I’ve decided that I want to make my blog a little more diverse and write about things that reflect me as a person as well as things that inspire me from the fashion industry. As someone very close once said to me, ‘It’s time you started putting more effort into the things you love rather than stressing about things you don’t.’
One thing that influences and inspires most of my life is tattooing, not only as a culture and lifestyle but as an art form too. Now I know a lot of people have various opinions on the subject, especially when it comes to tattooed girls, but it is a huge part of who I am and the way I live, so I feel it’s a passion that I should write about.
After recently catching the documentary series, collaborating urban fashion brand ‘New Era’ and the guys from Vice TV, online I thought this would be a great place to start to introduce the ‘tattoo world’ into my blog.
‘Tattoo Age’ follows the daily life and cultural practice of artists such as Freddy Corbin. Troy Denning, Dan Santoro and Grime.
Each artist is featured in a 3 part episode explaining why they became as iconic as they are today. Freddy Corbin, who has been tattooing for just over 30 years, explains how intense the business is saying ‘It’ll be five years before you’ll be doing even halfway-good tattoos.’
The artists explain that the job of tattooing isn’t really a job to them, more of a ‘hang out’, and that the most enjoyable work is when they are able to put a lot of personality into their work.
The documentary mainly tries to capture the ‘whole small world to itself of tattooing culture, tattoo characters and tattoo ways of life.. that are unlike what a lot of people experience.’
Personally I enjoyed the series a lot, and although there were some artists who I’d never heard about before. I learnt a lot about the culture and ‘real life’ of tattooing that isn’t captured in more staged shows such as ‘Miami Ink’ and ‘LA Ink.’ Without sounding oh so feminist, it would have been nice for there to have been a woman tattoo artist featured as well, maybe even just to break down that stereotypical boundary of tattooed women and the job as a female tattoo artist. But this didn’t spoil it too much.
New Era doesn’t actually appear in the series, apart from apparently giving away their caps to customers who were interviewed, which is a good way of promoting the brand and associating themselves with the Vice audience I guess. A subtle but successful approach that is become more popular within fashion and beauty brands.
Take a look at the trailer here:
And follow the link to the ‘New Era’ website where you can submit pictures of your own tattoos, join facebook discussions and read up on personal bios about each artist. As well as watching each 3 part episode in full.
(Images and quotes taken from http://www.neweracap.com/en_US/Explore/TATTOOAGE.aspx and http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/new-web-series-on-tattoo-artists-set-for-launch-2306356.html)
