pick apart their coworkers and neighbors. One of the many, many little schools of dissension in tattooing tends to be the “tattoo artist” versus the “tattooer” label.
Some circles, especially those who focus on old-school, have decided that “tattoo artist” is a pejorative. There is a whole list of complaints I’ve heard regarding anything that doesn’t look like a traditional tattoo. Everything from ”that won’t hold up over time,” to “that doesn’t look like a tattoo” to “anyone who wants to be called a tattoo artist is a pretentious hipster, this is a noble working class profession like pipe fitting or blacksmithing…” (more…)
Vice: Tattoo Age Thom deVita Episode II (VIDEO)
In the second part of the Thom deVita Tattoo Age series we focus on the touching and often hilarious relationship he has with Nick Bubash. Thom and Nick met in the early 1970s and soon after Thom started to tattoo Nick, he also started to teach him how to tattoo. Over the past 40 years their relationship has gone way beyond tattooing, or even art for that matter, but they still continue to create together… [More info on expanded page] (more…)
Victor Farinelli: Ink Master Review (Episode 8)
By Victor Farinelli
Ink Master is a train wreck and Sarah Miller is the engineer. As I said in my last post, she needs serious mood stabilizing medication. She is a shitstorm of manic depression. This episode is not different.
This episode was the black and gray challenge, and the special guest judge was Mr. Freddy Negrete. The twist this time around was that they had to work in teams. For the flash challenge, the contestants had to create an image on scratchboard. Since Tatu Baby was the winner of last week’s elimination challenge, she got to pick the teams for this flash challenge. She stuck Sarah with Mark “I got one foot out the door” Matthews. The other teams were Clint Cummings with Jamie Davis, Steve Tefft with Sebastian Murphy, and Tatu Baby with Jesse Smith… (more…)
TAM EXCLUSIVE: Henk Schiffmacher Talks About Amsterdam Tattoo Museum Crisis (VIDEO)
What happened at the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum? Explained by Henk Schiffmacher from Amsterdam Tattoo Museum on Vimeo.
Official Statement from the Amsterdam Tattoo Museum:
Dear comrades!
First of all we are overwhelmed by the support we’re receiving from all over the world! We can’t thank you enough. Here’s a little history about the museum. What happened, and how come it is like it is now…
Henk’s been collecting tattoo related stuff for over 35 years, he knows a lot about the history and is very passionate about the legacy. Especially nowadays, when about everyone can buy a tattoo machine from the Internet and start tattooing without knowing shit… (more…)
Tattoo Artist Magazine Christmas Super Sale 25% Off Special!
Hi there,
Don’t miss out on our end of the year Christmas Sale. Order now and enter the code XMAS2012 at check out and save 25% on all Christmas Sale TAM products.
Click here to enter Pro Store: www.tattooartistmagazine.myshopify.com
Don’t miss out! Order now! (more…)
Dutch News Article on the Struggle Over The Amsterdam Tattoo Museum
Henk Schiffmacher May Own Tattoo Museum No Longer
(Original story from De Stentor) [Editor's Note: This story originally appears in Dutch and is loosely translated into English via Google Translate.]
Amsterdam, Nov. 22nd, 2012 – By a high sustained financial conflict Henk Schiffmacher access to its own Amsterdam Tattoo Museum denied. It has famous Dutch tattoo artist and artist Thursday… (more…)
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