AMANDA WACHOB

Living and working in Brooklyn, Amanda Wachob balances her time as a tattooist and as a contemporary artist, pushing the boundaries of tattoo technology and challenging conventions of traditional tattoo design.

Wachob has been tattooing for over a decade, having spoken to “a friend that was working in a tattoo shop who suggested I come in and speak with the owners because they were looking for an apprentice. I had just graduated from art school and had no idea what I was going to do with my photography degree. I was open to trying anything new, anything art-related, so I met with them and got the apprenticeship. As soon as I started, I was hooked.”1

Inspired by George Burchett, Ed Hardy, and Cynthia Witkin, Wachob’s practice is hugely varied, seemingly only unified by an engagement on some level with tattooing. The artist explains that, “it’s all tattoo-related, but I don’t just stop at skin. I tattoo canvas, fruit, leather, etc. I want to expand the idea of what a tattoo can be. It’s my intention to push the boundaries.”2

Her photographic series of tattooed fruits are particularly interesting. While the abstract mark making is reminiscent of some fine printmakers, it is the understated commentary on the tattoo industry and permanence of the medium that fascinates. In tattooing fruits, she references time honoured training techniques used by aspiring tattoo artists. Of course, fruits rot at an accelerated rate when compared to the human body, belying the lasting nature of the medium (excusing developments in tattoo removal technologies).

However, by presenting these fruit tattoos as a photographic series, Wachob reclaims their immortality, beyond that even of tattoos that are committed to skin.

Wachob’s experimentations with abstract drawings and works on canvas using tattoo machines also challenge the figurative and representational traditions of tattoo design. They both present a contemporary vision for future tattoo design, and a relatively untapped re-purposing of the medium in the contemporary art world.

Notes

1 <http://www.inkedmag.com/artists/amanda-wachob/>

Accessed 13 October 2014

2 <http://www.inkedmag.com/artists/amanda-wachob/>

Accessed 13 October 2014

Image - Above: Amanda Wachob

Whip Shade 1 2010

Tattoo on vegetable tanned leather side

111.76 x 182.88 cm

Courtesy of the Artist, Amanda Wachob