Art-N-Body Tattoo Blog

Tattoo Culture

This article about tattoo influenced culture makes for a good read. I find it interesting that Sailor Jerry (one of my favorite clothing lines - available at Art-N-Body) runs revenues of about $16 million a year. This is much more than I would have imagined and is a positive sign of the times. Old skool tattoo imagery is still in and growing.

I agree with the author in that tattoos seem to go against the traditional bell curve of cultural trends. Typically as unique personal identifiers become more popular they eventually die off as a result of not being unique any longer.  Even with the bulk of the population having tattoos - their popularity keeps growing. The uniqueness of each work of art may be the reason why. In other forms of fashion there can only be so many designs created until the brand or a specific design becomes vanilla. Tattoos are a fashion statement that are rarely reproduced. Even with flash art being shared most artists will put their own twist on a piece so that the design represents a unique personal piece of art. All of this being said tattoos are really not a trend as continued lifetime growth and positive law trends continue to push them into popularity.

The uniqueness of tattoos will come from the quality of the wearers artwork and the amount of work that they actually wear.

/ANB

Ed Hardy

One of my favorite Lines that we sell at Art-N-Body is Christian Audigier's Ed Hardy line. It was the first line that we chose to sell and is truly inspired by one of the all time great tattoo artists - Don Ed Hardy who apprenticed under tattoo legend Sailor Jerry.

I finally had a chance to visit Ed Hardy's flagship store located on Melrose in Los  Angeles. I've been wanting to visit for over a year now and it was definitely worth the wait. The coolest item in the store (all of the clothing rocks!) was some of Don Ed Hardy's original flash artwork. We will definitely have some hanging in our shop very soon.

About Don Ed Hardy
Hardy opened his own tattoo shop, Dragon Tattoo, in Vancouver, British Columbia. The shop lasted less than a year. After closing the shop, Hardy worked in Seattle with tattooist Zeke Owen briefly, and then settled down in San Diego, tattooing in the studio of Doc Webb. Two years of tattooing sailors refined his technical skills and allowed him to save enough money to open another shop in San Diego.

In 1969, Hardy struck up a correspondence with Sailor Jerry, who at the same time was corresponding with Japanese tattoo artist Horihde Oguri. Hardy had always been interested in Japanese art and tattooing, and in 1973 Hardy accepted an invitation from Horihide to come to Japan and study Irezumi (Japanese tattooing) while working in his studio. Hardy spent six months immersed in the technique and culture that surrounds tattooing in Japan.

Returning to America, Hardy spent several months working in San Diego before moving back to San Francisco where he opened his third studio, Realistic, which was the first appointment-only tattoo studio in America. In 1977 he partnered with tattooist Bob Roberts and opened the Tattoo City in the Mission District of San Francisco. The next three years were busy and tumultuous for Hardy. Difficult circumstances forced the new studio to move, and Hardy himself purchased Los Angeles based tattooist Charlie Cartwright's studio after a religious conversion caused Cartwright to leave the industry. By 1980, Hardy was back to working alone, by appointment only, at Realistic.

Today Hardy tattoos only by appointment out of his San Francisco studio, having closed Realistic and re-opened Tattoo City as a multi-artist studio in 1999. Since the 1980's, he has concentrated heavily on non-tattoo based art forms, especially printmaking, drawing and painting.

/mike

The above "About Don Ed Hardy" information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ed_Hardy

Affliction / Sinful Thermals and Hoodies

Our shipment of Affliction and Sinful Thermals, hoodies and 2fers just arrived! Stop in and pick one up for yourself or as a holiday gift. Over 35 styles!

Click on the image to enlarge.

Gift Certificates are also available!

/ANB

Gift Certificates

Happy Holidays!

Be sure to stop in and pick up some official Art-N-Body Gift Certificates! They can be used towards any of our tattoo-inspired apparel or Body Art services.   

Also - a new batch of Affliction Hoodies and Thermals are on the way and will be in this week. Be sure to stop in and stock up for the winter!

/The Art-N-Body Team