Tag Archives: blackwork

Joy Division Backpiece c/o Thomas Hooper

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In random browsing I came across this stunning Joy Division tattoo, and since like most things on the Internet it was uncredited it took me some searching before I even knew if it was a real tattoo or a photoshop job, which was my first assumption because it’s just so incredibly bold. I was happy to discover that it was the work of Thomas Hooper (meditationsinatrament.com) of Saved Tattoo (savedtattoo.com) in Brooklyn.

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By the way, if you like that, check out this Joy Division cutting posted last year.

As stunning as this piece is — it’s a beautiful example of graphic design — but not really something that pushed him technically or artistically as a tattooist. His custom work is so top-notch that I thought he deserved proper coverage, so here is a small selection of some of my favorite pieces he’s created. Visit his websites for more. I know I’ve said this to death, but wow, the talent pool that’s out there in the tattoo world these days is unbelievable. I could feature a new artist every single day for the next year and only have scraped the tip of the iceberg. Glad to have discovered today’s polar bear.

Unblacking the Blackest Man

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I assume everyone knows who Lucky Diamond Rich is, but if not, let me pop up a picture from one of his very first appearances on ModBlog, back in 2006, when he was already widely recognized as the world’s most tattooed man — and easily history’s most tattooed man as well.

Not only is Rick tattooed black-head-to-toe, but he’s been fully tattooed something like seven or eight times over. The white lines in the picture above are not untattooed areas. They are white ink tattoos done over top of the field of black. As these would fade slightly over time and Rick set his sights on new a body, changes would be made, sometimes with piercing or scarification, but usually with tattoos. I have made some recent posts about tattooing white ink over black and even tattooing full color over solid blackwork, and I think the time has come to update Rick’s latest stage of evolution.

Tattooist Brad Bako has been covering up Rich’s many layers of blackwork (and more) with a new field of biomech, starting with his arm. The progress has been quite remarkable, to such an extent that many people would think it wasn’t even possible. I really want to emphasize that this is not just being done over black, but over a mottled skin filled with many layers of black, some colour, some white, and probably some residual scarring as well. What Brad Bako has achieved is quite remarkable.

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In addition to the bright sleeve work, they are also working on his head, transforming his full-black zen demon sort of appearance into a more traditional biomechanical tattoo icon.

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So when people ask you the question, “what will you do when you run out of skin”, now you know that you’ll never run out of skin because you can recycle your tattoos. On a side note, I have to admit that it’s rather amazing that 10,000+ years into tattooing that we’re still figuring new stuff out every year.

A Good Afternoon via Implants and Scars

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Two days ago I posted a neat set of star-shaped horns (placed impressively precisely underneath preexisting tattoos), but I wanted to follow up with another star implant, this one by Matias at Rata Body Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It’s fresh in the photo — as you already know if you noticed the incision tucked away at the hairline. As great as this looks, I don’t think I would personally want a temple implant — even lightly resting my finger on my temples makes me feel like I’ve got a killer headache coming on. I’d hate to find that I’d implanted something on top of a pressure spot that slowly drives me insane! Oh wait, I started that way. No worries then, I shall do it.

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Speaking of Matias, I’ve also been meaning to show you this nice oldschool sailor-art Gypsy girl portrait that he cut over top of a black field of ink. I think it will work especially well due to the stars that sit in the negative space surrounding the canvas of the scarification.

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And while I’m on the subject of scarification, I wanted to also show you this superb collar-piece “art scar” that Azl Kelly of Mtl Tattoo created as part of a “aesthetic beheading performance”. There’s a lot to be said for really pure designs. There’s a school of thought among many writers that the less words you can use to completely and effectively describe something, the better. Now, I’ve never been particularly good at that — I’m so redundantly wordy and repetitive that you could Swiss-cheese a print out of my essays with a machinegun and effectively understand what I was saying from the tatters that are left. Azl on the other hand has figured out how to speak volumes with a single incision.

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And, well, since I’m doing the “this things reminds me of this thing” game with this long entry, let me add two more implants, both swastika implants under a black tattoo, which visually makes them “pop” even more because of the way the light hits it. The one on the left, in the forearm, is the work of Samppa Von Cyborg, who you know well of course. The one on the right, the implant on the top of a hand, is by an artist you may not know quite as well, Hugo Ferreira of Biotek Toulouse in France. The arm is fresh in the photo, and the hand is about a month old.

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PS. I apologize for the crap image quality in this entry — I accidentally overcompressed. I’m really having “one of those days” as the old saying goes.

A Mask of Diamond Lines

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What a knock-out piece this is, just boom, stamped on with such strong impact — interesting change from Freak Garcia’s (of Ink Karma Nation, inkarma.wordpress.com) normal undulating and flowing style that almost looks like the patterns on an oil slick turned into blackwork. Anyway, I especially like the treatment of the ear, both front and back — second time today I’m posting a facial tattoo that pulls onto the ears, to say nothing of how closely the linework style echoes Kike’s illusion skull from earlier today as well. I also like the way that it fades behind the preexisting tattoos, not just abruptly ending, but dithering to a lighter level. I’d love to see this piece extended in time, so that it wraps all the way around his head and is mirrored on the other side.

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Let’s have some fun

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Before I read comics in bed or turn into a wolf or whatever it that I do at night when I walk away from the computer, I want to wrap up the day with a couple of fun, light tattoos since it feels like everything I’ve posted today has been so serious. First, on the left, a hilarious tattoo by Josh Herrera of Skin Factory in Las Vegas. It’s a Zom-Bee. Get it? Zom-BEE!!! Hahaha. Love it. And to the right of that (and of course you can click’n’zoom ‘em both) Deryn’s super-cool Back To The Future themed 88 MPH tattoo with a flux capacitor symbol next to it to really give it geek cred, done by Charlie Coppolo. This makes me miss my Delorean. Wish I’d never sold that car (actually, I traded it for my 650HP supercharged ’74 Corvette, which had its charms as well).

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OK, I can’t stop myself from squeezing in a “serious” tattoo as well because it’s just so striking. Here’s a big black piercer sleeve, halfway up the arm, completely engulfing the forearm. What I love about it is that it’s been capped off not by the normal straight lines, but instead has been graphically “faded” using nice bulky halftones, giving it a unique and modern appearance. Then the top half (I assume these are the same arm anyway!) was capped off with a maze-like piece of pixelated geometry that steps away from the swastika patterns and other sacred geometry that we’re so used to seeing in these types of pieces. This particular sleeve was tattooed by Yaroslav Gorbunov of Maruha Tattoo Studio in St. Petersburg, Russia.

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Sakrosankt Wood-Chassis Tattoo Machines

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As a “devout atheist” and ardent science-minded skeptic, I don’t buy into the spiritual concept of energy. I do however strongly subscribe to the verifiable fact that ritual has a profound psychosomatic effect, so whether or not there is a metaphysical truth to spiritual theories, utilizing them can still add a great deal of value to someone’s life, especially in the context of ritual-friendly activities like body modification. That said, I read with great interest Patrick Hüttlinger‘s work developing a line of hand-carved wood-chassis rotary tattoo machines based on sacred geometry and theories of spiritual energy vibration — how do you literally encode Om into a tattoo tool and by extension the art it creates?

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Zoom in the second picture for detail view

I asked Patrick the obvious question — how do you sterilize or disinfect a tattoo machine that is constructed in part out of porous organic materials — especially when we’re talking about the tube enclosure, which can’t easily be bagged and will almost certainly come in contact with biohazardous fluids? He explained that all the wood was treated with laquer and it shouldn’t absorb any more liquid than metal (which is to say, none), and the motor cover is epoxy resin. While the pieces can’t be autoclaved, standard hard surface chemical disinfectants are appropriate.

Finally, I can’t really write an entry about Patrick Hüttlinger without showing you some of the amazing tattoos he’s created — and I think these tattoos give some great context to the creative energy that went into creating the beautiful tattoo machines. I especially like the pieces where he mixes geometry and dotwork with traditional tattoo styles.

Find Patrick and these machines at sakrosankt.com by the way.

Scarred Dragon Scales

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I love this scarification pattern done by Iestyn Flye on I believe Muffe Vulnuz. Normally when I see scarification over blackwork, I think it’s best left as light lightwork in a field of dark when healed, but depending on how this heals, I think it might look nice re-tattooed in the long run. Imagine if it healed either raised or better yet, sunk in, and then could be tattooed a dark, almost black red… It really would look like dragon scales then!

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By the way, I should add that no one has told me that it’s meant to be dragon scales — that’s just what I see when I look at it. So I hope I’ve caused no offense at this assumption!

Half Sock Geometry

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Kenji Alucky (of Black Ink Power in Berlin) is doing a guest spot at the recently featured German tattoo studio Scratcher’s Paradise, which is of course staffed by anything but scratchers. This amazing geometric dotwork tattoo with a little mandala in the middle of it is quite stunning, especially because right now the toenails are temporarily discoloured from the tattoo ink staining them. I think I might take this as inspiration to start painting my toenails were this my foot.

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