Skin Illustrations

There's been a bunch of recent talk about body art (aka tattooing); people are talking about who has them and why they have them. Why people choose this form of expression is difficult to fathom, as this form of self-adornment means many things to many people.

Tattooing has a long history going back over 5000 years. Cultures around the world practice the art. However, since it was forbidden in The Old Testament and by the Torah, Europeans were without this custom for the majority of the last two millennia.

Because of this religious intolerance, and the social stratification which existed in the monarchies of European societies during the 18th century, the sailors who returned with "souveniers" from their voyages to Aisa and the South Pacific were often looked down upon. They were seen as marks of paganism. Hence, Western cultures have regarded tattoos, and tattooed people, with a mixture of xenophobia, classism, and anti-apostasism.

Discussion of this topic would be incomplete without reference to a seminal book published in the early 90's: Modern Primitives. The editors have compiled a collection of essays and interviews. The entries actually range through the entire spectrum of Modern Primitivism (aka Modprim), including piercing, branding, scarification, and whole host of other delights. You will find an interview with Fakir, regarded to be the father of the Modprim movement. But, the one that fascinates me the most is the story of ManWoman. After reading about him, you will never look at tattoos or swastikas the same.

Around the time this book was published, there was an incredible growth in the acceptance and availability of tattoos. Tattoo shops were springing up everywhere; I remember Santa Barbara going from one shop to eight in a 3 year period while I was in college there. This is when I began my affair with skin art. For me, skin illustrations have always been an iconic form of transmitting information. Take a look at my first piece, done by Jeff Rassier:


The character up front is The Lorax of Dr. Suess fame. He's standing in the classic "orator's pose". Behind him is a hemp leaf (aka Cannabis sativa); he's speaking out and telling everyone, "I speak for the trees. Grow hemp if you please."

Many people say that tattoos are addicting; I think they may be right. I've got ideas for all kinds of tattoos, but they are usually squelched by the cost of a tattoo fix. For my next illustration, I decided on getting some work done in New York:


This is actually a two-part tattoo. The colored center, symbolically representing the universal energy (Qi) was the first part, done by some nutty woman on the Lower East Side. She did a very poor job, but when I went to have it fixed up by adding the tribal portions on the outside, the second artist was surprised and stated that the woman in question usually did very good work. Well, Craig Cooley from Abstract Tribal fixed it up nice.

Next, while I was in the Marine Diving Technologies program, I got a little memento:


This reproduction of the MDT program's logo was done by Sebastian Orth in the late 90's. The coincidence is that this past spring my buddy Emmet benefited from Sebastian's fine work as well.

Well, all this talk about tattoos kinda got me hankering for some fresh ink. Even my wife suddenly became interested and started thinking about it. She's a tattoo virgin and her birthday was coming up, so I recently treated her and myself to another little visit to Sebastian, since Emmet had reminded me of his talents:


And here's the finshed product:


Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little show and tell; let me know what you think.

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