For me, cowboy hats are so iconically American, iconically Canadian too, really, considering the significance of our Prairie provinces to Canadian identity. It's been my experience that a good cultural centrepiece usually has a lot of power as a tattoo.
As an eight-year-old I saw my first episode of Bonanza, in German no less, while visiting relatives in Austria (The episode was, appropriately, Doppelgänger). …continue reading
A “Thank You” painting
Some stiff competition in tattooland today.
We started with this
Did up this little design from some anonymous historic flash during a great painting session at the shop with my ol' pal and coworker Bryan J. Turnbull. Lots of painting going on at the shop these days.
It's fun doing something quick and simple to cap off the end of the day before heading home, recreational-like. …continue reading
Chemistry class, Grade 11.
After combining a few dribbles of Hydrofluoro-somethingorother with two parts Whatsitium I was admiring the vibrant pink the solution had become. "Can anyone tell me what color the mixture should change to?" asked the teacher. I blurt out my response, "Magneta!" (You read that right: mag · net · uh)
Probably thinking he'd misheard, the teacher asked me to repeat myself. I responded a second time shaming myself in full view of my 25 classmates with my dyslexic mangling of the word.
…continue reading
It's about being in the middle, not being at the end. You're not initiating something, nor having the last word, you're just carrying it through with the time you've got. Dan Higgs, Interview by Ed Hardy, Tattoo Revue Magazine.
When you consider how long tattooing has been part of our history (at least 5300 years according to tattooed Ötzi the Iceman) it forces you to reckon with the fact your life as a tattooer is a mere blip in the continuum. Kinda humbling. This is an ancient arcane craft that, despite its current pop culture visibility overexposure, will persist long after the tattoo TV dramas, dabbling artists, and cash-grab clone T-shirt companies vanish from our forebrains.
Taking this perspective frames your tattoos and all your involvement with tattooing in a way that creates a sense of responsibility, a feeling that this historic thread deserves a measure of respect. …continue reading
This site is a repository of my tattoo-related thinkings and makings, and a healthy channel for the ineffable force that compelled me to pursue this bizarre carnival craft… continue
Thomas Cave, Beanpicker,
and his Social Security Tattoo
I really love the atmosphere in historic black & white photos, especially photos where a bit of an old tattoo is visible.
Once you've picked through a handful of historic tattoo photo books (Henk Schiffmacher's "1000 Tattoos" is a good place to start) you realize there are a finite number of vintage photos of tattooed folks that seem to get reproduced across many publications: discovering a previously unseen one is quite rare, so I was pretty stoked to find this charming shot through my pal John who in turn found it at Shorpy. …continue reading