All posts in category Books

Is it getting WEIRD in here, or is it just me?

There are people who don’t like weird things just for the sake of weird.
There are people who think that a tattoo design of a diarrhea spewing anus is gross.
For those people…. Born Weird probably isn’t for you.

For the people who always wish that a Dave Lum design could not only come to life, but could fuck the hell out of a Scott ‘Welt’ Harrison tattoo and thus create the ultimate “what in Christ’s name is that” masterpiece…. c’mere. I’ve got something to show you. The folks at YELLOW BEAK PRESS are still taking preorders for the 11×14 compendium of all things what the fuck, BORN WEIRD, which is scheduled, tentatively, to ship in April. I’ve shown some samples from the book in previous updates, so I’m not going to ruin the surprise, but… buy it.

Yellow Beak Press.

Were you BORN WEIRD?

With the release of Milton H Zeis: Tattooing As You Like It Scott and Kayla of Yellow Beak Press put out what I consider to be, hands down, the best tattoo book of 2012. The project was a fitting tribute to the Zeis legacy; a whopping 300+ page tome featuring reinterpretations of classic tattoo designs by some of the world’s finest tattoo artists side by side with the original Zies flash. But it was much more than that. Scott and Kayla did months of research and traveling, collecting rare Zeis memorabilia and painting a portrait of one of the most influential figures of the 20th century tattoo world.

It was a massive undertaking, and it left me wondering what was next for Yellow Beak Press. How do you top a book like that? How do you match it’s class and it’s elegance?

Nick Filth

You don’t. Instead, late last year Scott and Craig Brown of Historic Tattoo hand picked 29 amazing tattooers to take part in the ‘Born Weird’ show at Portland’s Upper Playground gallery. The pitch? Each artist was asked to create four sheets of 14×11 flash that’s weird, gross or just plain bizarre. The artists did not disappoint. I’m going to be completely honest here; I’ve had a sneak peek of the paintings and this stuff is just… odd. Amazingly odd. Confusingly and profoundly odd. Blasphemous, grotesque and most of all funny, each sheet makes you scratch your head (and occasionally… other places) and say, out loud and for the world to hear: What the Fuck did I just see?

The artists channel the spirit of Hardy’s infamous ‘Born Weird’ Devil, but with a lot more genitalia. Classic American Weirdo designs with no shame or need for explanation. There are going to be people who think that the flash designs in this book are untattooable; and they’re probably right. But this stuff is priceless none the less.

The show ran for two months in Portland and now the Yellow Beak gang are getting ready to roll out the preorder for the exhibit catalog, which will be 120 pages long at the original print size of 14×11. It’s only limited to 2000 copies, with the first 200 preorders snagging a limited edition water color print. Like the Zeis book, I doubt these will last long, so keep your eyes peeled for the preorder page over at Yellow Beak Press. I’m hearing that it should be live on Friday.

John Henry Gloyne

List of Participating Artists:
Aaron Coleman
Adam Craven
Adam Warmerdam
Andrew Stickler
Andy Campoy
Bart Bingham
Bradley Delay
Craig Brown
Danny Reed
Erik Gillespie
Ezra Haidet
Jeff Rassier
Jeremy Joachim
Jesse Bob
Jesse Gordon
John Henry Gloyne
Josh Howard
Justin Wheeler
Luis Campos
Matthew Welch
Matt Ziolko
Miguel “Uzi” Montgomery
Murray Sell
Nick Filth
Scott La Rock
Sean O’Neill
Shawn Mcdonald
Tim Lehi
Zach Shereck

Bart Bingham

Aaron Coleman

3 Comments

by Shawn Porter on January 23, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Flash, Painting

Tagged Born Weird, Occult Vibrations, scott boyer, Tattoos, Upper Playground, Yellow Beak Press

Posted by Shawn Porter on January 23, 2013

http://occultvibrations.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/were-you-born-weird/

Tattoo Time Collected

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his iconic Tattoo Time series, Hardy Marks Publications will be releasing a deluxe two volume set of all five legendary issues available for the first time in hard cover. Priced at $50, this collection is a steal. Even if you have all of the individual issues (My copy of New Tribalism has gone missing!) this will be worth picking up.

The impact of this series was astounding; when Tattoo magazines were published as part of a Biker magazine family, Ed came along and brought his ‘high art’ sensibilities to publishing; The New Tribalism, Tattoo Magic, Life and Death, Music and Sea and finally Art from the Heart all presented a snapshot at various disciplines of tattoo art. DeVita, Deustche, Higgs, Malone, Shaw… everyone who was doing something interesting in tattooing got the Tattoo Time treatment and a whole generation of artists were inspired.

The set is expected to drop in early December, so check Hardy Marks Publications for more information!

1 Comment

by Shawn Porter on November 22, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Announcements, Books, Don Ed Hardy

Tagged Daniel Higgs, Ed Hardy, Tattoo Time

Posted by Shawn Porter on November 22, 2012

http://occultvibrations.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/tattoo-time-collected/

Born Weird!

Scott Boyer’s YELLOW BEAK PRESS recently celebrated the release of it’s first book- TATTOOING AS YOU LIKE IT. I had planned to review it for you folks as soon as it arrived in the mail, but it’s such an amazingly dense book that I’m still digesting it. Page after page (think over 300) of amazing art by the world’s best tattooers reinterpreting classic Zeis flash with each page better than the last makes it so absorbing that the only review I can humbly offer is this:

Buy it. You absolutely won’t regret it. As a tattooer you’ll be inspired by the Zeis originals as well as the interpretations. As a fan you’ll just be geeked by seeing new art from folks who’re at the top of their game. As a homeowner… the book is so big that if you ever get robbed you can beat the intruder to death with it. There’s nothing not to love about it.

As you can imagine that I’m already excited about Yellow Beak’s next project… Born Weird.

From Scott:

Craig Brown of Historic Tattoo and Scott Boyer of Yellow Beak Press have hand picked the contributors for this project. Tattooers were selected and asked to paint four sheets containing gross or weird subject matter. The result seems to be all over the board from gross-out to just bizarre. We promise it won’t disappoint! The book we are producing will include all of the content from the exhibit and some extra material. We hope to have it out in early 2013.

The show opens 10.04.12 at PDX’s Upper Playground Gallery and runs through December.

Address: 23 NW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

Phone: (503) 548-4835

Artists Participating:
Aaron Coleman Adam Craven Adam Warmerdam Andrew Stickler Andy Campoy Bart Bingham Bradley Delay Craig Brown Danny Reed Erik Gillespie Ezra Haidet Jeff Rassier Scott La Rock Sean O’Neill	Jeremy Joachim Jesse Bob Jesse Gordon John Henry Gloyne Josh Howard Justin Wheeler Luis Campos Matthew Welch Matt Ziolko Miguel “Uzi” Montgomery Murray Sell Nick Filth Shawn Mcdonald Tim Lehi Zach Shereck

Jacob Des: TearJerker

There are three universal thruths that can’t be argued:

1. Jacob Des is cool.
2. Zines are cool.
3. Adult Content is cool.

What happens when all three of those things collide?
An adult content zine by Jacob Des is born. Tearjerker. A strange Tijuana Bible with tattoo flash hidden inside. When I got my copy of ‘Deep Thoughts’ from Jacob last year, it inspired me to work on a new ‘zine of my own. (They exist and are occasionally left in public places to be picked up by strangers) I’ve no doubt that TearJerker will have the same effect. If you’ve never made a zine, you owe it to yourself to crack open a design program (or hell- cut and paste that son of a bitch like we used to in the early 1990s!) and get to work. There’s something undeniably rad about holding one in your hands (that’s not an adult content joke) after you’ve put a dozen hours of work into it.

I’m not sure how many Jake made of these badboys, but you can contact him via: Des Central to try to snag one.

Better yet… book an appointment with him. Maybe you’ll be in his next zine!

1 Comment

by Shawn Porter on August 4, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Books, Jacob Des

Tagged Jacob Des, Occult Vibrations, Tattoo, Zine, Zines

Posted by Shawn Porter on August 4, 2012

http://occultvibrations.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/jacob-des-tearjerker/

B.S. Welt

Scott Harrison draws weird things.
Like… really weird things. Things that make people who draw weird things say “holy cow, that’s weird.” Which makes it really fun when you find out that he’s got a new comic out and more to the point that it’ll only cost you $6 shipped.

Knobby’s Private Victory is available from Mister Harrison’s alterego B.S.Welt and you should own it.

Occult Vibrations