A Robert Ryan writing from 2007

Thom Devita flash from Scott Harrisons website. It has the aura I was looking for.

One of the reasons why I haven't written anything new is I feel I dont have anything to say. So, I will just re-post this great writing by Robert Ryan, from February 2007. It illustrates the reason why this blog even exists.

Ps. I remembered this Robert Ryan gem when I was watching Juan Puente interview Hanky Panky. It just echoed the same tone.

Living through ghosts

This month it is down to the wire. Myself, Mike Schweigert, and Tom Yak had decided upon a location for a new tattoo shop last year. We chose a modest size spot in the downtown area of Bradley Beach. After a year of legal tangles and headaches we are almost ready for opening which leads me to the subject at large here, Hand Painted Tattoo Designs. 

One of the first ideas/promises we had made to each other is that the shop would be adorned with original hand painted flash. This is the way of the old school and a practice that is pretty much moot in this country. In our area alone, most shops have gone the route of color copied commercial tattoo designs or an even more homogenized approach of flat screen computers with websites of tattoo images to choose from. Im my opinion both routes are shrewd in the business department but also lack in showing the customer that the shop they have chosen are competent in drafting, composition, and style. The other drawback is that the images are completely drained of the intended power and light. This leads me to why I have chosen this subject to expand on. 

For The last 10 months I have been drafting sheets of classic tattoo designs. Many are shop standards of a time long forgotten yet still relevent today. It's far beyond the point of being nostalgic or retro. As I Study, Sketch, Scribe, Pen, & Watercolor paint these sheets an incredible feeling of history, lineage, and commitment have come over me. To see these designs in the way the masters had seen them. As well as to sit in a foxhole of a scared soilder waiting to meet his enemy or to swab the deck of a warship like many frustrated and lonely sailors have. To travel to exotic places and bring home these permenent mementos of rare tigers and dragons. To embelish ones self with indelible lodge symbols & lovers names or just to express simple emotions of Strength, Beauty, Love, Hate, and Faith. 

This has restored to me the meaning and the joy of tattooing. In a day when we are surrounded with high definition and multi layered special effects these designs and the ones that first brought them to fruitiion sing to me in song so true. As I render them in my own hand and offer them to all I can hear the chorus of many ghosts who have left a mark forever on thousands and also have nurtured a true American folk art. With respect and dignity may I do the same. 

Robert Ryan   

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