It's just as complicated an art form." While that statement may be true, one of the major differences is that almost all of a tattooist's pieces are commissioned by the client, according to what the client wants on his or her body. "Tattoo artists spend 10 times the amount of time drawing that a painter does. "As an art, tattooing is just as valid as the stuff in galleries, if not more," Coleman asserts. The show, titled "Tattoo A 2 Z," is a small rebellion against the art cognoscenti who don't recognize tattooists as legitimate artists. It's also something of a homecoming for many artists who left Phoenix for greener pastures in previous years - needle maestros such as Lewis Hess, Kevin LeBlanc, Harlan Thompson, Dave Leamon and Jimmy Coffin, who are returning to participate in the event. Organized by Dale Orman, owner of Crawling Squid tattoo in Phoenix, and Aaron Coleman, who works at Immaculate Tattoo in Mesa, the show is, for many of the artists, a first foray into displaying their inanimate works to the public. Consequently, the true luminaries of the art remain marginalized within the relatively minute culture that celebrates decoration of the skin.Ī collection of 35 tattoo artists who currently work in Arizona or previously worked here have banded together to show their wares on media other than epidermis in a first-of-its-kind (in Arizona) exhibit to be held in downtown Phoenix. Sure, there are a million bad paintings out there, too, and painters don't suffer for it, but their patrons don't wear the results to the mall. This is surely one of the reasons the art establishment at large is apathetic, if not disdainful, toward the artists who ram ink into skin day after day. True, there's a plethora of good pieces by great tattoo artists out there, but the most noticeable to the non-tattooed public are the disasters - they stand out like good car wrecks. It's symptomatic of a generation of 20- to 30-year-olds who years ago grew an affection for tattoos as a mark of rebellion and not artistry scratchwork is omnipresent these days, mostly because of poor decisions made by people (like me, don't ask. Walk around on Mill Avenue, or any other disaffected-youth-magnet sort of locale, and you're bound to see a proliferation of bad tattoos.
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