Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo

I am proud to announce that I am one of the artists featured in the updated edition of Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo by Margot Mifflin !

Two of my pieces were included along with several quotes.

You can purchase a copy of your own through Amazon by clicking below or clicking on the book in the righthand column.

Bodies of Subversion was the first history of women’s tattoo art when it was released in 1997, providing a fascinating excursion to a subculture that dates back to the nineteenth-century and including many never-before-seen photos of tattooed women from the last century. Newly revised and expanded, it remains the only book to chronicle the history of both tattooed women and women tattooists. As the primary reference source on the subject, it contains information from the original edition, including documentation of:

•Nineteeth-century sideshow attractions who created fantastic abduction tales in which they claimed to have been forcibly tattooed.
•Victorian society women who wore tattoos as custom couture, including Winston Churchill’s mother, who wore a serpent on her wrist.
•Maud Wagner, the first known woman tattooist, who in 1904 traded a date with her tattooist husband-to-be for an apprenticeship.
•The parallel rise of tattooing and cosmetic surgery during the 80s when women tattooists became soul doctors to a nation afflicted with body anxieties.
•Breast cancer survivors of the 90s who tattoo their mastectomy scars as an alternative to reconstructive surgery or prosthetics.

The book contains 50 new photos and FULL COLOR images throughout including newly discovered work by Britain’s first female tattooist, Jessie Knight; Janis Joplin’s wrist tattoo; and tattooed pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber. In addition, the updated 3rd edition boasts a sleek design and new chapters documenting recent changes to the timeline of female tattooing, including a section on: celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D, the most famous tattooist, male or female, in the world; the impact of reality shows on women’s tattoo culture; and, therapeutic uses of tattooing for women leaving gangs, prisons, or situations of domestic abuse.

As of 2012, tattooed women outnumber men for the first time in American history, making Bodies of Subversion more relevant than ever.

Vintage Karma 5 years strong!

This is a big day for me (and Laura too!).  Five years ago today on 7/7/07 Vintage Karma opened its doors, not so much with a bang but with a hesitant squeak.  I  had just left a bad situation at the shop I had been working at for four years and the other two artists that had been apprenticing there came along with me.  We thought we were going to be the Three Musketeers and take over the tattoo world by storm and it was going to be this amazing creative explosion….. It didn’t quite go down that way.

OMG Seriously?! It has every bad tattoo artist photo cliche! Tough pose outside the studio? Check. Imposing camera angle to make us look larger than life? Check. Super serious bad ass expression? Check!

My lack of confidence as a business owner combined with all of our different personality types made for a very crappy first 18 months.  So after having to fire my best friend at the time and having the other guy walk shortly thereafter was like having to walk naked through a jeering crowd.  I am not going to lie, I was miserable, I didn’t know what I was thinking taking on a business while still working full time at my day job at the bank. Meanwhile, my relationship was sinking like the horse stuck in the swamp in the “Neverending Story“.   Also, I am not going to lie about this either,  my tattoo work was pretty lame for someone who had been at it for over four years.

But getting out on my own gave me the chance to experiment and try different things that were downright forbidden where I trained.  I was technically starting over at this period and through these early rocky years of VK, tattooing started to click with me.  And it wasn’t until VK was just me that the business started to click as well.

Three years in I started to see real progress with my business and my work.  My relationship was back on solid ground and stronger than ever.  I think the main lesson I took from this time is that I needed to have the business be an honest reflection of who I am as a person and to not try and make it something that both it and I am not.  A few more years went by and I built myself a pretty decent little clientele and a nice reputation.  I was ready to take the next step…..so I proposed to Laura……Not that kind of proposal!  I proposed to give her half of the stake in Vintage Karma.  And she said YES!   LOL!

Once we went in together, an amazing thing happened. While trying to figure out how to afford to expand the business in Stroudsburg the universe opened up and plopped Tuscola, IL right in the middle of our world.  We could build this new concept we had, TOGETHER, from the ground up as an equal team! Not as Ainslie and Laura too (which was becoming the case in PA).  So here we are, five years in, with the business back in its infancy yet again. But this time we won’t repeat the missteps from before. We will make new mistakes and work through them as a team. I am excited to see what the next few years bring us as we grow VK into new directions.

I am trying WAY TOO HARD here! “Yeah I am a tattoo badass! I am going to ROCK your tattoo!!!!”

In a very different place frome where I started. Crap! I need to look more tough and imposing! I look far too approachable here! No smiling! This is serious stuff here!

Recent Tattoo Pictures!

I have gotten super lazy at updating my photos for my website here, so I figured until I can get my back log of photos edited I will supply you with my facebook link.  It has become so easy to share tattoos immediately on facebook that I have been directing people there to look…..which all adds to my issue of not getting around to updating here.   LOL!    Until I do……. check me out on facebook!

I have a guest spot until we get the new store/studio open.

There is so much we are trying to get done to our building to get it ready for business.  That being said, I will be tattooing part time (Fridays and Saturdays so far) at Altered Egos in Champaign until things are ready to go in Tuscola.

Call me at 570-994-6671 or email me at vintagekarma@gmail.com to set something up!

Big Changes Coming to Vintage Karma

For four years now, I have run Vintage Karma in Stroudsburg, PA.  It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and I am very proud of the art that my clients and I have created together.  I have built up a good reputation and have had the fortune of being solidly booked for a month at a time.  Up until recent months I had every intention of continuing on my path in Stroudsburg for years to come but sometimes an opportunity arises that is far too good to pass up.  

As of November 24th (this Thanksgiving), I will be closing my studio at 10 N. 7th St to move to Tuscola, Illinois.  Currently, I will be no longer taking on any new work and will only be focusing on completing unfinished projects.

My partner Laura and I have been dreaming of expanding the Vintage Karma name to include an artist/craftperson co-op where we would sell handmade and DIY goods along with offering classes to give everyone a chance to get in touch with their creative side.   Now we can make that dream into a reality. 

We were given an amazing opportunity to purchase a large building in Tuscola, Illinois (where my whole family lives) that includes an apartment and ballroom.  It needs a lot of work but we have acquired a TIF grant from the town to help us with getting the repairs made.

You can watch our progress as we transform this former antiques store to a vintage general store feel over at http://shopvintagekarma.com

Vintage Karma's new home!

Full description of the building here!

Originally, I had planned on staying in Stroudsburg until the end of 2011 but Mother Nature decided that I needed to go sooner than later. My house, which has been in my family for 105 years, was among the many that sufferred major flooding from the two storms several weeks ago. We have not been able to stay there since August 28th and the NJ Dept of Environmental Protection and FEMA are involved with the massive cleanup.  It’s kind of like my family homestead knew we were planning on leaving so it got upset and kicked us out early.

The Paulinskill came over to play at my house!

  It will be hard to leave all of the great friends and clients I have made but I do plan on traveling back to the area to do guest spots so that I can continue to tattoo as many of you as possible. Anyone who doesn’t want to wait for me to travel back and forth and needs help finding a new artist, I will be more than happy to refer you to one that would be a good match.  Or anyone feeling adventurous is more than welcome to travel to Illinois and get tattooed! Heck you can even stay with us!

Thank you all for your support through the years and I hope that I can continue to serve you as best as I can as Laura and I start this new journey in a new place. 

I will be selling my studio contents in Stroudsburg. If anyone knows someone looking to open up a tattoo studio, send them my way. The rent is very reasonable and the location is ready to go with two artist stations, enclosed sterilization room, and much more.  Contact me at vintagekarma@gmail.com for specifics.

Don’t Cry Because It’s Over. Smile Because It Happened.

Followers of me on Facebook have surely noticed the tattoos bearing the same symbol over the past several months. People keep asking me what is up with those tattoos and what does that symbol mean?

It is a stylized design of an angel with wings and halo. But, it is also letters that spell out MADY.

Mady (Madyson Brendyl Law) was the daughter of a very good friend and client of mine. She had just turned 13 before her life was cut short by a tragic accident this past December.  She touched everyone who met her with her kind soul and generosity.  I could go on and on about her story and how she has individually impacted so many but that would make this long posting into a book! You can learn more about this amazing girl here.

Back in the spring Jim, a friend of the Law family, commisioned me to design a decal for his Les Paul guitar in memory of Mady. He came to the shop with MJ and Laura (Mady’s parents) He wanted her name with some sort of “stylized wings kind of like the Van Halen logo, but not really too much like the Van Halen logo, because I don’t really like Van Halen.”  After about a half hour of coming up with nothing very exciting I was growing frustrated. My policy is that if I am struggling with a design it is because I am on the wrong path and that I need to back up and come at it from another angle.  Then, as all of my best ideas do, the image appeared clearly in my mind.  Plain as day. I started sketching again and a few minutes later I had the rough idea down.

The first sketches, including tracing of the guitar body (middle) it was designed for.

Being that this was for a specific guitar I made sure that the curve of the “wings” matched the curve of the body of the guitar so it would fit and flow correctly.

Jim's guitar

After I was done sketching, he paid me for my time and we all sat and chatted about how happy we were with the concept.  There was talk of using this logo on tshirts and car decals to sell as part of a spagetti dinner fundraiser that the Law family was planning. So the next day I refined the image and cleaned it up on Photoshop so it would be all perfect and ready to go. Then what happened next surprised me. Jim wanted to get it tattooed on him! So did another family friend, Robin.  I am thinking wow, these people aren’t even related to Mady, and they want this tattooed on them? So I tattooed them on the same day as the first shipment of car decals.

Then word started spreading. More people came forward about getting tattoos. At this point I decided that I would donate 25% of all of the MADY logo tattoos to the charity Mady’s Angels being founded in her honor.  As the weeks went by shirts and decals were showing up everywhere.

Car Decal

As I worked on MJs memorial backpiece he kept me filled in on the details of a charity music festival they were planning called “Mady’s Snow Day”  (one of her favorite things in the whole world was snow). The outpouring of support from the community was tremendous. Many people and local businesses donated their time, energy, and space to make the event come together. I continued tattooing MADYs on even more friends and family leading up to this event.

The day of Mady’s Snow Day was full of bone soaking rain, but that didn’t keep anyone away. As I drove up Sarah Street to park at the tattoo studio the street was lined with cars bearing the decal. People with umbrellas were walking towards the event all wearing the shirts. When I finally made it, I was in a visual sea of this symbol. People were wearing temporary tattoos with it. There was a booth filled with Mady merch. Stickers, decals, wall plaques, guitar pick jewelry, and more.  Over 1000 people attended the event.

Never in my life have I seen one person touch so many people that they would permanantly alter their bodies in her memory.  I am sure I will never see anything like this again.  It has been an honor to be able to help the Law family in my own little way by giving them this image.  I know that this simple image will be one of my proudest artistic achievements due to the impact it helped to make. I hope it helps to carry on Mady’s legacy for years to come.

I didn’t have the chance to get to know Mady very well in life, but through this whole experiece I have gotten to know not only her, but a lot of really good people better than I ever could have.   If a 13 year old could touch this many people this deeply, how much good could we possibly do with a whole lifetime?

In all, I did TWELVE MADYs. Each person had their tattoo done in a different way to reflect their relationship with Mady.  They all shared their stories about her with me while I tattooed them.

Due to these individuals’ permanant display of love I was able to donate $500 to Mady’s Angels.  Thank you all so much!

Visit Mady’s Angels to make a donation

Join her Facebook page

The Twelve

Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)

It’s that time of year when the temperature is rising and the coats are coming off.  Soon it will be summer with all of the outdoor activities that come with it.   If you have gotten tattooed by me, chances are you have been given the sunscreen speech.   But if I failed to give you that speech for what ever reason at the time of the session (or if you haven’t been tattooed by me)…..here it is in full glory.  Like a mother waving her finger “you better do what I say…or else!”  But really, it’s for your own good! Really!  Protect your investment and your artwork!

Everybody has seen the old guy with the forearm tattoo that is faded and blurred beyond recognition. ”See this part here? It used to be yellow! And the red is all but gone!”  A lot has changed in tattooing since then.  We have a far better quality of pigment available to us now along with advancements in techniques to apply the tattoo. But the tattoo will always age as your body ages. That is an undeniable truth.  But one if the biggest contributors to the aging of the tattoo is the damaging effects on your skin from the sun (or tanning booth). UV rays are just like the lasers that remove tattoos, except they work over a period of time to break down the pigment.  

After the skin has finished peeling (2-3 weeks)  then you can start using sunscreen. Prior use will irritate the healing tattoo.  It is an open wound and it will sting! 

If you are going out into the sun for any period of time, including just driving/riding in the car, please, please put on at least SPF 30 as a daily maintenance.  Use SPF 50 or higher for longer days.  And if you go tanning or please put on as high a SPF as possible EVERY time.  

If you have a new tattoo, you must wait around 6 weeks for it to be fully healed before you should even expose the tattoo directly to the sun. Prior to that the skin is still healing and will burn faster than the rest of your skin.  I know it is not a perfect world and often the tattoo is in an exposed area, like the lower arm.  If that is the case, do your best to keep it from getting the full blast of the sun. ex: Don’t hang your arm out the window while sitting in traffic on the Garden State Parkway…. you get the idea.

Neutrogena makes a whole line of sunscreens that are great for daily use (SPF 30) as well as longer lasting ones (SPF 100) for your outdoor adventure days. 

As an example to the amazing powers of sunscreen, the photo below courtesy of Guy Aitchison, shows the same guy who spent a week in Puerto Rico.  He used SPF 40 on his right arm and nothing on his left arm.