Embracing female tattoo culture
Happy International Women’s Day.
As a celebration, we’re sharing our recreation from the first ever issue of Things&Ink magazine. Two strong women from the past and the present.
Tattoo artist Claudia de Sabe as circus attraction Artoria Gibbons – The Tattooed Girl…
COVER IMAGE: KRISTY NOBLE
DRESSMAKER: ROSIE DICKINSON
MILLINER: ELLEN BOWDEN, B Millinery
MAKE-UP: MISS HONEY BARE
HAIR: LUCIE LUELLA
So, we’ve just about recovered from Brighton Tattoo Convention. It was a hectic weekend of meeting people, selling magazines, talking tattoos and, for some of us, getting tattooed – and we loved every minute of it (there may have been a lot of Sailor Jerry cocktails involved too).
We met loads of incredible people, and we want to say a huge thanks to everyone who came to our stand and bought a magazine from us – new readers and old, it’s always a pleasure to meet you face to face and hear what you think about Things&Ink.
Mini convention video – Brighton Tattoo Convention 2014 from Alice Snape on Vimeo.
Here’s some pics from the convention…
Our beautiful stand, with features editor, Nicola Cook, stylist, Olivia Snape, and makeup artist Keely Reichardt…
Photos: Hustler Squad.
Our stylist Olivia also got tattooed by Brad Stevens from New York Adorned.
If you didn’t get a chance to come and see us, make sure you follow our FB page facebook.com/thingsandink, and also on Instagram and Twitter, for news, photos and updates.
And you can order the latest issue (#6) The Modification Issue, starring Grace Neutral, from our website, thingsandink.com.
Behind the scenes video for Things&Ink issue 5 cover shoot featuring the tattoo artists Amy Savage and Tiny Miss Becca.
Order your copy online now thingsandink.com
Things and Ink Cover Shoot (Issue Five) from Papercut Pictures on Vimeo.
In issue 4 of Things&Ink – The Art Issue – we recreated four iconic works of art with our very own tattoo twist. One of the paintings featured was Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.
And here’s our original recreation, as featured in the magazine, but can you spot the differences between our original version and the photo underneath?
Comment below, good luck.
Nighthawks, Things&Ink tattooed version starring: photographer Al Overdrive, art historian Doctor Matt Lodder, vintage hairdresser Lucie Luella and apprentice barber Ryan Costello. Photography by Heather Shuker, assisted by James Sheen-Stevens, styling by Olivia Snape.
Can you spot the differences?
Read more about Edward Hopper on www.artsy.net
Art: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty, meaning or emotional power.
Simon Lowther – Industrial designer.
What is art to you? It is an outlet for our absurdity and hopeless questioning as to who we are, why we are here and what for. It also fulfils a primal need to create and construct and control. Despite this, art is ultimately useless (As Oscar Wilde put it). That’s not to say it does not hold value, enrich our lives, carry meaning, and tell stories.
Define and describe your art: I would define it with its title: industrial designer. So I’m not an artist, but I employ creative practices in my work nonetheless. I sketch, make models and employ 3D CAD programs.
Why this medium? I wanted to do something utilitarian and creative rather than just creative.
Does meaning have a place in your work? I don’t go out of my way to embed meaning into my design deliberately. That would be too contrived. Meaning will be inherent in a design if it has been designed well. A design also carries meaning purely by virtue of the time and place (culture) it originates from
Tattooed by himself
Tell me about the tattoo you’ve designed for yourself: It’s a very simple and small stick’n’poke tattoo of a Penny Farthing. It is the 3rd stick and poke tattoo I’ve done on myself so it’s a bit rough but I like it.
Does the tattoo have any significance/meaning? They are an object I find amusing and in a strange way beautiful. I like how utterly absurd and impractical the design is while still being a very pleasing form in its simple geometry and iconic profile. It also reminds me that people do ridiculous things.
Do you have an opinion on unoriginal and ubiquitous tattoos? When I’m on the way to work and feeling particularly misanthropic or severely hung-over or just in a bad mood I’ll arbitrarily choose things to hate. Sometimes it’s tattoos. Originality is a tenuous subject in art and especially in tattoos. For most people (excluding people from cultures with traditional tattooing) tattoos are just a way to feel better about themselves. It’s image based, and it’s about identifying with a particular milieu. It’s difficult to argue that getting a tattoo is appreciating art although I think the tattoo artists themselves can sometimes be considered artists. I can look at art or listen to music without having it painfully and permanently adhered to me.
What are your thoughts on tattoo artists and their profession vis-à-vis originality and art? Would you ever become one? I wouldn’t become one because I’m not passionate enough about tattoos and I think the noise of the guns would drive me insane. I’m sure plenty of tattoo artists are original in their work but ultimately they are not creating art for art’s sake. They are producing a product for a client, and that product needs to sell. That requires they tattoo what a customer wants and quite often their own design. A tattoo artist probably produces art some of the time while simply copy and pasting images onto people at other times.
This interview was conducted by Fareed Kaviani, as part of Artists, Tattoos, and Meaning: Pissing Ink in Duchamp’s Urinal? a feature in The Art Issue. It features an interview with Rik Lee Purchase a copy from: thingsandink.com