"Written in Skin" lecture by Dr Lars Krutak... summary :-)

I'd just like to Thank Dr. Lars Krutak for taking time from his busy schedule to fly in for the day to spend some time with us... and especially for giving a very informative and entertaining lecture on indiginous tattooing from around the world. Although given the time constraints he was only able to scratch the surface of the topic... however according to the participants it opened their eyes to realms of tattoo culture they had never imagined before... and hopefully this will spark their interest to seek further :-) 

We'd also like to thank all of our clients, friends and public who attended and stayed afterwards for socializing and discussion.

Unfortunately Lar's new book "Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification" was quickly sold out :-( However we will be ordering more copies in the near future and still have a few examples of "Kalinga Tattoo" as well as autographed copies of his (out of print) first book  "Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women".

 

A special thanks to Nanna for hosting and organizing the event :-)

Hope to see you all again in the near future

 Street sign

Propaganda 

Provisions

Lars being interviewed by Documentary Filmmaker Daemon Hope from New Zealand

 The big screen 

Some of Lars' photos were also available for purchase

Lars' oration 

DJ. Lars and the Petit Prince of Nørrebronx

 Socializing

Zsa Zsa from Z-Tattoo Magazine looking photogenic

Inge Mette checking out a book while Lars socializes afterwards

Tätowier Magazine: Juni 06/2013

My good friend Claire Artemyz wrote an article last year which was published in Tatouage Magazine in France showing my work recreating prehistoric tattoos as well as the use of related art as tattoo designs. Now the article has now been published in German as well, in Tätowier Magazine. So to my Germanic friends... "Enjoy" And to my Francophone friends... you can still check out the original by clicking on "Presse" 

I've been wanting to do something like this for years... showing the original sources, the drawings and the final tattoo. Some of these designs are direct recreations of the symbols while others are my interpretation of the historical finds. 

Claire has previously written articles on my work with Haida tattooing, Ötzi the Iceman and accupuncture tattoos, as well as some of the prehistoric tattooing techniques I use.

An added plus is that the magazine also has articles on Marc "Little Swastika's" new work and Uncle Allen's move to Berlin

 Nano Gigantum Humeris Insidentes

Artistic Process: Machine Tattooing

Well just so you don't think I've thrown away my machines... here are a few projects I'm working on

Enjoy

 Finished up some double dragons on a client I haven't seen in 12 years or more

 Only got about an hour and a half in on Kim's Sleipner project... but he has another appointment next week :-)

 Continued Melusine on my Italian client.

I really wanted to get this done but after about 5 hours he was twitching too much to put in the hatch shading so he's gonna have to come over again so we can finish it :-(

Continued Sune's Yggdrassil backpiece... only a couple hours at a time. Outlined the roots and the tail of the dragon this session... now we just have to fill it in next week :-)

Keefer made it back from England for the second session on his double dragon leg sleave. Due to the distance it is a little long between sessions... however he sits like a rock and we can easily do 7-8 hours straight. I opted for the Honeycomb pattern in the larger dragon, however I put it in sidways to give it a bit of a "Colinga" feel :-) 

Artistic Process: Hand Tattooing

I've gotten to the point in my career where technically everything I do by machine I can also do by hand... and sometimes better :-) The only difference is time. Over the last several years I've been pushing my tattooing culturally by refusing to do certain styles with machine. At the same time I've also tried to push my tattooing technically by attempting new styles using only hand tools. Here are a few examples of things I've been up to the last few weeks

Enjoy

  

Haida Thunderbird

Some of you may remember this design from the Copenhagen Ink Fest which I tattooed on Pernille... this is one I did on her father a few weeks earlier. 

Although I've done two of these designs, it is still an original piece and should not be copied

Started on this Haida Owl last week. Got the outline done, now we're only missing the dots

Started some "Colinesian" around some previous work by another artist. Framework is done on the lower portion, just have to fill in the patterns

I've done quite a few "Vejvisers" in my day and as I've explained I have nothing against re-creating historical images as they are not mine to start with... I consider them "Viking Flash"

This compass however is a custom design telling the story of one individual... if you copy it, the gods from the four corners of the world will turn you into lead before casting you into the abyss to slowly melt... only to have karma and the Valkyries insure that it happens all over again for the rest of eternity

Here is a piece I've done depicting the hero Sigurd with the dwarf Regin who is forging Sigurd's father's broken magical blade into a new sword, "Gram".

I did this piece on a newly educated blacksmith... although he would have loved to have gotten the design tattooed by hand he lacked the time and money :-( However we were able to compromise by outlining the design with machine and then hand poking the dots which was almost as quick :-)

Here is the same design I did several years ago only using hand tools on a much older blacksmith travelling down from Norway. I don't think I've posted this as it was after the homepage was set up but before I started the blog... I've also never gotten a properly healed photo of it.

Here is a photo from the stave church portal from Hylestad, Norway... which is now replaced with a copy while the original is housed at the University of Oslo.

I hate tattooing colour! Everytime I do it I swear I'll never do it again.

Then I look at the photos and think... that was pretty cool

Rune magic to help Kim

And finally a little Inuit sewing on Kit, a Danish pensionist living in Sweden just a short detour on the way to our cottage. One fresh, one healed 

After getting the first one she said the ladies in her sewing circle were quite impressed... so I wouldn't be surprised if these elderly women begin reviving the tradition :-)

Københavns Middelalder Marked 2013

Well we once again had a lovely weekend at the Copenhagen Medieval Market in Valby Parken. Despite rain on Sunday the most important was that it was sunny both for the setting up and taking down of the tent. Missed having my friend Kai there, but he had to cover the Faroe Island Convention that we were at last year. However it was cool to have visits from Kai's apprentice Markus as well as two other Top Viking Tattooists... Jesper Mann and Lars Martinen.

 Here are a few photos of the weekend. 

www.kmm.dk

Enjoy :-) 

Did this Vejviser on John the first day... inspired by a piece which I had done on Lars Krutak a few months ago. I have nothing against repeating historical designs as they are not mine to start with. I think of it as "Viking Flash" and although I've done dozens of these designs (and hundreds of other tattooists have used them as well) I think it still is far more interesting than the most original dolphin design :-) Aside from the actual historical vejviser I just freehanded my own spiral to make it a little more individual from person to person

An older Flash design of mine depicting Thor's hammer with the Midgaardsorm wrapped around. The Nordic sagas have many stories about Thor's battles with his nemesis. It was finally nice to do a hand poked version of this :-) I was also a little proud as the client, Lars has sleaves, chest and back all tattooed by Henning Jørgensen from Royal Tattoo

A closeup to show the detail... simple, clean and fast

A client I tattooed last year with a freehand version of the Fenris Wolf... here shown bound by the chain Gleipner until the time of Ragnarok. The Midgaardsorm and Fenris Wolf are both offspring of Loki and the Giantess Angrboda 
  

A serpent triskele that I tattooed on Minna several years back on Bornholm... still looking good after all these years :-)

Tomak is a very talented Blacksmith from Poland and has been involved with Viking, Medieval and Native American re-enactment for many years. We tattooed Tomek with a design inspired from the Iroquous and Woodland Cree... however they could just as easily be Viking, Polynesian or something other. We tattooed his first arm at Mosegaard last year and took the opportunity to finish the set this year. Tomek's forearms are muscular, thick and hard... it took me approximately twice the time I thought it would take to make this tattoo :-)

 Fellow Viking tattooist Jesper Mann sleeping while getting his chest tattooed
(actually the sunglasses were just to hide the tears :-)

I promised Jesper not to show his tattoo online (it is his own design, I'm just the craftsman)... however he agreed to let me show a closeup so you could see the detail :-)

Four days at the market, followed by four minutes in the bath...

Goodnight :-)

Studio photos

Google contacted us a couple months back about adding some of the shops on Jægersborggade to their Maps function. The funny thing about this is that they didn't just want to show the shops from the outside, but actually wanted to give viewers the opportunity to come in and look around. At first I was a little reluctant as it seems a little Orwellian for my taste... however as I've been a little lax in posting photos of the studio on the www.skinandbone.dk  homepage and I also have nothing against people coming to visit the studio, I figured we'd give it a shot.

Here's the link if you want a look:

https://www.google.com/maps?layer=c&z=17&sll=55.693324,12.542954&cid=-3568643470886467225&panoid=-StZbJNd0xAAAAQIt2OguQ&cbp=13,200.10762392997214,,0,0&q=skin+%26+bone+j%C3%A6gersborggade&sa=X&ei=LzKdUcaFDYbTtAaSj4DwBQ&ved=0CHUQoB8wCg

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=da&tab=ww#hl=da&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=skin+%26+bone+j%C3%A6gersborggade&oq=skin+%26+bone+j%C3%A6&gs_l=hp.3.0.0i10i30.1541.12134.0.13485.14.13.0.1.1.0.80.733.13.13.0...0.0...1c.1.14.psy-ab.7dJTZmkvE4Q&pbx=1&fp=1&biw=1866&bih=1032&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&cad=b

Of course we're also hoping that you'll come in person as well :-)

P.S. see how many Cirkelines you can find... there will be a quiz :-)

 Yes... 3 and a half years and I still haven't gotten a sign :-)

Studio facade

Waiting room

Books, magazines and wall of fame :-)

 My work station

 Library

 More books... for thought and memory

Drawing station

It's sort og funny using the Maps function as you can see ghosts of the photographer in several reflected surfaces. However due to facial recognition programs all peoples features are blurred. I found this really entertaining when looking in my work area and saw that a charcoal drawing of Frankenstein's Monster done for me by Alex at Rites of Passage was so life like that the program blurred it as well to protect the Monster's identity :-)
All photos taken by Søren Kristensen wwwSOLK.dk