Amy Krakow - Total Tattoo Book

Copyright 1994 by Amy Krakow All rights reserved. Warner Books Hachette Book Group 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com First eBook Edition: ISBN: 9780446540629 Cover design by Diane LugerCover photograph by Seiji KakizakiLogo design by Tom NikosPhoto color retouch by Christine Rodin 3RD ANNUAL CONEY ISLAND TATTOO FESTIVAL 1988 SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH. 1988 AT 6 P M UNTIL
SIDESHOWS BY THE SEASHORE CONEY ISLAND USA BOARDWALK AND WEST 12TH STREET
AN ACME PRODUCTION. A G KRAKOW. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
FOR MORE INFORMATION 212 619 3273 OR 718 372 5159 ILLUSTRATION SCOTT MENCHIN DESIGN ONE WORLD DESIGN SILNSCAEEN PRINTING THE ADDS COMPANY Coney Island Tattoo Festival poster, from the authors collection. This book is dedicated to the people who made it possible:
men and women who have tattoos, men and women who want
tattoos and men and women who give tattoos. The tattoo family truly became my family when I started work on this book.

No longer am I the unadorned black sheep. Now I am part of a global tribe that is ever expanding. My thanks go to everyone who has helped me along the path. These include the tattooists who welcomed me into their shopsand their lives, especially Shotsie Gorman of Wayne, New Jersey. He granted me carte blanche at his studio, he regaled me with tattoo tales, he welcomed me into his home. His staff, too, offered generous advice, leads and information.

They were always kind, helpful and funny. Scotty Lowe, Michele Breen, Lisa Bernabe, Eric Newman, Cathy Wheeler gave of their time, their knowledge and their hearts. Thanks as well go to the clients at Shotsies, who endured cameras, lights and questions. In Connecticut and New York, many thanks go to Spider Webb, and to Mike and Mehai Bakaty, who let me hang around, and hang around, and hang around. On the West Coast, my thanks go to the men most responsible for shaping the recent past, present and future of tattooing: Lyle Tuttle and Ed Hardy. This book has also given me new friendships: Mick Beasley, the founder of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists.

Her indefatigable efforts on behalf of the tattoo community are extraordinary. I am pleased to be able to assist her. Sheila May has created a new classification of tattooing in the form of permanent makeup. She is a joy to know. Bill De Michele turned his obsession into an art form. His introductions and counsel are always welcome.

The archivists who steered me in the right direction and provided advice, information, great pictures and stories deserve mention: Chuck Eldridge of the Tattoo Archive in Berkeley and Bill Funk of the National Tattoo Museum in Philadelphia. Flo Makofske of the National Tattoo Association in Allentown was always there for me with a prompt answer. The people at Warner Books deserve special mention for supporting this offbeat project and for helping with some of my more bizarre requests: Dennis Dalrymple, Diane Stockwell, Anne Douglas Millburn, Brian McCafferty and, of course, my editor, Karen Kelly. On a personal level, thanks to Steve Bonge, who is the personification of good people. He is also a great photographer. Plus, he introduced me to Donna Gaines.

Do I say thanks or what? Chris Pfouts offered insight, observations and lots of laughs. Photographer Jim Salzano and Suk Choi of Box Graphics proved that people in advertising are some of the best in the world in every aspect. Ruth Marten was a superb tattooist. She is now a superb illustrator and designer. Her advice, input and inspiration have added immeasurably to this book. I thank my friends who put up with my obsession, read, commented and in some way helped to make my work better: Bert Berdis for Marina del Rey, Brooke Berdis for her California photography and insights, Kay Blumenthal, Bob Maxwell, Craig Nelson, Elisa Petrini, Anne Winn and especially Melanie Mintz, whose insightful comments made all the difference.

My photo researcher/editor and all-around assistant, Sima Davis, put up with an enormous work load and endured outrageous pressure. She is a magician. Helen Rees knows exactly what she didand Im most grateful. Finally, thanks to my husband, Gary Krakow. Hey, honey, when are you going to get that Froggy the Gremlin tattoo? PROLOGUE Every year Id get up at the Coney Island Tattoo Festival and greet the crowd. This has been going on for some ten years.

Every year, the assembled multitudes (okay, the guys) would yell at me to show off my tat. By the third year of the festival, I was making jokes about my tattoo-less body. I didnt have a tattoo, but I did have overwhelming guilt. For several years I donated back any and all of my meager profits to the not-for-profit boardwalk theater where I originally held the festival. Then I started to work on his book. I couldnt very well continue as an undecorated person.

That would be considered rude. Bad form. Lousy karma. So I set out to get tattooed. And my odyssey became a celebration of the art of the tattoo. The only difference between a tattooed person and a person
who isnt tattooed is that a tattooed person doesnt care if
youre tattooed or not.

Posted in a tattoo shop Tattoos are fun, artistic, and ubiquitous. Tattoo artists unknown. (PHOTO BY DARA 1991 SETH GURVITZ) WHAT IS A TATTOO? I fell in love with pictures on skin when I was five. I would sit in the backseat of my parents big old gray Dodge, licking cockamamies onto my arms. Id start jumping up and down with excitement as wed drive past the tattoo parlors on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. Every so often my folks would give in to my demands and stop the car.

Id happily skip out, run over to the window and gaze at the flash on the walls. My parents always used the word bums whenever Id beg and plead with them to stop and let me look. Now, years later, like my friend Donna Im a tattooed Jew (her expression)! I no longer fantasize about what picture Im going to get. Ive got more than one. These days, those little pictures are really ubiquitous. Vogue and Elle magazine models flaunt them in photo shoots (Carre Otiss tattoos are real, Naomi Campbells are temporary). Vogue and Elle magazine models flaunt them in photo shoots (Carre Otiss tattoos are real, Naomi Campbells are temporary).

Cher collects them. Roseanne Arnold featured her favorite tattoo artist on her television program. She and husband, Tom Arnold, pledge their eternal love through them (as did Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, and Mark Gastineau and Brigitte Nielsen). Queen Victoria, George Shultz and Barry Goldwater did their best to hide theirs (it was titillating when the press discovered their decorations). Janis Joplins heart (on her chest) and wrist bracelet tattoos ignited a fad some twenty-five years ago. When I worked at Readers Digest I was too embarrassed to tell anyone about my avocation.

I still find people who will turn up their noses when they learn that for the past ten years, Ive produced New York Citys longest-running tattoo festival.