Taiwanese Jimmy Shy’s vibrant dragon and tiger artwork is essential to the present and the past of tattooing. Takahiro Kitamura’s 2023 book “Tattoo Master Pinky Yun: The Don Ed Hardy Flash Collection” featured his rebirth of Yun’s (1927-2010) iconic artwork. According to Jimmy Shy’s remark for that publication, “Pinky Yun (…) is the godfather of the Asian […]
Category: Special Feature
Ilya Kuznetsov’s Stippling Tattoo Creations
Born in Russia in 1989, Ilya Kuznetsov worked at an Italian fabric store after earning a degree in costume design from Smolensk State University. A tattoo artist friend urged him to use his drawing skills in the tattoo industry as he barely made ends meet. Self-taught in this new discipline, Kuznetsov began taking tattooing more […]
Ian Damien: Singapore’s Next Breakthrough Tattooist
“A tattoo comes alive, when a body moves,” says Ian Damien, a resident artist at Shane Tan’s Singapore studio Feather Cloud. Damien began tattooing approximately five years ago and completed a two-year apprenticeship to enter the profession; however, Tan has been mentoring Damien on the flow and technical aspects of tattooing since he was invited […]
Freddy Corbin, Oakland’s Tattoo God
Freddy Corbin was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1966, grew up in Sacramento, and at 18, went to San Francisco, California, to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. Joshua Golden gives him his first professional tattoo at Lyle Tuttle’s shop. Corbin spent a lot of time at studios and received body art from various […]
Taki: One of America’s Finest Japanese Tattoo Artists
Takahiro “Taki” Kitamura was born in Tokyo in 1973 and moved to the United States with his parents when he was two. His father taught for 18 years at the University of California, Davis (UCD), and his mother instilled Japanese culture in her children, from cuisine to folktales, to preserve their history. Kitamura got his […]
The 10 Best Films of 2020… So Far
Movie releases have been hugely complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Since March, going to see a movie on the big screen hasn’t been an option. Typically, at this point in the year, we’d be right in the middle of Hollywood blockbuster season, but the major studios have indefinitely postponed their tentpole offerings. Things are […]
Ilya Cascad: Interview with Precision Tattooist of Ornamental Illusions
A native of Russia and resident artist at the acclaimed Love Machine studio in New York City, Ilya Cascad works hours on end to finalize geometric, motion illusion patterns on the bodies of his clients. “Symmetry” and “precision” are words that best describe Cascad’s tattoos, done in black ink; however, recently implementing color to arm […]
Rope Bondage: Dirty Archangel and Shibari Dream Team Photographed in NYC
We started with email correspondence with the author of “Lust is My Favorite Sin” and photographer of this remarkable “Shibari Project,” Dirty Archangel is his artistic name. A Turkish immigrant and citizen of New York City, who’s day job are taking professional cityscape pictures of the Big Apple. Because a photoshoot like this one generally […]
Shiran: Finding Freedom Though Traveling and Tattooing
Giving beautiful tributes to Etta James, Nina Simone and Sam Cooke — Shiran could have easily become a professional illustrator, but somehow ended up in the tattoo field. Shiran is engaged to tattooer Artem Koro, who has been her rock through thick and thin, such as a long recovery after her leg and hand were smashed […]
The 10 Best Movies of 2019
It’s time for “Scene 360’s” annual end-of-year movie rundown. 2019 was defined by a royal rumble between auteur filmmakers and comic-book movie directors. Theatres were swamped with Hollywood productions and the indie world gets drowned out. It’s the old “art versus commerce” culture war reheated for the new generation. We’re most likely to catch smaller […]