deeperthanwar

It seems everywhere I look at the moment, I'm being bombarded by images of work by the artists at Buena Vista Tattoo Club.  I've been aware of them for a little while, but recently it seems that their work is everywhere, certainly in the tattoo press.

And what fantastic images to be bombarded by.  The work of Volko Merschky and Simone Pfaff is refreshingly different.  It's not often that you find work that is really new and unique, but these guys seem to be breaking a lot of moulds.  They refer to this style of tattoo that they have created in their studio in Wurzburg, Germany, as 'Realistic Trash Polka'.

I actually don't think that it's the sort of thing that I'd want as a tattoo for myself - I'm far too rooted in the old school to use a whole arm or something for this style (although I might be persuaded otherwise in the future), but I am  blown away by their creativity, and by the way that their work is seeming to redefine what constitutes a tattoo.

One of the most famous tattoo artists of the last 100 years (certainly in the Western world) is Sailor Jerry.  From the 30s to the 60s, he worked in Hawaii.  He is often considered to be the first artist to create a fusion between traditional western designs, and the work that was usually associated with Japan.  He is still considered a master, and his revolutionary style would now be classed by many people as classic tattoo imagery.

In the last few years, studios like Buena Vista Tattoo Club, and Boucherie Moderne in Brussels, have been bringing something new to the scene.  As far as I can see, the primary driving force for this is the use of graphic design skills and elements being incorporated into tattoo design.  The result is stunning pieces of living design work, challenging concepts and ideas about what a tattoo is and can be.  Of course, all of this is helped along by the fact that Volka, Simone, Jeff, and the likes are producing technically excellent tattoos.

So far, this movement seems to be breaking out within Europe.  It would be interesting to see, with all of the current hype around it, how quickly it develops in North America.

OK, so this is a few days late, really, but I just wanted to give a quick round-up of my recent trip to the UK.
I had the honour of playing the part of Best Man to my old roommate at his wedding in July (photo by Hubert Hung), so I hopped on a plane and made my way back to the motherland for a week.  This was a bit of a strange experience in itself, because I went without Beth and Addie.  One advantage of this, however, was that I was free to do a lot of work while I was there.

I was there for 7 days, and only took one day off.  I ended up doing some really interesting pieces, and tattooing some even more interesting people.  I finished off pieces that I started over a year ago, and started work on others.  I did everything from small bits of lettering to full colour sleeve work.  I'll be posting pictures on the gallery page when people send them to me.
I tattooed police officers, nightclub managers, Ultimate Frisbee Internationals and Illustrators.  I had a great time, to be honest.

The problem is, I came back more tired than when I left.  I'm taking another trip over in October, this time with Beth and Addie.  I'm not taking my stuff with me though - think it's time for a bit of a break.

Some really interesting pieces coming up before that though.  Expect another post in the next few days about my links with the Coptic tattoo tradition.  Exciting stuff!

For the last year or so, Beth and I have become more and more involved with the deaf community here in Toronto.  We both work with a boy who is profoundly deaf, and recently, Beth has started working with another boy with a severe hearing impairment.
Not to mention that for the last eight months or so, we have lived with our friend Sallyanne.  Sallyanne has a slight hearing impairment, but both of her parents are profoundly deaf, so her first language is, in fact, American Sign Language (ASL).

I learned a short while ago that names in ASL are usually assigned to a person by another signing person.  Often, the name assigned is the first letter of the person's first name.  This letter is then signed in a particular place, to distinguish that person from any other people with the same name.  When Beth and I learned this, we decided to ask Sallyanne's mom to give us sign names.
Having taken a few days to think about it, she got back to us.  She had decided that my name should be signed by tapping the letter M twice on the inside of my forearm, because I am a tattoo artist.  Beth and Addie have their initials signed in the same place, as that is standard practice for people of the same family.

I'd planned to blog about this a while ago, when we were given our names, but it works out well that I waited, because I had my first deaf client yesterday.  She brought two friends with her, who were also deaf. 
My knowledge of ASL is still very limited, so I wasn't able to communicate as effectively as I had wanted.  The experience has encouraged me to work harder at signing, as I think it will be an invaluable resource, particularly in my line of work.

On another related note, Beth and I have been thinking of getting sign tattoos.  We're not sure exactly what form they would take, but would almost certainly be a series of pictograms of signs, either spelling out a word, or using the signs for words that make up a phrase.  The jury is still out as to what they would say.  I'll post more on this when we have a better idea.

Do you know of any deaf people with tattoos?  Do you know anyone with an ASL tattoo?  Drop me a line and let me know!

It's that time of year again.
I went to Yorkdale Mall the other day, and was horrified at the worsening crowds.  Walmart was even more hellish.  Nowhere to park, enormous lines at the cash.  And that's if you managed to figure out what to buy for that special someone.

It's always a problem for me, coming up with gifts that are really different, original and meaningful.  Beth has no problem with it.  She always gets me the right thing, but I just don't have the right kind of brain for that kind of thing.

I had an idea for people like me.  Why don't I do gift certificates for tattooing?  It's the perfect gift for the person who has almost everything.  Or the person that has nothing but wants a tattoo.

My philosophy for tattooing is that tattoos should be custom, unique creations designed especially for the person wearing them.  If you have a loved one that wants a tattoo like this, why not give them a gift certificate?  All certificates include a free consultation to make sure that the piece will be exactly what the recipient of the gift certificate wants.

I'm also doing some special deals on these certificates up until Christmas.  You can see the December certificate prices on the homepage.  Just drop me a line to let me know what you want.

Happy shopping!

I've been tattooing a lot of birds lately.  And I'm not saying that I've had more female customers than male, either. 
It just seems that I've had a lot of requests for tattoos of our feathered friends in the last few weeks.

When I first got interested in tattooing, one of my major inspirations was the work philosophy of Dave Berwick, of Physical Poetry in Leeds.  All of his work is custom, and there is no flash on the walls.  He believes that all tattoos should be unique to the wearer. 

Now that I'm working as an artist, I have the same passion for custom work.  The shop that I work in is also custom-only.  Which means that just because I've been doing a lot of bird tattoos, doesn't mean that they're all the same.  See for yourself:

I did these two birds a couple of weeks ago.  She already had some text on her high ribs: "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
She wanted two swallows to go just below the text, one on each side of her ribs.  One had to be green, and one red, to represent the struggle between good and evil.

I went with an old school feel, but I think that the colours bring it a bit more into the new school.  They're also fairly big - nearly six inches tall.

This is a work in progress.  The finished piece will stretch across his whole chest, and onto his upper arms too.
The theme is life and death/good and evil.  When he first came for the consultation, to look at what I'd drawn up for him, he was about to tell me that he changed his mind on having the owl, but he said when he saw the drawing that I'd done, that he decided to get it.

The phoenix was much more difficult to work with, because it's not real.  Putting it next to a real bird presented some challenges.  I dealt with it by making the owl look less real, and by giving a similar shape to the feathers on both birds.

When this client comes back for the next session, we're on to the next part of the tattoo - a heart that's been ripped in half then sewn back together. 

The client in this picture emailed me to say that she'd been looking for a Christian tattoo artist for a while to do a piece for her.

As she wanted a bluebird, I went with the old school tradition, because I think it lends itself really nicely to the colours on this bird.  It was also really important to her to have the heart in there, as this tattoo is in memory of her grandmother. 
I feel like the vines give the whole thing some movement.

So there you have it.  Five birds, each designed especially for the client.  Each tattoo entirely unique to the person that has it.

If you want something absolutely unique to you on your body, just let me know!  Don't forget that we now offer gift certificates, and that we have some amazing deals on at the moment.  Check out the homepage for more details!