Things&Ink

Former POP editor Dasha Zhukova‘s new art and fashion bible, Garage magazine, is set to launch next week. It has already caused controversy over one of the cover images, in which a butterfly is placed provocatively over a lady’s, urm, parts. Zhukova approached several contemporary artists with the brief to design a tattoo, which would then be inked onto a ‘living canvas’.

23-year-old Shauna Taylor agreed to get a butterfly tattoo, from artist Damien Hirst, on her crotch for the feature. Tattoo artist Mo Coppoletta (The Family Business, London) was picked by Hirst himself to ink the green-and-black tattoo. The tattoo took two sessions to complete.

The black-and-white image which appears on the cover of the magazine has a butterfly sticker hiding the tattoo and reads ‘peel slowly and see.’ Inside the magazine is an innovative photo-feature titled: Inked. The subject matter has been making headlines and is considered to be somewhat controversial, it has even been banned from the shelves of UK newsagent WHSmith.

Famous artists including Jeff Koons, Jake and Dinos Chapman, John Baldessari and Paul McCarthy also feature in this project. The spread features a number of ‘willing canvases’, an assortment of men and women and raises questions about the permanency of contemporary art. ‘What are they worth? Something more than the skin on their backs?’ asks Garage’s Becky Poostchi.

The feature, despite causing some controversy, highlights the growing status of tattoos as art objects, finally people are beginning to see that tattoos themselves can be art. Some of the sketches for the tattoos are now the property of the Gagosian Gallery, only proving their status as  valuable works of art.