Category: Art

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Tattoo Artist Myra Brodsky

New York tattoo artist Myra Brodsky has created a line of spooky inspired tattoos titled Cabinet of Curiosities, which features ghouls, goblins and 19th century magic. Strongly influenced by art nouveau and the Victorian age, Brodsky has developed a style that is feminine, classic yet dark…

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I’m not interested in making little girls happy in the simplest way, and if I was I wouldn’t even be able to serve that, I only see the world through my own twisted mind and it just happens to be dark inside of there. I cannot help it.

What inspired you to become a tattoo artist and what drew you to the world of tattooing? I did not become a tattoo artist because I really wanted to. For me it came out of an emergency situation. I was 19 when I started to tattoo. I had to pay college fees and rent all by myself after I lost my father. My mother stopped talking to me and disappeared after he passed so I had to figure out a way to provide for myself. Luckily tattooing gave me the chance to generate some pocket money. At that time I had no idea what I was doing so I let my insane state of mind direct my actions.

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How long have you been tattooing? I started tattooing in 2008 when I met my best friend at the time who was already working at a tattoo shop. I did not take it seriously when I started and it was more of a way to try out things and tattoo my friends. It took me a while to figure out that it was something I could actually get really good at.

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How would you describe your style? How has it developed over time? It’s always very hard for me to put in words what my style is about. I get inspired by a lot of different things, periods of art and places I’ve been to. I settled down in New York City a while ago. But when I was still traveling from one place to another without a steady home base, I was so mad about absorbing all sorts of inspiration I was able to find anywhere in this world. Soon my style transformed into a blend of decorative elements you can basically find in any given period of art from the past and comic-like rather more modern characters that bring the scenery to life. I’m glad that I received my O1-visa for aliens of extraordinary ability as I have the privilege to travel back and forth between America and Europe whenever I want to. I’m sure my style is going to transform again in a few years.

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Designs from Cabinet of Curiosities

What do you love to tattoo and what would you like to do more of? What I most like about tattooing is trying to figure my clients out and find a personalised idea that really suits them. Everything has to make sense no matter what idea we are talking about. If I tattooed a large-scale griffin on someone’s arm there’s supposed to be a reason why. Personalities become alter-egos become simplified images.

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What inspires your tattoos? Do you think your German roots inspire your designs? I would not necessarily say that my German roots play a fundamental role since I consider myself a European citizen rather than a German. I went to art school and I know a lot about art history and love to help myself to all the decorative and adorning elements that most periods offer. They’re classic, they’re organic and can easily be used as a timeless way to complement your design. It just makes sense to me to tattoo them since classic art never gets old. People still pay admission to see old paintings in museums so I’m sure they won’t regret getting details of them tattooed. But still I need something else to break the sweetness in there. And I’d like to manifest that these days I mix my knowledge of art history with more modern elements I find in adult cartoons from the 70s-90s.

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You’ve created a series of designs based on a Cabinet of Curiosities, where did this idea come from? I take the subway everyday, I drink a lot of wine among other things and I watch a lot of B-Movies. I guess that explains at least something.

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Design from Cabinet of Curiosities

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Tatts for Cats: Charity Tattoos

The feline welfare charity, Cats Protection in Coventry, is holding a collection of tattoo fundraisers to help cats in the local area. Cats for Tatts will showcase three flash days in three different tattoo studios in the city of Coventry…

  1. Saturday 20th October – Queen of Hearts Tattoo Parlour, Castle Yard, Hay Lane
  2. Saturday 27th October – Grizzly’s Art Collective, Belgrave Road, Wyken
  3. Tuesday 6th November – The Drawing Room, FarGo Village

The three tattoo flash days, and the cat-themed raffles will raise money for Cats Protection’s Coventry Branch, part of the UK’s leading feline welfare charity which help around 190,000 cats and kittens each year.

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Cat design raffle prize by Joanne Baker 

Each studio and tattoo artist is drawing up sheets of cat related tattoo designs for you to choose from and book. Once you have your tattoo you can donate to Cats Protection, alongside some of the artists who will be donating a percentage of their fee.

In addition there are two cat-themed raffles – one will see four lucky winners get one of four unique tattoo designs – including the Tatts for Cats china cat (above), by the renowned artist, Coventry born, Joanne Baker.

The second raffle includes a number of unique prizes such as a bespoke pet portrait and custom artwork. After all of the ink is dry you can vote for your favourite tattoo  which can win the ‘Cat’s Whiskas’ trophy.

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Cat flash sheet by @stephhesketh

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Cat flash sheet by @emilylouise.tattoo

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Tattoo  flash designs by @boo_ink

Dolly Osborne, volunteer fundraiser for Coventry Cats Protection:

Tatts For Cats promises to be three really special events – especially as it will help raise some much needed funds to help us care for unwanted cats. We would like to thank all of the wonderful artists who are giving up their time, talent and money to make the lives of little kitties a little bit easier.

As someone who has been a part of the tattoo community for a long time, I am aware it has a long and established history of supporting good causes. It also has a significant number of cat lovers. We thought it was time we brought these two elements together to help our furry friends

Make sure to follow Tatts for Cats on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more details and updates. 

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Ceramic Tattoo Art

48-year-old Matthew S. Kennedy from Paso Robles in California creates ceramic tattoo art by using a tattoo machine to draw images onto clay. He specialises in handmade one of a kind memorial and celebratory plates and urns…

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Were you a tattoo artist before you worked with pottery? Or do you have a background in art? No, I have never worked as a tattoo artist tattooing on people. I am fully self taught in ceramics by reading 100s of books/movies on the subject and just working hard to create my own style. Not a lot of background in traditional art in school or anywhere else.

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How did you make the move to ceramics? Or have you always worked with this medium? I have been working with ceramics now for about 23 years. Ever since I got sober from alcohol. My AA Sponsor suggested I get a toy potter’s wheel and to take a up a new hobby. I was playing pool for a living at the time. About 2006 I was watching a reality show called Miami Ink on TV. About a month later I was attending a tattoo convention in Pomona Ca. and noticed a tattoo kit for sale.  I wondered to myself, “could I could use that on my ceramics?”  I bought the tattoo machine, took it home and the rest is history.  Find out more here.

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What inspires your designs? Do you do commissions? I have a coloring book on Amazon called Ceramic Tattoo Art Coloring & Maze Book: Color for Balance. It is a book of my designs. I started drawing geometric shapes about six  years ago while I was going through a rough time with my Mother. I just started drawing them and then coloring them in my AA Meetings to help me cope. I now add them to my ceramics. I do special commissions all the time. I usually do special orders for memorial pieces. I just recently created this piece for a woman that was 37 years old a recently passed away from cervical cancer. Creating pieces like this really gives a special meaning to my art and I feel blessed to be able to do it for people.

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Manchester Science Festival: You Have Been Upgraded

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Thursday 18 October 2018,
7.30pm – 10pm (doors 7pm) 
Science and Industry Museum
Liverpool Road, Castlefield
Manchester M3 4FP 

You Have Been Upgraded, a live conference responding to theme of Future Bodies. Looking at how we choose to enhance our sensory and physical selves, with talks, interactions and performances that share a positive open approach to considering body enhancement. The curators have included tattoo in this discussion programme, and you can get involved with this traditional form of human enhancement.

Do you want to be part of the event? 

Unlimited Theatre is looking for a model to be tattooed live as the headline performance at You Have Been Upgraded. One applicant will be selected to receive a free tattoo by Rebecca De Cadorette, a blackwork tattoo artist and former biologist at the University of Manchester with a particular interest in human evolution and futurology. Working out of her studio in Stretford, Manchester, ‘DC’ uses her backgrounds in research, science and art to design future bodies and ritual tattoo to transform the wearer beyond the ‘normal’. This piece will be fitted to suit the body of the successful applicant: fully custom, the client will receive a blackwork, hand span sized original design.

Unlimited Theatre invites Manchester or North West based sci-art enthusiasts to apply for a free tattoo here. (application is open for longer for blog readers).

The curators would like to hear from applicants who:

– Have an interest in transhumanism
– Are passionate about science and art
– Are enthusiastic about sharing their experience with press and social media
– Are over 18 years old
– Are based in Manchester or the North West of England
– Are willing to submit to the artists’s final say on the look of the design
– Are available to participate in You Have Been Upgraded on October 18th in Manchester
– Are available to attend two sessions at a Long Time Dead Tattoo Studio during the months of September-October.

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Tattooist Rebecca De Cadorette speaking on the power of tattoos:

Tattoo is ancient as well as transhuman. visual and honest – it’s the blood magic of self ownership.  Building our future selves. Post-trauma. Post-joy. Transformative literally, brave because it is painful, committed because it is permanent and joyful because it is honest. Determinism and being the master of your fate for whatever small snippet of time and however many square inches of matter you are give, and knowing that all of this can be filled with choices made, experiments in self run, skins shed and cast aside.  Who am I – who do I want to be and how will I become. How you do anything is how you do everything – so choose. People have been choosing to mark and alter their bodies with ink for thousands of years, and it’s a process that transforms. Adrenaline, cortisol, dopamine are the chemistry of our transformation. There’s some old fashioned alchemy of having that tattoo with the right person, at the right time for the right reasons is very powerful. And no, it’s not all that permanent,we all die, we are all mortal and it’s all going in the bin sooner or later. How you do anything is how you do everything. This is the philosophy of Long Time Dead. Get mortal.

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Sugar & Vice: All Things Nice

Things&Ink met up with Sarah, owner of jewellery brand Sugar & Vice to talk tattoos, inspiration and pizza…

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How did you get into jewellery making? Making jewellery was actually something I fell into completely by accident. I was working in an office and was terribly unhappy, so I started making jewellery as a hobby and a means of getting some extra income. Before long it become a bit all-consuming. So as soon as I was earning enough, I left my job to concentrate on it full time and it’s gone from strength to strength since then.

What inspires you? There’s no short answer to that, really. Everything inspires me. Animals, fashion, food, patterns, nature, weather, places, people, art, tattoos, the list goes on. I love nothing more than taking inspiration from something pretty mundane and turning it into something fun and colourful.

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What draws you to jewellery? Jewellery can come in so many different forms and I think the sheer variety of what’s available is a large part of why I love it. Not only can you make jewellery from just about anything, it can come in so many forms that it’s just endlessly fascinating to me. Ironically, I wear very little jewellery on a day-to-day basis, but I’ve accrued some amazing pieces for special occasions, some that I’ve made myself and some that I’ve acquired from friends and industry peers. I just don’t think an outfit is complete without jewellery, be it subtle or statement!

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Is your work inspired by tattoos? Some of it is, definitely. I’ve been collecting tattoos for more than a decade, as have most of my friends, so it’s difficult not to let that filter into other aspects of my life, including my working life. With tattoos, as with jewellery, the possibilities are endless. It’s a pretty odd parallel when you really think about it, but jewellery and tattoos have a lot in common. Both are a form of decoration and they can both be for show, in memorium, for religious purposes, a reminder of something – or just fun, colourful and frivolous.

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What is your favourite piece you have created? That’s a tough question to answer as it changes so frequently. I like to think that with experience, the pieces have got better, so my favourite is almost always the most recent. I think a constant favourite will be always be the Gemstone Necklace, though. It’s what I consider to be a signature Sugar & Vice piece and in an industry where it’s so difficult to stay original, it’s the one I’m most proud of in terms of uniqueness.

Can you tell me a bit about your tattoos? My tattoos are a bit all over the place, literally and figuratively! Most are pretty meaningful, some are just silly things, but they all make me smile. I have three Sugar & Vice tattoos, and counting, so I like to think that shows just how closely linked my ink and my work are.

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Who are your favourite tattoo artists? There are so many! Leah Moule’s style just blows my mind, I’d love to get tattooed by her someday. Suzi Q as well, I love her stuff, and one of my earlier pieces actually came about after seeing a nautical pinup girl tattoo of hers and getting inspired around seven years ago. I think Dan Henk is pretty special too, his horror tattoos are like nothing else I’ve seen.

Do you think there is a relationship between tattoos and fashion? Absolutely. I think tattoos can influence fashion and vice versa. I’ve been, infrequently, reading tattoo magazines for around 12 years now and you can definitely see changing trends – although there will always be certain styles that remain popular. The troubling thing is when fashion influences tattoos and people start getting them for the wrong reasons, it’s the quickest road to regret in my experience.

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What’s next for Sugar & Vice? Global domination with any luck! In reality though, I’m just so grateful that I get to make a living doing something I love so much, and if things continue along the same path, then hopefully there’ll be bigger things in store. For now, I’ll just keep making jewellery that brings a smile to peoples faces.

First published in Issue 4 The Art Issue of Things&Ink magazine