I love tattoos. Adore them. Can't get enough of them. I am constantly ogling perfect strangers in the street to get a closer look at their tattoos, which probably makes me seem a wee bit creepy, but not as creepy as I could be if I also tried to surreptiously take photos. Social taboos and general decency prevent me from becoming a fully-fledged tattoo stalker, but thankfully the internet can help me out here.
When I was younger, I was very much under the impression that the only people who got inked were bikies, juvenile delinquents or prison inmates. Oh, not to mention people with a penchant for shaded portraits of celebrities and Jesus.
Yep, he's laughing right at you, kid.
Sexy
This chest piece isn't my style, but my god it is incredibly pretty. For more photos, clicky clicky here.
Needless to say I was not a fan, and by the time the tribal armband/Japanese character/tramp-stamp-fest of 1990 onwards hit its stride, most tattoos that my young self saw were pretty hideous and nothing to aspire to. However, both the quality of the inks and the artists themselves have increased exponentially over the years. Anyone can get anything tattooed anywhere (for a price), and while this has lead to a strangely high number of men decorating themselves with stoned copulating unicorns riding a rainbow of ecstasy (or shitting out a rainbow of ecstasy, you know, whatever floats yer boat) it also means that people are getting some pretty gorgeous and alternative work done. So enough with the bad - we all know what a bad tattoo looks like - let's get on to the awesome.
Scott Harrison is fast becoming one of my favourite tattoo artists, due in no small part to amazing pieces such as these (I want me some hinges like #2). He works out of Portland, Oregon so for now I'll just have to admire from afar.
Kiwi lass Rose Hardy has some super incredible work with a cool original vibe. She occasionally works down at Chapel Tattoo in Melbourne, so fingers crossed I can book in with her one day. (That chestpiece? HOLY SHIT I WANT IT NOW.)
On the Australian front, we have the very lovely derby queen tattooist Miss Manners (this is one of my favourite sleeves ever):
Dude, there's a veritable cornucopia of awesome skin art out there, and I'm sure there will be many more posts from me on the subject. Get googling, y'all! There is much inky goodness to be seen. But for now, here's a picture of one of my favourite tattooed models, the slammin Miss Cherry Dollface. Her portfolio is well worth a look for her tattoos alone.
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