Lucy Seven Tattoo

I meet with one of the best tattoo artists in the Nordic countries, Pero which runs the best-known studio in Scandinavia, Lucy Seven in Oslo. I start talking with him about tattooing and the modern future form of tattooing, as fashion and self-expression. It’s truly extension of your skin, a blank canvas to explore he tells me. Some people prefer to invest their money in art, have galleries to decorate their houses, buy art to use it as an investment, collect and show other collectors, often to tell others that I have good taste and enough money.

The modern way of self-expression is unfortunately become pure hedonism where the spiritual experience seems to lack because of the constant need to pose an exposure. The focus should instead be on activities towards your mind and body and search to reach enlightenment.  Then its possible to liberate and find your true inner nature or Buddha nature.

Tattoo as a blank canvas

Another group of people uses their body skin as blank a canvas to create alive art galleries, to be filled up with tattoo art, they become a personal art collection. Most of all people make a tattoo as a statement about their personal style. One fashion preference, place in the society and probably the most important of all the tribe that you mirror the most and find with. The best of Tattoo art is that you can always have your own exhibition of art for others, friends or just to show off to strangers, passing by on the streets, asking you where you got it from, how beautiful it is and well made. Of course most important of all, where did you get it down and who of the tattoo artist made the piece of art? And remember a tattoo last forever!

The modern form of tattooing

The modern form of tattooing started in the early nineteenth century. In remarks, capital Copenhagen opened Hans Hansen the first tattoo studio in 1919; it was one of the original western tattoo shops. Back then it was all about sailor culture, and because a lot of sailors were frequent guests in traditional public houses, the local tattooing from the city and also artists from other cities nearby traveled around from pub to pub to get customers. As they visited these places, they found mostly vast drunken sailors, who often did not remember where and when it happened.

Tattoo was symbolic act and meaning.

Most all of them wanted the modern and popular motives at the time; the style was classical sailor style tattoos. The tattoos were full of symbolic meaning; they protected them on the sea, and wished them good luck, and protected them, so they made the mission to come back alive to their families and with enough money so the family did not starve. The most famous symbols were the anchor who symbolized the sailor.  Tattoos on the hands and knuckles were a symbol to make them remember to keep fast to the ropes and moist during the storms. There were a lot of superstitions among the sailors.

Dragon tattoo and its meaning

If they had a dragon tattooed it proved that they have sailed all the way to Japan. Tattoos showing a motive of a full-rigged sailing ship, having three or more masts that carried the sails, showed other your boat and place. In the early twenties western tattoo, artist discovered China’s thousand years of tradition of tattoo art. A lot of the tattooing brought their style back and incorporated them into their own style, but also classical tattoos. A westerner discovers Chinese tattooing. Long before the tradition in China started, almost all kinds of ethnic groups in different cultures around the world have used tattoo art in their tradition for protection. At the time, they used bamboo sticks and natural ink to make the symbols.

Tattooing in the 50s

The trend of sailor tattoos continued as trends over the next decades, but in the 50s the motives, especially of pin-up models became extremely popular. Pin Up model was also when used for fashion and protection, under the war pilots painted pin-up models on the nose of fighter planes to make pilots home safe.

Tattoo and fashion in the 60s

In the 60s the instant classic movie Easy Rider, with the actors Jack Nicholson and, Directed by Dennis Hopper took the pulse of biker culture and fashion at the time.  Easy rider became so important movie of its time that it actually created the modern tattoo shops as we know them today. Then a mix of tattoo motives became influenced by biker culture, the use of motives like rip ripper, head sculls, music, text and logos to show the tribe to belong, Hells Angels or Banditos.  The motorcycle club all around the world manages and runs the biggest tattoo conventions.

Biker fashion culture sat the standard.

A lot of coloring’s became also standard on tattoos. The inspiration source for tattoos comes from a lot of different sources, but music and tattoo have always gone hand in hand, in hand. The fashion style of a band does mostly come from their style of tattoos, so tattoos are modern fashion. Tattoos are a true form of art. Before a tattoo, studios were totally depending of tattoo books created by the artist themselves, and they swapped books from other artist to create a better tattoo studio. The modern tattoo artist of today is truly an artist and also a celebrity in some cases, and lot of extremely qualified tattoo artists does custom tattoos, highly often applied directly on the skin, without old tracing paper. The development today is the direction of artists who are very skilled and with long experience. They have talents in different sources from drawing, graffiti, design, photo, comics and all other styles of art up to contemporary art.  The keyword is custom-made tattoos.

Tattoo artists are fashion body consultants.

The Tattoo artist of today is a body art consultant; their customers know what they are looking for in motives and shop around a find a tattoo artist who might share their same style. Some years ago tribal tattoos was used by stylist in various films were actors wore well done tribal tattoos, in one particular film the last scene was about an actor with perfect tribal tattoos the last,  and suddenly everybody wanted tribal tattoos. Today, there are a lot of tattoo artists who come from ethnic groups of people who actually make the tattoos with the same style and equipped; everybody wanted a commercial version made by people from the culture. The mix between girls and boys has carved out now; girls often choose big tattoos and make plans how to get them right fashionable and how they can build up a system of motives to create their style. Today media as with almost every other, thing directs the trends and television programs as Miami Inc. makes it even more popular. It’s important to know that tattoo is something belonging to the working class system, now it has gone from working class to Hollywood.

Celebrities are making the wave into an accepted mainstream culture.

Just think about the soccer player David Beckham, who is an icon in fashion and football, he is the inspiration for kids to fashion designers; David is a typical working class boy from Manchester. TV  programs as Miami ink does a lot of good things for tattoo art, but also gives the idea of trends in tattoo as remembered that you once had cancer or to make a memory of a father who died, this is not always reflecting the true trends or reality, but television has to sell otherwise their dead. The strange thing is that there is no official education to become a tattoo artist; it takes years of training in a studio that sees your talent, and then you work your way on the ladder.

Tattoo face, hands and neck are something a tattoo artist didn’t let people take unless.

Are people asking in the studio for a tattoo of faces, hands and necks the studio makes you ask why the reason is, and to come back again, and if they already have tattoos and understand the impact it might do about future jobs or when settle a family. When it comes to extreme tattooing other countries like such as one of the trendiest cities in the world Stockholm, young people tattoo their whole faces, in a fact a bit scary. However, in the future the trends of tattoos will much more show the inner you and make the tattoos fashionable, together with right fashion garments. The tattoos will be personal and custom-made, there will be a lot more being tattooed in the future, however, plan them might be a good idea and do so with a body consultant the tattoo artist you stay true to. Today most people accept tattoo art and to get a job will become to a lesser degree difficult with tattoos, in fact, people who are your boss is probably the generation before you.

The trends are larger tattoos and more complex.

Tattoo art is now an in the future a very modern part of popular culture. In fact, people want to make tattoos on their bodies because it looks good, there is a shift in tattoo art, and motives will become more complete and cover a larger area of your body than today. Tattoos also tell people your status or where you come from and where you belong, like in ancient cultures who you needed to know who was your enemy or friend, similar symbols as in a modern gang and hip-hop culture. The tattoos made today are made by much better equipment; the tattoo machine is the same, but the development in needles and ink is revolutionary. They keep their shape, colors and the sharpness on the tattoo for a very long time, not as the old people you see with tattoos that is all grown together.

Luxury fashion brand communication

Tattoos have for a long time inspired fashion designer, Jean Paul Gautier has his favorite in the classic sailor tattoos that is a big trend today. His trends the next year are customized tattoo art; mix of style, retro, pure style and follows also a direction in fashion and music. However, remember the world of media will decide the popularity and style for the most commercial customers of tattoos. Famous people from Hollywood constantly mirror the trends; you just underestimate the power of the media

Post Kenneth buddha Jeans

Sources and references
Interviews with Pero, Lucy Seven Tattoos 26. May 2010
Lucy Seven Tattoo Oslo Studio
The future is now research
Easy Rider is an American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper in 1969.
Self-expression – ways of expressing your feelings and ideas, such as through painting, writing, or acting
Hells Angels – The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is a worldwide one-percent motorcycle gang and organized-crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson.
Jean Paul Gautier is a French haute couture fashion designer. Gautier was the creative director of Hermes from 2003 to 2010.
Tattoo – A tattoo is a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment.
Tribe – A tribe viewed historically or developmentally, as consisting of a social group existing before development of, or outside of, states.
Chinese Tattoo – Encompassing a wide audience and many meanings, Chinese’s writing tattoos are more popular than ever before. As some of the exotic and mysterious tattoos, their meanings are hidden from those passing, by (unless they can read Chinese) within artful strokes appearing as eye-appealing and creative forms. Most commonly tattooed using black ink, Chinese’s writing tattoos make bold statements and are mainly chosen in the West to express personal traits (zodiac sign, religious beliefs, etc.), admirable qualities (brave, dreamer, etc.), an interest in martial arts or an appreciation for the beautiful nature of the written language more often than as a symbol of having Chinese’s heritage.
The Miami Ink - The MIAMI INK series brings four old friends together to run a tattoo parlor and Discovery Networks, U.S., a unit of Discovery Communications.

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