#13

I’m very curious about the future of the world of tattooing that I’ve been a part of for the past 4+ years. I know that independent tattooers doing work that falls outside the bounds of “Traditional” tattooing has been happening since the inception of tattooing, but it feels to me that in the past 5-10 years with the introduction of “Instagram Tattooers”, this practice has changed drastically. Many of the people who tattoo independently are doing very mediocre work that isn’t pioneering or quality, but the same can be said for the traditional school of tattooing as well.

It simply would not be possible before social media for people like me and my contemporaries to succeed to such a high degree, and especially in such great numbers. When old school Tattooers talk about the way that this new influx of artists is ruining the industry, I feel like in certain ways they are correct; there is a growing lack of respect for hygiene, history, and also a kind of ridiculous over-saturation of the market. However, this departure from the old ways is, in my opinion, objectively a good thing. I would not have as many clients as I do if the new way wasn’t working!

I was reading about Ed Hardy and the way that he and many of the people of his generation of tattooers kind of pioneered the concept of traditional tattoos that are designed for specific clients, essentially the idea of a Custom tattoo. While I find this to be questionable(there’s no way nobody was doing customs before him), it is also certainly true that doing tattoos with the individual client in mind vs making a sheet of flash that clients can buy designs off of is a departure from the old school way. In my mind, the Ed Hardy era is just now giving way to the new new school of tattooing, which I am incredibly grateful to be a small part of.

When Ed Hardy started to do things the way that he did, there’s no way he could have predicted the way cultural impact of his work. In the same way on a smaller scale, there’s no way that European scratchers in 2017 would have thought that cybersigilism would make it to hoodies in Target. I sincerely doubt that Dali and Picasso had any idea that surrealism or cubism would have the lasting impact that they did, mostly because of how caught up in each individual piece artists are.

Recently someone visited Urgent Care to do some documentation of the space for a project they were putting together on independent tattoo studios. At first this seemed like kind of whatever to me, but after some time it got me thinking about how important that might be. I’m in no way trying to suggest that my work, or Urgent Care, is uniquely groundbreaking, but I do think that each small part of the current movement towards freedom in tattooing builds into a much greater whole than I had previously thought.

When I talk to older people, like the parents or grandparents of my friends that aren’t tattooers, they usually make some reference to the way that tattoos are now a mainstream form of expression in a way they hadn’t anticipated. You can be the branch manager at a Chase Bank in New York City with a biomech bodysuit and nobody bats an eye. This new wave of tattooing to me feels like a reaction to that, in the sense that tattoos no longer have anything to do with Tough Guys or a rebellious attitude, and we need far more styles than were previously available to suit the individual tastes of the much much higher number of people who are in the market.

This new wave, just like the old ones, is hierarchical in the sense that there are a few Great artists that become tastemakers and style innovators for all of the other tattooers around them. I often wonder what role these artists will play in our future understanding of this developing artistic movement. Will there be Tattoo History 101 courses taught at SAIC in 2040 where our favorite Instagram Tattooers’ names will be spoken about? At what point in the mainstreamification of tattooing does it become essential for the understanding of art as a whole? Will that ever happen, or will it remain, as it has largely always been, a trade before it’s an art form?

I try to remain at least somewhat conscious of this as I move forward in my individual practice as an artist. The tattoos I make will last forever! This is as much of a blessing as it is nerve-wracking. Tattoos, maybe more so than anything else, leave a legacy for the artist that is undeniable and honest. The beautiful trusting relationship between artist and client makes it possible for us to catapult ourselves into the world-our art pieces go a million different places every day and speak for us on the skin of human beings! However, a tattoo that healed bad is a constant source of embarrassment for both the wearer and the creator(my tattoos heal so good, I’m not too worried about this).

Will this era of spiritual, uniquely artistic tattooing be just another blip like blackwork tribal from 1999 or is it a genuine leap forward in true free artistic expression? Only time will tell! I truly believe that what’s happening right now, the Tattoo Renaissance, is more important than anyone realizes.

Something to think about!