The Tattooed Heart

Mike Rubendall on Tattoo Age

2011-10-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

If you like this blog, follow sofiamella.blogspot.com/

3rd Installment of Troy Denning on Tattoo Age, VICE TV

2011-09-22T18:46:00.001-07:00

Troy Denning on how to GET SHIT DONE

2011-09-14T20:18:00.001-07:00

Tattoo Age with Troy Denning

2011-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Final Installment of Tattoo Age with Grime

2011-08-27T13:52:00.001-07:00

GRIME - PART 2 - Tattoo Age

2011-08-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Part two of the Grime special, love from The Tattooed Heart & VICE x

VICE brings you TATTOO AGE with GRIME

2011-08-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

After nearly 20 years in the business, Grime is constantly reinventing the art of tattooing. Desperately imitated, never beaten, Grime re-defines what the limits are, daily. A true maverick, Grime approaches tattooing with the intensity of a madman. As a child he survived an accident that left him scarred, and channeled this experience into some of the most remarkable tattoo work the world has ever seen.

ENJOY!!! Love from The Tattooed Heart & VICE xx

Trash & Treasure

2011-07-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Life is a journey, not a destination.
What looks like rubbish to the man who does not see are precious pathways to The Tattooed Heart.

It's all happening!

2011-07-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

We are excited to announce that two of our regular guests, Tim Dywelska & John Reardon, are opening their own studios in their own little corners of the world.

Mr Reardon is now the proud papa of Greenpoint Tattoo Co in Brooklyn NYC:

And Timmy D has moved his operation station to a little studio above Vic Market tattoo in Melbourne.The address is 326 Victoria st.(upstairs), timdywelska.com
For appointments call 0433572598

This Week at...

2011-05-19T14:56:00.000-07:00

We have the pleasure of Destroy Troy's company again. Yesterday he tattooed his own name on some fellow he met 3 hours prior. Ahhh, the madness :)

Tom tattooed Matt Heath from Radio Hauraki on the air. Matt lost a bet and had to get a dude's name tattooed for all time. There's a definite theme here!

Apprentice Aaron finished another beautiful painting:

and Naomi began a piece on NZ/Indian artist Tiffany Singh, which is going to be amazing...

Have a great weekend and don't forget to write in your gratitude journals! (take that ironically & literally)
Love The Tattooed Heart x

Stop The Clocks. Margaret has gone.

2011-04-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday April 26, 2011

This morning, after breakfast at my local on the K, I was walking towards the shop to open up when Frances, one of the street’s perennial change collectors called out to me. “Did you hear? Margaret died last night.” I stopped in my tracks and sank to the seat next to Frances, something I have never done before. My relationship with K Rd’s alcoholics/glue sniffers/beggars has been one of polite distance for many, many years now. They know me, I know them, and so we know enough of one another to know where we stand: I don’t like being asked for change 5 times a day, and so they have pretty much given up on me. Also, as a survivor of my own family’s mental illness, I feel almost allergic to other people’s craziness. However, there remains some sort of familiarity/contempt on both sides; I have been a K rd local since I was 16 years old (I am now 32), and this street is a community, one way or another. There are icons walking this street. Icons of their own making, of which Margaret was one. We are one people at the end of it all.

Margaret. One woman, many rumors. I’m sure someone out there knows the truth about Margaret and how she came to be on K rd every day, rain or shine, drinking. Always drinking. The romantic story goes that she was a successful model in her youth, but was derailed by a severely broken heart, which lead to mental illness and chronic alcoholism. What I know for sure of Margaret: she was tough. She sat there on public benches on either side of K rd for at least 20 years and dealt with abuse thrown at her, with the other unpredictable street people and their various social sicknesses. She was funny: if she saw you coming with a cigarette in your hand she would put on her most charming demeanor and call out “Got a spare cigarette love?” If you refused there would be an almighty change of season: “WELL FUCK YOU THEN!”.

Margaret’s exterior was a decaying body, living. People on the street would remark to each other if she were looking more unwell than usual; people were concerned about this wild woman who lived firmly outside of society. At the end of last year there was a lot of talk around Christmas that Marg wasn’t looking too hot. She had broken her hip, her arm in a sling, and the color of her skin (usually pretty sickly at best) had turned a dark purple around the ankles. Still, for the raging alcoholic she was, Margaret looked not too bad really.

She died at home, I heard through the K rd grapevine. Our landlord, Glen, remarked that it was a blessing she didn’t have to sit through another freezing outdoor winter. Looking out onto the street today, the weather is hinting at what is in store for us in the coming months, and it will be cold. It will be colder without Margaret, for sure, for as another friend, Little Elliot said, she was like the sun, rising and falling, just something that is always there to be relied upon. Yelling, drinking, smoking, or just sitting quietly, as was her way these last few years.

Margaret – you certainly won’t be forgotten by anyone on K rd, ever. When people refer to K rd as a “character” street, as “edgy” and “bohemian”, it was largely a reference to you, really. You were the ironic saint of the street, an icon, and someone whose legend will undoubtedly live on for the rest of our lifetimes. For myself I can say this: I cried when I heard you were gone. Rest In Peace.
Sofia Mella

Conception Inception

2011-04-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

It's often the little things that are the most fascinating. The process of creation can yield the coolest, rawest material. Here are some sketches from our artists to celebrate the mystery of creation this Easter.

from our new lady in the house, Naomi Smith

from the imagination of Liesje, 1st Lady

Tom McMillan's melancholy circus

Apprentice Aaron ruling it

Adam Craft, the one and only, obviously!

Tom's sketch

Japan, We Love You! Nuclear Free!

2011-03-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Tattoo by Horiyoshi III

Sushi, samurais, Ninjas, Hello Kitty, Yamaha bikes, origami, cherry blossoms, bullet trains and the best hair on the planet – Japan is such an inspiring country. The influence of the Japanese tattoo on the West is a just enormous. There simply isn’t a more beautiful style of tattooing. Traditional Japanese tattooing holds its class for a lifetime.

As the entire planet watches with fear and sorrow at the unraveling state of Japan, we wanted to share with you some of the things we at The Tattooed Heart love about Japan.

This little photo essay is dedicated to the extremely courageous people who are fighting to get the nuclear disaster under control in Fukushima. The future seems to hinge on their ability to contain the situation, and that is a truly frightening prospect.

Japan – we love you! Vote with your hearts for a better future – Nuclear Free!

Liesje Loves......

tattoos by Horitsune II

Adam Loves...

art by Masami Teroka

Tom Loves the 5 6 7 8s!

We all love.... Horiyoshi III & Shige

Sofia Loves...

Takashi Murakami

and....

the art of Yoko Ono

and....

Frank Miller's Ninja, Miho

and.....

cats by Hakusai

Nadia Loves...

Shige's kitten

and....

ceramics from Nippon - the best in the world!

Lets make the future beautiful Japan - No nukes, you can do it!

Children on the Edge - Little Lotus Project

2011-02-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

“For over 40 years almost unnoticed by the international community, one of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world has ruled the country of Burma. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been forced to flee the violence and instability of their homeland to places like Thailand. Thousands of vulnerable children, some orphaned and some unaccompanied, live in refugee camps and migrant communities, facing extreme poverty and hunger. It is these children that Children on the Edge support.”

In November 2010, New Zealand artists Tanja Jade and Peap Tarr along with Pat Shepherd and Alex Chalmers did something radical with their lives. They left behind the comfort of their homes in the first world and boarded planes and buses that would deliver them to the Thai/Burmese border. The freshly vaccinated artists, armed with paints and pens, were on a mission: to bring imagination and artistic creativity to the forgotten refugee children of Burma.

Children on the Edge was founded in 1990 initially to aid children in Romanian orphanages. Since then the project has extended to include offshoot program Good Karma Project in Burma, and most recently the Little Lotus Project, a continuation of the work done by Good Karma.

After touching down in Bangkok, Tanja Jade had the dubious pleasure of boarding a bus for an 8-hour journey to the Burmese boarder. “As we got closer to Maesot, the bus would stop for more and more police checks.” Peap took the night bus and with each stop in the mountains he saw Burmese stowaways jump out of the luggage compartment and run off into the jungle.

The team of artists knew in advance what they were walking into – a large community of refugees living on and around a rubbish dump. They eke out an existence by sifting through fresh rubbish for things they can sell. Everyone works, children included, and the situation is dire enough that education is a luxury and comes second or third to working the rubbish dump.

“We worked at the school for two or three days before visiting the dump,” says Tanja. “Even though you could kind of see it in the distance behind the school, I had no idea just how bad it was. The new school building was really quite lovely and the headmaster had been working on a veggie garden that seemed to be thriving. There was a well and the children were happy and having fun, so I was thinking this isn’t really so bad.”

Although Pat, camp leader, prepared the artists for what was in store, no amount of talk could brace them for the actuality.

“We walked through a bush track to some small bamboo houses,” recalls Tanja, “Dogs, chickens and flies were everywhere. We went past a very polluted lake. The smell was quite unbearable and the flies were insane. Then we were smack bang in the middle of the dump. The landscape was just mountains of rubbish. A rubbish truck arrived while we were there and dumped a load. People and dogs run over instantly. Immediately people began searching for anything they could sell, and the dogs fought for scraps of food.

“It is totally devastating, especially to see the kids who were in my class earlier that day sitting they’re sorting through piles of dirty rubbish, their hands covered with black dirt. My heart broke when I saw a young mother breast feeding her three month old baby, then laid him down to sleep on a bit of newspaper while she went back to work.”

Rudolf Virchov, the German anthropologist and key founder of social medicine said that physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and social problems fall to a large extent within their jurisdiction. Many of us living in the developed world feel powerless, or else simply disinterested in the welfare of those far away, living in poverty and despair. The artists from the Little Lotus Project empowered themselves by utilizing what skills they can share, to assist in the development of others. It is not just humanitarian doctors who have a responsibility to their fellow human; it is all of us.

The artists taught toy-making workshops, adorned the Skyblue School with paintings and endeavored to teach imagination to children to whom this is a foreign concept. “Communication was an issue,” says Tanja. “There are several different dialects in Burma. Also, getting the kids to use their imaginations and feel free to do their own thing was a challenge. They were all amazingly fast learners and incredible at replicating designs, but when it came to making up their own artwork or toy, it was a bit of a push.” This may be in part due to the circumstances and political climate, which the community is forced to adhere to. The idea of individual power is not a reality for refugees living in poverty.

For those of us who have our freedom, who are able to make simple choices – we owe it to ourselves and to all of those who’s voices are ignored to use the spoils of democracy to aid our brothers and sisters.

How you can help: http://littlelotusproject.bandcamp.com/
Purchase this awesome compilation and feel good doing it because your $$ will go directly to Children On The Edge, woooooooooooooohoooooooooo!!!!!!

Everyone is addicted to facebook, so add this page! http://www.facebook.com/LittleLotusProject

Background on Burma

Since 1962 the military regime has waged a violent and inhuman war on over 100 ethnic groups throughout Burma. Many of these ethnic groups are forced to hide in inaccessible jungles from military attacks. Others, not able to escape the attacks suffer indescribable horror, villages are burnt to the ground, villagers killed, used as food and weapon carriers and human land mine sweepers, women are raped and men tortured. Peace to these people is something from the past, and to some, it’s something they have never known.

This brutal violence and instability has created a mass migration of refugees to neighboring countries, especially Thailand. Thousands have been accepted as refugees, however as Thailand is not a signatory to the UN Convention on refugees many people fleeing Burma, who should under international law be given refugee status are denied this and hence many, in sheer desperation, enter Thailand as illegal migrants. There are now believed to be more than 1.5 million illegal migrants from Burma living in Thailand, under threat of deportation, back to an uncertain fate.

These illegal migrants often arrive with nothing, and with no legal status the children have difficulty accessing an education and often fall victim to the sex and drug trafficking trade, whether it be for survival or through kidnapping.

In their homeland they face poverty, persecution and hunger, as migrants & refugees they still face the same, yet in Thailand we have the ability to access and assist them.

http://www.childrenontheedge.org.nz

All photos by Pat Shepherd

The Wall Project

2011-01-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Mumbai, the former Bombay, is an almost indescribable city. A maximum, 24 hour, high speed, bombastic, nerve shredding place where the psychedelic future collides with a medieval past. More expensive than Manhattan, it is home to millions of people and is the 2nd most populated city on Planet Earth. The traveler cannot prepare for Mumbai. Mumbai happens to you. It assaults you. It gets into your airways, under your fingernails, and in most cases, shoots a rusty arrow straight into your heart. In a city than is home to India’s biggest players, the uber wealthy of the world, poverty is everywhere. Millions sleep on the streets or in the now famous slums. Political agenda is everywhere, blasting out of speakers mounted on street corners, dominating the cityscape. Mumbai is intense, so much so that the very act of writing the flimsy words make a joke of the reality.

Mumbai tells it’s epic story through visual messages. Street art in India has existed since the dawn of humanity. Indian people love to embellish, decorate, adorn and maximize every surface. Religious and political viewpoints are as visible as Bollywood movie posters, or the massive proliferation of Vodafone and Airtel advertising. But painting with spray cans is a new thing, which has seeped through via hip-hop and MTV.

The Wall Project is an open project, started by four students from the National Institute of Design. Their approach is intrinsically different from their more studied Western counterparts. “It’s interesting to understand patterns, ideologies and styles that western graf has, but it need not work for us in the same way,” says Dhanya, a founding caretaker of the project. For example, writers in the west enjoy the highly politicized concept of seeing their particular name in the public sphere. It is personal, and arguably and egocentric display. Conversely, one of The Wall Project’s fundamental requirements is that those taking part do not actively seek to offend. “In India, one is already bombarded with so much information, advertising, traffic, noise,” says Dhanya, “Why not add something that would instead relax the mind and soothe. Look around in Mumbai – there are political slogans and posters and faces of politicians and their supporters glaring at you all around. Why would we want to add any more to that mess?”

The Wall Project artists seek to provide a visual reprieve from the overwhelming pressure of Indian life. There is a naivety, a sweetness to the work. Anyone can be part of the project, making it an inclusive and person-to-person exchange. “There is no need to paint illegally in India,” says Dhanya. “There are so many dirty walls, no one would mind a fresh coat of paint and color.” Unfortunately, the flip side of this is multinational corporations taking full advantage. Vodafone, Airtel and Coke-a-Cola are brands whose visibility cannot be ignored. Their logos absolutely saturate modern India, simply by offering street vendors and homeowners a fresh coat of paint. The advertising strategy seems to be total blanketing of the country. “The average street vendor don’t realize it’s value and how much cheap visibility these companies are getting,” says Dhanya.

The Wall Project has stretched far up into the mountains of Ladakh, to the ghats of Varanasi, to the beaches of Goa. Painting in the streets of India is about having a personal relationship with the space around you. The general public’s reaction has been enlightening and positive. “The public is curious and excited,” says Dhayna of works in progress. “They are amazed that people can do something for the city without expecting anything back! They are sometimes suspicious, but once we chat with them some offer food and juice, or even show us more walls. It’s fun and addictive. More and more people are watching what we are doing and have joined in, from kids to senior citizens. Some even got inspired and started their own collectives!”

It’s an empowering creative movement in a country where one’s place can often be lost in the chaos of survival. The idea that awareness (of how you can inspire, of what you can do for those around you) can create a better way of living is what The Wall Project hopes to ultimately convey though street painting. It’s an exciting time for the emerging culture of Indian street art. A new movement in its infancy is something graf artists in the west can only remember and romanticize.

Inside Tattooing - NZ prison tattoos

2011-01-19T16:44:00.000-08:00

Our landlord is not only very amiable, he is also the director of Butobase, a production company. Here is a promo video for a proposed doco. It is so warm, wonderful and honestly reflective of the culture of NZ prison tattooing. Enjoy!

Inside Tattooing Promo from Buto Productions on Vimeo.

Daryl Jimmy, Jimmy Daryl

2011-01-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

Daryl Jimmy’s road to tattooing was beset upon all sides by the tyranny of evil men. After he ditched high school, he had to swallow a bitter pill – art school would not accept him. He angrily took to building, repressing his creative urges, until the call of tattooing was bellowing loudly enough to give him tinnitus.

In his hometown of Marilyn, 20 minutes outside of Washington DC, Daryl went shop to shop, hustling for an apprenticeship. He played shop gofer for a few different places, before realizing he was being taken advantage of and his overlords had no intention of teaching him to tattoo. Out of sheer desperation, our protagonist ordered a machine online (uh-oh) and, like the virgin he was, proceeded to “hack himself up at home” with varying degrees of success. Finally, Capitol Tattoo came to rescue, and employed Daryl. Under the tutelage of Tyler at Capitol, Daryl was encouraged to look beyond one teacher and into the wider world of tattooing. The upside of this is that these days, he genuinely enjoys learning and collaborating with others.

As with most tattooists, he paints watercolors and spends the bulk of his spare time drawing tattoo flash. Daryl’s favorite style of tattooing is, as he aptly describes it, “neo-traditional, semi-realistic 90s color bomb” work.
“My favorite stuff is honestly stuff from the 90s,” he says. “I thought Marcus Pacheco and those dudes were really doing right. They took it as far as I was interested in, in terms of realism. I’m capable of being really meticulous, but I don’t like it.” He also loves the work of prolific 17th century baroque painter, Peter Paul Rubens, who’s understanding of “the science of reality” blows his mind.

Cartooning and graphic illustration are another of Daryl’s passions. He doesn’t use reference, and often he prefers to not trace, but look at an object and free draw. “If I’m drawing an animal, sometimes it might be a bit anatomically fucked, an eye might be bigger than the other, but it will come out looking more like the animal if I draw it myself, even though it’s an exaggeration. I like cartooning because it’s exaggerated, it’s boiling something down to its simplest essence.”

Daryl believes old school values are still important and relevant, despite the changing times. “There’s a reason for things. There’s a reason to turn away someone who wants their hand tattooed for their first tattoo. There’s a reason you try not to shit on the guy down the street, even if he pisses you off or does a crappy job. There are reasons for all these things, and even if you haven’t been around long enough to see the full extrapolation of why people did things the way they did, there’s probably a reason and you shouldn’t be as arrogant as to presume that you just know better because you don’t see why.”

At the dinner table of his dreams, Daryl would play host to artists Walton Ford, Rubins, (our own) Adam Craft, Mike Rubendall & Jeff Gogue. He would serve a color-bomb risotto with a side of fucked animal eyeball.

Miss Van at The Tattooed Heart

2010-12-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

Miss Van is considered one of the best-known painters in the graffiti scene. Born in Toulouse, France in 1973, she began painting walls at age 18. In the 1990s, Miss Van along with a handful of other French female artists (Mademoiselle KAT and Fafi) pioneered an original, dynamic style that exploded worldwide.

Her much-imitated style of painting female forms with big, slanted doe-eyes seems as if it’s always been in the collective unconscious. Over the years Miss Van’s girls have become less cute and more sensual.

Miss Van has exhibited in Shanghai, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Mexico. She lives in Barcelona, Spain.

The Tattooed Heart is delighted to present works by Miss Van for sale. Limited edition postcard sets and sign and numbered giclee prints on watercolor paper.

http://www.thetattooedheart.co.nz/shoppe/miss-van/

Tattoos For Tibet

2010-08-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

The issue of Tibet’s sovereignty has been an extremely contentious and political one since Tibet lost its independence to the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1958. The country’s spiritual leader, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, has since lived in exile in Dharamasala, India. The Tibetan people continue to struggle for their independence from China. Despite a renewed crackdown on basic human rights during the last two years, Tibetans have chosen to remain nonviolent and their hopes for freedom are undiminished.

On October 7, 2010, tattoo artists from across the globe will join the “Tattoos For Tibet” project and donate their wages from at least one tattoo to Students for a Free Tibet to commemorate the Tibetan people’s nonviolent resistance to Chinese occupation.

The Tattooed Heart is proud to take part in this event.

Artists involved will also provide one piece of Tibetan inspired flash, which will be compiled together and sold to raise even more green for a Free Tibet.

Wanna join the party? You can by contacting myspace.com/tattoosfortibet or on Facebook: Tattoos-for Tibet

It is righteous to be free!

Femke Heimstra's Jeweled World

2010-07-18T01:09:00.000-07:00

Coming This Month...

We are pleased to bring you prints by Femke Heimstra, resident of the laid back Dutch capitol, Amsterdam. Femke was raised on liquorice, buttermilk, her father's comics and Little Golden Books.

Her work has been shown at Roq La Rue in Seattle, Feinkunst Krüger, Hamburg and Giant Robot Gallery, San Fransisco. She has contributed her considerable talents to the "Beasts!" books and has a book all about her called "Rock Candy" available on Amazon.com.

"Bonjour Daschund!"

“Femke Hiemstra’s meticulously tight, jewel like mixed media paintings and exquisitely rendered black and white drawings are homes to a dark fairytale land where inanimate objects come to life and frolic with animal neighbours. Lollipops become ship captains, strawberries become giant wrestlers, and vegetables become Halloween gods with lantern eyes.

Drawing from a range of influences, from firework wrappers to Japanese woodblock prints, Femke’s use of both pop culture detritus and child-like fantasy create a vibrant playground for the imagination, with each piece looking like a portal for a fantastic adventure, which is left up to the viewer to imagine the story that lies inside.”
-Kirsten Anderson, Roq la Rue Gallery

Chris Conn Askew

2010-06-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

Christopher Conn Askew was born in Hollywood, California in 1970. From a very early age he took to drawing obsessively, which eventually became a profession. Having no formal art training, he turned his interest to the field of tattooing, in which he worked from 1990 until his retirement from the trade in 2006. Since then, Chris has pursued his illustrative and artistic endeavours on paper, using primarily watercolor, ink, graphite, gouache and gold leaf. He currently resides in San Francisco, California with his son and two very large cats.

PRINTS AVAILABLE AT THE TATTOOED HEART THIS WEEK

Carmelita

Upon A Tiny Throne

La Petente

The Anunciation

The Apprentice Chronicles continue

2010-05-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

Tanja & Aaron have been busy this week...

Aaron & Misery tattoo swine

2010-05-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Last night Aaron & Misery under the careful guidance of Adam Craft knocked out a couple of choice tattoos on dead animal skin. What amusing results!

Aaron's little piggy

Tanja's little piggy

What's your fav?

Aaron Green, our apprentice does great paintings

2010-05-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

Aaron has begun his training under Adam Craft & will be tattooing..... soon

Auction For Ted West

2010-04-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

If you don't know Ted West personally, you may have seen him around town supporting all the local and international rock and metal bands! What you may not know is that Ted is struggling with Cystic Fibrosis. Sufferers of this genetic diseasde don't get to stay on Earth as long as the rest of us. Ted will be departing our fair shores for the grand and majestic Valhallah. Before he goes, The Tattooed Heart & Sacred Tattoo wish to make his remaining time here &$#&*(@!? awesome.

Ted's a simple kind of man - he would like to bungy jump, fly in a helicopter and trash a hotel room. To this end, The Tattooed heart and Sacred are holding an on-line art auction featuring rare pieces.

This is a one-off opportunity to buy some of NZ's finest art at low reserves.

Proceeds of the auction go towards granting Ted's most vehement wishes.

VISIT WWW.THETATTOOEDHEART.CO.NZ/TEDWEST

Aaron Green is The Apprentice

2010-04-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to introduce Aaron Green, our new apprentice. Aaron is 25 years old, a superb artist, and the father of 3 week old Ivy Rose. Aaron Green - You're hired!

Don't be afraid of your local tattoo shop

2010-03-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

We're not all devil-worshipping baby-sacrificing heart-eating psychos. Just look at this photo of Liesje tattooing Adam Craft. Tattooists are so discriminated against.

Tiffany Singh is great!

2010-03-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

We recently attending the exhibition of Kiwi/Indian Tiffany Singh. "What Colour is the Sacred" was really cool. She made miles of little sculptures and half way through the show, other artists could come in with their own sculpture and swap for one of hers. Themes of Tiffany's work include spiritual practice and community.

www.tiffanysingh.com

Wonderland

2010-03-24T00:48:00.000-07:00

Visiting India can be like being Alice In Wonderland. C-c-colors!

Do NOT eat candy or your teeth WILL die!

Come and get your tattoo on the side of the road!

Candy floss is less than 5 cents

Tattoo Bijou Jewelry

2010-03-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

On a recent trip to India, I began collecting jewelry for The Tattooed Heart from each place I visited. Delhi, Punjab, Mumbai and Bangalore. Then I reached Tamil Nadu, and just over the border settled for a few weeks in a place called Pondicherry. A truly charmed place, stopping in Pondicherry was meant to be for a variety of reasons. On my second day there I met a man, Baba, of Ali Baba Arts. I had with me some rough sketches by Adam Craft, ideas we had worked on together before I left, for custom jewelry. Baba took a look at them and told me it was possible to get some samples made.

In India, labour is very cheap because there are 1.6 billion people, many of them living below the poverty line. I was conscious of this fact when beginning the jewelry making process, and wanted to go to the jewelry workshop and ask some questions.

As it turns out, being a jeweler in Pondicherry is a pretty great job. The guys working at the workshop had comfortable conditions, had their food and accomodation taken care of, and a substantial daily wage. After 3-4 years training, each apprentice will have the necessary skills to start up their own business, like Ali Baba Arts.

Here are some shots of these awesome guys and their tools, plus some pieces of jewelry now available at The Tattooed Heart.

EVERYTHING is handmade, giving the pieces a real sense of their origins.

First samples of Tattoo Bijou for The Tattooed Heart

Indian Street Tattooing

2010-02-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

I was driving along in peak hour traffic on the back of a bike in Bangalore when I saw this lady tattooing on the street. I jumped off my bike and shot this video for The Tattooed Heart. Enjoy!

Foreign Invasion - Guests at The Tattooed Heart

2010-01-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to welcome a talented array of guests this summer. Burkhard Brenner from Germany is with us now and is available for walk ins & custom work.

Also guesting this month are Bob Lackner...

... Pete from the UK

and Dirty Job!

BOOKINGS AVAILABLE NOW 09 379 2662

Summer Lovin'

2010-01-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

What happened to the holidays? We're all back at work now, and we have brand new prints & T shirts from Tattoo Darling, Angelique Houtkamp! Numbers are very limited, so if they take your fancy don't wait too long.

The Wall

2009-12-15T01:36:00.000-08:00

This is in Kingsland by the train tracks down there. Misery, Big El & like a million others. Would you look at that collaboration yall

XMAS PRESSIES!

2009-12-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

The Tattooed Heart is pleased to bring a little bit of Outre Gallery to New Zealand. We are now stocking books from Outre Press. Beatsville, Tattoo Darling & Tattoo Mystique (The Art of Angelique Houtkamp). Sweet xmas presents! Visit out webstore

http://www.thetattooedheart.co.nz/shoppe/books/

Exciting news for Misery Lovers! She & her brilliant sister Meg are opening their very own store this month! At the risk of doing ourselves out of a bit of business CHECK IT OUT!!!

Some Pix From Opening Night of LOVE HURTS!

2009-11-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

2009-11-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

"Love Hurts!" runs for one more week. Thanks so much to those who came to the opening! There are still some pieces for sale. If you're unable to come by the exhibition you can see what's available online at www.thetattooedheart.co.nz
Here's a little taste...

Coming up next week is "Daydreams Start Fires", a celebration of the poetry of Auckland rapper Tourettes & 10 local artists, including Tattooed Heart tattooist, Tom McMillan. This is the 2nd showing of this exhib & the first one was really cool. Check it out:

Art News NZ features "Love Hurts!"

2009-11-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

If you can't get into the shop to see the exhibition, some of the works are available online at http://www.thetattooedheart.co.nz/shoppe/art-/

Kiwi Matt is back!... soon

2009-11-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

We are all very much looking forward to seeing Matt Lloyd again. He's coming to Auckland to work at the Auckland Tattoo convention this weekend (2 days after "Love Hurts!" opens) and then we get to keep him for a whole month! Matt is a great artist and a great guy. And finally, someone who can set up the turntables downstairs!

Matt is Homeward Bound!

Kelly Thompson & Steph Lusted

2009-11-03T17:30:00.001-08:00

Kelly Thompson is another artist taking part in "Love Hurts!". We first saw her work in Curvy 5 and the accompanying exhibition at Webb's gallery last year. A fashion photographer & illustrator, her sketches resemble advertising in 70s fashion magazines. All dreamy & pretty.

Jewellery designer Steph Lusted is showing some pieces in "Love Hurts!" also. Working mostly in silver, she hand carves her pieces and utilises bone & butterflies to create very interesting jewellery.

Ben Stenbeck -Comic Prodigy

2009-11-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

Another gifted artist taking part in the "Love Hurts!" exhibition is comic Einstein Ben Stenbeck. Based in New Zealand, Ben works with both Dark Horse & Marvel comics and has worked designing games and as a commercial illustrator. His art is totally sick. Ben started drawing as soon as he could hold a pencil and remained single minded about his artistic career from an early age. The man was born to do it.

We can't wait to see what Ben does for "Love Hurts!" Meanwhile, check out his work at benstenbeck.com

Here are some examples of Ben's superability (that is actually a word).

Karl Wills of The Comic Book Factory

2009-10-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

Another artist taking part in "Love Hurts! A tribute to Tattoo" is the comic artist & creative, Karl Wills. Probably best known for his acclaimed comic "Jessica of the School Yard", a subversive look at high school in all it's violent and not very funny glory, Karl is what we've always thought to be a creative genius. He also works in advertising, though he recently began freelancing, and as such, is no longer answerable to the man. Alright, alright!

We are very excited to see what this special talent unveils for "Love Hurts!"

2009-10-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

MISERY has a couple of cute new t shirts and we are lucky to be able to offer them to the public. Limited edition, from her latest exhibition "Heart of Misery". Cute Attack!

There's a great tribute to the wonderful Martin Emond in the latest Juxtapoz magazine. Martin was very dear to some of us at The Tattooed Heart & it was lovely to see Pusshead pay tribute to his art. Look out for it.

We have Siesta Clothing in store! Art on t shirts by Tom McMillan (Tattooed Heart tattooist) & Deus. Loving Siesta Clothing right now!

2009-10-28T22:03:00.001-07:00

Sarah Larnach is one of our favourite things right now. She's a kiwi girl living in Sydney and she's responsible for the glorious look of LADYHAWKE's album cover & "My Dilerium" video.

We are thrilled that Sarah Larnach will be taking part in the "Love Hurts!" exhibition at The Tattooed Heart next month. She saw our posters around town when she was visiting NZ and we noticed her art in the media. Love her!

2009-10-27T18:03:00.001-07:00

2009-10-26T15:30:00.001-07:00

Hi Tattoo Lovers,Welcome to our new blog. Along with our website www.thetattooedheart.co.nz, here you'll find out about happenings at the shop as well as extras like artist interviews & photos and other projects you might find interesting.
Coming up in November we are hosting an exhibition, "LOVE HURTS! A tribute to tattoo

Adam Craft, Liesje, Tom McMillian & Hamish McLaughlan plus MISERY, Sarah Larnach (artist behind Ladyhawke) and a bunch of others.
More soon!