Where does the time go?  Seems like it was just last week that we were in New York and North Carolina, steeped in tattoo history and surrounded by the buzz of ink machines.  But that was almost a month ago!

In the interim, The Vanishing Tattoo crew has been busy transferring over forty hours of the most amazing tattoo interview tape footage you could possibly imagine into a digital format we can edit and ultimately post online as part of our Online Tattoo Museum & Archive.  Lyle Tuttle, Chuck Eldridge, Jack Rudy, Shangai Kate, Brian Everett, Vyvn Lazonga and nearly two dozen other tattoo icons consented to be interviewed at length.  Some of the footage literally makes you gasp.

In other news, we're on the brink of launching a Facebook application, the       Tattoo Personality Quiz.  Look for that within the week.

And me?  Chugging away on another tattoo book, this one an examination of tattoo typography and text tattoos.  Alphabets, lettering, scripts and scrolls and all things pertinent to the inked word.  Deadline is May 15th and they tell your faithful scribe it should be for sale on a bookshelf near you sometime in September.  Perfect for your Christmas List!

On a bright, sunny, but bone-chillingly brisk Sunday afternoon, Thomas Lockhart and I strolled back through time with tattoo historian and cultural anthropologist, Mike McCabe.

We walked the streets and alleys of Chinatown and the Bowery, as Mike regaled us with tattooing tales and the juicy stories of tattooing in the Big Apple at the turn of the century.

The highlight and the low point was standing outside 11 Chatham, the spot where Charlie Wagner tattooed and had his shop - spanning the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the twentieth. For tattoo artists and enthusiasts, Wagner's location is of historical significance, but for the every day New Yorker, it's just another place to get a Subway sandwhich. No plaque, no historical marker, and if it were not for the love of tattooing on the part of people like Mike McCabe, the world would have no memory of its existence.

Things to think about as Tom and I prepare to interview some of tattooing's living legends and greats in North Carolina.

Where does the time go?

On Saturday (this Saturday!), Tom and I are headed for New York to poke around the Big Apple and retrace a little tattoo history.  Mike McCabe is going to show us around the Bowery and point out some historic sites of tattoo interest.

Then it's on to Washington, DC to stop in at the Smithsonian before heading south to Concord, North Carolina and the National Tattoo Association (NTA) Annual Convention.

I picked up a new Canon high-def camera earlier this week (the XHA1s) and I'm sorting out the sound - wireless mikes and shot-guns and hand-held, etc, etc, etc.  It all hurts my head.

But I'm salivating over some of the folks who have agreed to be interviewed by Tom and myself during the convention.  Real interviews, with real tattoo artists who've made a real contribution to the history and culture of tattooing.  No thirty second sound bites for the local evening news by some suit who's never been tattooed and who can't wait to drag the guy with the biggest bone through his nose in front of the camera.  But rather, men like Lyle Tuttle and Chuck Eldridge who've lived and breathed tattooing for the better part of their lives, and with stories that need, indeed demand, to be told and archived for posterity.

Can't wait.

We're just four weeks away from the National Tattoo Association Annual Convention in Concord, North Carolina and I'm already starting to get butterflies. Not serious flying insects, mind you, but a definite sense that there is lots of work still to be done in preparation.  

This year I'm traveling with Thomas Lockhart from West Coast Tattoo and a pretty serious crew of talented tattoo enthusiasts.  Aside from Tom and myself, our gang of stalwarts includes PJ, Johnathon, Shannon, Alec, Chris and Sharon, each and every one of them gifted in their own right as writers, photographers, designers and filmmakers.  I'm just hoping that I'm not too much of an embarasment.

The purpose of the 'Gang of Eight', is to photograph and film as much of the tattoo convention as possible, the ebb and flow of humanity, the world of tattoo enthusiasts, but in particular we are hoping to spend some time with the NTA's amazing list of longtime (and lifetime) members and get their thoughts, opinions and memories of the last thirty years of tattooing.  That's right, this year is the NTA's 30th Anniversary.

Thomas Lockhart has been scrambling to dig up 8mm footage he shot at the first convention thirty years ago, and I'm scrambling to ensure that we get great footage of some of the 'Tattoo Who's Who' in attendance.

Lyle Tuttle is being roasted this year, and that, in and of itself should make for some memorable moments!

And every bit as memorable will be the opportunity to get tattoo historian and archivist Chuck Eldridge in front of a camera and a chance to see the Paul Rodgers Museum and Collection.

Scottish Tattoo Designs - Scotland has a long and rich history of tattooing, body art and body adornment. The word picture actually comes from the Latin root 'pict', as the Romans described the Pict people they encountered in the northern reaches of their lands in Britain as covered in 'pictures of animals and other figures'. The Picts were so fierce and so difficult to conquer that the Roman Emperor Hadrian followed the expedient path of simply building a stone wall across the English countryside to keep them out of the lands to the south! In effect he ceded northern Britain to the Picts. Examples of the kinds of figures depicted in Pictish tattoos can be found in stone carvings in Scotland today.

Other groups in Scotland, first the Celts and later the Vikings, all were known to tattoo themselves. In fact, Celtic and Scandinavian art show many similarities and trade between the cultures would have had an influence on the carving and artwork for which both cultures are renowned. Both Celtic and Viking art features elaborate and intricate knotwork, spirals and zoomorphic animals whose intertwined limbs are often difficult to distinguish from one another. Celtic art has spawned an entire genre of tattooing and some tattoo artists specialize in the form.

Celtic knotwork is still a prominent element of both Irish and Scottish modern art and crafts today. In addition to the influence of Celtic art, modern Scottish tattoos often draw on the symbols that predominate what many have come to think of as Scottish culture and that represent Scotland. First and foremost is the image of the Scottish Highlanders, resplendent in their Clan and family Kilts, the sound of bagpipes swelling in the background. Robbie Burns, the Saltire - or flag of Scotland - and the Thistle are also potent symbols.

2009 marks the 250th Anniversary of the birth of Robbie Burns, the seminal Scottish poet and for the last two and half centuries the most recognized Scottish voice. It will be interesting to see if there is a surge in 'Scottish' tattoos.

The most famous tattooed Scot is undoubtedly Sir Sean Connery, who has 'Scotland Forever', and 'Mom and Dad' inked on his forearm.

Scottish Clan Tattoos

Index of Scottish Clan Tattoos

Scottish Tattoo Symbols - Scottish Lion Rampant, Scottish Thistle, Celtic Cross

March 17th is a day to celebrate all thing Irish, and for the wearing of the green, be it your hat, tie, a shamrock in your lapel, or even a beer dyed a rather toxic shade of emerald.  St. Patrick's Day Parades are a fixture in North America and in New York it is a venerable tradition, with this years event purported to be the 248th procession.

In the United States, some 38 million people are descended from Irish immigrants, a striking figure when you consider that number is eight times the current population of Ireland p

roper. No small wonder then, that tattoo shops do a booming business in Leprechauns, Shamrocks and Four-Leaf Clovers, not to mention the plethora of designs that fall into the category of Celtic Tattoos.

Here's some more on Irish Tattoos, courtesy of the Vanishing Tattoo.