Boardwalk Tattoo part 1

A very very busy day today. Just after breakfast I put together two carousels of slides for tonight's class, a woodcut project. Later in the afternoon I'd be driving down to Island Heights to pick up the 3 pieces I had in the print show at the Ocean County Artists Guild. From there I drove to school to get ready for class. But the big event today was finally starting work on the next block in the boardwalk series, the tattoo studio.

The idea for this one has a few sources. One was a particular individual I knew who would come to the shore each year and take a break from her job there to get a tattoo, once on the boardwalk. (Wildwood, if I remember correctly) At all the boardwalks you can get at least a temporary tattoo if not a real one. Another is the ubiquity of tattoos these days, and the relatively little clothing typically worn on the boardwalk in summer reveals many of them. And then there's the tradition and history of tattoos.

Archaeological evidence shows that tattoos existed in every corner of the earth, even back in prehistoric times. Mostly decorative or symbolic marks, or sometimes words. Tattoos fell out of favor in the more developed parts of the world, but continued to be part of the culture of many tribal peoples, especially in the Pacific. The big change started in Japan, not coincidently at around the same time as the ukiyo-e prints. To that point, tattoos were generally illegal, but different rules applied in the Floating World. What made them particularly innovative was that these Japanese tattoos weren't just decorative pattern, but true wearable art, sometimes covering much of the body. Multiple colors, making use of the style of art and imagery found in woodcuts- sometimes even being done by woodcut artists with woodcut tools. Just as international trade brought Japanese woodcut prints to the western world, it also spread the popularity of tattoos. Sailors (military and merchants) adopted the traditions of Japan and the Pacific islands. There was a spread of tattoo artists in port towns around the world to meet the demand. Boardwalks are not exactly ports, but they both have in common that they are right on the water. And since modern tattoos have a lineage back to the Japanese prints that helped inspire this series, it seems an appropriate subject for a print.

Back last fall I did some sketches in a local tattoo studio. Nothing much happened right away after that, but earlier this year I went over that material and started thinking about how I could use it for a print. What I came up with is shown in the top photo, spreading the scene across the two panels of the triptych, with the artist contained in the left side panel. I showed this to the artist himself a few weeks ago, explaining what I planned to do with it, and he approved. The next step was to produce what's seen in the second photo, a full size sketch on paper. The left side will include art based on work by the artist (both his tattoos and his paintings), while the right side will use typical Japanese tattoo images. (I'll explain all this in more detail as I'm drawing it on the block) There will be a rough symmetry between the two panels. I didn't fill in all the details, but after taking it this far, I felt the direction is right and I can figure out the rest on the block. Today I didn't have much time, but I did get as far as roughing in the two figures. Both will require further adjustments, but it's a good start.