Regardless of how you choose to celebrate them, we here at Occult Vibrations hope you have a happy holiday season and a safe and prosperous New Year.
Since I couldn’t find a fun Santa tattoo on short notice, I grabbed this little fella done by my friend Johannes of Black Stallion Tattoo.
“Well, of course there are all manner of lesser imps and demons, Pete, but the great Satan hisself is red and scaly with a bifurcated tail, and he carries a hay fork”
Flash sheets by Dayton, Ohio’s Jacob Des are usually packed with so many rad designs that it’s hard to process it all without repeated viewing. A ship here, a row of ducklings there, the Infernal Majesty himself popping up with a creepy baseball player mentoring a young boy in the fine art of swinging. You’re usually left with a wondrous sense of what the fuck am I looking at, followed by the realization that everything you’ve just seen would make a hell of a strange tattoo.
I’ve mentioned it before, but Des is on the very short list of tattooers I’m saving my remaining skin for. If you’ve got open space and want a killer tattoo you can find Jacob at: http://jacobdes.com
In the years since becoming a client of Josh Hoffman, it literally never occurred to me to nickname him Josh Hotstuff. I’m not really sure why. I’m not really sure why Josh needs a nickname at all, save that he’s a pretty funny guy and funny guys usually have nicknames.
The last time we checked in on his Instagram feed it was to check out some Hot stuff Devil paintings. I swear he does more than that, but when something works, it works. You can check out more of his work on his Instagram feed, or swing by Living Arts Tattoo in New Hope, PA.
Oh. Full disclosure. One of my favorite tattoos that Josh did on me was a Hot Stuff Devil/Kewpie that he did years ago….
If you’re a regular OV reader, you probably know by now just how much I like Devil tattoos. Serious devil tattoos, silly ones, as long as it’s an evil red imp… I’m into it. This fella was done down at Ink Smith & Rogers in Jacksonville by the talented Dave Wulff, who you should follow on Instagram here.
He’s doing a bunch of guest spots lately, so check out his IG page for the next stop!
As my latest tattoo from Robert Ryan heals (and coincidentally enough, it’s of this fella above’s arch nemesis) I find myself being very protective of the remaining skin that I have left to tattoo. I’ve posted ‘painted into a corner’ updates before; that I’m rapidly running out of available spots and that every new tattoo is one less that I’ll ever be able to get.
It makes me happy that I’m so close to being ‘done’ but there are just so many folks out there doing killer work who I know I’ll regret not being tattooed by- folks like Michael Bennett, Adam Shrewsbury and Ohio’s Jacob Des.
Every time Jake busts out a new painting (and it seems it’s daily- he’s the hardest working painter in Tattooing sometimes) I realize that saving him a little spot is a necessity.
So enjoy this one from Mr. Des. It’s the devil, and who doesn’t love the devil?
I did it again;
I had sworn off watching any more episodes of Spike TV’s INK MASTER after wannabe reality-show badboy Al Fliction had to ‘close shop’ and go home. I had thought there was no more to see. But I relapsed. Episode 4 came and went but I couldn’t resist episode 5; Traditional American.
Bold line. Heavy black shading. Limited color palette. A timeless tattoo you could read from 20 feet away.
The episode ended poorly.
The artists by and large put on good tattoos, but they missed the point entirely.
You can’t say the same about this lil devil from Michael Bennett of Faith Tattoo in Santa Rosa. He’s put a fun spin on it, but bold lines? Heavy black shading and tightly packed solid color? I’d ask why guys like Michael aren’t on Ink Master, but I think that it’s pretty obvious.
You can find out more about Michael at his blog.
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