MAGAZINE
2011
TaT
6652 St. Joe Rd. Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
GUNS KILL. MACHINES CREATE.
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history:
Art History 101
art life
Artist of the Month
trends:
Top 10 Most Common Places to Get a Tattoo
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feature:
Diary of an Inked Girl
equipped: Fresh Ink
events:
The Phunk N’ Ink Tattoo Convention
BROUGHT TO YOU BY...
Pam Farmen: Creative Director Special Thanks To: My parents, for always putting my art up on the fridge even when they thought it was ugly. Extra Special Thanks To: My peers in J323. This magazine would be a mess without y’all.
Kelsi Henry
Part time editor, full time cat impersonator.
Sara Morris Keeps me sane.
Jenelle Bickel
Writer, photographer, roommate, friend, covered in tattoos.
Cy and Maude
Keep me thoroughly entertained.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: All my dear mother ever wanted was a precious baby girl that she could dress up in cute little pink dresses and who would share her fondness of classic literature. Unfortunately, I arrived in this world refusing to wear anything other than all black and refusing to do anything other than finger paint. Art has always played an important role in my life. And as I continue to struggle through the transition from finger paints to Illustrator and Photoshop, some thing still holds true: I will pick it apart, I will hate it for a majority of the process, I will change it at least one thousand times, I will imperfectly perfect it, and I will always keep it true to myself. While many tattoo artists don’t have the luxury of picking things apart or changing them a thousand times (lucky for the client), that tattoo little Suzy So-andSo has on her back is a one-of-a-kind artistic masterpiece that she will wear on her for the rest of her life. Remember, O my brothers, art is the movement, skin is the canvas.
ART HISTORY 101
K
ings and commoners. Sailors and prisoners. Tribesmen and sweethearts. All have shared one thing: the art of the tattoo. Once regarded in the West as frightening and repulsive, the tattoo has enjoyed great popularity in our own culture in recent years. Everywhere we look today — movies, advertisements, televisionare signs that people of all walks of life appreciate and practice the art of the tattoo.
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3200 B.C.
May 2007 February 2006 Paul Booth, the first tattooist to be invited to join the National Arts Club, opens a high-end tattoo atelier in Chelsea.
Brad Pitt gets a tattoo of Ötzi the mummy.
Ötzi, who would become the world’s oldest mummy, gets a tattoo: about 60 lines and crosses on his lower spine, right knee, and ankle joints.
Third Century A.D.
In the late 200s, Japanese men are elaborately decorating their entire bodies.
1769
Captain James Cook sails into Tahiti and discovers Polynesian tattoos, along with the island’s word for the art form: tatau.
December 2004
The launch of Ed Hardy Vintage Tattoo Wear, a clothing line featuring the artwork of the famed tattooist.
1846
Martin Hildebrandt sets up New York’s first tattoo shop on Oak Street in lower Manhattan.
May 1997
New York holds its first tattoo convention.
1891
New Yorker Samuel O’Reilly patents the first electric tattoo machine, a modification of Thomas Edison’s perforating pen.
February 1997
New York passes a bill legalizing tattooing by a vote of 38 to 7. Officials estimate that 50 tattooists had been operating illegally in the previous few years.
1944
1992
The Alliance of Professional Tattooists, a nonprofit founded to address the tattoo 1979 The three-year-old industry’s health and safety issues, is National Tattoo Association organizes established. the first National Convention of tattoo artists and fans, in Denver.
1974
Don Ed Hardy opens Realistic Tattoo in San Francisco, the first custom-only, appointment-only studio in the U.S.
1961
In one of the first instances of legal trouble for the tattoo world, Charlie Wagner is fined by the city of New York for not sterilizing his needles.
The New York City Health Department bans tattooing after a hepatitis-B scare.
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MEET THE ARTIST
WHO: Nate Click WHERE: New Republic Tattoo, Ft. Wayne, Ind. WHEN: May 2008 - Present
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WHY: “Since I began tattooing people, I have met a lot of great artists, and more importantly, great friends, who have helped me to create art to my full potential.”
How would you describe your style? I guess I would best describe my style as Neo-traditional yet simple and solid. When did you first encounter tattoos/tattooing? Were you instantly drawn to it? I would say my first encounter with real tattooing was when I received a Dave Quiggle sketchbook. I was 15 or 16 years old. His bold, simple linework immediately caught my eye, i was hooked on the idea of elegance through simplicity from that point on. Can you tell us how you started off in the tattooing? I started off in the industry as a shop hand, under a shop owner that was not a tattooer himself. He was a business man first and foremost, and let me know from the start that I would not be a tattooer anytime soon. I watched tattooing at the shop and studied the best I could, for not knowing where to begin. The entire crew left that shop owner and did our own thing soon after. It was when we started New Republic that I began tattooing.
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Do you have any formal art training? While I was a shop manager, I was attending the University of Saint Francis with a major in Graphic Design, I loved my art classes but despised everything else, including the pretentious attitudes of my class. I knew I wanted to be a tattooer, so I dropped out to pursue a life of tattooing. Do your clients tend to have set ideas of how the tattoo should look, or do they give you a concept to work from and let you control the outcome? My clients usually come into the shop with an idea of what they want, many of those with lyrics, which I interpret visually, which I really enjoy doing. Clients that are getting a tattoo from me, know what my tattoos look like, so they usually give me free reign. I definitely prefer them at least having an idea before coming in and saying “Do whatever you want.” Not that giving me full freedom is bad, I just don’t know what to do!
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Original painting by Nate Click.
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The Top 10 most common places to get a tattoo. 1
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MAKE SURE YOU GET THE RIGHT ARTIST FOR THE JOB.
tattooroadtrip.com
413 S. Tillotson Muncie, Indiana
Collin’s Classic Ink
diary of an inked girl Written by Jenelle Bickel
There’s something about looking in the mirror every morning and seeing a canvas beginning to fill up that makes me
“Tattoo,” is a word that carries a lot of meaning to so many different people. In the past it would be associated with goons, bikers, tribal warriors, drunken sailors and floozies. Now, you can see important businessmen, mothers, fathers, musicians and yes, still the occasional floozy, with tattoos. I have always found the art of tattooing something so personal and beautiful. I got my first tattoo three years ago on Christmas Eve. During my first semester of college I had found out that my grandpa, who I was very close to, was very ill. He lived in Oklahoma so there wasn’t much I could do but talk to him on the phone. I remember as if it were yesterday getting the phone call from my mom as I sat in my dorm’s dining hall saying that he had passed away. It was really hard to take in. Two months later I got a tattoo to commemorate him and the fun times we shared. Well, I think it’s fitting to say that from there the rest is history.
smirk.
After getting the tribute to my grandfather I was hooked. My next investment was a Serocostyle camera from the 1900s. Although I have never had the pleasure of dealing with this type of camera, I knew if it wasn’t for this type of camera I wouldn’t be in the photojournalism field today. After expressing how I wanted to spend the rest of my professional career, I felt it was only adequate that I show my love for music.
My love for all types of music is well known, but I am generally pulled more towards the likes of such artists as: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Louis Armstrong and the decades between 1940 and 1970. So I chose to have a yellow submarine with the words “All Together Now” and a fedora with a banner that says “Old Blue Eyes.” My love for these artists goes further than just enjoying a song or two. This music has helped me through tough times, and I still even listen to The Beatles every Monday as a quirky tradition a friend and I started in high school.
Even though I love all my tattoos in their own way and they each represent a growth within me, some of the tattoos I have gotten seem to stick out to me when I think about all of them. One in particular is a quote that I have lived by for most of my life. “You must be your own before you can be another’s.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. When I was younger I had trouble being myself. I wasn’t okay with who I was and I would change my opinions and views to please those around me. When I realized that my life wasn’t based on anyone but myself, I grew into who I have become today.
I’ve always felt as though I had been born in the wrong era. Why can’t all the females have Victory Rolls in their hair? Why isn’t jazz the most popular music genre? To represent my longing for years past, I got a sort-of version of myself as a pinup girl tattooed on my thigh. Her name is Eva.
One of my favorite books is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. More specifically, the 21st chapter of the book that was not included in the American versions of the publications. In the lost chapter, the main character Alex likens being young to being a wind-up toy, and having no control over the things you are doing. I decided to get a tattoo of a tinker toy with the quotation “Oh My Brothers, It was a Real Horrorshow� on my forearm.
Jack London, an author and journalist from the late 1800’s was quoted as saying,
“Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.” Each tattoo represents a part of me. Whether it is something that I enjoy, my profession or a spur-of-the-moment decision, they are all very dear to me.
FRESH INK
With tattoos rising in populairity, another trend is quickly rising with it. While people often struggle with the bold, sometimes unwelcomed statements that their tattoos make, others have found what might be the perfect solution: Ink that is invisible in normal light. UV ink is quickly becoming popular because of its invisibility to the naked eye in any light other than a blacklight. The ink appears clear in regular light, making the tattoo nearly impossible to see. But once under the UV beams of a black light, these art peices come to life.
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The PHUNK N’ INK Tattoo Convention
FT. WAYNE, IND.
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Written by: Kelsi Henry Photos by: xxxxx
E
ach year, tattoo enthusiasts and artists alike come to the Convention Center in Ft. Wayne, Indiana to show off their ink and show off their skills. The Convention Center is filled wall-towall with booths representing the finest shops in the area, as well as a stage for live music and a half-pipe for BMX riders to show off their tricks, thus proving that Phunk N’ Ink Tattoo Convention offers a little something for everyone. Shops such as New Republic right out of Ft. Wayne look forward to the convention every year. It’s is a great opportunity for shops like these to get noticed by potential customers.
Phunk N’ Ink is starting to get more recognition on the whole as it becomes more popular with tattoo artists and tattoo-lovers. The convention is still relatively new, with this year being only the third annual one, but the turnouts continue to grow and look promising. In fact, the attendance for last year’s convention was over 5,000.
The convention also holds several tattoo contests throughout all three days that the event is held. This year , some of the contest categories include: best horror tattoo, best photo realism tattoo, best back piece, best portrait, best black and gray, and best full color. There is also a category for best of the day and best of convetion.
This year the convetion features several up-and-coming bands such as Groove Caravan, Sinners Among Saints, Remember Paris, Black Cat Mombo, and returning group What She Said. The Aztlan Suspension Team will also be doing piercing suspension performances throughout the day.
Phunk N’ Ink is unique in comparison to other conventions because of it’s broader focus on the arts in general. It’s a great place to see what the Indiana area has to offer in the way of not only tattoo shops, but also artists, musicians, and BMXers. So make sure to check it out on March 2527 and visit phunknink.com for more info.
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