Things&Ink

March 2, 2016April 6, 2016

Music Review: City & Colour

Our guest music blogger Verity Vincent caught the culmination of City & Colour‘s UK tour at London’s Troxy last weekend and boy did they go out with a bang…

Support from Lucy Rose was the perfect choice for City and Colour. Her combination of soft yet powerful vocals and at times, heavy guitar riffs meant she was positioned with the perfect crowd. Playing a beautiful 40 minute set, Dallas Green stepped on stage to perform Lucy’s ‘She’ll Move’ and created a vocal blend almost as perfect as his with Alecia Moore. (AKA Pink, with their joint project You & Me). She seemed shocked at the number of bodies that had arrived in time to see her play, but the volume was justified. The venue was nearly full and she deserved it.

After some funky mariachi style intro music, Dallas opened with ‘Woman’ from fifth studio album If I Should Go Before You which instantly set the bar for their set. Magical light displays paired with Dallas’ equally magical tone can effortlessly fill any room.

Offering a perfect range of songs from the albums Sometimes, The Hurry & The Harm, Little Hell and Bring Me Your Love, along with 2015’s If I Should Go Before You, the blend of material spanning over a decade offered a nostalgic element as well as showcasing their newest, and equally brilliant, material. Sadly the repertoire didn’t stop the cries of song titles being endlessly screeched, like the band were there to form a human jukebox. Perhaps they take that as a salute to their back catalogue, either way it was suitably ignored.

‘Hello, I’m In Delaware’ was the first throwback track and kicked off an all mighty sing-a-long before picking the tempo up again with ‘Wasted Love’. Whether the audience were more familiar with the recent or earlier albums mattered not. Experiencing the sheer ability this man and his band have was clearly at the forefront.

After an impressive display of thirteen songs and swirling, multi coloured lights illuminating the Troxy, the band briefly stepped off stage to return for one outstanding encore. A further four track section of tear inducing music. Standing solo initially, Dallas treated fans to Day Old Hate before whipping out his harmonica for Body in a Box and a universal, “Oh wow”, could be heard as the initial bars flew out of the harmonica.

Switching from the delicate acoustic arrangement of ‘The Girl’ the full band returned for the second half to up the tempo one last time, culminating in a ridiculous vocal and guitar showcase with ‘Hope For Now’.

There is such a genuinely humble root to Dallas Green, and as he not only thanks the crowd for singing along to every single word and making his dream and career possible, he also thanks his band and each individual that helps put together their show. You feel a sense of pride for being part of something so special, to sing back the lyrics to him that were written in a small Ontario bedroom is an amazing moment to share, especially when the artist is so openly appreciative. Those lyrics mean something to each person standing in the room, as well as him.

This is the third time I’ve been lucky enough to watch City and Colour live and it never fails to leave the impression; Fuck. He’s just so, so incredibly, goosepimpingly good. His voice has the capability to go right through you, head to toe, and he still remains to be one of the most spellbinding vocalists I have ever heard.

March 1, 2016

Interview with Arianna Fusini

Our Italian contributor Ilaria Pauletti chatted to 24-year-old Arianna Fusini who works out of Soul Shop Tattoo in Rimini about how her parent’s holiday home in the mountains inspired her tattoo career. Arianna fell in love with those old illustrated gardening manuals, and her passion for subjects like insects, hands and birds can now be seen in her work…

When did you begin tattooing? What drew you to this form of art?
I’m actually at the very beginning of my tattoo journey, I’ve only been tattooing for a year and a half, so I still have a lot to learn. When I was at high school, I used to buy alternative music magazines, and I would doodle on my friends arms with the designs I saw in those magazines. I was in arts high school so that kind of background helped a lot.
Later, during my university years, I began drawing more frequently, so that I could find a style that I loved. I put them all in a big book, it was full of sketches, and that portfolio was the reason why I got an apprenticeship in a tattoo studio.

How would you define your style?
Giving my style a definition is hard, some characteristics come from the traditional, but I also love those thin lines and details, the dotty shadings rather than the classical ones.

Who/What inspires you daily?
A lot of artists and tattoo artists I follow, those I know personally and those I hope to meet soon! I can compare myself to some of them and it helps. I often look at books illustrations, old advertising from the 1800s. I love scientific, botanical and Victorian illustrations and classic tattoo flash.

Do you prefer to work in black and white? Does this come from a personal choice or from the customer’s request?
I have always sketched in black and white and consequently I’ve always focused on using black in my work. Clients have asked to see my pre-drawn flash and it is all in black line work, I prefer the effect of the lone black ink on the skin, it creates a contrast that remains in the course of time.

When working with clients do you prefer having free reign or as many details as possible?
The optimal solution resides in the middle, too much freedom disables me sometimes! Having a subject or a reference and knowing I can interpret it as I want makes me really happy. It’s beautiful when the customer trusts me. I always try to direct people to what I like the most, not because I want to decide for them, but because I know I can guarantee a better result if I work on something I find inspirational.

Who are your reference artists and on which newbies would you bet?
In England there are certainly many of my favourite artists to which I refer to, the list is long two of them are Kelly Violet and Scott Move.
I have to say that every person I meet in this environment has something to teach me because of my lack of experience, so I try to keep my eyes open and learn from everyone.
In my first year of tattooing I met a lot of talented tattoo artists of my age or a little older, around conventions and studios from which I got tattooed and I’m sure many of them will come a long way in the next few years!

What are the subjects you prefer to tattoo?
I love birds, insects, flowers! When I was little I always stared at those illustrated gardening manuals that my parents used to preserve in our holiday house among the mountains. I think it all started there.I also love hands and blades, they are the best! Sometimes it’s funny to find out how some subjects you never really thought about before shown them by a client, become your favourite ones!

What do you think about the reaction of today’s society to tattoos and tattooed people?
Tattoos are increasingly fashionable so that’s pretty obvious that society is adapting. They have become a mass phenomenon. Maybe they’re killing the tattoo spirit as well, though I’m too young to make a real comparison with the past, in which tattoos were part of a really niche culture. Surely social media helped a lot everything.

And how did your family react to your decision to become a tattoo artist?
My mom was hoping that I would never want to pursue this career seriously, she hoped it was a passing phase, but now, seeing how I work hard and how it makes me so happy, she has calmed down.
My dad has always told me to try to pursue my dreams! I tattooed him twice (a wolf’s head and a classic super eagle).
They are both very supportive and I thank them very much. On the other hand, I’m not very sure that my grandparents understand what my job is all about.

Would you define yourself a tattoo collector? Who has tattooed you and who is on your wish list?
I definitely try to collect pieces by artists that I admire a lot, getting a tattoo is one of the best ways to learn. For now I have got tattoos by Michele l’Abbate, Guy le tatooer, Giacomo Seidita, Marlen Mckey, and many others. I got various tattoos by Elia Landi and Michele Ianni, who are very young but with a very strong style! In my wishlist there are, no doubts, Alessando Lemme, Cassandra Frances, Wolfspit and Slowerblack.

What are your future guest spots and conventions? Anything in England?
This month I will be spending two days in Milan and in April I will join, along with my tattoo studio, the Tattoo Expo in Bologna.
For now I do not have any guest spots scheduled abroad, but I would love to! One of the most beautiful sides of this job is being able to travel and I look forward to start doing it.
I lived for a while in London so, for me, England is a very important country where I would love to work in the future.

February 29, 2016

Steph Wilson Photography

London based Fashion and fine art photographer Steph Wilson new series “Emoji” explores the use of emojis as a censor for female nipples, genitals and bums in art.

Steph tells Dazed magazine that her series is inspired by:

The series was an idea that had been bubbling for a while. I remember seeing a stunning shot on Instagram taken by my good friend Eleanor Hadwick of her boyfriend, nude, on a cliff edge. His arse crack was censored with, what Elle coined, a “sparklefart” (the sparkle emoji). It made me laugh but also made me incredibly frustrated that such a striking, artistic image had been made into a farce. I wanted to play with that as a theme, and, for once, use emojis as censorship to my artistic advantage.

February 26, 2016

Film Review: Five Cold Films

Our resident film reviewer is writer Harry Casey-Woodward who will be sharing his opinions on things he has watched…

Since the weather at the moment is rather grim, I’ve had a think about what handful of films mirror the British winter chill and would be horrific to be starring in, not just for the cold.

The Hateful Eight, 2016, cert 18, dir Quentin Tarantino

I haven’t seen The Revenant yet, otherwise by the sound of the conditions depicted it would surely get a place here. But the Hateful Eight is another western coinciding nicely with the British winter. Except it’s depicting a Wyoming winter so naturally the weather is a bit more extreme. As in, everything is smothered in snow and looks like a Christmas card, except the very opposite of Christmas cheer and goodwill happens in the film. I just feel sorry for that stagecoach driver stuck on top of his coach the whole time while his passengers are sheltered below him, and the guy forced to walk naked in the snow. Yes that does happen. All in all, this film does a great attempt at showing how cold the American west could get and just how desirable a pot of fresh hot coffee would have been.

The Shining, 1980, cert 18, dir Stanley Kubrick

I know most of the film’s action takes place indoors, but the ominous presence of winter just lurking outside is maintained throughout. Even at the beginning, the hotel manager is warning Jack Torrance how severe the winter can get, what damage it can cause to the hotel and what damage it caused to the mind of the last caretaker who, suffering allegedly from ‘cabin fever’, murdered his family. All the other staff members are hurrying to leave before the roads are snowed in. So while the Torrances are trying to have a relaxed, normal time (besides the ghosts, the kid’s powers of prophecy and daddy’s slide into psychosis), the raging winter outside is cutting down telephone wires, shutting down roads and generally making it difficult for the Torrances to escape or be rescued when things start going down the toilet. Plus Jack Torrance freezing to death outside looks a chilly way to go.

The Thing, 1982, cert 18, dir John Carpenter

For one thing, this film is set in Antarctica, the coldest and remotest place you can get. Not only that, but you’re stuck in a science base with a bunch of experts and one bearded alcoholic pilot played by Kurt Russell, so you could die of boredom as well as cold. Unfortunately, a shape-shifting alien is unleashed from the ice and starts taking over everyone like a parasite that’s really good at impressions. Cue some traumatic 80s prosthetics of human bodies tearing apart and sprouting new alien appendages, but at least the gushing bodily fluids that flood this film might keep you warm. Funnily enough, season one of X-Files did their own tribute/rip-off of this film in one episode about parasitic aliens set in an Antarctic science base, which looked equally cold.

Dead Snow, 2009, cert 18, dir Tommy Wirkola

Let’s bring some world cinema in. Of course, the term does suggest sophistication, not students getting slaughtered by Nazi zombies. Try telling that to HMV, however, whose ‘world cinema’ sections appear to be mostly stocked of all the nasty pulp foreign language films. Anyway, it does look pretty cold in this particular Norwegian snowbound shocker. The constant running away and the brain-bashing of undead fascists would keep you warm though, as would being soaked in the copious amounts of spilled blood from you and your friends. I thought the most unpleasantly cold-looking moments in the film were in the outdoor toilet next to the students’ wood cabin. How did two characters have sex in there? It’s bad enough with the zombies pulling you down the poop chute afterwards.

Die Another Day, 2002, cert 12, dir Lee Tamahori

Honestly I had a hard time thinking of things for this list, but this movie sure looks chilly, especially since the second half is set in some ice palace in the Arctic. They must have had some magical central heating system where the guests didn’t freeze but the palace didn’t melt around them. James Bond even managed to persuade Rosamund Pike to lose her clothes in some icy bedroom. There are many cold scenes throughout the Bond franchise (as in temperature not the acting). I haven’t seen Spectre yet but there is another Pierce Brosnan flick called The World is not Enough, the predecessor to Die Another Day, where Bond and Sophie Marceau lose some baddies in a ski chase but end up buried under an avalanche. Luckily Bond’s array of gadgets includes a bubble that pops up around them and shields them from the evil snow. This doesn’t stop Marceau from having a panic attack and Bond has to calm down the silly woman. At least he didn’t do it the Sean Connery way and slap her.

February 25, 2016

Interview with Lu Loram-Martin

28-year-old Louise Loram-Martin works out of Spike at the in Plymouth, and creates dotted pattern work tattoos. We chatted to Lu about her love of mehndi and where she finds her inspiration…

How long have you been tattooing? Eight years.

What drew you to the world of tattooing? To be honest I never made a conscious decision to be involved in the world of tattooing but my life took that path. It was meant for me.

What did you do before, do you have a background in art? I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved in the tattoo world for a long time thanks to Mike and Julia at Spike at the Art, so there wasn’t really a before for me. I began working at the studio as a teenager, just to help out on Saturdays, then I started to do design work for clients and everything just sort of unfolded from there. I did study architecture for a while, but that was during when I was still trying to figure out what was for me. It wasn’t.

How would you describe your style? Feminine

What inspires you? I think that being immersed in the tattoo industry itself is enriching as you get to be involved with both clients and peers, each with their own interests and ideas. And I guess that really allows you to find beauty in everything, but on a personal level. Nature, sacred geometry, eastern philosophy, architecture, literature, truth, fiction, imagination -they all inspire me. Beauty, it’s always there you just have to look for it.

What do you like to draw and tattoo? My preference within tattooing tends to be mehndi inspired patterns and dotwork, but I like to think of myself as an all rounder. At the moment I am really enjoying combining colour realism and mehndi patterns. I find the contrast really aesthetically pleasing. But I believe that tattooing is a continual evolution, so my preferences are always changing. For me it is important to have a range of styles within my art so that it doesn’t become stagnant. I guess I’m easily bored.

When I draw and paint for myself I tend to gravitate towards natural, organic aesthetics; flora, fauna, figures, natural landscape, the ocean, sacred geometry, golden ratio. I’m very inspired by eastern artwork. I tend to paint more realism than anything else at the moment. And I still enjoy sketching architecture. Right now I intend to do more life drawing, I just need to find the time!