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New York City continues to be a hotbed of artistic talent; in the last few months I would say that 90 percent of my interviewees have hailed from (or at least, made their home in recent years) the Big Apple. Next up is Mark Cross, who plies his trade at Greenpoint Tattoo Co in Brooklyn, even though he grew up on the...
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It’s times like these that you wish you had paid more attention to that lovely lady called Mrs Barlow, who drove a Peugeot she could barely see over the steering wheel of in order to teach us kids some French… amazingly, some of it stuck. But luckily this spread is about some fresh art, so here’s a look at new kid on...
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Secret governmental experiments on past generations and growing up under powerlines in Missouri have made him a seventh generation twin. At least that’s the theory. Today, Tim Kern adorns skin with realism in a teeny, tiny studio in New York’s trendy East Village by the name of Tribulation Tattoo.
Tim Kern’s journey...
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It’s an early-ish convention morning after a late night before. Not traditionally a time for creative souls to be firing on all cylinders – more a time for mumbling into coffee and waiting for the caffeine to kickstart all the other essential systems.
But that’s not the case with Texas-based tattoo artist, Jeremy...
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This issue, we have the mighty Todo from ABT in Georgia. There’s nothing like a little bit of steampunk to propel some art into the ‘no brainer’ zone.
“In my many years of experimenting with different art mediums, I’ve come to find that tattooing is not the only source I can use to express my deeper train of thought....
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The Japanese/ American tattoo artist, Horitaka, celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening of his studio, State of Grace in San José, in September this year. We caught up with the former apprentice of Horiyoshi III during the Amsterdam convention…
He was recently in Amsterdam, invited by Bacardi to tattoo the...
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This January sees the long-awaited release of Tattoo The World, the inside story of how one tattooist became the pop culture phenomenon that is Ed Hardy. Skin Deep goes under the skin of the man behind the signature…
In the 1950s, most young boys dreamed of being firemen or truck drivers… astronauts hadn’t been...
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Over the years meeting and chatting to various artists, I have realised that when someone wants something enough, there is little that will stand in their way of getting it. Having the passion and desire to achieve our dreams is one of humanity’s greatest, and sometimes worst, strengths. For some of us this means...
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Peterlee 2010: in the far corner is a guy busting out a realistic tattoo; commonplace for a convention you might say, but Dan Walczak (or Polish Dan as he is more commonly known) is tattooing his own thigh…
It took me another couple of years to get around to chatting to Dan, but here we are. Dan is based at True...
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Last month, Tom Abbott got railroaded by the mind of Minka Sicklinger - in a good way of course. So interesting were her points of view, we didn't want to cut anything and thus, lovingly present for you, the rest of it.
I was hanging out with my boyfriend of the time (a tattoo artist) in Harlem one day, and he told me...
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This month, our tattoo-driven journey around the world has taken us to a country where religion forbids tattooing and where tattoo magazines and conventions are a thing of fiction. Welcome to Israel, a place where even those who would love lavish sleeves or back pieces refrain from getting them for fear of backlash....
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Last issue, we hooked up with Adam Hays at Red Rocket – being just and fair people, when Max Shoberg poked his head around the corner, we bagged him too. In for a penny…
Max Shoberg at Red Rocket Tattoo has been tattooing for three-and-a-half years now and he’s still trying to find his own voice – a voice that took an...
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I first heard about Tamara Lee when I interviewed Grace Neutral earlier on this year. Since hearing about her I’ve followed her intricate black and grey dot-work tattoos for a while…
A few weeks back, I was really impressed to hear she’d booked in a tattoo with the great Thomas Hooper for January of next year when she...
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For me the most interesting kind of interview is not so much a Q&A, but more of a conversation. And there was no easier person to converse with than Minka Sicklinger. The following is a transcript of our discussion; mere days after New York found itself near the heart of Hurricane Sandy. Minka was talking to me...
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Adriaan Machete mixes Mexican style with new school – and man, does it rock hard!
The Mexican artist, Adriaan Machete, grew up in Mexico City but since 2011 has tattooed in Berlin at the Machete Ink Gallery where he collaborates with a female German painter. If you want his unique mix of Mexican and new school on your...
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Adam Hays’ thing is Star Wars. To the extent that he’s done T-shirt designs for Lucasfilm and ended up in a coffee table book featuring Star Wars tattoos. But there are many layers to this Texan former saddle maker turned New York tattoo studio owner.
Whenever Adam Hays goes to a tattoo convention nowadays, the...
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The Hobgoblin, Bath. My pub of choice. A line of skulls hangs along the top of the bar; a line written above the urinals reads ‘Fuck, I just pissed on the floor reading the walls’. I feel comfortable in this place; I can go in there in whatever mood.
So it seemed fitting that the first interview I do for Skin Deep to...
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There are tattoo artists you love, those you get along with, those you respect, and those who you’d let loose on your skin with whatever was at hand. Allow me to introduce the man who ticks all four of those boxes for me…
Actually, that’s a lie. I’m going to make no introduction whatsoever. What I’m going to do...
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Now, where were we? Sean Herman’s journey towards becoming a tattooer (he prefers the term to ‘tattoo artist’) has featured skateboarding, punk rock, shuttling around the American South, doing battle with gods in various guises, a stab at being a priest, and an actual stab at him courtesy of a street hood in...
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I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – when a publishing company knows what they are doing, you can find yourself in possession of some of the finest books on the planet.
They come in the mail, delivered by guys who wonder just what on earth you’ve ordered. I know what they are, even before I’ve broken into the...
New York City continues to be a hotbed of artistic talent; in the last few months I would say that 90 percent of my interviewees have hailed from (or at least, made their home in recent years) the Big Apple. Next up is Mark Cross, who plies his trade at Greenpoint Tattoo Co in Brooklyn, even though he grew up on the...
It’s times like these that you wish you had paid more attention to that lovely lady called Mrs Barlow, who drove a Peugeot she could barely see over the steering wheel of in order to teach us kids some French… amazingly, some of it stuck. But luckily this spread is about some fresh art, so here’s a look at new kid on...
Secret governmental experiments on past generations and growing up under powerlines in Missouri have made him a seventh generation twin. At least that’s the theory. Today, Tim Kern adorns skin with realism in a teeny, tiny studio in New York’s trendy East Village by the name of Tribulation Tattoo. Tim Kern’s journey...
It’s an early-ish convention morning after a late night before. Not traditionally a time for creative souls to be firing on all cylinders – more a time for mumbling into coffee and waiting for the caffeine to kickstart all the other essential systems. But that’s not the case with Texas-based tattoo artist, Jeremy...
This issue, we have the mighty Todo from ABT in Georgia. There’s nothing like a little bit of steampunk to propel some art into the ‘no brainer’ zone. “In my many years of experimenting with different art mediums, I’ve come to find that tattooing is not the only source I can use to express my deeper train of thought....
The Japanese/ American tattoo artist, Horitaka, celebrated the tenth anniversary of the opening of his studio, State of Grace in San José, in September this year. We caught up with the former apprentice of Horiyoshi III during the Amsterdam convention… He was recently in Amsterdam, invited by Bacardi to tattoo the...
This January sees the long-awaited release of Tattoo The World, the inside story of how one tattooist became the pop culture phenomenon that is Ed Hardy. Skin Deep goes under the skin of the man behind the signature… In the 1950s, most young boys dreamed of being firemen or truck drivers… astronauts hadn’t been...
Over the years meeting and chatting to various artists, I have realised that when someone wants something enough, there is little that will stand in their way of getting it. Having the passion and desire to achieve our dreams is one of humanity’s greatest, and sometimes worst, strengths. For some of us this means...
Peterlee 2010: in the far corner is a guy busting out a realistic tattoo; commonplace for a convention you might say, but Dan Walczak (or Polish Dan as he is more commonly known) is tattooing his own thigh… It took me another couple of years to get around to chatting to Dan, but here we are. Dan is based at True...
Last month, Tom Abbott got railroaded by the mind of Minka Sicklinger - in a good way of course. So interesting were her points of view, we didn't want to cut anything and thus, lovingly present for you, the rest of it. I was hanging out with my boyfriend of the time (a tattoo artist) in Harlem one day, and he told me...
This month, our tattoo-driven journey around the world has taken us to a country where religion forbids tattooing and where tattoo magazines and conventions are a thing of fiction. Welcome to Israel, a place where even those who would love lavish sleeves or back pieces refrain from getting them for fear of backlash....
Last issue, we hooked up with Adam Hays at Red Rocket – being just and fair people, when Max Shoberg poked his head around the corner, we bagged him too. In for a penny… Max Shoberg at Red Rocket Tattoo has been tattooing for three-and-a-half years now and he’s still trying to find his own voice – a voice that took an...
I first heard about Tamara Lee when I interviewed Grace Neutral earlier on this year. Since hearing about her I’ve followed her intricate black and grey dot-work tattoos for a while… A few weeks back, I was really impressed to hear she’d booked in a tattoo with the great Thomas Hooper for January of next year when she...
For me the most interesting kind of interview is not so much a Q&A, but more of a conversation. And there was no easier person to converse with than Minka Sicklinger. The following is a transcript of our discussion; mere days after New York found itself near the heart of Hurricane Sandy. Minka was talking to me...
Adriaan Machete mixes Mexican style with new school – and man, does it rock hard! The Mexican artist, Adriaan Machete, grew up in Mexico City but since 2011 has tattooed in Berlin at the Machete Ink Gallery where he collaborates with a female German painter. If you want his unique mix of Mexican and new school on your...
Adam Hays’ thing is Star Wars. To the extent that he’s done T-shirt designs for Lucasfilm and ended up in a coffee table book featuring Star Wars tattoos. But there are many layers to this Texan former saddle maker turned New York tattoo studio owner. Whenever Adam Hays goes to a tattoo convention nowadays, the...
The Hobgoblin, Bath. My pub of choice. A line of skulls hangs along the top of the bar; a line written above the urinals reads ‘Fuck, I just pissed on the floor reading the walls’. I feel comfortable in this place; I can go in there in whatever mood. So it seemed fitting that the first interview I do for Skin Deep to...
There are tattoo artists you love, those you get along with, those you respect, and those who you’d let loose on your skin with whatever was at hand. Allow me to introduce the man who ticks all four of those boxes for me… Actually, that’s a lie. I’m going to make no introduction whatsoever. What I’m going to do...
Now, where were we? Sean Herman’s journey towards becoming a tattooer (he prefers the term to ‘tattoo artist’) has featured skateboarding, punk rock, shuttling around the American South, doing battle with gods in various guises, a stab at being a priest, and an actual stab at him courtesy of a street hood in...
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating – when a publishing company knows what they are doing, you can find yourself in possession of some of the finest books on the planet. They come in the mail, delivered by guys who wonder just what on earth you’ve ordered. I know what they are, even before I’ve broken into the...