The Tattoosday Book Review: Skin Graf - Masters of Graffiti Tattoo

I guess it's no surprise to me that a quality book about the convergence of graffiti and tattoo art  has come to pass. Even less surprising is that Michael "Kaves" McLeer is involved.

Kaves is co-author, with Billy Burke, of  Skin Graf: Masters of Graffiti Tattoo, which is being released tomorrow, April 25, 2013, by Prestel Publishing.

In fact, before I even talk about the book, I should alert readers that tonight, April 24, 2013, Kaves and Burke, along with writer/producer Sacha Jenkins, will be speaking at the New York Public Library as part of the library's "Design and Style Series." The event runs from 6:00 to 8:00 PM and I plan on being in attendance. Directions and further details can be found here.

I am not a native New Yorker, but when I moved here in 1997, I settled in south Brooklyn, in the area known as Bay Ridge. My fellow city-dwellers who have lived here longer, recall the days when graffiti artists were household names, and have their share of memories of subway cars that were moving billboards for the daring and adventurous artists of this often-misunderstood art form.

When I started blogging about tattoos in 2007, it really was a learn-as-you-go experience for me. I first encountered the work of Kaves a year later, with this post. A year later, I met him, after he opened up shop on 93rd and 3rd near my home in Bay Ridge, and had the pleasure of watching him tattoo close-up (while I was being tattooed by another artist working in the space). His shop, Brooklyn Made Tattoo, is a fixture in the neighborhood and I run into Kaves from time to time, such as when he shared this tattoo, which was done by the legendary Mark Mahoney.

So you can imagine my excitement about the opportunity to read and review this new book, which chronicles   the history of some of the most well-known graffiti artists who have crossed over into the business of tattooing.

The list of artists ranges from Kaves to Seen ("the undisputed godfather of graffiti-inspired art on skin"), and includes Med, Baba, Mister Cartoon, Giant, Ces, Yes2, Pyro, Norm, Helz and Coast.

Each artist merits a chapter, cleverly color-tabbed, and chock-full of wonderful photos by Estevan Oriol and Angela Boatwright, and supplemented by many of the artists, as well.

The reader is introduced to each of these legendary figures with their tags, locations (Bronx, Brooklyn, San Francisco, L.A., Boston...), a small biographical blurb, and several pages of first-person narrative, accompanied by pictures of both art forms, graffiti and tattoo.

Seen

Photo by Estevan Oriol

The juxtaposition is brilliant, as the reader is treated to the sense of styles jumping from inanimate to animate, from brick to flesh. And just to prove to the naysayers who may question the "validity" of graffiti as an art form  we also see more traditional tattoos from these amazing artists, but with that extra something, a touch of the urban art that lies within the steady hand of the tattooers.

by Mister Cartoon

Photo by Estevan Oriol

I can't praise enough the ambitiousness and scope of this project, which succeeds to no end. It's amazing to see the versatility of these exceptional artists who can work as impressively on a canvas the size of a building facade or on something as small as the side of a hand.

Pyro Can

Photo by Estevan Oriol

by Kaves

Photo by Angela Boatwright

This book really is a visual treat.

by Mike Giant

Courtesy of Giant

by Mike Giant

Courtesy of Giant

The range of talent is breath-taking and I whole-heartedly recommend Skin Graf as a must-have for fans of graffiti art and tattooing.

My only criticism is that I want more. The book is bursting with color and styles, but it leaves me with questions, and wanting more. I would love to see a sequel. Are there any established female graffiti/tattoo artists? How about from other parts of the world? Hopefully we'll see a Skin Graf 2!

This book will hook you with its serious appreciation of the history and art of graffiti tattoo. It certainly expands one's appreciation of the art form, both on and off the human canvas. It's a must-have for your tattoo library!

Remember, if you're in New York City tonight, come to the New York Public Library to hear the authors discuss this incredible book.

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Laura Brooks Shares Her Parents Names and Her Toe Knuckles

I met Laura Brooks outside of Macy*s on 34th Street last month. She has a lot of tattoos (she estimates 60% of her canvas is covered), so I deferred to her, asking which she wanted to share with us here on Tattoosday.

She offered up her wrists:

These are her parents names, Davis and Blythe, and they were designed by a friend of hers whose graffiti moniker is "Gamble". She credited the actual tattooing to an artist named Joe from Beelistic's Blood Money Tattoo in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Laura Brooks also informed me that she had tattoos on her toes, but she was wearing shoes when I met her. Later that day, she held to her word and sent me a photo of her toe knuckle tattoos which read "Dirty South":

She added:

"The artist was Brent Hale at No Regrets Tattoo Emporium in Memphis, TN. It was actually his idea. I wanted to get toe knuckle tattoos & couldn't decide what I wanted it to say. He came up with it while we were working on a different piece ... The significance is kind of obvious. Hometown pride. (:

One thing about toe tattoos: by far the most painful spot. And you have to get them touched up about half a dozen times before they look right. I should probably go get them done one more time but I'm procrastinating because of the pain."

Thanks to Laura Brooks for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Great Big Banksy Post

I'd like to assume everyone knows who Banksy is, but then again, there was a point not too long ago when I didn't.
One of the nice things about this site is that it also acts as a personal timeline for me. Case in point: when I met Sarah and she shared this Banksy tattoo, I then became aware of the entity that made a name for himself (quite literally) by spray-painting graffiti around London.

How serious is this Banksy? When his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was nominated for an Oscar a couple years back, and he was in Los Angeles for the awards, he struck his graffiti claws into the City of Angels.

Art collectors were prepared, and within hours of his work being discovered, they had at it with jack hammers and chisels, removing the public display for private collectors, presumably at great profits.

I have since become familiar with Banksy through additional tattoo sightings (like this one) and from reading a few of the lovely books on the subject.

Last fall, I found two new books, companion volumes, that are exceptional introductions to Banksy, and also great companions to Banksy aficionados.

The two volumes, Banksy Locations & Tours Volume 1: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs in London, Englandand Banksy Locations & Tours Volume 2: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs from around the UKare great companion pieces that help one discover the work of Banksy. The author, Martin Bull, is a photographer who led walking tours of Banksy's public art in various English locales. He has taken great pains to catalog every Banksy piece, many of which have been demolished, painted over, or extricated from their original homes.

We even get GPS coordinates, so a true connoisseur can visit Banksy's ghosts.

Bull gets a little repetitive bemoaning the "theft" of the originasl and cursing those that profit from their sale. But I was able to look past that, and chalk it up to his uncompromising love of his subject.

These are not glossy tomes, but handy little guidebooks that would be worthy travel companions on any Banksy fan's pilgrimage to London.

And why am I rambling and reviewing these books here on Tattoosday?

I did mention two previous Banksy inspired posts and, it should come as no surprise, I have two more to share from 2011, as we come very close to the end of our backlog.

The first is from Natasha who I met in the now-vacant Borders bookstore on Penn Plaza. She has this piece on her arm:

One of Banksy's signature pieces is the rat, and he has multiple sequences of street art that involve rats, which are perfect vehicles for shining lights on society. This particular piece from Natasha is a "helicopter rat".

She credits Hexx, formerly at Fort Apache Tattoo Studio in Manhattan. 

Natasha told me, "I was actually surprised when I got this that more people didn't recognize it, because so many people know Banksy now." The rat using a helicopter blade to paint in a presumably inaccessible location is a classic Banksy motif.

The second Banksy piece we're appreciating today is from Taylor, whose ink has appeared previously in Tattoosday here.

Since Taylor first appeared on Tattoosday, she's had a lot of work done, but most impressive is this Banksy piece on her lower back:



This tattoo is based on this amazing Banksy piece:

When I asked Taylor why she chose this particular piece of art, she replied "The way it's raining underneath the umbrella, I feel like it's always raining on me."

She credits Angel at Puncture Tattoo Studio in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, with inking this on her back.

Thanks to Natasha and Taylor for sharing their work with us here on Tattoosday. And, of course, thanks to Banksy for providing the inspiration.

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Life is War

Back in April, I met Joshua outside of Penn Station, and he shared this, one of his five tattoos:

This forearm tattoo, exemplifies Joshua's philosophy that life is war: "you have to go through war to get where you're going."

An ex-girlfriend drew it up for him and then he had it tattooed by Jamie at Bullseye Tattoo Shop in Staten Island, New York.

Thanks to Joshua for sharing this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoo from a Francophile

Earlier this summer, I posted a couple of tattoos from Joe, seen here.

Needless to say, Joe became a fan, and updated me with a new tattoo, below:

Joe explains:

"The picture is fresh from the artist finishing it. It is "C077X" and is a nod to James Franco and General Hospital. He is my fav actor and I have been watching General Hospital for at least 21 years. It is the the tag that "Franco" sprayed on everything when he recently guest starred on GH as an artist/serial killer. His character's name is Franco, reflecting that art imitates life. A motto the actor and character believe, and so do I. That is why I got the tattoo. To prove art imitates life!"

Photo Credit: ABC via http://sn.soapnet.go.com

The tattoo was inked by Rob at Brooklyn Ink. Rob originally appeared here as a contributor here. And is one of several artists that has represented Brooklyn Ink over the years on Tattoosday. This label links all of the work from the shop previously seen on Tattoosday.

Thanks to Joe for sharing his new tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

"You Gotta Go There to Come Back": Sarah Shares Three Tattoos

Sarah's half-sleeve jumped out at me in Penn Station as I was quietly bemoaning cooler weather and the dwindling of my blog backlog.

I was pleased to find Sarah more than accommodating, as she shared several perspectives of the ink tattooed on her upper right arm.

Visiting from Newcastle, Australia, her tattoos revolved around this piece at the center of her bicep:


I asked if there was any significance to these two women, but Sarah noted that they were just two pretty girls.

This fluid script is on the outside of her arm:


It states "You gotta go there to come back..." or, in her words, you have to "understand how shitty it can be, before how good it can get".

On her inner arm is the following tattoo:


Sarah says that this design of an angel on a cigarette break is based on the work of a popular London graffiti artist named "Banksy".


All of her work was done by Pat, the owner of 2012 Tattoo Studio in Newcastle.

Thanks very much to Sarah for sharing her incredible tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

As mentioned in the previous post, I was having some luck spotting some tattoos while riding my bike along the path that runs along the southern tip of Brooklyn.

Last weekend, I was riding north and passed a woman sunbathing in a bikini in the grass along the bike path. I noticed she had some sort of intricate pattern inked on her foot. Yes, I am that committed to Tattoosday that when I see a woman in a bikini, I notice her foot!

However, I chose not to stop and disturb her and kept riding. Yet, the image of her tattooed foot hounded me, and by the time I had reached the 69th Street Pier and grabbed some water at a local store, I had decided to head back a couple of miles and see if she was still there.

Of course, she was gone. I stopped my bike and looked at the spot where she had been and thought of what might have been. I checked the time on my phone and was getting ready to head home when a guy named Danny walked by on the path. He has 12 tattoos. I approached him and we started talking about his ink.

Danny offered up this lower back piece:


This seemed the most appropriate tattoo to discuss as we were standing under the Verrazano Bridge. This long shot gives a better idea of the appropriateness of the tattoo:


Danny is Brooklyn-born and raised, and a lot of his friends growing up were graffiti artists. This street-style tattoo is true to his upbringing and a key element of his roots in South Brooklyn.

The piece was inked by Mr. Kaves at Brooklyn Ink. Danny explained that Kaves ran Brooklyn Ink before the current owner Joe had the shop (he has work by Joe as well). There's a nice piece about Mr. Kaves in Prick Magazine here.

Kaves is a founding member of The Lordz, a well-known rock-rap band. They were featured in five episodes of a show called "The Brooklyn Way" which aired on FUSE. The show website is here.

As an added bonus, here's a clip of the Lordz, featuring Everlast, performing their song "The Brooklyn Way":



Thanks to Danny for sharing his Brooklyn ink with us here on Tattoosday!

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 5

I really hit my stride on Sunday when I approached a group of young guys hanging out at the street fair in front of the Rite Aid at 93rd and 3rd.

No offense guys, if you're reading this, but I most likely would have passed you up as possible Tattoosday subjects had it been any other setting. These guys were young, in the early twenties, and looked pretty tough. The mass of ink added to their hard edges.

I approached one of them and started explaining myself, but he seemed very reluctant. However, his friends joined in the discussion and, before I knew it, two of them had allowed me take some pictures and post them here.

I will start with John Candela. He was totally into participating. He first had a young lady lift up the back of his shirt to reveal a huge back piece:



The large cross is a tribute to his friends Rob and Frank.

He then showed me the tattoo on his left arm which was a tribute to the same guys and to a third friend, Smokey, who he called his guardian angels. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are three angels are around the edge of the piece (only the one at the top is visible).


Lastly, he showed me this free-hand graffiti-like piece, which spells out his last name, Candela, which is the Spanish word for candle, which represents flames, and merged with the fiery border design produces a nice effect.


John credited the work to an artist named "Steve the Butcher," who free-lances out of his house, and is not affiliated with any shop.

I did not ask, as he did not offer, what happened to Smokey, Rob and Frank that caused them to die at such an early age. Had he wanted me to know, I'm sure he would have told me.

The other tattoo I captured belonged to Jaimie, who I think had one of the coolest pieces of the day.

It's actually one piece that wrapped around his left forearm. I generally avoid tattoos that wrap around because it is hard to capture the essence of the piece in photographs.

But it's worth a try, so check these out:






The message is "Brooklyn, born and raised." The Brooklyn Bridge is represented, along with the Statue of Liberty. The best part of the piece, however, is the "and" represented by the letter N of the N train (on wich I am currently riding as I type this up). The N express services a big chunk of Brooklyn (as well as Manhattan and Queens). The "raised" is inked like graffiti on the N train, completing a sweet Brooklyn-themed tribute to the borough in which Tattoosday is based.

Jaimie credited this awesome tattoo to Angel at Hypnotic Designs in Sunset Park.

A hearty thanks to Jaimie and John for their participation in Tattoosday!