Best Intentions Volume 4

AotD: Completely! And that’s really fucked up. I don’t know why it’s different and even I’m on the younger side of why I should feel that it’s different. It just is. I can’t really explain it to you. Tattooing is not like the other things. It’s separate. It’s different. And it’s not to be lumped in with the other ways you can express yourself. I don’t want it to be that. Yes, I do other stuff artistically as well as tattooing. I paint a lot. I draw. I knit shit like I’m doing right now. I ineptly and ham-handedly make things out of textiles. I’m not really good at it, but I enjoy it, but ultimately I’m a tattooer and the other things are sidelines for me. It’s just peculiar to think- I just can’t imagine that people would tattoo and do other stuff and that tattooing would come in second. I just don’t understand how that works. ~excerpt from my interview with Alice of the Dead. 

Issue number four of Atonement Books BEST INTENTIONS is now available! My contribution to this issue is a whopper of an interview with Alice of the Dead, but there’s a lot of really amazing content that’s worth checking out.

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230 pages (twice as thick as before) full colour tattoo magazine including interviews from –

Alex Reinke
Stace Forand
Dan Sin on shunga
Simon Erl
Karina Monzon
Alice OTD
Brigante

Artwork and tattoos by –

Steve Whittenberger
Joseph Aloi
Rodrigo DC
Stefano C
Gavin Rose
Adam Shrewsbury
Jenks
Matt Lambin
Davee Blows

Studio visits –
Big Trouble Tattoo San Diego
Purple Sun Tattoo Brussels

Cover by Alex Renke.

Includes Stickers.

*****Please note: to calculate shipping in Europe please select Germany******

Shiva

I don’t really set up reminders to check out my favorite blogs/websites. I know that there’s probably some RSS thingie that will alert me when my favorite spots update, but while not a Luddite, I’m just not that up to date on the technology.

So there’s always that fun little revelation when you stop by a site you haven’t visited in a while and find a bunch of new content. Which is exactly what happened when I just checked out Adam Shrewsbury’s Mother Tongue. blog. So many new paintings. If you haven’t been in a while you owe it to yourself to check things out!

MOTHER TONGUE

Mother Tongue

Tattooer and all around damn nice guy Adam Shrewsbury has started a new blog; the first entry features some really great pictures of his visit to NYC legend Thom DeVita’s place. I’ve heard some amazing things about DeVita’s place and seeing the images really helps flesh them out.

I’m putting a permanent bookmark on the sidebar here on OV, but you can click right here to go check it out.

Kewpies

Adam Shrewsbury and Kewpie Dolls.
I don’t really have anything else to add; piece sort of speaks for itself.

Telos Tarot

In his introduction to painter Dave McKean’s ‘The Particle Tarot’, Writer/Filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky had this to say about the tarot:

“Artists in love with this deck of cards create new Tarots that are personal exegesis- a commentary of this miracle divided into 78 arcanas that keep and treasure their secret meanings.”

Artists A.P. Shrewsbury, Robert Ryan, Tomas Garcia and Erik Bartholomaus have tackled the first 22 Arcana-called the Major Arcana- in this limited edition set of collaborative cards. Edition Size of 200, the cards were created by the artists over the course of a week on Mt. Shasta in Northern California. (source- Tattoo Artist Magazine)

It’s really refreshing to see tattoo artists branching out into other media. Prints and t-shirts are great, but this set really does raise the standard.

My set arrived in the mail yesterday (thanks for the print, AP!) and I’m slowly going over the cards, digesting the artwork and symbolism each one has to offer. From what I’m told the sets are in incredibly short supply, so track them down while you still have a chance!

Trans-Communal Pilgrimage of the Self

A.P. Shrewsbury is on the top of a very short list of people that I want to get tattooed by; solid color, bold lines and a developing personal iconography that makes him someone worth keeping an eye on.

A few years ago I made a trade with him and ended up with the painting above, titled Trans-Communal Pilgrimage of the Self. (watercolor, 10×15) I think I made out on the deal.

You can find a link to his website in the sidebar to the right.