While I sport no tattoo art on my own skin nor have I yet converted a public surface to a canvas I have great respect and admiration for artists who do so with bold creativity and style. Yeah, I ‘get’ the mainstream culture’s issues with the “illegal art” of graffiti and I render that about as much credibility as I do the notion of human beings being “illegal.” Shouldn’t great art increase the property value of a building or other surface that has been chosen as an artist’s canvas? I’ve seen many a bland brick wall transformed into bright beautiful living color that brings art out of climate controlled galleries and into the everyday lives of everyone with eyes willing to appreciate it. As for tattoo artists whom people entrust with their own hides for spreading ink–I’m continually impressed with their inventive ways of collaborating with the human form. It’s not a requirement to pursue either art form in order to enjoy what they offer. Even if you’re just mildly curious I highly encourage you to sneak a peek between the covers of Graffiti Tattoo, vol. 2 by Alan Ket and Don Karl aka Stone. They’ll take you around the world via introductions of tattoo artists with graffiti backgrounds who work with skin and ink from Oakland, CA to Queensland, Australia. One of my favorites is Fishero from Ostrava in the Czech Republic. I adore his incredible illusions of 3D art. Each artist speaks for him/herself about their art and personal history. Contact and online information are provided for each artist: websites, Facebook, emails and addresses. Yes, if you’re wandering about Copenhagen, Denmark, you can get some ink from Franz Jager. Marco Wagner aka Sheas can be found at Lucky Six Tattoo in Berlin, Germany. Eaz One tweets from San Jose, California. Turkesa is in Barcelona, Spain. This photographic record is lush and brilliantly vibrant. The book offers a means for viewing the global scale of arts of workaday world people. The art is as varied as the artists’ thoughts on mentoring, writing, images, drawing and life. It’s great out of the box art all around offering trains, the Pieta, Sitting Bull, skulls, dragons and much much more. See for yourself at From Here to Fame Publishing http://www.fromheretofame.com/books/tattoo2.html
To visit Fishero online –>> http://www.freihand.cz/news.php
Click image to see what’s between the covers.
om mani padme hum jewel in the lotus wahupa qi prana universal life energy
47whitebuffalo's Blog 
artistatexit0 said,
August 12, 2012 at 5:47 pm
The tattoo phenomena is really fascinating and one of those generational markers. Should be really interesting looking at how well some of these designs hold up over time.
47whitebuffalo said,
August 13, 2012 at 7:35 pm
From reading this book I got a better understanding of a very important issue–how this Art form actually is a viable way of making a decent living.
O yes, I wonder too how the art will wear with aging. But hey, clearly a lot of people love it enough to glory in ink!