This Saturday, April 13, at 2pm, Margot Mifflin and I will be at the Brooklyn Museum presenting "Art, Sex, and Power: Tattooed Women Today" in the Forum of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (4th floor). The event is free with museum admission -- and it is an incredible museum -- so it's worth the trip all around.

Our talk and visual presentation center around how women's tattooing relates to sexuality, fashion, fine art, and feminism. These themes are wonderfully explored in Margot's absolute must-have book, Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo. [For more info, check my review of the book's latest edition and interview with Margot in this post.] These themes have also been explored on this blog, particularly in the context of sex and beauty.  On Saturday, we'll spend an hour chatting about everything from the reclamation of one's body, tattooed women stereotypes, the rise of the tattoo model as career choice, women tattooers of yesterday & today, and much more. 

And we really want to hear your opinions as well, so all those attending are encouraged to participate in the discussion. I also encourage everyone to share your thoughts on women and tattoo culture in the link to this post in our FB group page, or Tweet at me.

• What do you think about the representation of tattooed women in mass media and our own industry media?
• How do you define beauty through tattoos?
• Have you ever used tattooing as a form of reclamation of your body -- either tattooing over scars, getting tattoos to empower yourself after a trauma, covering up a gang tattoo or mark that you felt was never your own...?
• How does your race & ethnicity play into reactions to your tattoos?
• Do you feel that tattooed women are hypersexualized more so today?
• Do women tattooers still face obstacles to entering and advancing in the craft?

Feel free to raise other issues. Would love to hear from you.
And would love to see you Saturday!

In April, I posted the preview to an important and incredibly engaging film on the experiences of professional black tattoo artists across the US:  "Color Outside the Lines."

The documentary is conceived and produced by Miya Bailey and directed by Artemus Jenkins, and features tattoo icons, like Jackie Gresham -- the first professional black tattoo artist renowned in the US -- a woman who more people need to know about and will thanks to this film. A preview clip with Jackie is below.

In Atlanta, on June 21st, there will be a screening of "Color Outside the Lines" at the Midtown Art Cinema from 7-9:30PM. You can buy your tickets in advance here for $10 tickets or get the premium ticket for $20, which comes with an advance copy of the DVD.

You can also order the DVD when it drops on June 27th on the film's site.
 

Tattoo by David Sena.

This photo cost $5. Worth every penny!

Heather Sinn tattoo on TattoosDay's Bill Cohen

Tattoo by Daniel DiMattia.

Damien Echols next to the tattoo he did on Sacred Gallery's Kevin Wilson. More info on how to get a tattoo from Damien coming soon.

On October 1st, my latest book project "Tattoo World," which I edited for Abrams Books, hit the shelves of book stores in North & South America as well as in Europe. And now it's time to party.

Once again, we're joining forces with our homies at Tattoo Culture to celebrate the book's release and their sixth anniversary this Friday, October 7th. Drinks and snacks will be served to all you fabulous people. The party starts at 7PM and ends promptly at 10PM. For more info, check our Facebook Event Page. Tattoo Culture is located at 129a Roebling Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. [Map]

Hope to see ya there!

From September 15-18th, one of my favorite tattoo events will take place in Western Massachusetts, bringing in renowned tattooists from around the world to share information, paint together, and of course tattoo attendees:

The Paradise Tattoo Gathering is unique in this focus on education, creation, and recreation.

The Gathering takes place at Jiminy Peak, a ski resort in the Berkshire mountains on the border between New York and Massachusetts. This is the last time the event will be held here before it moves west next year. There will be 35 different offerings of tattoo and art seminars, workshops, and discussion panels covering a wide range of the art over the course of four days.

Many seminars have sold out already including the Nick Baxter, Craola, Shawn Barber, and Workhorse Irons machine building seminars. But there are still places left for seminars with Chet Zar, Bob Tyrrell, Tommy Lee Wendtner, Alex Depase, Joe Capobianco, Robert Ryan, BJ Betts, Big Gus, Hunter Spanks, Liorcifer, Bez, Chris Dingwell, Larry Brogan, and so many more. There also also seminars for the kids, as well as organized childcare for Friday and Saturday nights.

The hotel rooms are sold out too; however, there are still condos available for a limited time and the resort across the way still has rooms. Links on the website will get you what you need.

I had a blast at the Gathering last year, and I'm sure this year it will be equally exciting. Check my blurry pics from the show here.

Marrying low brow art to tattoo flash, Quick & Painful, is a traveling exhibition and tattoo event where 15 artists and designers (with backgrounds in fine art, graffiti, and illustration) present their own special take on classic tattoo design sheets. All of the flash sets will be available for purchase at each of the show dates and available online at The Hope Shop starting October 9th.

The stellar line-up includes Alex Pardee, Amanda Visell, Brandt Peters & Kathie Olivas, Camilla D'Errico, David Horvath, Devilrobots, Greg "Craola" Simkins, Joe Ledbetter, Junko Mizuno, MIST, Ron English, Sam Flores, TADO, Tara McPherson, and Tokidoki co-founder and Creative Director Simone Legno.

At each event, attendees will be able to chose their favorite designs from the sheets off the walls and get them tattooed by renowned artists including Joe Capobianco, Eric Merrill, Julio Rodriguez, Jime Litwalk, Dan Smith, Patrick Cornolo, and Sean Adams. Here's more info on getting tattooed there.

The show bears the definitive mark of its curator, Nichole East, who reached out to iconic artists from her Pop Art background. She says, "After years of working in the low brow and pop art scene, I started to see how many fans were getting tattoos of my favorite artists. It seemed a natural urge to make sure it was done right."

Here are the places and dates for Quick & Painful:

August 27th, 7-10pm
Hope Gallery in New Haven, CT

September 3rd, 7-10pm
Crewest Gallery in Los Angeles, CA

October 8th, 7-10pm
Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago, IL

December 1-4th
Art Basel in Miami, FL

For my Columbus, Ohio homies: On March 5th, Cap City Tattoo will present Revolutionary Revelations by resident artist Andy Johnson. At the opening, Andy will be showing nine tattoo portraits of revolutionary figures in the flesh and in photos. Cap City offers more:

The name Revolutionary Revelations grew out of Andy's learning process while working on the portraits for his friends and family. They were literally revelations about these amazing people, many of them not featured in history books. On the gallery wall you will see a photograph of each piece and story of how each subject influenced the clients. The opening reception will give you a chance to talk to each client and see the work live and in person. You can learn why they picked their history maker, enjoy refreshments and meet the artist.

The portraits--chosen by the clients and not Andy himself--include Emma Goldman, Albert Einstein, Johannes Gutenberg, Ammon Hennacy, John Brown, Eddy Merckx, Ted Roosevelt, Rosalin Franklin, and Emiliano Zapata.

The show will run from March 5th to March 31st at Cap City Tattoo, 61 Parsons Ave, Columbus, OH (Old Towne East).

For more on Andy's work, head to his portfolio on Facebook. Also check the work of Cap City Tattoo's owner and tattooist Alli Macgregor.