http://www.urbanink.com Latest Articles from Urbanink. en-us Thu, 17 May 2012 22:55:15 GMT There's only one rule for body art when working in Justin Bieber's camp: no visible profanity. Biebs' DJ Tay James easily follows that rule, as the seasoned turntablist sketches mainly music-inspired art upon his arms. He auditioned for Bieber moments before the "fever" started and is now surfing that tidal wave. But it's not all about working with pop royalty for Tay James. In fact, in his mind he's merely "Almost Famous."

While watching the Justin Bieber fan base grow from a few hundred to tens of thousands at shows, Tay James discusses his journey up to this point. It's one he wears proudly on his body, but he promises that no tattoo will ever bear the Bieber name.

URBAN INK: Starting as a club/party DJ, what was the transition into Bieber Fever like?
DJ Tay James: It's kind of crazy. Being with Bieber, we started with like 2000 people. I knew how popular and big he was online, with YouTube and Twitter. When it came down to the shows it was different because the first show was like 2000 people when they hired me for the job. The next show after that had 20,000 people at it. It jumped up out of nowhere in a matter of a week. But then, a week later, we'd have 300 people at a show. Then, a week after that, it was 10,000 people. It was jumping back and forth, depending on the areas we were going. I was able to adapt, but it had to be quick.

How did you handle going from hip-hop to pop?
Although Top 40 wasn't generally mixed with hip-hop, I was the type of DJ bringing like Maroon 5 and playing it in hip-hop clubs, or I was putting Katy Perry acapellas over hip-hop beats. That was the type of DJ I was, so I already had a reputation for that. So for me to go totally pop, it took me some time to adjust to it, but once I got it, I was able to do it crazy.

It looks like you're mostly tattooed on your arms.
Only reason why is that I haven't gotten the courage up to do my chest yet. I love tattoos; I'm so addicted now. I've been addicted for the past four or five years. I got it from my mentor, DJ Alize. He's tatted up crazy. When I was in high school, I would watch him get his tattoos, and told myself when I was old enough I couldn't wait to get one. Even when I was 18, I was scared, and my parents were against it. Once I realized all I was going to be doing was deejaying and music, I got one on my forearm. Once I got the tattoo on my forearm, I didn't want it to be lonely so I kept adding to it.

Is most of the ink on your right arm music-inspired?
My right arm--I really didn't put a lot of thought process behind it. If I was doing it at the time, then I was in the moment. Like I was deejaying so much, so I was getting headphones and turntable tattoos. Then, when I started transitioning into touring, I got the airplane on the side of my arm.

So it's kind of a timeline on your body.
Yeah, that's why I wanted to leave my chest open, so I could connect my right and left arm as far as the storyline goes.

Isn't it ironic that your most recent tattoo is "Almost Famous" when you're deejaying for the most famous pop star of the moment?
I honestly don't feel like I'm famous. I know I'm deejaying for Justin Bieber, but there's more to be done. I still want to go for more. When I feel like I've finally done enough, I'll get "Finally Famous" on my left arm. I haven't really gotten to that point yet.

Would you ever get a Justin Bieber tattoo?
Not at all [laughs]. Nothing that says "Bieber Fever" on my arm. He wouldn't like that much, and I wouldn't like it either. I don't think that would go over too well. How am I supposed to explain that to him and his family?

Photography by Dan Howell
Article by Kathy Iandoli

]]> http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=452 http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=452 Wed, 09 May 2012 11:57:51 GMT The Braun Battle Of The Year event returned in August 2011 after a three-year hiatus. The b-boy competition featured some 50 crews squaring off at Club Avalon in Hollywood. The winning team - Battle Born - barely edged out a victory over Los Angeles-based super crew, The Squadron, winning a chance to represent the U.S. in the world finals in November in France.

Founded in Germany in 1991, Battle Of The Year (BOTY) is, by far, the biggest b-boy contest in the world. "When you start breaking as a kid you hope to one day be a part of Battle Of The Year," says Mex One, who co-organized the U.S. event and is based in Orlando. "It's so respected." Judges for the event were three big names from b-boy history: Easy Rock from Los Angeles, Lego from Miami, and Moy from Houston. Besides the amazing music provided by DJs from both U.S. coasts and London, the most exciting part about the competition was the fact that it went right down to the wire.

"The final battle was really dope," says Mex One. "There wasnt a guy who was the best, but overall the atmosphere was beautiful."

Battle Born member ATN is well known as the reigning U.S. footwork champ, and holds five titles. He is also one of the many participants who are inked up. His left arm sleeve has a dragon that goes from his shoulder to his elbow. "It represents strength, and it represents a really rough time in my and my brother's adolescence," says ATN, whose name is a play on his given name, Etienne, and stands for "All Too Nasty." His brother, Geom, is also a part of the Las Vegas-based Battle Born crew, whose BOTY competing members also include Roland, J. Fokes, J. Soul, Ruphless, A.I. and Marcus.

"My brother and I both have tats of Foo Dogs - also called Lion Dogs - who are guardians that stand at the entrance of a lot of Asian temples. They always stand in pairs, a male and a female. The female stands for motherhood. Our mom was into Foo Dogs, and she passed away in 2004." They were quite close to her; in fact, she and their father were former competitive disco dancers who got them into b-boying indirectly, after shaping their interest in jazz dancing when they were younger.

A member of The Squadron named Namek is quite tatted up as well. In fact, he's actually a tattoo artist himself, based out of Phoenix. He's also a graffiti writer, and indeed, b-boying, graf writing, and tattoos seem to go hand in hand. "It is becoming a normal thing in our community to see squads with tattoos because graf is a big part of what we do," says Mex One, adding that competitors often get their crew names as tats, or their b-boy names in graf-style letters. "A lot of it is old-school, hip-hop oriented. People might get, like, a train from New York, or really cool graf murals. Tattoos are becoming a big part of everyday culture, and since b-boys are artists, you always see artists wanting to express themselves with art."

ATN notes that he gets his tattoos from a guy called Ez - a former b-boy, actually - at a Las Vegas shop called Bad Apple (www.myspace.com/badappletattooco). Tattoos, meanwhile, are a big deal to his crew. He imparts. "Four or five of us have the Battle Born tattoo. Three of us have it on our chests, one has it on his stomach, and one has it on his forearm."

He adds that he's tremendously excited to be headed to France for the finals. "It's going to be my first time going overseas with my whole crew, so it's gonna be fun, no matter what," he says. Though he's originally from Hawaii, he goes on to explain his grandfather is Cajun French, from Louisiana.

Though, of course, he's hoping his team takes home the world title, he says that those kinds of concerns aren't at the front of his mind when he's competing. "I don't really think about winning before a battle. If you're concentrating on winning and losing, you're not focusing on the right things. You just have to go hard. Anyone can be beat on any given day. We're on a level where superstars could get taken out by virtual nobodies."

Photography by Zach Cordner & Carlo Cruz (B&W)
Article by Ben Westhoff
]]> http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=447 http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=447 Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:08:26 GMT Known as the "Grandaddy Of 'Em All," the Ink-N-Iron Tattoo & Kustom Culture Festival has garnered global respect and acclaim by mixing hot ink, hot rods, hot music, and hot pin-ups into an underground culture blend unlike anything else found in North America.

This festival can go shot for shot with any other convention on the calendar as far as level of artist talent and cachet. The show is also unsurpassed when it comes to its crossover draw, due to nightly bills of headliner music acts, engaging performance artists, pageants, hot whips, and more. However, maybe the biggest ace that Ink-N-Iron has up its sleeve in the high roller tat show poker game is the location of the festival itself.

Since its inception in 2002, the show has been held aboard the majestic Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Riun Van Driessche and Trace Edwards, the visionaries at Keen Entertainment and the Ink-N-Iron show, launched the event with the goal to "educate, motivate, and inspire" the tattoo community. Also atop their priority list was paying tribute to the long and distinguished history of Long Beach tattooing. The list of names attached to this legacy include Zeke Owens, Lyle Tuttle, Owen Jensen, Ed Hardy, Bob Shaw, and Bert Grimm.

When first boarding the Queen Mary, one quickly realizes that the promoters are not the people on the ship paying tribute to the past. As is the custom with most West Coast conventions, the rockabilly, psychobilly scenes--and the entire retro vibe that comes with it--were well repped by sects of all colors and roots. The custom cars, rat rods, and hot rods also take a page out of the retro playbook, but the beauty and spectacle of these machines could be appreciated by marks of all eras who worship at the altar of killer whips.

While the past is a running theme at INI, there were also many tattooists on hand who were all about the present and future of ink slinging. Carlos Torres, Nikko Hurtado, Big Gus, Roman, Myke Chambers, and Carlos Rojas were only a handful of top tatsmen exposing their skills on the docked liner. Many who are in the know about ink flew, drove, biked, and sailed thousands of miles to be a part of the Ink-N-Iron magic - while others had scoring some ink-and-needle time with their dream artists on their minds from the moment the doors opened on Friday afternoon.

Machines inking classic Sailor Jerry-esque pieces buzzed alongside artists working in a more modern technique. Day of the Dead portraits were inked in booths shared with artists whose specialties fell into a more Asian school of training. This was where the "inspiration" among artists that Riun and Trace spoke of was most evident. More than at just about any other convention, the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and information is a very big part of the interaction among artists at Ink-N-Iron. Even at the contests, the artists aboard the Queen Mary seem to take an all for one and one for all attitude - cheering for each other's accomplishments and cultivating an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Big ups to Trace, Riun, and the entire Keen Entertainment posse for keeping Ink-N-Iron on a steady course and not letting this monster of a tattoo convention get rocked by the strong tide of attitude, money, power worship, and all the other BS that has shipwrecked a number of other tat fests over the years.

Whether you've already gotten a taste of Ink-N-Iron and have your sights set on a return trip, or you're looking to take your maiden voyage in 2012, click on over to ink-n-iron.com to get all the pertinent info.

Photography by Steve Prue
Article by Clive Young

]]> http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=443 http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=443 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:59:23 GMT Last September 30th through October 2nd, over 40,000 visitors from across the globe pitched their tents on the Vegas Strip for the latest - and perhaps greatest - chapter in the relatively short history of Mario Barth's Biggest Tattoo Show On Earth.

Each year the BTSOE promises the chance for collectors to meet, or possibly get tattooed by, a revered modern artist or even one of the true legends of the skin art discipline. Major celebrities walk the aisles with hardcore ink collectors, extreme body mod personalities, as well as those just beginning to dip their toes in the ink pool. Beautiful pin-up models pose for amateur and pro photogs, while other camera-toting fanatics take in the living art and science spectacle that is Lukas Zpira -- or gather around the wildlife specialist talking about the bald eagle with a spectacular specimen of the animal seated on her forearm.

The Biggest Tattoo Show On Earth is paradise for ink lovers and thrill seekers alike. Check your inhibitions and apprehensions at the door, because this is one tattoo show that pushes the limits of what it means to be tattooed and, at times, what it means to be human.

The backdrop for the BTSOE V. 2011 was the world-famous Mirage Hotel, a change from last year's setting at the Luxor. The dividends of the venue switch were apparent before the show even started, as the Convention Center at the Mirage offered some of the most convenient parking and unloading accommodations of any major American ink event. The booth setting also worked better in the new surroundings, as the well-thought-out plan was situated in a manner that offered vendors across the floor the opportunity for high visibility from all patrons, and left vendors and participants with the feeling that they were in the middle of the action.

Clearly the biggest reason that this yearly West Coast ink bash continues to thrive is Mario's ability to assemble a very impressive showing of the world's greatest and best-known artists. This year brought a mix of a few new faces and a line-up of the usual suspects, including Gil Monte, Fredy Negrete, Mark Mahoney, "NY Ink's" Chris Torres, Boris, Horitoshi 1, Phillip Spearman, Petelo and Peter Suluape, Javier Eastman, the Latin masters at Traditions Tattoo in Vegas, and many more extremely talented ink slingers.

Star power also plays a part in putting the BTSOE on par with other Vegas attractions. Celebrity personalities like host Evan Seinfeld and his amazingly beautiful Columbian companion, Lupe, as well as hip hop legend and reality TV star Ice T and his bombshell wife, Coco, got as much attention as anyone working a tat machine. Other celebs on hand to take in the ink and wish Mario well included television and film actor Dominic Purcell, actor, tat shop owner, and world-renown badass Chuck Zito, and U.S. Olympic soccer team Gold Medalist (and subject of a previous Urban Ink feature) Natasha Kai.

The Biggest Tattoo Show On Earth also always boasts one of the most diverse varieties of classes and seminars in an ink convention. This edition's lectures and demonstrations included instruction on lettering, black & grey, running a tattoo business, taxes, as well as a session on "body hacking and mutilation."

Many of the slingers in attendance came looking to strike gold and bring home trophies in the very distinguished and highly competitive contests held each day. This year appeared to bring in more artists and collectors vying for first, second, and third place honors than in previous shows. This made the job of the judges very difficult, but set the tone for some very entertaining and exciting moments on the main stage.

At the end of each day's festivities, attendees, artists, and assorted partygoers fled to the after parties at Mario Barth's King Ink studio on the Mirage's main floor. The partying went on into the late hours, before all headed back to their rooms to snatch a few Z's before returning to the convention center. The Saturday night party came with a special performance by one of the fastest-rising rappers on the scene, Yelawolf. On the heels of his smash release, Radioactive, Yelawolf threw down with a set of tracks pulled from the new disc that tore the room apart.

If Sin City is in your plans for Fall 2012, you might want to consider making the 2012 Biggest Tattoo Show On Earth a stop on your journey. Get a tattooed leg up on the competition and visit lasvegastattooshow.com.

Photography by Dan Howell and Steve Prue
Article by V. Maddrone
]]> http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=439 http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=439 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:40:50 GMT Proudly the Mossi and Bwaba people of Burkina Faso in West Africa display radical scarifications and tattoos on their faces. For 400 years they were the rulers of this country, and even today they and their neighbors defy the legal ban on body art.

In Burkina Faso, facial scarifications are not a rare relic from a past long gone - yet.

Almost every man and woman older than 30 years has ornamental scars on the face, especially if being a member of the dominating Mossi group. When the child was between two and five years old, parents called upon the village shaman or his female counterpart 9in case of a little girl0 to cut the "wee" into the toddler's face. The "fetichisseur" takes the "baraga", the Mossi knife, heats it until red-hot and strikes it across the boy's cheeks with practiced hand, faster than the child can feel the pain. Then he rubs in a paste of ash of millet husks and the traditional medicine "beurre de karit" to achieve a nicely raised and - in an ideal case - pigmented scar.

All this is supposed to be over by now, though. The government has banned applying the "wee" due to it being too barbaric and unhygienic and counterproductive to the unity of peoples of Burkina Faso, they say. Actually, the authorities in Ouagadougou are not too far off the truth on the last point, since the scarifications were originally intended as markings to distinguish between ethnic groups, village affiliation and rank in society.

In a village, not far from Kaya, ancient seat of one of the old Mossi kingdoms, I can easily recognize this. Here, in one of the poorest corners of one of the poorest countries of the world, we enter a tiny hamlet. Three generations of girls and women are sitting together, waiting for their men, preparing the humble meal, millet, just like every single day of their lives.

A young woman carrying a baby is showing the typical "wee" of this area: A deep cut across the right cheek up to the base of the nose, three more scars next to each eye with a tiny cross underneath, as well as diverse other smallish designs. Wide arches of fine cuts line her forehead. Her mother had carved them for her, because they couldn't afford a fetichisseuse.

Her best friend sitting next to her, though, has entirely different "wee" because she moved here from another village after she got married. The artist cutting her had used ash with more pigment and designed the cuts according to the tradition of her own group. Consequently, from then on, forevermore, everybody will see that she is the stranger in this place, since every Mossi can read her face like an open book.

Days ago, I had been to Boromo, the homeland of the Bwaba tribe, not far from Ouagadougou, capital of the country. The Bwaba, though much less numerous than the Mossi, are a well-respected ethnic group in Burkina Faso. They alone are the ones whose masters know how to carve the beautiful masks the country is famous for. Only few families have the privilege to produce those highly magical sculptures, symbols for mighty forces of nature and ancestors of the people, and the Konat clan is the one enjoying the highest respect.

Bomave' Konate', head of the family, is - one must say - a rather odd character. A real artist type in his mid-50s; flamboyant, grumpy and cheerful, all at the same time somehow; and filthy rich, I am told in town. For decades now he travelled the world, exhibiting his work in renowned galleries and generally enjoying life.

When I meet him, eleven o'clock in the morning on a hot day, he is dozing in the shadow of a tree, a bottle of beer in his hand with reggae music blaring from a tape recorder. Bomave', sweeping a dreadlock from his face and swatting at an annoying fly, speaks slowly, almost incoherently, "I was in France again, recently. Have you been to France?" "Sure", I answer, fascinated by the deep scars that are cut deeply into his face, almost like executed with one of his own carving tools. On his temples he has a complex rhomboid design. I had seen ancient statues of the Bwaba in museums, bearing exactly identical marks!

After a minute of silence Bomave' had resumed his one-sided conversation, "Have you been to Cap d'Agde too?"  I have not been to this holiday resort in southern France, which is famous for being a nudists' and swingers' paradise. Well, apparently he'd been there, repeatedly, and recently again. Did I miss something? Bomave' simply smiles at me, empties his beer and grabs his carving axe without another word. No, he can't tell me anything about his scarifications. They are the mark of the Bwaba carver and have magical properties. That's it, we are dismissed.

The people here are a bit quizzical and only show their warm hearts when dusk approaches. When the daily chores are done, the scorching sun is finally touching the tops of the acacia trees on the horizon and a cooling wind is sweeping the savannah, every Burkinabe goes to the cabaret. When the griot sings, reciting the stories of the elders or mocking the white-skinned stranger among them, the calebasse with dolo beer is making the round and the atmosphere quickly becomes more relaxed.

Life is unspeakably tough in West Africa, a daily struggle for survival and only among one's peers it is possible to let down the guard. For a short time at least, for when darkness is creeping in, everybody has to be back at home and until dawn the savannah is the realm of spirits and hyenas.

I learned something again about why all the people of Burkina Faso mark themselves, by tattoos or scarifications. We all want to belong somewhere, be part of something. And when we find a group, protecting us, we want to show this to all others. I am part of these people. They are my tribe, they will protect me and never will I be someone else than the person in front of you!

Article and photos by Travellin' Mick
]]> http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=433 http://www.urbanink.com/article.php?aid=433 Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:04:33 GMT