| |
Local tattoo experts finally recognized
for their artform
By April L. Martin
Tattoos are no sailor’s badge of badass. Everyone and their
momma has a tattoo now.
The beautiful craft has turned into a tacky fad with millions of people
with dumbass phrases like “Lil Mike’s baby mama”
or “50th Street Loco Killers” displayed on their neck
or flabby un-six-pack stomach. Some of the worst involve lapses in
judgment by way of alcohol and drugs.
My best friend was the victim of her own tattoo demise. It was 2 a.m.,
and Carter, caving into peer pressure, went to the tattoo parlor filled
with excitement and Bacardi 151. She left with disappointment and
self-loathing.
Covering the outside of her left calf is a depiction of a little boy
with his pants pulled down peeing. The image is often seen on the
back of pickup trucks juxtaposed against a rebel flag decal. To make
matters worse, she never wears shorts or skirts and has the audacity
to get upset when you mention it.
|
| |
photo:
matt borgerding
Craig Moore, owner of Mother’s Tattoo |
|
On March 18, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) presented “Art
Is Only Skin Deep” as part of its ongoing and innovative Contemporary
Fridays programming. The event was billed as a celebration of the
ancient art of tattooing but looked like a crowded meat market for
freaks, geeks and le chic. The claustrophobic environment was broken
by Dana Brunson, the skin art runway show and the henna artists.
For anyone craving a tattoo but with a long laundry list of concerns
should visit Brunson, the city’s most respected skin artist.
He’s been inking city residents since 1977.
Ignore the “No cry babies” sign on the front door of his
Designs by Dana studio in Northside. Brunson — a ZZ Top look-alike
with a kinder, gentler hardass aura about himself — is a walking
billboard covered in ornate tattoos. CityBeat readers this year named
his shop Best Tattoo/Piercing for the fifth consecutive year.
His portion of the CAC show covered the history of tattooing. He has
an enormous collection of early 20th century flash art designs (flash
art is the industry name for tattoo designs) and tattooing needles.
One of his most prized artifacts is an 1880 photograph of Captain
Costentenus “The Greek Albanian,” the original tattoo
sideshow attraction in the P.T. Barnum Circus.
The CAC’s runway show was a display of colorfully intricate
tattoos by artists from Shadoworks Art & Design, Uptown Tattoo
and Beelistic Tattoo. The decidedly un-super models — pale,
unfit, unsexy — walked down the catwalk to continuous applause
for the variety and beauty of their skin art.
Uptown, the city’s second oldest tattoo studio, provided several
artists at the CAC event to answer questions. Located on Short Vine
in Corryville, it’s a mecca for UC students and spur-of-the-moment
first-time tattoo consumers.
The studio’s original owner, Big Tom, died last year, but his
spirit and work lives on through new owner Dana Canfield. Recently
Sean Hill, a tattoo artist who’s a Cincinnati native, returned
to take up residence at Uptown Tattoo. His work in L.A. included inking
celebrities like Xzibit, Gavin Rossdale and Michael Rappaport.
Over on the other side of campus in Clifton Heights is Beelistic’s
Tattoo, which also offers piercing (as does Uptown). The shop opened
last May and recently won the National Tattoo Association’s
“Nicest New Shop” award. The owner, Tim “Bee”
Gundrum, has been tattooing for 14 years and recently re-transplanted
himself in the city after traveling the country working.
“Your body is a temple,” Bee likes to say, “so you
might as well paint the walls.”
Beelistic also offers henna tattoos, which use an all-natural semi-permanent
stain that lasts up to three weeks. Henna artist Ashleigh Hayes can
give anyone pondering a permanent tattoo the opportunity for a trial
run.
Hayes says the origins of henna art come from India and the Middle
East, where a bride’s hands and feet are hennaed the night before
her wedding.
“Traditional lore says that however long the henna lasts a bride
doesn’t have to participate in housework,” she says.
Hayes suggests, when getting a henna tattoo, to make sure the stain
isn’t black, which could indicate the presence of hair dye and
result in a nasty skin problem.
A local artist who wasn’t involved with the CAC exhibition but
should have been is Craig Moore, owner of Mother’s Tattoo in
Covington. I’ve frequented many tattoo shops in my life, but
none as nice as Mother’s.
Moore is the Zen-like counterpart to the stereotypical grungy, loud
tattoo artist, and walking into Mother’s is like entering a
peaceful spa. The walls are a soft, soothing mustard color, with Robin
Roth’s exquisite paintings of African and Indonesian children
with piercings and tattoos. The back of the shop where the tattooing
and piercing take place is so clean you could eat off the floor.
The easygoing Moore has been tattooing for more than a decade, and
one of his specialties is repairing tattoos done by shady artists
with a less-than-clean working environments or by someone’s
cousin who learned the art of tattooing in the joint.
“The main thing about tattoos and piercing is cleanliness,”
he says. “Make sure the person knows what they’re doing.
This can be a dangerous field if you don’t know what you’re
doing.”
Get to the Point
Beelistic’s
2510 W. Clifton Ave., Clifton Heights, 513-221-8202
Designs by Dana
4167 Hamilton Ave., Northside, 513-681-8871
631 Main St., Covington, 859-292-8871
Mother’s
617 Main St., Covington, 859-261-8111
Shadoworks Art & Design Studio
13 W. Main St., Amelia, 513-753-8288
Uptown Tattoo
2529 Vine St., Corryville, 513-281-6968
|
|
|
