Features Archives - Page 66 of 150

May 18, 2016May 18, 2016

5 must-see minimal artists

Five must-see minimal tattoo artists to keep an eye on compiled by our guest writer, Katie Houghton

Tati Compton

(Photo Credit: www.instagram.com/taticompton)

Interviewed by Vice, showered with likes on Instagram and even acknowledged by the dastardly Daily Mail, Tati Compton is a notable name on the London stick-n-poke scene. Hailing from San Francisco and renowned for her delicate, yet symbolically free-hand work, Tati (Tatiana Kartomten) has more than impressed the capital with her blend of ethereal, dotted and intricate designs. The waiting list for her work is all sorts of long, but owing to a friend that has been lucky enough to snag a Compton piece, it’s worth the wait.

Tealeigh

(Photo Credit:www.instagram.com/tealeigh)

Another must-try minimal name, if you’re hopping a flight to Brooklyn any time soon, is Texas born Tealeigh. Offering up designs that flirt with sass and foliage combined, Tealeigh’s artistic structure is both petite and empowering, you need only look at her Instagram of bottomless quotes and floral notes to prove it. From fine greenery and tidy bugs to humble skulls, her lines are neat and her message like a shot of whisky with a tequila chaser and then a beer, to the heart. With a tote that raves of ‘cash poor, pussy rich’… I’m buyin’.

Maddy Young

(Photo Credit: maddyyoung.com)

Melbourne is the next stop for minimal. While Maddy Young herself is not actually a fully fledged tattoo artist, so much of her art has been featured on willing flesh that it would be a shame not to mention her on this list. With a dark stance, somewhat devilish echo and floral edge, Maddy Young fills the gap for those that want to keep their tattoos neat and petite, but don’t want to compromise on added sting. From cobwebs and moths to bold monochrome lines and dotted edges, Young’s work is inky and enticing.

Daisy Does Tattoos

(Photo Credit: http://jackpotdw.tumblr.com)

From botany and chickens, to John Waters and bottles of beer, it doesn’t seem like Berlin based Daisy Does Tattoos has much of a necessitated ‘theme’ to her minimal artistry, other than gnarly and much-wanted doses of black and white for Germany of course. Cartoon-esque, slightly rough around the edges but still able to knock out precise-to-nature greenery should the occasion so rise, Daisy promises throaty and cult-culture tattoos with a tidy, soft and gossamer edge.

Kaiyu Huang

(Photo Credit: thevandalist.com)

Born of Shanghai but now making his name more prominent that ever in urban New York, Kaiyu Huang is a tattoo artist that makes easy work of passionate details and simple yet pow-packing colours. Teasing symbolic black and white pieces with bi-colours and regular doses of red, Huang’s work is pretty damn noticeable where you to see it. While a lot of his main tattoo work consists of bulkier pieces, it’s his minimal work that’s making him stick out like a loveable thumb.

May 15, 2016

You, Me & Bones

27-year-old Waan Pivasiri is a candle maker and creator of You, Me & Bones in Melbourne, Australia. We chatted to Waan about what inspires her creepy and cute candles…

How long have you been making candles? You, Me & Bones’ third birthday will be at the end of April!

How did you start? What did you do before? It started as a hobby; I wanted to gift my friends one off hand-made products rather than things that are mass produced in a factory. I was a front end web developer at the time and after a year or so, I went part time so I can focus more on candle making. Then a year after that I went full time on You, Me & Bones!

Do you have a background in art? Not really, however, I’d like to think I’m pretty creative. I used to draw, paint, sketch and all that but I don’t think I was ever really good at it. I like all things crafty and I like making’things, I’ve been dabbling a little in cross stitching and well as pottery and I’m loving it!

What is the process behind each one? How do you make them? I brainstorm ideas of what I’d like to make then my sculptor Dan create a master for me and we go ahead and create molds off the cast. Sometimes we have to remake the cast if, say the candle won’t burn down nicely, etc, but most of the time it’s perfect. I then make candles out of the mold! The best bit is the first time you unmold your new design. I get super excited!

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What inspires you? Everything I create or want to create are the things and people I am fascinated with and would like to have in my own home. I find dolls so creepy but I just can’t pull away from them. I have a small collection of random doll parts but I have them tucked away so I don’t see them because sometimes they just weird me out so much. I know, it doesn’t make sense, but things that don’t make sense inspires me.

Can you tell us about your own tattoos? Apart from my shoulder tattoo (which is also my favourite – done by Lee Stain from Inktricate), all my other tattoos are kind of hidden. They are mostly on my the front and sides of my thighs – I feel like they would hurt the least so I get tattooed there. My sculptor Dan Danckert is also a tattoo artist at Killer Bees Tattoos and he did a beautiful Victorian doll head candle on my thigh. I also have a lot of candle and cat tattoos on me!

Where can people buy them and do you do commissions? You can find my products on my webshop. You can also check out my Instagram for updates and the like. Unfortunately I normally don’t have time for commissions but it never hurt to send me a nice email to ask about it!

May 12, 2016May 14, 2016

Art Macabre: Becoming Art for a Night

Our editor Alice Snape was asked to pose for an Art Macabre lifedrawing session at Museum of London, which was part of the Tattoo London exhibition. As a first-time naked model, here’s how she felt about the experience and seeing her body as art…

“Me? A model? That I am definitely not. I hate having my photo taken, and I am very critical of my appearance, which probably comes from years of self-conscious anxiety and a childhood spent in a chubby awkward body that I was never quite comfortable in – I think I am yet to grown into my nose! But when I was asked by Nikki, who runs Art Macabre, to be a lifedrawing model for the evening, I had to say yes. It felt like one of those experiences that should be on your bucket list, and as a 32-year-old woman who has worked really hard on overcoming that teenage insecurity and becoming comfortable in her own skin, there didn’t seem like a better time to do it.

“Before the evening, I asked Nikki to give me some advice, as a first-timer. She told me to: Breathe and relax into poses and, on a practical note, bring a dressing gown to wear in-between poses and during the break. All day before the event, I was a bag of nerves, running different scenarios though my mind – a constant reel of what ifs! But, the moment I took step onto that platform and got into the first pose (five minutes to warm up), I felt incredible, empowered, strong and beautiful.

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“I fixed my eyes on the twinkling lights that surrounded the space and they lulled me into a mediative state. I listened to the sound of pencils and quiet concentration, eyes looking up at me and back down to the blank canvas, pictures of my body and tattoos slowly forming on the pages. I thought about how my body might look through the eyes of everyone in front of me, during one pose I focused on a determined looking woman who seemed lost in the movements of her pencil. A few brief moments of self-doubt flitted through my mind – what if I am not interesting enough to draw? – but they soon dissipated when I realised everyone surrounding me was creating their own interpretation of me.

“The evening consisted of a few short standing postures and some longer (25 minutes) seated poses. As the night drew to a close, each of the artists lay their work onto the floor to share it with each other and the models… Looking at each work of art, I realised I have grown very fond of my body as it has become more covered with tattoos. I have taken ownership of my body by choosing where each tattoo goes, and I love my colourful skin. Over the past couple of years, I have also started exercising regularly and even ran a marathon! I love the fact that my body is fit and healthy, and that has boosted my confidence hugely. My thighs, for example, have always been a part of my body I have hated. I always think they are chunky, they have bumps and cellulite that no matter how much I exercise will not disappear. But they are mine, they are strong and that means they are beautiful.

“I saw that each person had drawn my body slightly differently, my curves slightly more or less rounded, in some I looked bigger and in some small. Everyone sees an object through their own eyes, putting on that object their own preferences. It was enlightening and uplifting to see that subjectivity about the form of my own body – no one is ever going to be as critical of it as myself.

“I walked away from the evening with renewed self confidence and a want to relive the experience. It felt like a true celebration of my naked self and at last a goodbye to any anxiety I had!”

Here’s some works of art created on the night:

May 10, 2016May 12, 2016

A chat with David Corden at the 2016 Venice Tattoo Gathering

Guest writer Sarah Armstrong takes us through an inspiring weekend at the Venetian Tattoo Gathering that took place on Friday 29th April – Sunday 1st May 2016.

The Venetian Tattoo Gathering saw a private gathering of artists meet under the frescoed ceilings of the Palazzo Ca’Zenobio – a gilded 1690s Venetian Palace hidden away in the labyrinth of Venice’s canals. The Venetian Tattoo Gathering focused on learning, drawing, painting and tattooing, emphasising education for all artists within the tattoo industry and, unlike usual conventions, was not open to the general public.

Paul Booth, Jeff Gogue, Nick Baxter and Steve Butcher were among many of the artists present, and I spoke to realism artist and owner of Edinburgh’s Semper studio, David Corden, on why the educational structure of this gathering was so important to him and other artists.

Jeff Gogue working on Juliet Preston’s sleeve

David Corden stood with Sam Ford and the back piece she worked on this weekend.

David believed that the gathering was able to work like this because everyone involved was taking part because it’s their passion. Unlike a ‘normal’ job, it’s not like a business sending its employees to learn the latest things and sit through seminars they don’t want to be in. David and the other artists put themselves here deliberately because they want to learn more about their craft.

The painting hall was filled with fine artists

Hand poke artist Colin Dale embraced by client

Realism artist Sam Ford tattoos a neck

David, along with many other artists, gave seminars as well tattooing over the weekend. BJ Betts held lettering workshops and there were live collaborations from the likes of Fantasy Artists Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Paul Booth and Stefano Alcantara. Panelled critiques of submitted work were also held in front of an audience.

Live collaboration from Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Paul Booth and Stefano Alcantara

David Corden panels with other artists on the submitted critique

“We pay our own money to sit through a seminar from people we admire,” David told me, “and sometimes it’s just for a bit of affirmation that we are on the right track or that we are using products that are correct or techniques we have got – it may simply be that we need more experience or practice doing things.”

One of the many panelled discussions tackling the biggest questions in tattooing today

David explained that an artist’s ego can be an incredibly fragile thing… so if they are good on paper it frustrates them that they are not as good on skin or as quick as they would like to be. To hear from someone else that it does take a while and they are on the right track can be very valuable.

“Posing in the same place Madonna filmed Like a Virgin, because… I’m Madonna”

The Venetian Tattoo Gathering was the perfect location for this kind of inspirational event, (if it was good enough for Madonna’s Like a Virgin video) and as David mentioned, the outcome of this kind of event was supposed to help you do better work as an artist and return back in to the studio revitalised and refreshed.

The humble nature of all the artists present and willingness to learn from each other this weekend was overwhelming. David noted that by the end of the weekend “if you are lucky, you have managed to talk to some of your heroes – and thats the thing, everyone who comes here is star struck over somebody, even the most famous people have heroes here – it was just absolutely incredible and that’s the pull of things like this, they got involved because of the way it is run and the reason it takes place. ”

Writer Sarah can be contacted via her email at: sarah.gillian.armstrong@gmail.com

May 9, 2016May 12, 2016

An interview with PMU technician, Rachel Pitman

Here is the second part of T&I resident make-up artist Keely’s write-up on permanent make-up technician Rachel Pitman. Rachel answers some of the most common questions associated with PMU. (read part one here)

What is permanent makeup?
It derives from tattooing, but the rotary machine I use is extremely lightweight and the application is quite different…it works very slowly and very gently, and I apply a topical anesthetic to alleviate any pain.

What’s the difference between PMU and traditional tattooing?
The pigments I use are produced specifically to mimic make-up and I don’t deposit the ink quite as deep into the dermis, which helps it to gradually fade over time. I’m doing a tattoo apprenticeship and I’m discovering that so many of the techniques and processes are completely different! The face is much more delicate and this really dictates the process. You have a lot more leeway with tattoos to get creative.

How long have you been working with PMU?
I trained with Nouveau Contour almost eight years ago and before that I studied Fine Art for five years, so it was a very different direction for me. But I really wanted to do something that utilised my creativity and my perfectionist tendencies!

What made you want to get into the industry?
I’ve always been obsessed with eyebrows – I had mine tattooed with permanent make-up back when I was at uni. But the technician made a real mess of it, I figured I could do a much better job myself.

What is the thing that people request most regarding permanent make-up?
Eyebrows! I remedy over plucked, lost, or weak brows on men and women. I often treat people with decent hair growth who want to perfect what they’ve got. But emulating hair strokes on clients who’ve lost their brows from chemotherapy or alopecia is really rewarding. It makes such a difference to their confidence to regain something they’ve lost like that.

What have you had done yourself?
Apart from my brows, I’ve got a beauty spot and I’ve tattooed the contour of my upper lip line – just along the cupid’s bow. It gives my lips extra volume and definition. Discreet and well planned permanent make-up is extremely effective!

How do you see the industry evolving?
I think it will evolve as the demand does. Brows are at the forefront right now, so a lot of focus has shifted to creating authentic hair-strokes. Maybe in a few years eyeliner will take precedence and everyone will be obsessed with creating super elegant, feline eyes.

Is there trends with permanent make-up like there are with the make-up industry?
I’m mindful not to overstep the boundaries… for example I’ll create a really thick brow if 1. It genuinely suits my customer and 2. They have a lot of existing hair to ensure it looks natural. But generally, discretion is the aim, and most beauty trends aren’t in keeping with that… so it’s not too much of an issue.

Do you find that you are fixing a lot of botched jobs?
Yes! I correct a lot of work from “cowboy” technicians. These techs are charging low prices cbeause they’re poorly trained, using cheap equipment, and quite possibly unlicensed. Like tattooing, the industry is unregulated, and people need to thoroughly research their practitioner.

Rachel can be contacted via her website: rachel-pitman.com or via Facebook and her Instagram @permanent_makeup_london. Her tattoo apprentice page is @p_i_t_m_a_n