Wendy Pham’s book debut, published by Clandestine Republic, holds an impressive collection of never before seen illustrations. The assortment of mini prints take you on a Ramen-fuelled journey, elevating the everyday noodle to new mystical and mythical heights. Animals, people and creatures come together to take delight in the simplistic sustenance of Ramen. It will come as no surprise to you that this is Wendy’s favourite food, a subject that not only influences her artwork but the tattoos she creates too. The humble noodle is made sexy with half-dressed, lavishly-displayed Geishas, and none of the other characters within the book are able to resist this glorious feast. I found myself hankering for a steaming bowl of noodle broth as I turn the pages and discover more intriguing illustrations.
If you’re a fan of her vibrant Japanese-inspired tattoos you will adore her book filled with hamster explorers and sneaky noodle stealing foxes. The vibrancy of the illustrations, printed on high quality round edged paper, will leave you in two minds as to whether to frame each piece or leave the integrity of the book intact.
Tabloids, Tattoos and Tinfoil Hats: Hannah Mosley at TEDxManchester
Our columnist, tattoo artist Hannah Mosley, recently did a talk at TEDxManchester, and for someone who claims to have taken up illustration because they’re “not good with words” it is an eloquent, incredibly interesting and well-paced talk on tattoo culture and media misrepresentation.
If you missed it, don’t worry, it was caught on film, check it out below.
We asked her some questions about the talk and how she feels now…
> How did you feel when you were asked to do a TEDxManchester talk? Pretty damn good! Some of the organisers had seen me speak before so it was a great vote of confidence that they wanted to include me in the program for TEDxManchester. I was a little awestruck by some of the other speakers.
> How did you decide what to talk about? I knew I wanted to talk about something that the whole audience could relate to. This led to the main focus of my talk being more about how discerning we are about the media we consume, using my experience as a tattooist to illustrate how even fairly innocuous seeming articles can really be pushing an agenda, rather than talking exclusively about tattooing. I figured if you’re at a TED talk you’re certainly going to be affected in some way, shape or form by media, even if you aren’t into tattoos at all. Hopefully tackling the topic this way also gave people who aren’t into tattoos an interesting insight into our industry without making them feel totally alienated.
> Were you nervous? What did you focus on? I was climbing the walls a little beforehand, but a fellow speaker, author Anthony Lishak really talked me down so I went out on stage really excited. The audience were very keen, and I had a couple of very close friends in the crowd too, so I felt pretty relaxed once I got going.
> How did you feel after? Also how do you feel about watching the recording? Aside from kicking myself for going over time by about four minutes, I felt pretty good. It’s useful to see the recording – hindsight is always 20/20 and it’s allowed me to refine my views and delivery a bit more. For instance, I felt a point that didn’t really get across in the talk was that I don’t believe the shaming of tattoos, even when they *are* celebrity-inspired, is helping anyone either. It could be seen in the video that I’m making the case that all tattooed people are getting work done for academic or deeply personal reasons, and that the nasty media keeps saying we just like celebs. That’s patently not true, lots of clients are heavily influenced by the portrayal of tattooed celebrities. Regardless, I still don’t think these clients personal decisions about their bodies should be fodder for shock-docs and patronising lifestyle articles.
We are in awe of the dedication and time spent to create this piece. This blackwork project on tattoo artist Punctum Kay, Austria was created by Gerhard Wiesbeck.
Tattoo artist Punctum Kay designed all of the main black work himself. Gerhard Wiesbeck tattooed the whole body, but he only designed the psychedelic dot work chest portion of the suit.
What do you think of black work? Incredibly powerful or wasting valuable tattoo space?
For Catherine Hadden breast reconstruction surgery after winning her fight with breast cancer was not an option she would consider, instead she chose to have a tongue in cheek tattoo of two Great Tits right where her own breasts used to be.
For me it was something beautiful coming from something so ugly
Rather than being reminded of her cancer and of feeling horribly ill Catherine chose to see something positive and decided to celebrate her cancer free body. She made the decision to have a double mastectomy in order to save her life. At first she wanted a very small bird tattooed onto her body, but when her tattooist presented her with the idea of having two Great Tits on a branch she changed her mind.
When I get out of the shower each morning and go to the bathroom mirror I think, ‘What a pair of great tits’.
Her daughter posted Catherine’s photo on Facebook and from then on there was no hiding Catherine’s new tits, so to speak. Even though Catherine describes herself as a bashful person she had no qualms showing her new tattoo to people and in turn raising awareness of breast cancer.
Basma Sameed was accidentally burnt as a toddler with scolding hot oil and left severely scared.
After countless operations and cosmetic surgery, at the age of 16 her doctors told her there was nothing more they could do.
So she taught herself to tattoo and by matching the colour pigments of her face she has been able to transform her appearance.
Basma has now opened a clinic which offers other burn victims permanent make up. She pioneered the use of permanent cosmetics by practising on herself.
