Latest Issue
Just got the latest (Sept. 08) issue of ITA in the mail yesterday and it's a real rockin' issue if I do say so myself.
First, our loving Editor, Chris Pfouts weighs in on the past and future of tattoo flash with an informative and entertaining editorial. Next, there's a feature by yours truly about the super-rad Carson. It's a short, one page article written by me with a dozen or so pages of eye bursting artwork from one of my new favorite artists on the scene. Carson's stuff runs the gamut from cute to rockin' and is all bright, bold and bad ass. There are two full pages of his "Pillcult" characters that'll really flip your lid.
Next, there's a nice article about the most recent "Ink and Iron Fest" written by Sara Ray that's all greasers and gassers as far as the eye can see with some great candid shots including pics of Jack Rudy and the mindblowingly cool backpiece he collaborated on with Guy Aitchison, some hand tapped tattooage, Joe Capo gettin' down on some calf acton, Pizz pointin' at a corndog and much more.
Tattoo historian and writer of the AMAZINGLY AWESOME book, "New York Tattoo", Mike McCabe goes in depth with a hugely informative article about Japanese tattoo Master, Sensei Horitoku of Tokyo. There's some great info about Horitoku, the tebori method of traditional Japanese tattooing and some nice photos of the Sensei in his private workspace. Top notch stuff from Mike, as usual.
Editor Chris Pfouts brings the radness with the incredibly talented Karrie Rosenbaum, AKA "Pepper" whose work crosses multiple stylistic boundaries with a focus on realistic portraiture that puts others, more well known for this style, to shame. The feature also showcases some of Pepper's unfuckingbelievably superb fine art pieces. Pepper's out in West Lafayette, IN (Purdue town!) at Revolution Tattoo which used to be one of St. Marq Agee's "New Breed" shops, the same tattoo empire that once featured Marq's lil' bro and super rad tattooer Monte Agee, Jerry Frost, Joshua Carlton and lil' ol' ME.
Sara Ray does double duty on the hot rod circuit with an article on the Viva Las Vegas Car Show. Tons of pics of lowriders, lead sleds, hot art, pin striping and pompadours overflow the pages like greased lightnin' or a scene from Ed Roth's nightmares. I can smell the gasoline, One Shot, PBR and Royal Crown as we speak.
All of these articles are followed, of course, by a mandatory dose of miscellaneous tattoos from up and comers as well as old timers in Tattoos From Around the Globe. Hit the newsstand now and getcha some!
And the amazing skull back piece done by Jack Rudy and Guy Aitchison was way out of focus.
Please get it together and lets get back to tattoing. PLEASE.
At ITA we try to focus on a lot of the cultural things that are attached to the greater tattoo community. The Viva Las Vegas show, for instance is extremely tattoo connected. Sure, we didn't show much of that here but it sort of goes without saying... As far as the traditional tattooing thing goes, it's our roots. We'll always honor those roots. There are plenty of mags out there who don't honor those roots at all and several that are dedicated to nothing but the roots. It's flavor. Let it go. As far as the out of focus backpiece in question, it still kicks ass in focus or not. Sadly we sometimes have to opt for a less than pro photog or even worse, a writer with a camera to cover events for us. It's damn expensive to send a man (or woman) out into the field but we're committed to covering events and will do so by any means necessary.