Three new tattoos by Lionel Fahy

I’m sorry posts are a bit light right now, I’m busy and Rob is temporarily away — we are being joined by some new writers soon that I’m greatly looking forward to. But tonight I wanted to leave you with a few tattoos from one of the very first French art tattooists I met, and still one of my favorite, the wonderful Lionel Fahy (who is also an extremely talented musician and author — his veins are just pulsing with creativity). I want to being by mentioning that you can follow his adventures and work in great detail at lioneloutofstep.blogspot.fr, and today I’m going to post just three recent pieces that caught my imagination. The first one, this charming and funny octopus, was tattooed at this year’s Nantes Tattoo Convention.

This endearing backpiece, as many of Lionels pieces, evokes memories of childhood and loves. The swing set reads “a vous tous” or “to all of you”.

Finally, I was especially struck by the strong graphic design in this wrist/palm tattoo, one hand a hanging lantern light, and the other an electricity tower, with a power line connecting the tattoo. I love the way that the lines extend onto the hands, powerfully integrating the piece into the wearer’s anatomy and also adding a sense of symmetry to two otherwise graphically unbalanced elements. Take the time to zoom this for a better look.

Lionel Fahy – Artist of more than one type

One of the first tattoo artists to introduce me — and the larger BME community — to the new French art-style of tattooing was Lionel Fahy of Out of Step Tattoo (http://lioneloutofstep.blogspot.fr/). What you may not know, is that not only is he a brilliant tattoo artist, but he’s also an amazing musician. In this video slideshow of his tattoos, the soundtrack song is also his work, so be sure to listen to this with the sound turned on.

More fun tattoos (and a tool to do them)

Adding to the silly little tattoos I posted last night I want to include this pair of sweet fun foot-top pieces. On the left a minimal tattoo by Gábor Zagyvai (zagyvai.com), and on the right a great little cock by Lionel Fahy (lioneloutofstep.blogspot.fr) that he had the honor of doing on fellow tattoo artist Jimmy Toge of Radjah Skin Design in Bali, Indonesia.

funnyfoot1t funnyfoot2t

Speaking of Lionel, I wanted to show you this joyful tattoo machine that Den Nis of El Hombre Invisible Tattoo Machines made in collaboration with him.

lioneltattoomachine

Oh and thinking of feet tattoos has reminded me to squeeze in one more that caught my eye, although it’s not as “funny” as the first two. This masterpiece was done for Maxime by Cammy Stewart of Metalurgey in Dundee. I especially like the way the red checkerboard travels onto his toes — a very nice touch assuming it heals well [Edit: Oops, Maxime just took the photo, it’s not his foot].

cammyfoot

“You know, just simple lines intertwining…”

It seems that long time ModBlog favoriteLionel from Out of Step hasn’t been featured in over a year.  It’s time to correct that oversight, and because its Friday, there’s an attractive girl in the photo as well.

Lionel’s works over the years have prompted a bit of discussion due to his unique style.  It seems most people either absolutely love his work, or absolutely hate it.  I personally love the avante garde style that he uses.  How he just throws out tradition and makes the pieces his own.  You can take a look through his image gallery to see some more works by him, just to give you an idea of just how creative he is.

p.s. 10 points if you can name the quote without using google

Great is the Hand


I just assumed this was a Lionel Out Of Step piece when I first saw it, but no! Bested again! This chest tattoo, belonging to kipich, was in fact done by Montreal’s own Yann Black at Glamort. I love tattoos that are creative with their use of space, so this? This really does it for me, not to mention the sleeve and the scarification. High marks all around.

Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

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