Saturday, May 28, 2011

Let's be level-headed here...

There is a tendency amongst those in the tattoo industry who've convinced themselves that what they do is more important than it really is. Sometimes this is a conscious philosophy, often its not- more of a pervasive attitude thats been allowed to seep into their behavior.
These 'artists' think they're doing something life-altering, that what they do has some form of world-defining weight.

This line of thought and action leads to a smug arrogance, and elitism. It's epidemic. All of you who've walked into a studio full of artists who behave this way have felt that condescension, that sense of "what makes you think you're good enough to get a tattoo from us?"

You can practically hear their internal monologue- "Move aside mere drop of water, let the Ocean pass."

What is most amusing about this is that the vast majority of these people are all doing the same thing. ALL of them, it's the same old-same old.... "old-school-with-a-twist", yet somehow they're convinced that what they're doing is somehow new, unique, and NOT just completely self-congratulatory onanism.

They're all scamming their drawings from each other as voraciously as possible, but standing on a soap-box about how much better they are than studios (like PennyBlack) that exist for the people, as well as the art... As though giving clients exactly what they want is a bad thing, but cloning each other is the be-all/end-all of existence.

So whats the point to all this? Simply this- We draw on people. That's it.

We don't save lives, we don't make a lasting global difference.

We draw pictures. On skin.

I am proud to be anti Art-Elite.

I know my place in the world, and I will never think that just because I'm allowed to place my art on other peoples skin that makes all others inferior to me.

Anti. Art. Elite.

Friday, May 27, 2011









A small selection of my art.

Not the greatest photo, but it does illustrate how extreme this re-work was. The original artist didn't use any black whatsoever, and as a result there was zero contrast- so the heal softened the flowers into oblivion. These are a little more robust.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Pro-krass-tinn-ay-shunn

We've been entirely slack in updating this here blog, but I promise thats going to change. New photos, new bio's for each artist, new information on whats new and current here at the studio.
THIS will be our portal for information, not Facebook. Sheesh.
Reworked sugar-skull.

Bon Jovi logo.

Another re-worked sugar skull.

Dead bird, original art by Brandon Bond.

Tiny lil' ladybug

Owlzuzu, the 8-winged owl.

Fedders.

Tiny Wisdom, yo.