Category Archives: Tattoo

San Francisco Illustrator / Tattoo artist / Street Artist Mike Giant has a new solo show opening July 20th at Fecal Face Gallery called Confessions of an Old Dirty Skateboarder. The show will feature a wide assemblage of recent drawings and also a rare opportunity to view Giant’s personal collection of skateboards he illustrated the graphics for, including boards from his early career.

“I’m a product of my generation. I grew up through the 80s and was drawn to the punk rock and hip-hop cultures simultaneously”, Giant said in a recent interview. “I threw myself in headfirst. A lot of those things were about personal expression, and also an anti-establishment attitude like, “We don’t need you, we have our own thing.” That’s the backbone of who I am to this day”.

Take a gander at these tattoos by German tattoo artist Peter Aurish. Hailing from Berlin, Aurisch uses geometric lines mixed with bursts of bold colors and various lifeforms, which in the end produce a very striking and eye grabbing work of art. He is a world renown tattoo artist with people making pilgrimages from all parts of the globe just to get inked up by this German lad.

Mike Brown was a legendary tattoo artist who passed away last November. If you know your tattoo history, his name always comes up when people talk about those who pioneered tattooing in the late 1970s. He worked at China Sea (formerly owned by Sailor Jerry), which was ground zero for traditional American tattoos, and at the birthplace for black grey penitentiary-style tattoos, Good Time Charlie’s Tattoo Land. His life has had some ups and downs over the years, which made him a little hard to track down if you were looking to get a Mike Brown tattoo. His portfolio alone is a history lesson in tattooing, with everything from the most beautiful Cholas, Pin Ups, mean ass biker skulls, and touristy sea turtle tats. Mike Brown has done it all, and did so with the most humble manner.

After nearly an eight-year stint in prison, O.G. Menace pro Fabian Alomar & his boy Trouble sit down give us a pretty thorough guide on how to build a home made tattoo machine out of things you can only obtain in jail. Check out the photo step-by-step guide bellow, or for full detailed instructions so you don’t fuck up if you really want to try this out for yourself check out the full how-to here.

Watch Fabian Alomar talk about life before and after jail, the current state of skateboarding as he sees it, and much more. Below the interview, check out the Menace section from 20 Shot Sequence from 1995 for some classic Fabian footage in L.A.


BONUS: Check out the last part of the Epicly Later’d series with Fabian Alomar talking about his upbringing and the lifestyle choices that lead to him spending eight years behind bars.

When I heard about the Pomona Tattoo Exposition, I thought to myself, “What better place to see a bunch of weirdo’s and probably get a retarded tattoo?” Sure enough, the Expo turned out to be exactly what I expected…

Upon arrival there were masses of bro’s, bro hoe’s, thug rats, barn-yards, and your straight up freaks. My first sight of glory was the bar, so I rushed over and sucked down two large overpriced pints before setting foot inside the convention. As I began walking past the booths nothing that cool was going on. Most booths were filled with ex-gang bangers trying to make a living off doing something legal, resulting with cursive/old english last names and some skulls here or there. At that point, I was quite disappointed with the lack of creativity throughout the building, however I spotted a tweaker out of the corner of my eye who looked to have some potential. He ended up having a tattoo of himself on his upper right leg, tweaking out while cleaning a pool. It was one of the better tattoos in the joint.

After I left the tweaker, I bumped into this grossly fat woman… I mean man. This dude was haggard as shit so I got a picture of him as soon as possible, then scurried away so he wouldn’t try to grab my ass again.

The most amazing tattoos I saw were done by the japanese. These guys tattoo everything everywhere including the entire backsides of little 10 year old boys (even inside their butt cheeks!) These tattoos are done with such perfection that the time the tattoo artist spends with his nose deep in the ass of a little boy ranges anywhere from 45 mins to 3 hours long.

The most exciting part of the Expo was Macabre & Freak Show. The freak show consisted of a 7ft ogre named Grundle Sack, who would shove large spikes up his nose and attach fish hook chains to his eyelids and swing a full soda can back and forth. This guy was burley as shit, he recommend everyone to try it as he drank the unopened can which hung from his face minutes before.

Overall, I dont recommened going to the Pomona Tattoo expo unless: 1). You are a freak, 2). You want to bang a freak, or 3). You’re a freak that wants to bang other freaks.

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