I just heard of the untimely death of Bob Baxter
former editor of Skin&Ink magazine. I corresponded a bit with Bob over the
years and he was kind enough to feature my work on his Tattoo Road Trip blog.
At the National Tattoo Association Convention in Seattle I finally got to meet
the man and he did a short inpromptu interview for his blog. Bob was opinionated and
flamboyant, someone you either loved or hated... sometimes in the same
conversation. The tattoo community has lost another old school character who
made this business what it is today
Bob had an active interest and supported all sides of tattooing and history. In his list of the "101 Most Influencial People in Tattooing" (despite my thoughts that it was very American oriented) I was amazed of the large percentage represented who wern't even tattooists... Bob knew his history.
Bob wasn't a tattooist himself, however was father to 3 of the best... Holly, Riley and Jesse. As a photo journalist and editor he has been more influencial to tattooing than any 10 tattooists combined. His position as editor of one of the largest and best tattoo magazines in the world at that time meant that he could present different artists and styles and ultimately influence certain trends as well. He also promoting traditional Polynesian tattooing while Neo Tribal was still the rage.
This weekend was also the dates of the Tattoo Arts Film Festival in Canada held in my home town of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
I posted a few links on my facebook and Bob in turn posted it on his tattoo blog the morning of the Festival... I was meaning to write a quick thank you to him... alas, too late.
The thin red line running through this all is that the Tattoo Arts Film Festival was also featuring a short documentary on my work filmed by Hampus Samuelsson. Hampus also did a short documentary on the first Copenhagen Ink Fest and wanted to continue with a longer documentary on Nordic tattooing. However not having the funds for a larger project he decided to start with a smaller project on just one artist. Hampus is a member of the Viking community and has always had an interest in traditional tattooing having received a three quarter sleeve from Paulo Suluape in Samoa.
In the midst of the project I received news of the Tattoo Arts Film Festival and relayed the info to Hampus who submitted some preliminary shots. After a few rounds of judging his film "Roots" was accepted to the festival which meant that it couldn't be released to the public until after the showing... which happened to be the same day as Bob's passing.
However, without further delay here is the film released for it's first time to the public
P.S. there is also a tips jar on the video site
If you like the work please donate so that Hampus can do more of the same :-)
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