End of the Line

Over the past few months I've been posting on the site and learning a lot about tattooing and internet marketing at the same time. It has been a great experience learning all about the on-line world and how everything works. I have also learned a lot about the art of tattooing and the pioneers that made the art into what it is now. I've posted tattoo artists that specialize in different styles from bio-mechanical, Asian style, portrait, abstract and traditional tattoos. All of these styles live on and are mastered by specific people like the "Irezumi" of Japan, and the Samoan "Malu" and "Pe'a". Each culture brings forward new styles with different meanings. This will be my last post on the website and I hope all of you who came back to check what's up on the webpage enjoyed it and learned something too. Tattooing is not something everybody can do, not even if you're good at drawing on paper. It has a different style and depth and complexity to it, where you have to have a certain type of inner confidence in yourself making you not afraid and self concious about messing up a job, there is no eraser when it comes to tattooing. This art has come a long way from ancient tribal ceremony designs to tattoo parlours around the city. Keep the tradition going, support and recognize these great artists. Remember when getting a tattoo, don't be afraid to spend a little money, it will be worth it in the long run.

Till next time guys!

Ancient Tattoo History

The tattooed hand of a Chiribaya mummy displayed at a museum 

Tattoos have been around for thousands of years, but why did people begin doing art and how did it become so popular? This week I'd like to post about the history of tattooing and common interceptions about the art, the good and the bad all throughout ancient tattooing history. Tattooing has been practiced for centuries by many cultures; in each culture tattooing may represent something different. The word tattoo originates from Tatau or Tatu. These ancient tattoo have of course have been done by traditional manners which include the diligent manual poking of the skin using a needle with ink on the end of it. Since the art has been around for so long, in ancient history, every culture has different meaning when the ink is put on. For example in India tattoos were used as tribal differentiation to tell who is from what tribe using cultural symbols. This includes the typical temporary "Henna" tattoo. Tattoos meant signs of religious beliefs, healing and sometimes punishment. In China, characters were marked on prisoner's faces to indicate their stature, this is an example of the art being used in a negative and degrading way. Some cities in Japan have even banned tattoos as they see it as a direct correlation to organized crime within underground communities. A lot of native Indian cultures had chiefs, or persons of high ranking with tattoo patterns on their face representing their rank within the community.



Within the Samoan culture, tattoos on males are referred to as pe'a, and the female tattoo is the malu. These tattoos cover the legs in such a way that it looks like the person is wearing pants from a distance. These tattoos were conducted during ceremonies when boys reach adulthood or when a member of the tribe is being promoted with the chief's authority. Though the pain is extreme, to refuse a tattoo of ceremony within the Samoan culture is extremely offensive. Not only has tattooing been used for symbolism, but also for make-up or in other words "permanent make-up". Cosmetic tattoos are used by women when they want to permanently shade certain parts of their face mainly eye brows or adding colour or blush to areas of the face. In today's day and age tattoos still have the same old qualities, people still practice and get traditional tattoos done to represent feelings, ancestry or belonging of a culture.

Dwayne Johnson's Tatau (Each part of his tattoo has a specific meaning within the Samoan culture) 

Adrenaline Personal Experiences

For this weekly blog post I'm going to take a different approach. Instead of reviewing artists around the world for their work, I'm going to review my personal experiences at a shop downtown by the name of Adrenaline Tattoos, from where I got two of my tattoos from. This is a great and well known shop in the city of Toronto with a wide variety of tattoo artists that specialize in different styles. Adrenaline Toronto not only specializes in tattooing but also piercings. With a large selection of both piercing specialists and tattoo artists, you can walk into the shop comfortably knowing you will get exactly what you want. The employees will make you feel welcome and more than happy with the results of your tattoos, while keeping a clean and safe workplace. I will review both artists which did the work for me on a personal experience basis and also show off some of their art.

Firstly i'll begin with my first tattoo done by an Adrenaline employee by the name of Raidel Bas. He was born and raised in Cuba, like myself. I chose him upon viewing his previous art in his portfolio, I was convinced i wanted to get my tattoo done by him. The tattoo the Raidel did for me was the Cuban Coat of Arms on my right shoulder. The overall job took about two hours as he was a fast worker, but also with great technique. I was happy with the job he had done and the work space. Adrenaline has rooms for each artist that they work in and customize to their liking. Raidel had pictures and sketches of his art around the room and music which made the experience that much better.

My second tattoo was done by Joe Baker. Finding this artist took me a while because for the piece I wanted done I needed a specific style of artist. Joe did a Koi Fish piece right below my coat of arms on my right arm. When I first went in for my consultation to explain what I wanted exactly, he listened carefully, by the time I went in for my schedule tattoo appointment, he had drawn out exactly what i was looking for and asked for. The reason I chose Joe is because i saw the complexity of his art when i was looking through his portfolio, along with his long years of experience tattooing. Joe has been a long time employee at Adrenaline and he is known by the tattooing community within Toronto. His years in the industry reflect on his work style as it is amazing, while also being a fast worker. My Koi fish took about three hours to finalize but the quality of the work was most definitely worth the wait. My experience with Joe was above excellent, the work space was clean and tidy and it was a good environment overall, and I would most definitely return to Adrenaline for a third time.

My overall personal experiences with Adrenaline Tattoo Toronto have been phenomenal and I have never walked out disappointed. The moral of the story is; if you need to find a great parlor with great artists, you should most definitely check out Adrenaline Tattoo Toronto!

Some of Raidel's and Joe's art can be seen if you click on their names!

Adrenaline Contact Information

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Abstract Colors

Not a lot of tattoo artists are able to complete such great abstract color tattoos because of the high level of complexity. Just understanding the blending technique and 3-D aspect of such tattoos is extremely difficult. Nick Baxter has successfully mastered the color blending when it comes to tattooing to near realism, even though in some cases the chosen art style by the customer will be more of a fantasy style of work. Nick's art revolves around spiritualism and the links between human being and other animals and wild-life, his art has a strong connection to the natural aspect of the world using vibrant colors that bring out each piece. What sets Nick aside from your every-day tattoo artist is that he doesn't only trace out the tattoo on your skin; he understands the depth and complexity associated with the incorporation of color blending.

Nick was born 1981 in Connecticut and lived in New Haven up until 2008 where he had moved to Texas. Throughout school his passion was always complementing the creative aspects of the human brain which lead him to particularly be interested in tattooing since there are endless types and techniques. In 2010 he began his career in the tattooing industry and up until now he has been featured in every top tattoo magazines from around the world including other publications. Not only has he been featured in such great publications but he also created a book of his own in 2008, "Sharp-Focus Realism In Oil". This book includes his gallery of oil paintings within the past decade and instructional oil-painting text. In this book Nick teaches you how to smooth out oil paintings to make them look more rich and professional, also teaching beginner tattoo artists needing to learn tricks and pointers which Nick has learned over his course of being in the industry. Nick holds exhibitions where he not only shows off his art for tattoos, but also for oil paintings. Nick is also a member of the "International Guild of Realism" which is a group that achieves advanced realism through art of all types. At the end of the day, all art is intended to come alive, and be visualized as something real. Incorporating all of what Nick has learned through the guild, and just his oil painting experience alone, gratifies him with great skill and technique when it comes to tattooing. Nick's success in tattooing has been granted through his technique and skills developed through his other art such as his profession in oil painting, from which all the use of abstract colors come from.

Nick Baxter's:

Webpage
Instagram
Tattoo portfolio
Oil painting's portfolio

Nick Baxter's "Sharp-Focus Realism In Oil" 

Black & Grey

Black and Grey tattoos are very popular in the industry and are favored by a lot of people over colored tattoos because they tend to last longer. Black and Grey aren't really using the color grey, this refers to the term that there is no color being used in the pieces. The reason why black & grey tattoos last longer is because generally the color in some color tattoos fade after a while, caused by sunlight UV radiation, soaps and other harsh chemicals which drain color, and simply the passage of time. Paul Booth is a popular artist who specializes in black & grey tattoos, this style of tattooing is tough as well because you have to make 3D looking images with the absence of color. Paul Booth has a fully covered body consisting of black and grey tattoos which look like a giant work of art.

He attended a Catholic school in the 12th grade in New Jersey and caught the teacher's attention because of his constant doodling and sketching of skeletons and monsters, this turned into the art in which he specializes in today; black & grey monster and abstract dark imagery of monsters and supernatural. Artists recognized Paul at a tattoo convention where he was recognized for a demon piece he had done. Paul takes his patients through an experience when he is doing work on them. After Paul opened a shop with other artists with similar skills, he chose to design the tattoo parlor like no other. The name of his shop is "Last Rites Tattoos". In this parlor, Paul wanted to satisfy the imagination of his clients by making a dungeon like parlor, with little lighting, skulls and heavy metal in the background. Since his art style is demonic, dark and gritty, he wanted to make the surrounding environment accompany his style and he did this in a smart and successful way. In other words, the studio somewhat looks like a creepy haunted house, in a cool artistic way. Paul Booth usually charges $400 an hour but he goes beyond drawing something on somebody with a needle. He wants to understand your fears and what drives you to get such tattoos, this is used to help him decide the depth and complexity of the final piece. His style is strictly dark, bloody and haunting, Paul will refuse your offer of rainbows and cute bird tattoos.

Paul Booth has many honors such tattooing metal bands which correlate to his art, such bands as Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God and in 2002 Paul was nominated the "King of rock tattoos" by Rolling Stone Magazine. Along with the privilege to do his great tattoo work on such bands he has also had appearances on public television on networks like CNN, Discovery, MTV, TLC and more. Black and grey tattooing is preferred when trying to accomplish a dark and gritty look which is favored by a lot of heavy metal musicians and dark imagery enthusiasts.

See more of Paul Booth's art here.
Have a tour of his abstract studio here.

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Come and see the 5th Annual Ottawa Tattoo Expo taking place November 15, 16, and 17 2013. Come out and support these great artists !

For more info visit: Ottawa Tattoo Expo

Local Art

The beautiful city of Toronto has a lot to offer, including great local tattoo parlors where you can simply walk in and set up an appointment. Archive Tattoo located on Dundas West is a great local shop known for the artistic abstract style of tattooing. One artist which caught my eye that currently works at Archive Tattoo is David Glantz. His use of color in his style of tattooing is vibrant and the lines and curves are extraordinarily smooth. Accomplishing such precise hand-eye coordination takes years of practice which David has accomplished.

David was first introduced to the arts when he was only 4 years old, this was when he was enrolled in an art school and he has always been gifted in the field. As a youth he enjoyed drawing, paintings and even enjoyed graffiti. He went to multiple post-secondary institutions where he had studied photography, including Ryerson University. He had opened another local Toronto shop with his friends Bryan Turnbull and Colin Wiley and named it Lucky 13 Tattoo Shop. This shop was successful and recognized by many in the industry as a high end shop. Though Lucky 13 Tattoo Shop did not last as long as hoped for and soon disbanded, David was well on his way to accomplishing his dreams.

In the fall of 2008, David opened Archive Tattoo Studio, this store is still actively running and David is still tattooing. In 2009 David was awarded the "Best Tattoo Artist" by Toronto Life Magazine which is a great achievement to have within the Toronto tattooing community, along with this accomplishment, he was also introduced as top 50 "must know" world wide artists by Complex Magazine. Not only does David to tattooing, he also does work with sculptures, Asian paintings, and graphics design. The great artists working in local shops are inspiring because it is close to home and you can personally get a timeless piece done by such talented people.

David's Tattoo gallery can be seen here.

Archive Tattoo

Archive Tattoo:
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Bio-Mechanical Metamorphosis

Bio-mechanical tattoos are a cool creation which is not mastered by many tattoo artists. Usually artists who do bio-mechanical pieces are sometimes mainly dedicated to them because of their complexity in colors and shadows. The purpose of a bio-mechanical tattoo is making the piece look as 3-D as possible to match your skin, making it look like it's a part of your body. The term "Bio-Mech" is the combination of biological metamorphosis with (in some cases) mechanical work such as gears, wiring, and circuits. This blend of two opposing styles; biology and technology, make for a nice and crisp looking tattoo if done properly. The look tattoo enthusiasts are trying to achieve when getting such work done is something similar to an alien or robotic life form. The realistic look is a main goal for this style of tattoos in order to give the impression of your skin/body going through some sort of metamorphosis stage.

Aaron Cain is a Bio-Mechanical tattoo specialist. He dedicates his art to doing this specific style of tattooing which takes a lot of training and practice to get the authentic 3-D abstract look. Aaron Cain was always intrigued by the science fiction scene which was one of the main reasons why he specialized in this type of tattooing work. Aaron was born 1971 and grew up as an only child with a single mother, this granted him a lot of alone time to practice with his artistic skills from drawing, to tinkering with home appliances trying to figure out the mechanism of it. A main inspiration Aaron Cain had was the amount of people telling him he was going to be an artist when he gets older, from the time he picked up his first crayon.

Aaron has developed his skills over 24 years of working in the industry as he started "professionally" tattooing in 1989. He looked up to artists such as H.R Giger who was a Swiss painter that was dedicated to dark, outer-space style work, something like you would see in the movie "Alien". After Aaron witnessed the work of Giger, he decided that's the type of style he was going to master; the gritty, dark, highly textured and shadowed artistry, which drove him to the Bio-Mechanical styles of tattooing. The abstract metamorphosis look to these tattoos intrigued him into continuing his love for the art. Aaron stated that one milestone in his career was attending his first tattoo convention in Anaheim, CA. There, he saw work that showed how many unlimited possibilities there was for tattooing, and how there is not just one way of doing it and presenting each piece. Aaron also met Marcus Pacheco at the convention, and soon opened the first studio with him. Aaron's knack for opening and understanding how utilities worked also drove him to be intrigued with tattoo machines. He does not sell them but simply designs them for personal use and pleasure. These machines are not your ordinary looking tools either, they all have their own style and spectacular shapes that are very complex. You can see some of them here.

You can follow his blog here.
You can also view his tattoo art gallery via his webpage.

Kit-Kat

Katherine Von Drachenberg, also known as Kat Von D. is a model, musician and a world class tattoo artist. She was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon in Mexico March 8, 1982 and moved to the states at the age of four. At the young age of 14, Kat Von D got her first tattoo and like some other tattoo artists, started tattooing by trial and error by willing customers. After noticing that the art of tattooing came naturally to her, she decided to begin her career and began working in her first professional shop in the year of 1998, Sin City Tattoo. At the age of 16, Kat dropped out of school to continue her dream as a professional tattoo artist. Currently booked completely with high demand, the public know her as a great artist who takes her time doing what she loves. She is mainly known for her portrait style of tattooing. Kat Von D credits her close ties with her family including her grandmother, Clara Von Drachenberg who Kat credits as a large part of inspiration in her life concerning music and the arts.

August 7 2007, LA Ink was introduced as a new American reality show on TLC that Kat Von D and other high end artists well known in North America. This show was launched after Kat Von D left the cast of Miami Ink and went to LA to begin her own show as a owner/manager of the shop "High Voltage Tattoo". This show invites people to come on the show to get tattoos by the great artists and allows them to get on the show speaking upon why they are getting the tattoo, and what the significant meaning of the art is to them. After 84 episodes and 4 seasons, in September 15, 2011 the show had come to an end, but Kat is still available for tattooing in this location. Besides her show and very successful store, Kat also created and launched a new make-up line for the famous high end shop, Sephora. Many successful tattoo artists such as Kat Von D launch different lines of products because they become successful and in demand. In the High Voltage Tattoo shop, there are goods available for sale with shop logos and Kat's name.

Kat Von D leaving Miami Ink and starting fresh in LA 

You can follow Kat Von D on:

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Here is a request form if you want to get tattooed by her at High Voltage Tattoo!

Request Form

Buccaneer

Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins is a known as a sailor, radio host, and of course a world famous tattoo artist. Sailor Jerry first began tattooing as a teenager, he would hand poke tattoo designs into brave individuals who would allow him to, this started off Sailor Jerry's new and soon-to-be hobby and talent. In the 1920's Jerry arrived to Chicago and met with his first teacher, Gib "Tatts" Thomas who introduced Jerry to the tattoo machine. The famous artist passed away June 12 1973 at the age of 62, but his legend still lives on and the name is still recognized by many.

Norman Collins (Sailor Jerry) was known for keeping a tidy work space and clean tattooing tools. Back in the day tattooing was more of an underground and private shop owned and so sterilization of needles and tools was not very common, Jerry decided this needed to change. Tattooing was big in the sailor scene, and so Jerry got more exposed to the art when he was in the Great Lakes Naval Academy. Sailing the China seas, Jerry developed a love for the Asian style tattooing and so he brought the style of art over to North America and began exposing it more on the tattoo culture. He took the art of tattooing to a different level that people back in the day weren't used to by adding vibrant colors, designs and his distinct ways of drawing his pieces. Sailor Jerry is also popular for his "classic" tattooing style which is colorful and simplistic images such as skulls, birds, daggers, and anchors. The meaning behind some of the popular designs can be seen here (Official Sailor Jerry web page). Other successes under the famous name include his own clothing brand (Sailor Jerry Clothing) which is popular within the tattooing community. The brands of his logo are things like anchors and ships representing his relations to the naval academy and the origination of tattoos in North America. Along with a clothing line, Sailor Jerry also has a very popular rum that you can find and buy locally at an LCBO!

Sailor Jerry's Rum Commercial 

Irezumi

Horiyoshi III Nakano Yoshihito is an artist that specializes in full body tattooing. If you don't know what that is, here is an example...

Not many artists in the tattooing industry dedicate themselves to full body Japanese "Suits", as they call it. This is a very time consuming tattooing style that most definitely take more than one single session to complete.This specific type of tattooing requires a lengthy planning process especially if you would like a custom suit instead of one the artist had made ahead of time. The Japanese style of art is called "Irezumi" or "Horimono".

Horiyoshi III was born in Japan on March 9th 1946 and has 40 years of experience in tattooing Irezumi. Horiyoshi's name comes from "Hori" in Japanese, which means "to engrave". This title was passed down to Horiyoshi III in order to carry on the traditional Japanese tattoo legacy. Horiyoshi main expertise revolves around his skill with the traditional tattooing manner without the use of an electrical machine, just a manual needle. This is a lengthier and of course more painful process. (Short clip below showing the procedure of traditional tattooing)

Horiyoshi III's talent has brought him a very long way, he launched a very exclusive high end clothing line by the name of "Horiyoshi the third", this was a big seller in top shops around the world. He has also founded the "Yokohama Tattoo Museum" in the year 2000. In this Museum, Horiyoshi III shows off collections of valuable art pieces and tattooing artifacts. There has also been many book publications to do with Horiyoshi. Many of the people who used the Irezumi style tattooing were in underground Japanese mafia and gangs so this style of tattoo was looked down upon and banned from multiple things including public hot springs and pools/showers. Horiyoshi was said to have Yakuza (Japanese organized crime) ties, thus exploiting him to the underground art and making himself more familiar with this style of tattooing.


More of Horiyoshi III's work can be seen here. (WARNING: Nudity)

Miami's Finest

Miami, Florida is a beautiful place with great beaches, warm weather and palm trees and people love showing off their skin. There are many tattoo parlors of all types regarding prices and styles, but a very well known stop shop in Miami is "Love Hate Tattoo" which is co-owned by a popular artist by the name of Ami James. You may recognize him from the award winning show Miami Ink. In this show many people came in with stories and wishes to get a beautiful piece done by him or other award winning artists working the shop. This shop opened in 2004 by the name of 305 (The Miami area code), but soon after before Miami Ink the name was changed to what it is now. Ami James was born April 6, 1972 and got his first tattoo when he was only 15, giving him the desire to become a world star tattoo artist. As of now his average charge is said to be $500 / hour for his work, and he has a net worth of $5.1 Million.

In 1992 Ami James started an apprenticeship with an artist by the name of Lou at the shop "Tattoos By Lou". When Miami Ink picked up in 2004 on TLC, Ami started getting more relevance and being more popular in the tattooing industry as the great artist he is. As of now the show Miami Ink has 6 seasons, this show also encouraged other similar shows such as LA Ink. Along with being the Co-Owner of Miami Ink, Ami also has several clothing companies such as DeVille and has invested in jewelry lines such as Love Hate Choppers Jewelry. Ami's love for tattooing has brought him a long way from owning shops, to shows, and clothing/jewelry brands. His success in the industry is evidence of the hard work and patience put into his dreams.

In this video, Ami is doing work for a teacher, putting a Geisha on her back in the show Miami Ink.

You can follow him on...

Twitter: @amijames 

Instagram: amijames1

*Dragon Tattoo retrieved from Ami Jame's Instagram

The Great Art

"You get what you paid for" is a big saying when it comes to the art of Tattooing. Anybody can do a tattoo on anybody, but it is the quality of the art that counts when it comes down to it. Finding a good tattoo artist is not tough, but finding an excellent one is, and as always you should be ready to spend a little money. The main thing to look out for when searching for a tattoo artist is the style of tattoo the artist specializes in, for example...

Portrait Style (Roman Abrego Tattooing)



Asian Style (Chronic Ink Toronto Shop)

Bio Mechanical (BioMech) 

  

These are just some of the incredible pieces done by very talented and hard working artists. One of my favorite artist is Roman Abrego (he did the Bob Marley piece). Roman was featured in a show season one of Best Ink. Roman is also a talented artist who has won many awards for the work he has completed, with only 12 years experience in the industry. Roman is currently in his early 30's and has two daughters, he had two large Mexican families which raised him and always had love for the art. When Roman was younger he had gotten into a lot of trouble and soon after ended up in jail for a period of time. Within that time he spent in jail, he familiarized himself with the art more by spending time working on his artistic ability. Once out of jail he decided to change his lifestyle and begin his career. Roman's step father had him working in construction to keep out of trouble, but he did not want to do that for long. Shortly after, Roman was introduced to the art of tattooing and decided this is what his dream was. He is currently the owner of Artistic Element in California and many famous people go to him to get inked such as the rapper Game and many more. His tattoo style is portraits and BioMech, anything with a lot of color blend and mixture. A lot of his art can be seen here.