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

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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)