Julian Murray has a quirky and unique artistic view. He specializes in fashion, music and the advertising business. He does everything from website design to creative concept photography. His client list includes Inked Magazine, Rebel Ink and Warner Brothers.
A while back I did a post about a project he was working on called Tattoos & Tentacles. The project is now completed!! and he’s selling posters as well as a coffee table book full of images of beautiful women posing with “clinging” octopi. It’s gross and yet beautiful at the same time. The sliminess just creeps me out. It would make a nice XMAS present for any tattoo fans on your list. The artwork and book are for sale on his site.
Kevin Campbell, the now infamous tattoo artist who inked this woman’s forehead, said the woman came into the shop completely ready to get “Drake” tattooed on her forehead. He got the impression she actually thought it out. She felt strongly about where and what and even brought in a sample of the font she wanted. Drake is a rapper.
Campbell noticed that the woman’s excitement quickly went south once she saw the tattoo. Second thoughts perhaps? Guess she’s schedule to come in for a second sitting and get the lettering filled in. Because that’s just what she needs – is to make it more prominent.
Wonder if she’ll show. I think she’s more likely to keep an appointment at the laser tattoo removal clinic.
I’m not a fan of reality television but a new series called Best Ink, may have potential. It sounds like they’ve finally come up with a tattoo show that focuses on the art rather than the drama going on in the shop or in the lives of the artists.
It’ll be premiering on Oxygen and begin on January 30th of 2012. It takes talented tattoo artists from across the country and has them compete for the title “Best Ink” – the best tattoo artist of that group. The grand prize is $100,000 and a cover story in Tattoo magazine. Not too shabby. The artwork is judged by a panel consisting of Joe Capobianco and other people in the industry. A guest judge will be rotated on the panel.
Each episode consists of two challenges for the artists. The first will challenge their creative as well as their artistic skills. They’ll be given challenges like coming up with a tattoo design to commemorate a life or based on a personal inspirational story. The second is to determine the most talented artist with the most artistic ability.
Artists will be eliminated as the competition progresses. As times goes on, the challenges get more difficult and eventually only one artist will remain at the end. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep the show focused on the talent and steer clear of the pumped up drama you see on most of these shows. I think there are more than enough fans of tattoo art that would be interested in a show focusing on the artist’s skills only.
This is a new one for the books. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any story even remotely related to this drama.
There was this couple from Ohio. Rossie Brovent and Ryan Fitzjerald. They break up. Ryan is a tattoo artist.
Rossie asks the ex to tattoo a scene from the Narnia movie on her back. But he has something else in mind. Instead, Ryan tattooed an ugly, steaming pile of crap, complete with circling, buzzing flies, after he discovered she had been cheating on him.
Rossie was pissed off to say the least and is now suing Fitzjerald. Technically and legally, she may not have a good case. She had signed a consent form stating that the artwork was “at the artist’s discretion”. Her argument to that is that he plied her with cheap wine and tequila before she signed the contract.
OK – I admit this is unrelated to tattoos but I just discovered this kid who has been competing on one of these live entertainment shows – X-Factor. I don’t watch the show (why I’m discovering this kid now) – This girl is 13 years old – in 8th grade – and sings like an old blues soul – This is one of her auditions as well as one of her performing pieces – Rachel Crow – She blew me away and she’s cute as all hell-
Zombie Boy is a Montreal-based fashion model who you may recognize from the startling tattoo work that covers the majority of his body and face. His intent is to look like a rotting corpse. This transformation has actually turned into a couple of working gigs for Genest. This year he joined Lady GaGa in the ‘Born This Way‘ video and now he is being used by Dermablend for advertising purposes.
Removing and covering up tattoos has turned into a big business. The advertising big shots at Dermablend came up with a winner when they choose Rico Genest, who is better known as Zombie Boy, to advertise their tattoo covering product. Check out the video.