Artistic Process... Something old, Something new....

Been pretty busy the last couple of weeks and figured instead of apologizing I should just post a few excuses before heading off to Florence :-)

A new custom grylemask which I did on a client from Canada

I tattooed Aaron with another custom grylemask a few years back... however he was feeling a little unbalanced :-)

 

A former client of mine tracked me down to the new studio for another tattoo. What made me even more happy was seeing his former tattoo. I did this over 10 years ago just when I was starting to get a feel for doing freehand Nordic knotwork. The design is great... however I was only working with "3 rounds" at the time, so technically it could be better. But aestetics are more important than technique... A good design with limited technique can still be a good tattoo

A bad design can't be saved no matter how good the technique is.

I'd love to go over this with some thicker lines and solid dots... but then again, it might be a shame :-) 

Continued on Yggdrasil and I'm really thinking on going minimalistic on this one. The lines are thick and sharp, the design is solid... I might just do a Viking tribute inspired by the K.I.S.S. school of thought

KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID !

:-)

Danish mother, African Father, Hawiían wife

Finished the Rune bands in the Double dragon calf. Took a text from the Hávamál in Old Nordic and transcribed it with an Icelandic rune Futhark (his wife is Icelandic) I did the rune text by hand... I love this piece and figured he deserved it. Unfortunately we didn't finish until 9 in the evening... his pregnant wife was waiting and they had a 3 hour drive back home, so I didn't get one decent photo :-( Hopefully we'll get some healed photos at some point

 

And finally, started on a new freehand  Double dragon half sleave. The request was for two dragons each with a head on the chest and shoulderblade, sort of yin/yang... and then down to the elbow. I tried to keep the design symetrical despite the non-symetry of the human arm.

First session... stay tuned :-)  

 

Artistic Process... and a few finished projects

 Well I just finished Alex in time for the London Convention where he happily placed second in the Ornamental catagory :-) Since they cancelled "Tribal" several years back in favour for "Ornamental" , the new catagory has been dominated by colour work. So it was nice for the Tribal room to finally take some back with my friend Brent McCown placing 1st and 3rd as well :-)
   It's not so much to win the contests as to just have a venue to show our work to the public and magazines and hopefully promote the type of cultural work we do.

 

 Anyway... here is a finished photo of the Yggdrasil piece showing the Midgaards Serpent in the branches eating his own tail while under the surface lurks Nidhugg knawing on the tree's roots which will eventually be severed at the start of Ragnarok

Not to sit on my laurals after London, the following week I started a new Yggdrasil back piece. This one will only go onto the hips (soon to come) so I set Nilhugg in the branches coming down at the roots. Hugin and Munin also sit in the upper branches keeping an eye on all that transpires in the worlds below and report back to Odin. The tree is loosely inspired by the Ramsund carving in Sweden. Lookig forward to finishing this one in 2013 :-)

 

Henriette's dragon sleave finally completed after 3 long sessions. Henriette competed in the Nordic Pistol Shooting Championships shortly after... and the dragon seems to have steadied her arm, as the Danish Womans Team won Gold :-)

 

I'll hopefully be finished this Double Dragon Calf next week... just have to put in 3 bands of text from the Hávamál by hand. I was really quite pleased that I got all of thhe overs and unders right on this one including the text... it was a real nightmare of freehand knotwork :-)

 

"Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification" by Lars Krutak

Well the new book is out... written by my friend Lars Krutak www.larskrutak.com
 and published by Edition Reuss www.editionreuss.de

Matthias Reuss came around at the London Convention and presented copies to all of the traditional hand tattooists who are keeping the culture alive :-)
Lars had mentioned using some of my work in the book and I was more than pleased when I saw the results. 4 pages of text (split into English and German) decribing Ötzi and his accupuncture tattoos along with recounting a pilgrimage I made to the site where he was found to conduct an experiment using the same techniques and materials. The trip was organized by my friend Kai Faust and I was joined by French photographer Claire Artemyz www.artemyz.com who documented the experiment.

This however is just a small part og the book which also records other medical and magical tattooing practices from tribes Lars has visited in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea and around the world... historical references to traditions long lost as well as documentation of others very much alive today.

The book is available from Edition Reuss and I will also be having some copies at the studio for sale.
We also have a few autographed copies of Lars' first book "Tattooing Practices of Tribal Women" as well as the rest of the tattoo publications by Edition Reuss :-)
Come have a look if you want to see more :-)

Front cover of the 2 kg monster tome which is too big to fit in the scanner :-)

Position of Ötzi's tattoos.

As these designs located on joints and median lines that are not easily visible it is assumed that they were for medical purposes. Several on the lower back coinside with where he suffered from arthritis and could not have been tattooed by himself

Tattooing David up in the mountains close to the site were Ötzi was discovered and photos of some of the lines we made to treat David's ailments

The center Sunship design on David's back was tattooed by Kai using only a piece of flint

Close up of Ötzi's tattoos

I was fortunate enough to be allowed to add to "The Tattoo Hunter's" collection of ethnographic tattoos a few years back with some Inuit sewing

Here Karen is also shown with the tattoo she got for her 103rd birthday :-) 

As an added bonus, Nanna got an artists credit for her photographic work in the book :-)

Although she's been contributing to tattoo magazines for many years this is the first time shes had work published in a book :-)

London Tattoo Convention

Well there were a few changes at the London Convention this year... most notably the Traditional Hand Tattooing room was moved from the enterance to a larger room in the far back corner of the venue. This wasn't so much due to lack of room for the tattooists, but rather due to fire regulations, as the Traditional room has always had the largest number of visitors. This year was no exception... and as the Convention had 11000 come through the door on Saturday alone, it was probably a wise move. Miki Vialetto (the organizer) came by personally on opening day just to check and make sure that everything was all right :-)

 

It was great to see all of our friends again... unfortunately due to the busy work schedule I missed catching up with several and never saw more of London than the hotel room and the Hand tattooing room :-(

 

   It was great to see Durga again and present him with 3 awards I've won for the Titi Boug tattoo he did on my thighs a few years back when visiting Skin&Bone.

Brent McCown and Steffi were also there... I've been travelling alot with Brent the last couple years and we exchanged tools at this years convention as a sign of respect for each others work :-) Brent also won a well deserved 1st and 3rd place for Best Ornamental Tattoo while I completed our hat trick by placing 2nd :-)

 

Mathias Reuss was also there promoting his new book "Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification" written by Lars Krutak. I'm very proud to have been mentioned in the book as well as having several of my tattoos shown :-) Mathias was around to give complimentary copies of the book out to all of the hand tattooists who are keeping these traditions alive... Thank you Mathias :-) These books will be available along with Edition Reuss' other titles both through Mathias' homepage:

 www.editionreuss.de  or at Skin&Bone

 

Finally... Pili Moó aproached me about perhaps coming on a guest visit to Skin&Bone next year when it is a little warmer :-).

Xoil of Needleside Tattoo dropped by about a tattoo (which neither of us had time to do) I wrote an article on Xoil for Z-Tattoo about a year back but this was the first time we had actually met :-) 

The Ricci Sisters came down from Scotland to visit :-) We're hoping Rafaella will come back for another guest visit to Skin&Bone soon. 

Filip Leu and his lovely wife Titine dropped by late Sunday to say hej, watch me work and talk a bit...

and Alex Binnie was also past to talk about coming on a visit to Copenhagen and perhaps displaying his recent woodcut prints at Skin&Bone... so it seems the the studio is getting a good reputation in the mere 3 years that we have been open :-)

I'll present more news on the blog as I get it :-)  

Pictish Wild Boar Rampant

Took inspiration fron the Pictish picture stones in Scotland however I drew the boar "rampant" (standing on rear legs) so we could make it larger in the space provided. He intends to get a rampant Pictish Bull on the other shoulderblade at a later point.

I love these designs which are perfect for hand tattooing, with or without the dotshading  

Tattooing a bound rune design... a memorial tattoo for his recently deceased daughter

 

A powertful symbol and a very emotional moment

 

Inuit Sewing... I've been doing this technique for 15 years but don't use it too often. However under the right circumstances... In this case an anthropologist collegue of my friend Lars Krutak wanted to experience the sewing and hand poking

 

Finished experiment... sewing vs handpoking.

We used natural soot pigment for both tattoos and she will keep me updated as to the results over time 

 

Tattooed this dragon on Lewis a few years back at Skin&Bone

 The result of a Inuit sewn design... a variation of the Ægir's Hjelm

 

Had a client waiting patiently for 2 days to see if I had time to tattoo him.

Had to knock this Hugin & Munin design out in just a a few hours before close on Sunday.

Would have liked to have done it a little darker, but more can be added later and I think the lines were so clean that it could hold up to a little less shading

 

Pili Moó doing what he does best :-)

Durga tapping in a Borneo rose

The new hand tapping room was a little colder than the old location... especially if you're dressed for the tropical jungle. Being of Viking stock it wasn't a problem for myself... however most of the other hand tattooists come from warmer climates and some of them were suffering

 

Sanya from The Ohman Tattoo Project in Mexico with her neck just tattooed by Xed le Head. They tattooed all night and finished only a few hours before the convention opened again on Sunday at noon. Almost too tired to tattoo :-)

 Alex, Loki and I up on scene being presented with 2nd prize for Ornamental by Sabina Kelly

We just finished Alex's Yggdrasil back piece last month, so it was a great to win something on the first showing... especially at a convention of the level of London. I just wanted to thank Alex for coming over to show it, as I don't get an opportunity to show my work abroad too often

My friend Brent McCown took 1st and 3rd place... so there was much celebrating in the Tribal Camp that night :-)