Henna @ the Neu

Yesterday, the Neuberger Museum of Art hosted an Indian night for Purchase students in celebration of their British Subjects exhibits and they invited me to do some henna/mehndi tattoo demos and here are some of the tattoo designs I did.

Maori tattoo designs and tribal tattoos images by tattoo designer Mark Storm

Maori tattoo designs and tribal tattoos images by tattoo designer Mark Storm

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Randomly saw this artist page. His stuff looks really cool and he has tutorials for his designs which is a great tool if your looking to get a tattoo.

What do you think? Leave a comment:0

POP TATTOOS

Lately, there has been a big interest in tattoos in pop culture. This interest has manifest in a lot of different ways especially in fashion and t.v. The first show I ever saw about tattoos was in high school when FUSE use to air a show called "Tattoo Stories." It was all about two of my favorite things: rock and tattoos. It had all these great segments with people who had tattoos talking about all their tattoos and why they got them and interviews with tattoo artists. It really showed how tattoos are a personal kind of art and even if two people have similar tats, it could mean different things to each of them. With in the last couple of years, there has been even more shows about tattoos the most popular are TLC's "Miami Ink" and "L.A Ink." Both are cool in the sense that they show what goes on in a tattoo shop and the people behind the body art. Personally, I love the art done by the head of Miami Ink,"Ami and L.A Ink'sKat Von D. Now, A&E is promoting a new tattoo reality show "Tattoo
Highway," I really curious to see what that will be about.

I have also noticed that a lot of clothing are showing traditional tattoo designs. While Ed Hardy and Sailor Jerry clothing have been around for a long time, there are based on these iconic tattoo artists' designs. However, there has been a lot of high-end designer house coming out with new collections that feature leather bags and dress littered with tattoo designs (some look pretty shitty). I was surprised when reading this month's ELLE and saw that they had a Trends page showing different pieces of clothing that was influenced by tattoo art. Designers and designer houses like Coach, Karl Lagerfeld, Rampage and Gucci are just a few who have jumped on the bandwagon.

While it is great that tattoo art is getting more exposure and society now While the exposure in pop culture has caused people to see that people from all walks of life, from bikers and ex-cons to business men and house wives, can have tattoos and that having a tat doesn't make you a menace to society. Yet I have a kind of love-hate feeling about tattoos in the media. On the one hand, pop culture has improve the view of tattoos as a form of self expression and eased the stigma people have on tats and the people that have them. There has been a few formal exhibitions on tattoo art as well. However, I can't help but think that most see it as only a fad that will pass. Even though tattoos are really popular, there are many who still don't see as a form of art like painting despite handful of exhibitions. While there is definitely some crappy tats out there that were done on drunken nights, there are others that are done by real artist that have spent time and money in art college and in all the time in training with establish tattoo artists.

What do you think about tattoos in pop culture? Drop a comment

Interview w/ Vince Hemington

Vince Hemington is one of the creators the site vanishingtattoos (he created the site with tattoo artist Thomas Lockhart). Vanishing tattoos is a good site for anyone who is into tattoos. It has something for everyone at any level of interest; there are pages about celebrity tattoos, for those of us who are celebrity obsessed and boast the largest online tattoo museum in the world, for those who are into learning about the history and culture significance of different types of tattooing and tattoo designs. The site covers everything from tribal tattoos to contemporary design and even offers statistics on tattoos in America. It is a great resource if you want to learn more about a particular style or just to get some ideas for your own tat.

Vince was kind enough to let me interview him for an intern project and figured it would be cool to throw up on here:

Me:When did you begin the site?
Vince Hemington: Vanishing tattoo.com was launched on September 6, 1999.

M:Why did you create it?
V:It was a new and interesting way to distribute our documentary series proposal to broadcasters all over the world. It was also a means to post some of research as an information resource to people interested in indigenous tattoos and body art in general.

M:I really like the museum portion of the site, it is really different from the rest of the site and not just visually but seems more formal. Can you explain why you created it and why it is set up the way it is?
V:The Museum is intended to be more rigorously academic and research oriented.
The look came about because the Museum was developed two years ago and I was interested in a unique design and aesthetic for that section of the website. I also wanted the Museum section to feel like it had been curated and the sections to look like Museum Halls.

M:I am curious to just hear what draws you to devote yourself to tattoos.
V:Here's the long answer.
http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/sacred_mark.htm

M:What do you think about tattoo culture in the media (i.e. Miami Ink and L.A Ink). Is it a positive or a negative?
V:It undoubtedly raises the profile of tattooing among the general public, but it is clearly entertainment and not a very reliable or realistic portrayal of tattooing culture.
The general media is even more blissfully ignorant of the history and heritage of tattooing and body art within popular culture. That's the reason I continue the site.

M:Where do you get most of the information for the site?
V:All the written material on the web site was either written by myself or other credited writers, based on our research.
In the Museum section, we have a bibliography.

M:What was it like to film the Vanishing Tattoo Documentary?
V:It really was one of those, "Once in a lifetime" types of experiences. Quite extraordinary.

M:You seem to use a lot of different mediums to explore and talk about tattoos, what do you hope to accomplish through all this?
V:Pictures, photos, the written word and film all offer unique and interesting ways to convey information and knowledge to people in a way that you hope they will find both informative and enjoyable.

The Art of the Insane: Paul Klee

As an Art Management major at Purchase, I have an interest in Art History so every semester I try to take at least one art history class. This semester I am taking this really interesting class called Madness and Modernity. We look at the art depicting, influenced and created by those who are considered insane, whether they really were crazy or not.

Right now we are covering a section called "Art of the Insane." We are looking at many different examples of art done by inmates of varies asylums across Europe and the art done by those who were influenced by it. One of the artist we looked at is Paul Klee.

Paul Klee was born near Bern, Switzerland but moved to Munich. What interested me about his work is his philosophy. He studied the art made by the insane and of children and used it in his own art. He looked at the art of the insane and of children not because related to them or was insane himself which many critics at the time wrote about him and other artist who took interest in the art of the insane, but saw that their art helda kind of creative purity that most art lacks. He believe that as a result of all the training artist went through and looking at their predecessors, there was a disruption of the free-flow of creativity. He argued that the art of children and the insane opened a door that was closed to most artists too early. So by studying the art of the insane he hope to re-open this door and create art of free-form and rebel against more accepted forms of art. By no means was it about emotions, most of his art has a sense of control but it is more about non-conformity and flowing through different forms of reality. Also, I think that the element of different realities comes from looking at art of the asylum inmates since some people who are mentally unstable often talk about seeing or believeing in other levels of realities different from the one we live in like what Paul Schreber wrote about in Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (good book though some of the stuff he writes about is pretty out there).

His style is very spastic so it makes it hard to actually place he in any particular movement though he had interactions with artist in the German Expressionist movement. In some of his pieces flip-flops between three-dimensional and two-dimensional figures which goes back to going between differnt realityies. He also uses recognizable symbols like in Wildman (at the right) he uses an arrow in place of a penis (kind of random if you ask me). Sometimes his work was just unsettling and piercing and then there are others where you can definitely see the influence of child art (like the image above) because he does a great job of capturing that child-like visual without it being sloppy or looking like a kid actually did it; it is very controlled and intentional. This is one of the reasons I like his stuff. In the end, I think his stuff, more than anything, represents the outsider looking at what is going on around him/her and interpreting what they see.

Splash of Color

Just a lil' movie I made for the Leah Tacha shows April 16 @ Purchase College and April 17 @ Smith-Stewart Gallery in Manhattan. If your interested in seeing more of her work click: leah-tacha.com

Americana Tats

Americana style, also known as Sailor Tattoos, is visually distinct and very intertwined in American visual culture. When it comes to tattooing, I think it is safe to say that Americana is one, if not, the most recognized style of tats and the most commercial in America. We see it plastered on everything from t-shirts to skateboards to oneises thanks to lines such as Ed Hardy. He is the one who I think most people today tend to think of when looking at Americana. But even before Ed Hardy shirts and hats, Americana tattoos were often seen gracing the skin of sailors. They often got them when they pulled into ports all around the states and in other countries. While sailors and tattooing has been around since the first European saw Native Americans that had intricate designs adorned on their skin, the style doesn't really start to take shape til the turn of the 20th century with the advent of the electric needle and a man known as Sailor Jerry.

Sailor Jerry was the American tattooist of his time and developed lots of tattooing standards that are still used to day like single-use needles and developed a whole range of pigments that were never before used. His style was influenced by Japanese design and sailor culture (he joined the navy in his late teens). He was most known for his attention to detail and his playful designs and was often copied. He mentored many well-known tattoo artist such as Don Ed Hardy, Rollo Banks and Dan Nolan.

It has uses thick black outline with bright colors often (but not limited to) yellows, red , blues and greens. Some of the subject matter often depicted are pin-ups, anchors, pirate ships, gypsy, tigers, snakes and skulls. What I personally like about the style is that it bold and in your face. In a way it represents a kind of freedom and stand against authority which I think reflects American culture . Yet, there is a kind of mysticism with all it's references to death and certain animals such as the tiger which is usually associated with fierceness which you try to tap into.

ARt w/ Leah Tacha

There are a lot of really interesting MFA candidates this year at Purchase's conservatory of art but one of the one's that stood out to me is Leah Tacha. So, since I am an Arts Management major at Purchase, I really wanted to try and help her out while gaining some experience in managing the arts. What draws me to her work is her fantastic use of color. I think even if your are not into contemporary art, you can get hooked on her use of bright, bold colors. She uses a lot of found materials like plastic bags and foam ad bends them into interesting shapes in her sculptures. She also does a lot of 2-d work which also uses lot of color and has many textural elements. Plus she uses glitter and doesn't like a little sparkle? A lot of her stuff is fun, a little quirky and humorous. There is this one piece that is on her site called "Chicken Legs" that I couldn't help but grin when I saw it. Artist's site: http://www.leah-tacha.com

She has two major shows in April, one here at Purchase on the 16th and one at the Smith-Stewart Gallery in uptown Manhattan on the 17th. She is a Cleveland Institute of Art grad and has received the Martha M. Spindler award for excellence in Painting in 2007, the President's Award for excellence in the Arts from Purchase in 2009 and is up for the 2009 Thayer and Ross Fellowship for Outstanding Achievement and High Professional Achievement in the Arts. There has been a number of different places she has shown including the Westchester Arts Council in White Plains, the Salamanca Arts Center in Tasmania, Australia and the Reinberger Gallery in Cleveland.

My Tattoo

I love tattoo imagery and i am always reading up on tattooing practices in other cultures and watching any documentary i can on them. I have always seen tattoos as a form of art. I think they take us back to a period in art where there was a lot of interaction between the artist and the viewer or patron. It is a lot like the Fluxus/Happenings art movements in that where art is more about involving the viewer to take part in making the art happen. When you get a tattoo, you often have a two way talk about how the piece is going to look. It is like Pop Art in the way it is less about intellectuals interpet the design and more about using socially reconizable imagery that most people in society can read through the use of visually imagery. And in the end that is all art truly is; a way that we all can communicate who we are. What I love about tattoos and all body art in general it that they have a life to them. They are permant and you carry it always. And the best part of it is that it is not mucked up by intellectual property and copyright laws.

For a couple of years i have been wanting to get tattoo. I have waited this long because I wanted to make sure what ever I got, I wouldn't regret it later on or got tired of it. As cheesey as it sounds, I wanted to get something meaningful and personal. And after a lot of time thinking and re-doing the design of it, I have finally decided on a design that really captures my out look in life.

I drew the design on three ideas. One was a line from the song "What Are You Waiting For" by Gwen Stefani. There is a line in the song that said "Born to blosom, Doom to perish." We all capable of doing great things we just tend to be afraid of idea of rejection and failure. I want it to be a constant reminder to live for today and try and accomplish all my goals (sappy, I know) because I don't have forever and there is nothing worse than wondering "what if." So the skull is death and the flower on top is beginning to open as in a birth. The sceond thing is that I love the idea of skull motifs and the idea of opposites conflicting. I see the skull as being a masculine symbol and yet there are girlie looking hearts on it and a lotus-like flower. There is a play of the feminie and the masculine. And the last inspiration was Maori tatttoo designs and Mexican day of the dead skulls. I love Maori tattoo designs so I used the idea of the painted skull seen from the day of the dead and used them to create my own interpetation.

I want it to be full color so maybe I'll post the color version. All in all I pretty excited about getting it. There are a bunch of people with tats at Purchase and most get them from this tattoo place in White Plains. They do some pretty good work so I am going to check them out. Now my only problem is trying getting over my fear of needles.