BME: Body Modification Ezine

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Tag: Tattoo Hollywood

  • Best in Show

    Written by

    Jen Savage

    Tattoo Hollywood has come and gone.  I think I’m still trying to recover from the jet lag.  I had a great time this year.  This post, however, is not about me, it’s about the Best in Show award winner.  Seeing as I was a crew member, I got to see a lot of the work that people were getting.  I’m not lying when I say I was blown away and competition for all the contests was really stiff!  The smiles on attendees faces said it all.

    Unfortunately, I had to spend Sunday evening at the booth selling admission bracelets so I didn’t get to watch the contests take place that night.  The judges Sunday night were Clark North, Jimmy Utah and Little Linda and the contest culminated with the “Best in Show” piece, which was a piece started and finished at the convention. While I didn’t get to see the contest, I did get to see the winner’s progress as the tattoo, which took 9 hours to complete, was worked on.

    Without any further rambling, I give you this year’s Best in Show winner, none other than Katie McShady!  Katie was tattooed by Japanese artist Horiren.  Horiren practices tebori, the traditional Japanese method of hand tattooing.  She used a tattoo machine to make the outline mainly to save on time and the rest of the tattoo was completed by hand.

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    Want to know more? Read on!

    I was also tattooed by Horiren and Katie and I had a lot of time to compare notes, so to speak.  The process was surprisingly less painful than the experience of being tattooed with a machine.  I stopped by to check out the progress several times as Katie was being tattooed.  She looked very zen and relaxed, iPod on, eyes closed as a crowd watched Horiren work. The photo below was taken many hours in to the tattoo and Katie is still smiling!

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    She didn’t use a stencil.  I’m not sure if she ever does.  The tattoo was drawn on by hand with a sterile marker prior to starting.  Katie hardly had any swelling even after a full 9 hours of tattooing.  Once finished, Horiren proclaimed, “WE FINISHED!! VERY VERY STRONG GIRL” and, as Katie says, continued to praise her strength in Japanese.  Katie was given a ceremonial robe to wear and many photos were taken.  Katie says she began crying because she was so overwhelmed by the experience, which she calls life changing.

    Photo by Jon Arthur

    Photo by Jon Arthur

    These photos were taken the day of the contest, the day after Katie was tattooed.

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    After winning Katie was given a trophy and Horiren was given a special prize, a tattoo machine from Lucky Supply that had the Hollywood sign on it. Congratulations to Katie and to Horiren for her incredible work!

    As photos come in you’ll be able to see them in the Tattoo Hollywood Gallery. If I can get a photo of Horiren’s prize I’ll update the post to include it.

    Updated on September 2nd:

    Better late than never right? Photo credit goes to Hiro Hara.

    award

  • ,

    You need to get to L.A. soon

    Written by

    Rob

    Tomorrow night is the gala opening for The Known Gallery‘s showing of Irezumi Bijin: Works by Kaname Ozuma and Horiyoshi III

    Tattoo Hollywood and Known Gallery are also hosting a once in a lifetime opportunity to view works by Kaname Ozuma and Horiyoshi III, appropriately titled:  Irezumi Bijin.  If you were at the Tattoo Hollywood convention last week you had the opportunity to get a sneak peek at the works by these brilliant artists.  Tomorrow night the show begins and will be running until Sept. 18th.  I urge you to do whatever is in your power to get to Los Angeles and see this show before it is gone for good.

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    When:
    Opening Reception: Thursday August 26th, 2010 | 8pm-11pm
    Show Runs: August 26th – September 18th

    Where:
    Known Gallery
    441 North Fairfax Avenue
    Los Angeles, CA 90036

    About the artists:

    Kaname Ozuma

    Born in Niigata, Japan in 1939, Ozuma Kaname began studying traditional Japanese painting under his uncle, artist Sakai Soushi, from a young age. Moving to Tokyo at the age of 18, he trained as an art dealer while working at a printing company. Afterwards, he moved on to the publishing industry where he illustrated tattoos. The majority of his work continues to be tattoo-related along with other traditional Japanese themes; and often serves as a source of inspiration for master tattooist Horiyoshi III, whose clients in turn, are often depicted in Ozuma’s paintings.

    Horiyoshi III

    Born Yoshihito Nakano in 1946, Horiyoshi III is the second tattooist to be bestowed the honorific title—the tattooist affixation “Hori” means engrave—in a line started by his master, the legendary tattoo artist Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, or Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama (Muramatsu went on to dub his son Horiyoshi II, and later Nakano was named Horiyoshi III).  His images are classical Japanese woodblock print motifs such as the phoenix, dragon, snakes, tigers, samurai warriors, Buddhist gods to name a few as well as background images of waves, clouds and various flowers. Among Horiyoshi III’s published works are 36 Ghosts, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, 100 Demons, and The Namakubi (severed heads), 100 Dragons and 58 Warriors. Horiyoshi’s artistic genius and generosity of spirit have had a defining impact on the world of tattooing, taking it to new levels in this new century.

    I’m definitely trying to put plans together to put myself on the road again sometime before the show ends just so I can check it out.  Who knows, maybe I’ll see you there.

  • ,

    It’s hot outside!

    Written by

    Jen Savage

    Oh hey! Just dropping in with a quick post to let you all know what a great time we’re having at Tattoo Hollywood! If you’re in the Los Angeles area, come on out. We’re open tonight until midnight and Sunday from noon until 8pm. Check out the amazing artists, book an appointment to get some ink and say hi to friends!

    These are a couple of photos that I took earlier, we’ll have a more official post with contest winners and lots more photos coming up.

    Clark North

    Clark North hard at work

    Horiren

    Japan’s very own Horiren tattooing one of BME’s very own, Katie McShady

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    Tattoo Hollywood! This weekend!

    Written by

    Rob

    Did you guys know that BME has it’s very own convention?  Well it does, and it’s going on right now!!

    Tattoo Hollywood is this weekend.  The flyer below will give you the address and the dates (today through sunday) as well as a brief rundown of some of the many artists appearing this weekend.  To get a bigger list of the artists attending, check out the full listings on the Tattoo Hollywood website.

    If you’re going to be in the area and are thinking of attending, here’s a bit of info that will probably be helpful:

    First off, the show is family friendly. Kids are free with adult admission.

    The show hours are:
    Friday: 5pm-12pm
    Saturday: 12pm-12am
    Sunday: 12pm-8pm

    Ticket Prices: $20 a day, $40 weekend pass, $100 VIP weekend pass. Tickets are available at the door. VIP passes are extremely limited and include special event/artist access.

    The convention is on the fifth floor at Hollywood & Highland. There is tons of parking available. Tickets for the show are available at the door.

    The Grand BallRoom
    Renaissance Hollywood Hotel
    1755 N. Highland Ave.
    Hollywood, CA 90028

    Tattoo Hollywood 2010

    The show get started in just a couple of hours, so head on over after work if you can, otherwise come on down, the show is going on all weekend.

  • Who wants to win something?

    Written by

    Rob

    As you probably guessed by looking at the big banner to your right, Tattoo Hollywood is happening next weekend (Aug 20-22).

    Well, I opened up my inbox this morning and to my surprise I was given a sneak peek at some of the prizes being given out for the “Best of Day” tattoos.  Now I was sworn to secrecy about the prizes, and I think there was some sort of non-disclosure agreement in there, but I skimmed over that part to get to the pics.

    Now from what I understand, each day will have it’s own “Best of Day” contest, in addition to all the other contests happening.  The winners of the “Best of Day” will each get a prize.  The tattoo artist will get custom built machine from Lucky Supply, while the recipient of the artwork will walk away with a shiny trophy.

    Now I haven’t had a chance to see the trophies, but the e-mail that I was supposed to keep private happened to have some pictures of the tattoo machines.  The question I’m now faced with is: Do I share the pics with ModBlog readers and jeopardize my job, or do I keep the pics hidden and have the ModBlog readers hate me for making a post talking about something, and not showing it.

    Well seeing as how there are more of you, you guys win.  Just don’t tell anyone I posted these.  I don’t want to get in trouble.

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    So, if you’re in or around Los Angeles next weekend, definitely head on over to The Grand Ballroom at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel to check out the show.  You could walk away with some cool swag.  And who doesn’t like free swag?

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