LITTLE ROCK — How do you entice tattoo aficionados - lovers of art, to be sure, but not necessarily museumgoers - to turn out for a photography show?
The Arkansas Arts Center has done so by giving some Arkansas tattoo artists a skin in the game. Seven studios, six from central Arkansas and one from Russellville, were invited to create murals featuring their own original tattoo designs in conjunction with “Tattoo Witness,” the museum’s exhibition of photographic portraits by Mark Perrott. The seven striking murals share a gallery with Perrott’s black-and-white photographs of tattooed subjects, which will be on display through Sept. 9.
Louise Palermo, curator of education at the muse-um, said the show is intended to “bring in new audiences, an audience of people who don’t traditionally hang out in the Arts Center.”
Each studio’s artists were presented a section of wall measuring 6 feet wide and 12 feet high to adorn as they wished. While the museum’s art usually hangs decorously on its walls, it’s fitting that these artists executed their skulls, flowers, swords and wild animals directly on the surface.
The murals reflect a variety of artistic approaches.Adrian Berry of 7th Street Tattoos created a curling dragon using a complex shadowing technique, while Scott Diffee of The Parlor struck a bold note with a sword-impaled skull and crossbones wrapped in a banner reading “DEATH OR GLORY.” Nancy Sue Miller of Main Street Tattoo combined several painstakingly drawn images, including a bright-eyed owl and a skull with long hair and flowers for eyes.
“My goal in bringing in tattoo artists is to address several different types of styles: old school, contemporary, neo-traditional, new school,” said Palermo, adding that she visited the studios to personally recruit the participating artists.
The studios involved are Electric Heart Tattoos and 7th Street Tattoos in Little Rock; Lucky Bella Tattoo Co. and The Parlor in North Little Rock; Golden Lotus Tattoo Studio in Sherwood; Main Street Tattoo in Jacksonville; and Backroads Tattooing Studio in Russellville.
The murals won’t last as long as these artists’ usual work, as the art will be painted over at the end of the exhibition. Palermo said that fits in with the show’s message that the human body, the customary canvas for tattoo art, is impermanent, as suggested by the skulls and other symbols of mortality found in the murals.
Artists from four of the studios will also offer tattooing demonstrations on selected Sundays during the exhibition. Chris Thomas, owner of the Golden Lotus studio, will conduct the first demonstration from 2 to 4 p.m. today.
And the public can find exposure at the museum, too. At arkarts.com, the Arts Center’s website, anyone can upload a video of three minutes or less showing a tattoo and telling the story behind it; videos chosen by the museum will be played in a loop in the exhibition’s “Arkansas Corner” in the same part of the gallery as the murals. Palermo hopes the studios will spread the word to their clients about this chance to take part in high art.
Each studio brings its own style, philosophy and history to its mural. RobertBerry, owner of 7th Street Tattoos, didn’t have a tattoo until his 40s because he grew up in a conservative Christian household that scorned tattoos. “If we wrote on ourselves, we got punished,” Berry said.
He became drawn to tattooing after losing a son in a construction accident nearly 20 years ago. But Berry didn’t get a tattoo right away, deciding to go into the business as an artist first.
“I wanted to know why people get tattooed before I ever got tattooed,” he said.
Berry worked for two years before finally getting tattoos of his own, including a portrait of his deceased son. “Only in Arkansas could I have pulled that off. Most shops make you get tattooedbefore they let you tattoo.”
Four of his children work in his studio; one of his sons, Adrian, created the dragon for 7th Street’s mural at the museum. Berry considers his shop “old school,” based on a World War II-era aesthetic of bold, clean tattoos that endure as the body on which they’re etched changes. But he acknowledges that there is more than one way to tackle tattooing.
“It’s as varied as denominations are in religion,” Berry said. “Everybody has their theory on what they think is a good tattoo.”
Among other things, tattooing is a business. Thomas of Golden Lotus recently expanded his shop on East Kiehl Avenue in Sherwood from 700 to 2,500 square feet. He likes to publicize his art any way possible, from magazine contests to tattoo conventions, and he looks at the museum exhibition as another venue to convey his art to the public.
During today’s demonstration, the public will be able to ask Thomas questions (but not get a tattoo - he’ll be bringing his own model). In his studio, Thomas showed he’s fully capable of talking and tattooing at the same time, discoursing on his work while inking a vividly colored phoenix on the upper arm of client Zane Terry. Terry came all the way from Mountain Home for the four-hour session because, he said, there was no one in his area who could do the kind of work he wanted.
Thomas said his clients often feel the need to justify getting a tattoo by finding a deep personal meaning in it, but he believes that attitude can undervalue the work itself. “You should buy into [a tattoo] for the art, the artist, and the meaning,” Thomas said.
Thomas will perform this afternoon’s demonstration in the museum’s atrium, near the main entrance. Subsequent demonstrations will be provided by Lucky Bella Tattoo Co. on July 15; 7th Street Tattoos on Aug. 5; and Electric Heart Tattoos on Aug. 26, all from 2-4 p.m.
Style, Pages 45 on 06/24/2012