Vintage Tattoo Flash by Jonathan Shaw
Vintage Tattoo Flash is a one-of-a-kind visual explorationof the history and evolution of tattooing in America. Aluscious, offset-printed, hardcover tome a beautiful andserious addition to the understanding of one of the world soldest and most popular art forms.Electric tattooing as we know it today was invented inNew York City at the turn of the 19th century. In the firstdays of American tattooing, tattoos were primarily wornby sailors and soldiers, outlaws and outsiders. The visuallanguage of what came to be known as traditional tattooing was developed in those early days on the Boweryand catered to the interests of the clientele. Commonimagery that soon became canon included sailing ships, women, hearts, roses, daggers, eagles, dragons, wolves, panthers, skulls, crosses, and popular cartoon charactersof the era. The first tattooists also figured out that usingbold outlines, complimented by solid color and smoothshading, was the proper technique for creating art on abody that would stand the test of time. In the over 100years since then, techniques and styles have evolved, andthe customer base has expanded, but the core subjectmatter and philosophy developed at the dawn of electrictattooing has persisted as perennial favorites through themodern era.
While most tattoos are inherently ephemeral, transportedon skin until the death of the collector, a visual recordexists in the form of tattoo flash: the hand-painted sheetsof designs posted in tattoo shops for customers to selectfrom. Painted and repainted, stolen, traded, bought andsold, these sheets are passed between artists through onechannel or another, often having multiple useful lives in avariety of shops scattered across time and geography. Theutility of these original pieces of painted art has made itso that original examples can still be found in use or up forgrabs if you know where to look.
Vintage Tattoo Flash draws from the personal collectionof Jonathan Shaw renowned outlaw tattooist andauthor and represents a selection of over 300 pieces offlash from one of the largest private collections in existence.Vintage Tattoo Flash spans the first roughly 75years of American tattooing from the 1900s Bowery, to50s Texas, through the Pike in the 60s and the developmentof the first black and grey, single-needle tattooingin LA in the 70s. The book lovingly reproduces entirelyunpublished sheets of original flash from the likes of BobShaw, Zeke Owen, Tex Rowe, Ted Inman, Ace Harlyn, EdSmith, Paul Rogers, the Moskowitz brothers, and many, many others relatively known and unknown.
You might know of Jonathan Shaw as the first tattoo artist to ever appear on The Tonight Show with David Letterman. Or maybe you've seen his likeness depicted by Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Art Spiegelman on the cover of the stately old The New Yorker. Or you might know him as the son of legendary Swing-era bandleader Artie Shaw--or maybe the tattooed thug playing opposite Clint Eastwood in the movie Tightrope. You may have seen the magazine Jonathan Shaw founded back in the 90s, International Tattoo Art, at your local newsstand. Or you could have read his book, Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes, published by Johnny Depp's HarperCollins imprint, or his recent visual exploration of tattoo art, Vintage Tattoo Flash. You may have read mind-boggling excerpts from his long-awaited memoir-style novel, Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist online. Or maybe you only remember the name Jonathan Shaw as the infamous tattoo artist to the stars who recently made headline news for being indicted by a New York City Grand Jury and charged with 89 felony counts of illegal weapons possession.
Or . . . maybe you've never heard of Jonathan Shaw at all.
For decades, Jonathan Shaw was a world-renowned celebrity tattoo artist. Over the course of his well-documented career, he was one of the most infamous and influential tattoo men on the planet. Described by Iggy Pop as the great nightmare anti-hero of the New Age, Shaw's client list included names like Johnny Depp, The Cure, The Velvet Underground, The Pogues, The Ramones, Marilyn Manson, Jim Jarmusch, Joe Coleman, Johnny Winter, Kate Moss, Orlando Bloom, Tupac Shakur and the notorious Great Train Robber, Ronald Biggs. Jonathan Shaw is still one of the most respected names in the tattoo profession today--despite having retired over 15 years ago from an industry with an absurdly short memory--an industry he was instrumental in pioneering.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781576877692 |
| ISBN 10 | 1576877698 |
| Title | Vintage Tattoo Flash |
| Author | Jonathan Shaw |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | powerHouse Books,U.S. |
| Year published | 2016-09-15 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |