Tattoo special
3rd year - n. 5 - ISSN 2036 - 6086
black & grey
Fantasy Chicano Traditional Portraits Biomechanical
Number 5 ÂŁ 3.95
Finland 9,00 E Benelux 7,00 E Portugal 7,80 E cont. Norwegen 86,00 NOK Australia $ 9.50 NZ $ 10.50 (inc. GST)
Skulls Oriental Horror Flowers Lettering Animals
Published by MediaFriends srl Viale Papiniano, 49 20123 Milano, Italy Editorial Director Miki Vialetto mikivialetto@tattoolife.com myspace.com/mikivialetto Art Direction & production Mediafriends Srl, Viale Papiniano, 49 - Milano, Italy Tel. +39 028322431 Fax +39 0289424686 mediafriends@tattoolife.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Miki Vialetto Editorial assistants Margherita Baleni, Maurizio Candeloro, Simone Sacco redazione@tattoolife.com Production Coordinators Cristina Marini redazione@tattoolife.com GRAPHIC design Meera Razza, Lella Vivace grafica@tattoolife.com Colour reproduction Esseci, Milano, Italy Printing Tiber S.p.A. Via Della Volta, 179 Brescia, Italy Tel. +39 039 3543439 Distribution UK Comag Specialist West Drayton, Middlesex Australia Network Services 66-68 Goulburn Street, Sydney Italy SO.DI.P. Spa Via Bettola 18, 20092 Cinisello Balsamo (Mi) spaIN Dispaña Avenida Llano Castellano, 43 - 2a planta 28034 Madrid FrancE MLP 55, Bd de la Noirée St. Quentin Fallavier Germany Special-Interest, Nordendstraße 2 D-64546 Mörfelden-Walldorf MEXICO Pernas Y Cía Mexico City - Mexico
Tattoo Special is a six-monthly magazine published by Mediafriends. All rights reserved. The reproduction even partial of the texts or images is forbidden without written authorization of the editor. The material sent to Mediafriends will not be returned. The material received can be used by Mediafriends both for paper publications and digital. Any omission of author’s names, texts, photos or designs solely depends on the fact that it was impossible to do so. Tattoo Special undertakes to comply with these duties. Photo cover Artist: Placaso, Electric Chair Tattoo, Los Angeles, USA
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Black and Grey, a style for many genres
hadows, shades of grey and outlines make up the palette of those tattooists who choose black and grey as the signature style of their tattoos. Even though this style makes mono-color its mark and does not like the emphasis of color, black and grey offers intriguing expressions and a mixture of very elegant details. It is a tattoo style with a very long history and tradition that links it to a genre that was considered “not aesthetic” and very important for what it represented. It was the famous tattoo used in prisons with lampblack; a rough tattoo, a style for men: a work of art that worn on skin immediately conveyed a meaning closely linked with the personality of the wearer. And then over the years, with the circulation of tattoo art, also black and grey was aesthetically enhanced and its expressive power was finally understood. Portraits became one of the most popular subjects of the genre. And just like China ink that works miracles on a white sheet of paper, black ink machined by expert hands creates the shades of the face, gives power to the eyes and enhances those elements that give the portrait the realism it deserves. From portraits black becomes the perfect expression of the horror genre, mixing with those figures which
dominated the film industry from the 30’s onward and horror literature. It then moved to those creations that only tattoo was able to codify, in a mixture of images, skeletons, skulls and three-dimensional faces which will explode in the fantasy and especially biomechanical styles. In America, on the East Coast, black and grey is linked to the world of gangs and Chicano becomes the most authentic way to show affiliation to the Cholo culture. Along with lettering which in its multiple interpretations from the orient to the west makes black and grey its signature mark. And if the above-mentioned styles are closely linked to black and grey, the aesthetics of tattoo discovers black as a possible variation to color for subjects such as flowers and animals; the “noncolor”, long-lasting in time and very effective, gives these subjects a three-dimensional shape and combination of shades that is breathtaking. Filip Leu’s dragons, for example, are a great expression of this, as are the most popular subjects of the Oriental style which abandon color for the pureness of black. Black that also conquers what has always been considered the territory of color: traditional, which in the pages of this special issue, dedicated to black and grey in all its variations, simply reveals its elegant side…
Portraits Chicano Horror Animals Lettering Biomechanical Flowers Traditional Skulls Oriental Fantasy
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