Flash Your Tattoo » Tattoo Artists

Mike DeVries Latest Book

Tattoosue — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Mike DeVries is one of my favorite artists. He’s most well known for his realistic color tattoos. He doesn’t seem to be on any type of ego trip even though he’s tattooed some celebrities and has won over 100 awards over the years.

Macaw by Mike DeVries

He also has a good head on his shoulders for related businesses. He sells his art work, videos, and books. He has tutorial books as well as art books he’s put together. He collects and publishes tattoos done by many talented tattoo artists for you to drool over. One of the books explores tattoos of skulls. This latest book of his focuses on the topic of wildlife. Wild animals are a popular tattoo choice so there is no shortage of outstanding body art in this category. DeVries has put it all together in this attractive full color book.

The tattoo artists who are featured in this wildlife tattoo book are very impressive. The list include: Bob Tyrrell, Roman Abrego, Sweet Laraine, Larry Brogan, Brandon Bond, Eva Huber, and Myke Chambers.

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New Tattoo Reality Show Coming Soon

Tattoosue — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 23:09:34 +0000

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 30^th 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.

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Shop Owner has an Odd Collection

Tattoosue — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:24:19 +0000

If you’re a fan of Paul Booth chances are you’ll like Ryan Gillikin. Gillikin was recently featured on Weird News because of the oddities he collects and displays in his tattoo shop. Gillikin and his wife have owned the shop, Almighty Studios, for ten years and both are fans of body modification. Gillikin has horns and a surgically bifurcated (split) tongue which helps add to the atmosphere he’s going for with his collection.

Some of the items Ryan has on display in his shop include a pickled hand, an original piece of artwork by John Wayne Gacy, and a mummified cat. Creepy, dark stuff.

Part of his collection will be featured on the show “Oddities” which is shown on the Science Channel. It’s about a ventriloquist’s dummy that is thought to be possessed. Dummies, dolls, and clowns – they all freak me out.

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Artists with a Different Kind of Look

Tattoosue — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 19:45:38 +0000

With the availability of quality tattoo magazines, we are able to enjoy the talents of artists from around the world. With this accessibility to tattoo work through reality shows, conventions, and publications it is difficult to come up with a technique or look that is unique. With tattoo art becoming more appreciated and easy to attain, we’ve become a bit jaded.

I just want to draw some attention to a tattoo shop by the name of Buena Vista Tattoo Club. I don’t have much information about the artists except for their names but it’s all about the art anyway. The two artists that work out of the shop are Simone Pfaff and Volko Merschky. They are located in Germany – at least that is what I determined from their site – after researching the town. Worth a visit to check out their gallery.

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Paul Booth and the 13th Hour Exhibit

Tattoosue — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:54:21 +0000

When I think of Halloween and tattoos, the first artist that comes to mind is Paul Booth. His tattoos, his shop, and every aspect of the art of Paul Booth screams Halloween. This year marks the third year that Last Rites Gallery, Booth’s shop, has celebrated it’s 13th Hour Group Exhibit. The exhibit began this weekend and will run until the 21st of November. He brings together artists specializing in the dark, depraved, and gothic style from around the world to exhibit their work. The studio and where you can visit this exhibition is located in New York city. Booth built up a highly respected reputation in the tattoo industry and is now using his fame to help bring these artists together and help establish an appreciation for dark art which gets a bad rap. These talent artists are given a chance to display their work as a serious art form. Gothic art is slowly building up a respectable reputation with the help of artist like Paul Booth. (Last Rites also holds additional exhibits throughout the year.)

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Nate Beavers Tattoo Artist

Tattoosue — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:46:18 +0000

It’s so refreshing to discover such a talent along with a man you can respect. Nate Beaver, hailing from Houston Texas, headed down a troubled road before focusing on his art – specifically tattoo art. He doesn’t forget where he came from and has a really good attitude. Due to his previous addictions and troubles, his career was sidelined and delayed for a few years but you would never know it by the quality of his work.

It’s so refreshing to discover such a talent along with a man you can respect. Nate Beaver headed down a troubled road before focusing on his art – specifically tattoo art. He doesn’t forget where he came from and has a really good attitude. Due to his previous addictions and troubles, his career was sidelined and delayed for a few years but you would never know it by the quality of his work. Good interview with a great talent.

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Kids and Tattoos

Tattoosue — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:41:51 +0000

I know that people are on both sides of the fence when it comes to laws and government interference in our lives but when you hear this story, you’ll be thanking your local authorities if they are diligent about enforcing laws regulating your local tattoo parlors.

In a small seaside town located in Lancashire, England, a problem has arisen concerning the town tattoo parlors. They have the right laws in place. You have to be 18 or over to get a tattoo. But local parents have been complaining to the local authorities about the fact that underage kids are able to go into these resort shops and get body art done. Some of these kids are as young as 14 years old!

Due to all the parent’s complaints, a change in policy is planned. The scariest part of this whole story isn’t the fact that they are tattooing these young kids, but there have been over ten complaints filed in the past year about the hygiene practices of these tattoo parlors. Although these complaints have been coming in for the past year, the authorities are just now deciding to come down hard and enforce the law. There’s also talk of changing the policies to be more stringent in regulating new shops applying for business licenses.

Although it sounds like the local law makers are on the right track, some of them are still missing the point. The news article reporting this story had a quote from one of them stating the reason for coming down hard and enforcing regulations – “Youngsters come to Blackpool to enjoy themselves and it is all too easy for them to get carried away and ask for a tattoo, but the parlors should not be giving tattoos to anyone under 18. Once they have one done, they are stuck with it for life.”

How about emphasizing the fact that their lives can be cut short if some bozo shop tattoos them with contaminated needles?

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Artist Alex Vidaud

Tattoosue — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:49:27 +0000

I spotted a piece done by this artist in one of my favorite tattoo magazines. No story just a name and a shop but it was one of my favorite pieces out of the whole magazine. Found that the quality was typical for artist Alex Vidaud who tattoos like someone that has been at it for a couple of decades.

He is exceptional at realism even making a simple tattoo like the fish hook in the leg tattoo leave you in awe. Such a simple piece but so well done. I find his work impressive and the young lad from Connecticut is only 27 years old.

Based on his myspace page I’d say he has a great sense of humor. He works out of Nautilus tattoo – here is a link to his portfolio. This aquatic piece is the one shown in International Tattoo Art.

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Tattooed TV-Online!

Tattoosue — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:45:21 +0000

TATTOOED TV – WEBISODE #5 from tattooedtv on Vimeo.

With the huge success of YouTube like videos, we are now seeing other ways video is now becoming a prominent tool in our entertainment and other aspects of our lives. So it’s no surprise we can now get instant gratification and access to a web site that offers webisodes of tattoo reality TV. I’ve only watched one episode so far but I’m giving it a thumbs up. Instead of having the same type of emotional drivel you sometimes find on other tattoo reality shows, this episode concentrated more on the shop, the artists, and that tattoo work. So far there are only 5 webisodes available for viewing but things must be going well because they are promoting a full fall season.

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Pepa Heller Tattoo Artist

Tattoosue — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:51:46 +0000

Papa Heller is not a new comer to tattoos but he is not very well known in the United States. He hails from the Czech Republic but has been a tattoo artist practicing his trade in New Zealand for over ten years now. He’s also lived in the UK and has traveled to Australia and the Middle East. There was an extensive and thorough interview with him in my latest issue of International Tattoo Art. He studied under an American who owned a shop in Prague. He says he’s been shooting for more realism and says he’s relying more on references to help with achieving this. He’s also been trying to incorporate more color into his work. He has a way of using his backgrounds – whether it’s a drop shadow or a blue sky to cause his artwork to jump off the skin. I really like the way the tail end of this shark looks like it’s coming around the corner of the guy’s torso. You can see much more of his work by visiting his Myspace page.

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