More tattoo mastery by Gerhard Wiesbeck

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

At the start of September I shared some work by the German blackwork master Gerhard Wiesbeck of Time Travelling Tattoo (timetravellingtattoo.com) in Landshut (near Munich). Today I want to share a few more of his incredible pieces. I enjoy Gerhard’s ability to tastefully integrate dotwork with bold solid black, fields of geometry with organic flowing designs, and the sacred with the psychedelic. I’ll tell you though, the thing I often am reminded of when I see these incredible large scale pieces is the advice I always give people about their first tattoo — wait until you’re 110% sure, and then go at it full-throttle, and err on the side of “huge”. Too many people get a small tattoo — and often a very nice and meaningful one — that ends up marring future large scale creations. I know so many heavily tattooed people that I am quite certain wish that they were completely un-tattooed so that they could allow a master like Gerhard Wiesbeck to fully transform them without having to worry about the scars of previous work throwing off the aesthetic.

Two Great New Dotwork Tattoos

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

I saw two great pieces of dotwork tattooing today that I really wanted to share with you. This first is an upper chest piece by Manuel Winkler at Clockwork Tattoos in Merano, Italy. This design was inspired by the designs of myoshka.jp. It’s perhaps an odd first thought to have, but the first thing I thought when I saw this was that I hope the person isn’t married yet, because this tattoo will look incredible coming out of the top of a strapless wedding dress. Alternately it will be an amazing tattoo to show off at the beach. Or just admire privately in the mirror. Either way I like it a lot.

The other piece of dotwork that caught my mind today was this mix of psychedelia and sacred geometry by Deryn Twelve of Tenacious Tattoo in Sheffield. I should also mention that if you like Deryn’s designs, she’s been working on a series of t-shirts with her art that will be posted to her Etsy shop soon, so keep an eye open there or on her facebook page — and the mention of commerce also reminds me that BMEshop is finally up and running again!

Tattooed Ear Rim Stripes

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

I saw a great ear rim tattoo today by Delphine Noiztoy of Divine Canvas (divine-canvas.com) that seemed very reminiscent of the sweet triangular ear rim tattoo by Su at Buena Vista Tattoo Club. Besides the basic design, the other difference is that Delphine’s piece is done using dotwork technique rather than a normal flat tattoo fill. I have no idea which of these two pieces I prefer, but if I was the client on this piece, I think I might consider pulling the patter further along the top of the rim.

striped-ear-rim-tattoo

Speaking of the blackmasters at Divine Canvas I also wanted to quickly include this “NEKRO” text palm tattoo by Matt “One Hit” Black. Remarkably, this is a fully healed tattoo that has never been touched up. Not a simple achievement.

nekro-palm-tattoo

Little Swastika Book

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

Marc, better known as Little Swastika, is an avant garde tattoo artist that’s a leader in the new worlds of dotwork, geometry, “trash” tattooing, neotribal spiritualism and fine art tattooing. He has just released a limited edition book of paintings and sketches done between 2005 and 2009. It is 108 pages long, printed in a limited hand-numbered and signed edition of 108 copies, and costs 108 euro (about $140 USD). This is a must-have for any tattoo studio — it’s not flash, but it’s a wonderful design resource — or tattoo artist interested in this style as well as art collectors. You can click below to take a closer look, or visit little-swastika.com to find out how to get your own copy of this incredibly special book.

Marc’s work has been featured on ModBlog ever since I first saw his work, at the time at his earlier studio Swastika Freakshop, but while I have your attention, let me show you two recent creations. On the left, and amazingly dense and manic chestpiece that somehow mix the scrawlings of a madman with ripples and spirals and sacred geometry, and on the left, an evocative backpiece in dripping in saturated full color, with multiple layers of both scribbled block printing and Marc’s highly stylized and very recognizable red script. If you enjoy art tattooing, Marc is one of the best, creative and technically gifted.

Finally, since they have not yet been covered on ModBlog, I want to give coverage to Marc’s work with double backpieces. Marc’s art is sometimes so big and powerful that it takes more than one person to contain it, as he splashes his striking visions across friends and families. Here are three examples of multi-person tattoos that he’s performed, as well as a shot of him working on laying down a stencil on two of his latest subjects. I love all of these (even though the one in the top row does cover up a BME logo!).

Again, you can find Marc online at little-swastika.com, or click here to see a collection of ModBlog entries of his work. I just spent a few minutes going through it myself and found lots of wonderful pieces that had slipped my memory — his portfolio is beyond incredible. Have I mentioned what a fan I am? Finally you can also track him down on Facebook at facebook.com/tattoingisdeath. There are very few artists who I whole-heartedly endorse. Marc is one of them.

Say hello to the mechanical faberge elves, ok?

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

I’m tripping over this great chestpiece by Pinkie Leenders (tattoopink.be). Or at least this tattoo makes me reminisce about tripping — what a gloriously psychedelic body he’s created for Laurent. This is a wonderful example of modern body modification Shamanism.

pinktree

Around the world in 80 dots

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Rob

Alright so this piece by geRi has more than 80 dots, but you get the idea. geRi works out of Swastika Tattoo in Budapest, Hungary.

Sakrosankt Wood-Chassis Tattoo Machines

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

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?

sacrosant-wood-machine-1

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.

A Cold Black Heart

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Rob

Here’s something new from Gabor Zagyvai (IAM: Wyrd). While it still is in line with his minimalistic style, the geometric designs combined with the dotwork isn’t what we’re normally used to seeing from him.

Head to Feet

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Rob

Good morning everyone! We’re starting today off with some dotwork foot tattoos by Michael E. Bennett from 2Spirit Tattoo in San Francisco.

Holy Stencil King

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

I wanted to show the process in which Matt Black of Divine Canvas in London lays down his amazing dotwork tattoos, and I think what might strike tattoo artists or people who are heavily tattooed the most, is that he’s somehow able to lay a stencil for a big psychedelic wavework tattoo like this. I’d assume something like this had to be freehand, not planned in advance, if only because it’s practically impossible to draw something like this on flat paper and then stencil it so accurately onto a complex shape like this part of the body. Seriously, it’s quite hard for me to understand how he did this, and it almost makes me think I’m misinterpreting the photo and it’s not a stencil. But I’m quite sure it is.

Anyway, stage two is to lightly outline all the shapes in dotwork, as you can see above on the right. After that it’s a matter of filling in the waves, with all the secondary detail — a secondary set of ripples and fluctuations in dot density on top of original design, eventually leaving the customer with an incredible living, pulsating piece of art on their body.

(Both images can be zoomed to get a better view)