LUCKY BASTARD - A Missionary of Traditional Tattooing

LUCKY BASTARD -  A Missionary of Traditional Tattooing

LUCKY BASTARD -  A Missionary of Traditional Tattooing

Tattooing and tattoo consciousness has inevitably evolved since its introduction to Europe and the USA. It became a widespread socio-cultural reality penetrating through all classes of our society. Throughout the years we have witnessed many of a tattoo artists, rather coming then going, bringing new ideas and creating new styles. The norms for this production find their roots in the ethics of the each individual artist. Some of them, unconsciously, lacking respect towards their clientele not realising, or being completely oblivious to the fact that the value of the tattoo lies not only in the artistically aesthetic output of their ideas on a skin but in its power and durability as well. The others, being truthful to themselves and  to the World help us open our eyes wide for the sake of increasing our knowledge and better understanding for this particular art form. One of  those people and one of the most outspoken proponents of the need for rigorous self discipline and harmonious blending of knowledge and arts, is Lucky Bastard. 

Lucky was born in El Paso, Texas but before he could even walk, his parents moved to California. There, growing up on the streets of Los Angeles, during the 1980's, he started to form and shape his outlook of the World around him. Incapable of offering the unconditional love and blind obedience to authoritarian dogmas he was instantly drawn to the rebellious yells of the loudly opinionated punk rock and rocketing gang scene and inseparably to it, mesmerizingly picturesque tattoo scene. So it wasn't really a surprise that his first encounter with tattooing was while in the juvenile justice penitentiary system where he got his first tattoo.  Not too long after he got released from the penitentiary destiny took him to the 'dirty shop on Hollywood Boulevard' where he got his first professional tattoo. This act caused an irreversible chain of  fortunate events for Lucky. 

Lucky comments: "The whole deal changed for me at that dirty shop on Hollywood Boulevard. I got skull and the dagger tattoo on my right upper arm. Right away I knew that tattoos were for me just didn't know to what extent. It didn't take me long to realise that I wanted to be on the other side of it. From that moment on everything started slowly going on for me and in the end it turned out that tattoos saved my life. Since I am not being able to have a regular job from 9 to 5, becoming tattoo artist saved me from becoming a career criminal."

Still it wasn't until Lucky's second tattoo was done, by Joe Vegas,  when he finally made up his mind saying to himself that that was not only something he wanted on himself but something that he could do for a living. And it was Joe Vegas who helped him out to get in the business. 

"Back in the late '80's were not that many tattoo artists in Southern California. Most of my friends were older than me, most of them were either punk-rockers or gangsters and most of them were having tattoos. Joe Vegas, among them, was the guy who really helped me shape my whole idea of tattooing. He helped me get first job as a helper at The Pike, Bert Grim shop in Long Beach. I was working there just for a while and then they moved me to another shop, Long Beach Tattoo, owed by the same people where I got an apprenticeship working for the guy named Snickers. He was a natural caricature artist who drew really well with limited effort. In the beginning I learned basic stuff about drawing and tattooing from Joe and Snickers and later on I ended up learning from the Shaw Family. That was a perfect place not only to learn about tattooing but also how to deal with crackheads and hookers which made dealing later with the regular clientele a lot easier for me.  Also by studying Pat Martynuik's flash and Terry Tweed's line drawings and observing rock solid tattoos of Bob Roberts and Mike Malone I learned how tattoos should look like."

After few years working in LA Lucky moved to San Francisco where he spent next five years working at The Picture Machine. All those experiences helped him create his own style what he calls himself "tradition with progress" (the phrase for which he credits Chris Garver), a style which would be somewhere in between "Pat's raw and Terry's meticulously refined drawings. From The Picture Machine he went on further working briefly on Haight Street before 'hitting' the road, traveling around the globe. His favourite destinations were, and still are,  Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Lucky explains: "While I was in California I constantly kept hearing from many people about the stories from Amsterdam. Joe Vegas alone told me tons of stories which intrigued my curiosity and I decided to go to Europe and 'give it a shot'. My plan was to stay for about a month, travel around and see all of Europe. But I ended up at my very first stop, Amsterdam, hanging out at the Hanky Panky shop, trying to score a job. By then I already had a good reputation and I knew Permanent Mark and Chris Garver who were already working at Henk's. For me, then, it was a dream to be able to work in Amsterdam among such a great artists. When I saw Henk for the first time he already knew who I am and what I do. Unfortunately, shop was already full and there was not a space for me. Instead, he offered me to work in the Tattoo Museum which was located just around the corner from the shop. I thought, wow this is awesome, I am going to work in the Tattoo Museum, in Amsterdam!!! 

In the '90's Amsterdam was considered as 'Mecca' for tattooing. Bob and Charlie Roberts, Freddy Corbin, Dave Shore, Paolo Suluape (R.I.P.), Filip Leu, Clay Decker, Eric Hogan (R.I.P.), world's top artists were working in Amsterdam at the time and for me was a great honour to be a part of it. The time went by quickly and I had to go back home. Once I was back I have immediately planned to get back to Amsterdam to work for a longer period of time but then I had to face all kinds of problems. The shop where I was, was taken by the landlord and I had to move around."

In October 1999, Lucky hit the road again but this time he went to Tokyo to attend the First Tokyo Tattoo Convention and for the next four years he continued to travel around the World "jumping from continent to continent without setting foot in America". His only agenda was to make enough money to take him to the next destination.

And the more he traveled the more American he felt. However, all of those experiences have opened his eyes to the various cultural approaches to tattooing, from Japanese and Thai to various Pacific Island styles and where ever he was he got himself a little souvenir, a picturesque reminder of his adventurous voyages over the seven seas. But by far, the most peculiar impression and the biggest impact on him was the way of the traditional Japanese tattooing. He immediately recognised the parallels between traditional Japanese and traditional American tattoos. 

"It is funny to say but traditional 'Americana' tattoos are very similar to traditional Japanese tattoos. They share the same basic idea of nice big bold lines, 'tons' of black shading and solid bright colours. Either style has different approach but the parallel is clear. Those three elements are important. Simple colour palettes of western traditional tattooing could be compared with the Japanese. Early colour palettes worked beautifully. I 'took' their experiences and work myself with the seven colour palette to this day. In fact I don't really use blue and purple that often so could even say five colour. This was the way how they did it before and nothing was wrong with it."

Japanese tattoos, undoubtedly, with their bold lines, lots of black shading and simple palette of bright colours that radiate power and vitality proved him that simplicity can still create a big impact. The impact on him was so strong that ever since his first trip to the land of the rising sun, to the present day, he dedicates at least one month of  the year either studying, working or getting tattooed in Japan. 

"I have worked in Japan for the first time back in 1997 but after the first Tokyo convention in 1999 when I started getting my back done by Horiyoshi III was the moment when I definitely knew that I was locked in and that I wanted to go back to Japan to learn. Since then, I travelled back to Japan every year and stayed there for couple of months but since I got my own shop I make sure that I find time to spend at least one month in Japan."

Although Lucky's first tattoo 'language' was traditional American having the opportunity to work in Japan with traditional Japanese tattooers it was natural for Lucky to want to embrace the studies of this particular style and incorporate a "vocabulary of Japanese techniques" into his own bold "Americana" style. Something what, in his words "...is not a new concept. It was an epiphany Bob Roberts had years ago."

"After I came from the road and got settled back down in So.Cal. again, beside my regular 'traditional' clientele I started having clients that wanted Japanese stuff but nobody around wasn't able to do it properly.  Most of the Japanese tattoos that Americans were receiving, I noticed, were not true to the style that I have seen in Japan. So I ended up doing half sleeve on one of my clients trying to do it as correctly as possible. I made a photo of the finished work and added to my portfolio. That photo brought me another client and then another and then I said to myself I better fuckin' start seriously to study this thing, to figure out exactly what I am doing to these people and to try understand and correct the mistakes. Regardless of all what I've been seeing in Japan, doing it was a completely new field for me. So I had to go back to the source again, to Japan. And when I showed my 'Japanese' work portfolio there, it was embarrassing. My stuff had no point. I had to try to, at least, visually catch up with them. Trying to learn deeper about Japanese tattooing became my obsession. I was constantly thinking about it. I realised that if I want to do it right it will take some time. People see Japanese tattoos and they say: "Yeah I can do that" but it ain't working like that. There are so many rules and formulas which you have to consider and respect for every single move, that sometimes it might become frustrating." 

When I have asked him what would be the secret formula for successful Japanese tattoo Lucky went on:

"Ok I am not an expert but one thing I learned is that you have to approach the subject in the respectful manner. That means that you don't change things that are not to be changed. We go there and take their way, their images, their culture and then we try to make it ours, to make it original. That is not the way. I am not trying to change anything. I can't say I am going to create a new Hanya or invent a new dragon but I can try to make some of the old traditional designs as cool as possible. Being an American I can't break new grounds in Japanese standards. Horiyoshi III can and he did make new set of rules. What I am trying to do is to mimic things that they do and in my opinion that way you might be able to make a successful Japanese tattoo. 

Since it became sort of a standard for westerners to 'wear' Japanese style tattoos, being curious myself I had to ask Lucky what, in his opinion, would be the difference between western approach to this style and 'real' Japanese tattooing and his reply was:

"Hmm, it is something what would I call a spelling mistakes. Almost there but not really. On western Japanese tattoos you can almost always see that the guy who did it is not Japanese, something is always missing. For example, growing up in Japan. Being surrounded by dragons, phoenixes, peony flowers, things that are there by nature. Simply, you have to be born there and to grow up there to understand their way of thinking and accepting the surroundings. It doesn't really work, you go there buy couple of books, make few pictures, come back home and say now I understand everything. Being Japanese is what makes their work look the way it does. That's why, I repeat, I try to mimic only, their way, because I don't know how they process all that stuff through their heads. When I am in Japan I observe their culture on all levels, how they eat, the way they communicate, how they act towards each other and see if there is the way to co-relate that to tattoo that I want to do. It is a composition of everything they do, their rich history, culture, art, protocols. A relentless persuade of perfection of every moment of every day. That is already hard to mimic. And if you still want to do it look at the guys who are doing it the best. Those guys live that life and they are very focused and motivated." 

Not only that Lucky's tattoo technique influences are imported from Japan but their way of respecting the limitations of the offered working space and their vivid imagination about it's organisation comes from Japan as well. His shop, Fine Tattoo Work in Orange, California was "structured after Sabado's Eccentric Tattoo shop in Nagoya".

"Since space is a commodity in Japan, everything in the shop was built on wheels to allow maximum working space and ease of cleaning. Everything was measured down to the inch, so that no space was wasted."

Although Lucky never really planned to open his own shop because "there were already too many shops, that another one seemed unnecessary", back in 2004 he did open a street shop Fine Tattoo Works so that he could "offer helping hand to the clients without having someone looking for a cut". In one manner, design of the shop refers to the compatibility of Eccentric Tattoo and in the other evokes the sentiments of the real 'old school' street shop as once The Picture Machine was. Built on 3000 sq. feet with all the stations built on wheels and designed by Lucky, the shop allows all of the seven artists enough space to manoeuvre. Beside, shop includes fully equipped photography studio for making high quality pictures of the done works. Furthermore Lucky explains the dynamics in the shop:

"I have now a clear vision of how I want my studio to function. Mostly, it is based on woking with people like Henk, with a defined captain of the shop who will train you and whom you'll listen to. Because the captain is there to give it all up for you. Bring down together the right people who are eager to learn and forced them to learn the things correctly. In a way it was like opening a tattoo school, l with a clear philosophy of tattooing. The way that works in my studio is formulated and methodical based on the fact that there is a reason for everything. I don't let people get away tattooing the shit they don't know about. If you don't know what it is don't tattoo it on somebody. I am trying do what was done for me. And nothing makes you a better student then being a teacher. To verbalise something that seems so natural gives you also an opportunity to make an adjustments to whatever it is that you trying to do. Teaching the guys in my shop makes me also a better tattooer. Knowing how eager to learn they are it makes me stand on my toes to be ahead of them to be able to give them the right information. Once they are acknowledged with the basics they are free to explore and go in any direction they want. That way I can be sure if someone walks in the shop I can turn them to the right guy."

There is only one thing. The amount of hours of a day is far too small for an artist of Lucky's caliber. Being busy leading the shop, tattooing, teaching and traveling around the globe leaves him no time for painting which he'd love to do. 

"These days I rarely find time to paint or do anything else beside tattooing. With this new generations of clients, I am busy doing larger and more ambitious tattoos. More tattooed people and more tattoo studios equals more tattoo educated people. And that right there shows the progression of this art form."

And mentioning progression, Lucky is a man who's not afraid of the future for this business, on his path of pursuing the perfection.

"This business is now wide open and you can go anywhere from this point. Maybe the down side is that there is a large number of people in the business but still I think it could just go better. To cite Filip Leu: "More tattoo artists mean that more tattoos are to be done..." Just 20 years ago the idea of a sleeve outside of Japan was ludicrous. But with all of the informations and abilities it can just go for better. The guys that are good will rise to the top. If you are good you will easily separate yourself from the rest. But you'll just have to keep your standards high."

For almost two and a half decades Lucky Bastard embraces powerful traditional artistic criteria while maintaining the connection with the real World, evoking the past without melancholy. His impeccable tattoos are his testament of hard work and dedication for this particular form of art. 

More about Lucky Bastard is to be found on his website:  www.finetattoowork.com

 

Photo of the Lucky's back with the tiger tattoo (still in progress) done by Horiyoshi III.

Photos by Lucky Bastard & Dejan Knez.

Running Bear - Tattooing Navajo

RUNNING BEAR Specialist in Specializing

For any person, the path of attaining the knowledge of any kind is hard. But growing up under obscured living conditions in the reservation, marginalized by society, trying the same it's even harder. It must take great courage or complete lunacy, or maybe both, to find the strength to free yourself from the fenced life in search for a truth. And that is exactly what Running Bear did. With a bit of luck and diligence, he took his chance to breakaway from the same monotonous lifestyle of his tribe fellows. And from the outskirts of modern life , from the deserts of Arizona (Fort Defiance) where he grew up, being of a Navajo origin, he launched himself beyond that realm into a turbulent and chaotic whirlpool of “civilization”.

Navajo indians (or Dine) are the largest group of North America's indigenous peoples, counting today over 300,000 people which are living in the largest reservation in the USA, spread over the vast area of land, in four different states: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The first two count as the largest residing areas with the capitol of Navajo nation in Window Rock, in Arizona. Their wide dispersion across the reservation is due to a limited availability of water and a limited amount of grassland.

They lead very simple life. Their homes are called hogans and are scattered all over the reservations. Usually made of logs, stones and mud with their doorways traditionally always facing east, “to receive the blessing of the day's first rays of sun”.

That undoubtedly shows their great spiritual connection with nature and they are firm believers in the transmigrations of the souls. And that would be also the reason for their great reverence for different animals which they believe to be the re-embodiment of departed spirits of deceased Navajos. Also, they believed that the animals were representations of celestial bodies and also their spiritual guides. So it was quite common to name their offsprings after the animals they related their children with. And so was the case with the Running Bear.

The bears were important and very present animals. They resemble humans when in standing position and they represented courage, physical strength and leadership. Bears are strong, agile and quick which would perfectly fit to the personality description of Running Bear. Navajo indians have a saying: “Do not laugh at bears because they will come after you” as well as “Do not make fun of a bear because it will make you sick.”

Living with, observing and respecting the laws and patterns of nature they became, over the time, great cultivators of the land and livestock. Beside, Navajos showed ingenuity in creating artistic patterns and are traditionally skillful designers and manufactures of silver ornaments as well as blankets.

It is believed that Navajo's came to where they are now, from the Western part of Canada over 1000 years ago. They belonged to an American-Indian group called Athapaskans. Their name Navajo's come from the Spanish term 'Apaches de Navajo' which derives from the 'Tewa Navahu' which means highly cultivated lands. However, Navajo's called themselves 'Dine', a term which in their own language means the 'People'.

Characteristic thing about their language is that it was used by American military forces in the second World War to create secret code language to battle Japanese in the Pacific. The men who have created the codes are better known as 'Navajo Code Talkers'.

In a way, the first contact, for Running Bear, with tattoos was seeing them on his father who served American military forces back in the days. They were “usual military stuff as well as some traditional stuff”.

Not even knowing, his father's marks ignited the sparkle of flammable curiosity

in Bear's mind. His next 'meeting' with tattoos will determine his future.

Back in 1978, at the age of 14, in the school he was attending, he met another Navajo kid who was Bear's age and who was covered with tattoos. At that time tattoos were definitely not 'cool' and “people without tattoos were scared of people with tattoos, so in the school nobody dared to talk to the kid or to get too close to him.” Even for Running Bear he was a taboo as much as tattoos were for his people in general. But that just could not last too long. RB explains:

“So one day I approached him, introduced myself and then I told him of how cool I found his tattoos, regardless of the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about it and couldn't say if they were good or bad. The only thing was that ANY tattoos were cool to me.”

After exchanging couple of words with the kid, who's name was Jerome Global, Bear found out that he got them from his uncle who was released from New Mexico's State Prison in Santa Fe where he was serving a long sentence. Much later Bear would figure out that the kid's uncle's tattoos were genuine Mexican gang related tattoos all done with the prison style machines.

However Bear did not wait another day to ask him more direct things.

“I asked him if he knew how to do them, and if he did, could he make them on me. And Jerome asked me: “Yeah I can but what you gonna give me in return.” I answered: “5 cigarettes...and a joint”. He agreed. Then I asked him: 'Where are we going to do it, is it going to be in the school or...? He told me that we will use his room in the 'half-way' house.” (institution for housing the kids from the 'problem' families, mostly alcohol and drug related). Large number of Navajo people are deeply frustrated with the conditions of living on the reservation territories. Due to a harsh weather conditions and inadequate, promised, help from the American government there is a very little, if any, progress made in many years.

Bear continues: “So we went to his place but at the entrance door was a guard standing. Jerome talked to him and he let us go to his room with the condition not to make any noise. Finally I got in, and few hours later I walked out with my first tattoo, the Black Sabbath cross. Jerome had no idea who the fuck Black Sabbath was. We were living on the Navajo land, desolate place, away from anything. It's a desert that could easily be part of Egypt or Libya. However I ran home being in a state of total ecstasy. And at home I had one 'Hustler' magazine where was an article about Japanese yakuza's and their tattoos. There was a picture of one guy with a big dragon on his back. I started tripping, took pen and the paper and tried to draw the same dragon over and over again until the early morning hours. The next day I went to the school and asked Jerome if he was able to do the dragon that I drew previous night. He replied: “Yeah, but that will cost you more...a pack of cigarettes and 5 joints. And it will take much longer than the last time.” So the next day we went, after the school, back to his place and where he started tattooing me. It lasted all night long. I could not really see what he was doing except some parts that I could see in the mirror and for what I did see I had no idea if it was good or badly done. However, when he finished only the outlines were done and I was exhausted, but also excited. Then I went back home and tried to sneak in the house but my mum was still awake, waiting for me. After she asked where was I, I took off my still blood-soaked shirt and showed her my freshly tattooed back. She shook her head couple of times and said only: “It's too late.” 

"I mean even if she'd forbid me to do it I'd run away from house and do it anyway. I went to my bed saying to myself: “Fuck man I became a man, I got tattooed.” The next day I met Jerome again and he was telling me about how much he missed his grandmother and about his plans to break out from the reservation and leave forever. When I heard that I asked him if he would copy for me the design of his tattoo machine. He agreed and made a copy at the spot. We departed and I went home with my new homework: to make a tattoo machine. I was busy again all night long and again, the next day I went back to see him and show him my creation but he was already gone. That previous night he left and I never saw him again.”

Those three days were crucial in defining Running Bear's future. Bewitched by his already 'lost' friend Bear has spent nights and days trying to experiment with his new toy, trying different guitar strings but also trying to figure out how to find people to tattoo.

“I tried to find people but nobody wanted, while being sober. So I figured: “In order to tattoo someone, we have to get drunk.” And that worked eventually. It happened few times that only after I got drunk with my homies, was when they got the courage to do it. I did couple of crosses completely free style. But later, after I gained some experience I started drawing before I tattooed somebody. And slowly I started building my clientele. That was the beginning and my love for it was instant...and constant. That's what carried me further in my life all these years.”

Little by little Bear's experience grew bigger and his confidence got stronger.

For next five years he was boosting up his knowledge capacities, drawing and painting but his transitory nature of upbringing, being of a Nomadic origin, he has realized that it isn't all about the location but about the state of being. There are not just one but many realities to be grasped. He decided to step out of the known realm and extend his boundaries. He left little town called Winter Windrock, in Arizona, and went straight to the capital of the 'occupation forces', to Washington DC. He was only 20 years old and eager to accept anything that comes on his path of learning. There he met...Punk Rock and he has fallen in love once more.

“That shit was awesome. It was completely another world. Back in those days just as much 'normal' people were afraid of tattoos, they were afraid of punk-rockers

as well. But what was really funny is that even some punk-rockers were afraid of tattoos. On the other hand it was a lot of guys who were saying; “Hey that shit is cool Bear, you crazy fucking indian, do one on me...and me...and me.” I had my home made tattoo gun with me and I ended up tattooing bunch of those mutha-f...rs. It was so much fan. But tattooing in general was illegal although there were few shops. In general it was all underground. As the matter of fact for most of the Yenk side of the East Coast, including New York and Boston, tattooing was illegal. Recently I have visited East Coast and lots of places where I've been working are not there any more. Considering people, a lot of them are dead, either from overdoses or hepatitis, aids, diabetes or God knows what else.”

He ended up his adventure on the East Coast and went back to Navajo land but now to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he spent quite some time especially because of not being able to resist and fight his new habit that he picked up while on his trips on the East Coast: drugs and its best buddy, alcohol. He has reached the point of being no different then anyone else from his 'crowd'.

“That was the end of my rope. But then a friend of mine from Washington DC who lived at that moment in California, called me to come to LA to work. At first I refused, I was too strung out but he was very persuasive and got me plane ticket to LA. I came there but instead of LA I ended up in Venice. In Venice there were only three shops. There was one cheesy shop on the Linkin Blvd., then there was another guy called Rusty with his shop right on the boardwalk and Tattoo Bob, a guy who was close to the hood. But in Venice the situation was tough. Lots of people were getting killed every day. There was constant struggle going on between blacks and chicanos, Venice 13 and Venice Short Line Cribs or VSLC. It all reminded me on the murder capitol of the USA at that time, Washington DC. Beside, I realized that most of the people I knew there were hard-core junkies and that was a step back for me trying to get off my addictions. But then I met Permanent Mark who just started tattooing at Tattoo Bob's shop. We started our friendship with me tattooing his back and he trying to score me a job at Bob's. No matter how much I wanted to work there, I knew that the shop was too small for another person. And one day Bob came to me and told me that the guys from the Linkin Blvd have a job for me. The place was named after the movie 'Revenge of the Nerds' who's owner played a role in it. He didn't have much to do with tattoos but he did owe the shop and it was a busy street shop. That place was where I got introduced into the realm of professional tattooing.”

Bear was coping with the morals of the shop owner for a while and working hard but his expectations for himself were becoming more substantial and he needed to

go further. He tried to find another shop to work like Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Social Club in Hollywood but that one and all others were way too small for another person especially for the one of Bear size. Yet Bear did not despair. He met someone who gave him a hope. That was Pote Seyler, a prosperous tattoo artist from Switzerland (belongs to top 100 most influential people in the tattoo business according to Bob Baxter of Skin&Ink Magazine).

“Pote told me that he was saving money to open his own shop in Hollywood and since he liked my work, “your crazy graphics” how he'd say, he asked me to help him out and work with him when the time comes. After a while, just at the moment when the shop where I was working got sold, Pote really came back to ask me again to work with him at his freshly opened Body Electric studio on the Melrose Av.. I packed my shit and went to Hollywood which was completely another world, that's where the doors of professional tattoo world opened completely. Pote had a good connection with the Leu Family, he got 'Battle Royale' on his back done by Felix and Filip and had a lot of friends visiting the shop. Some of those friends were encouraging me to go to visit Europe which I did. I went to Paris and from there went to a small town close to Paris and made my new base which helped me get connected with other cool people.

I 'snowballed' around and soon found myself working at the 1^st Lausanne Tattoo Convention. I was not listed but still got the booth in the center of the convention happenings. It was cool because it was only about 30 tattoo artists participating and it was packed with people. I worked three days, day and night.

There I met Christian and Blaze, from Paris and Toulouse, who also had great network of people. Then it was a new convention going on but this time in Bologna, which I was participating as well. And again I wasn't listed, but Marco Leoni, the organizer of it, found an empty booth for me. In Bologna I met for the second time the infamous Henky Panky (first time we met at 1^st Hollywood T.C.) who invited me to come to work for him in Amsterdam and to go with him to work at Berlin's Convention. I just couldn't say no to him and after the show went to France to get my stuff and rolled straight to Amsterdam. In the train to Amsterdam I met a Dutch guy , a carpenter, who told me that if I ever want to kill someone I should take him to Holland and kill him there, for the simple reason that if I get caught, I could get maximum of 6 years of jail!? That was my first contact with anything that represents Holland (beside Henk). However Amsterdam, later on, turned out to be a great city. There I met  Permanent Mark once more, who was then working for Henk. The shop was super busy, Tattoo Museum was going on, lots of partying... it was quite dynamic. I stayed in for a few years, in the second half of the '90's. But then bit by bit I plunged again into my addictions and it was imperative for me to get out and find myself.”

By then he already had excessive knowledge about tattooing and still his immense artistic curiosity played hard to be satisfied. Now that he was ready to go he picked up the destination where he thought that could never get him in the trouble again. Bear went to Japan attending 1^st Tokyo T.C. and stayed there to learn more about their approach to life...and tattooing. But.

“Ever since I was a kid I had a book by Sally Freeman with big photo plates of Japanese tattoos, for which I thought was awesome. That drew me in a way into this world. I always had love for it.I learned a lot from Pote and Henk but it was priceless to learn how to create certain shading effects from one japanese 'tebori' master. For Japanese there is a right way and the wrong way about doing this. For westerners is more that you can do whatever you want. But if you try to do it the traditional way there are number of step and rules that you have respect in order to make it look more authentic. Otherwise you will have Japanese laughing looking at you work, of course behind your back. In Japan I was doing mostly western traditional tattoos, here and there couple of dragons. I just couldn't find the knowledge for the style of Japanese tattooing. What I did find was the way of Japanese partying. I just wasn't ready to slave for anybody, not even for Horiyoshi III although I have immense respect for him, for the bits of their own tradition. After all it is theirs. On the other hand socializing with them went great. It was again too much of working, dining and partying every f...n night that I had to pack my bags and leave once more. This time I ran back to the USA.”

After years of traveling and being away from home, which brought his artistic and otherwise personality to full maturity, upon arriving to the USA Bear went on city-hopping still searching for the missing link. But deep within himself he

wanted to settle down and start on his own.

“After working for all the people that I worked for all these years, God bless them all, to whom I'm really thankful for the opportunities that they gave me and for the knowledge which they shared with me, now is the time to start on my own. I don't want to jinx it by talking about it, because it still does not exist but I collected a lot of stuff during my travels and I'd like to show them before it rots in the boxes. I don't want that my kid's open the boxes one day after I'm gone and say: “What kind of freak my dad was.”

When I asked RB to share some lessons that he picked up from the travelings across the seas he replied:

“The major thing was how to tattoo fast. Where ever I was and no matter how big the tattoo was I tried to finish it in one go. It's not like “I'll do the outlines now and finish it in two weeks”, because I might not be there in two weeks. I might not be there in months, years or maybe never again. So whatever I did I had to bang that shit up but still be in control of what I'm doing. I think working for Henk at the old place was a good school for me. The other thing I picked up was the philosophy of tattooing. When I started tattooing traditional type of designs Sailor Jerry style were in all the way. Then it went through fantasy style in the 80's and tribal and bio-mechanical in the 90's to graffiti and cartoon style later on, to single needle script, black and gray and realistic style. So the designs are ever changing but repeating. I can see tribals coming back but done in a style of computer pixels. Tattooing, in a meantime has gained

a lot of respect among 'normal' people. They don't look down on the people with tattoos any more. On the other hand there is a lot of people who look at this business only as a resource of tapping as much money as possible without care for anything or anybody else. I also think that the real feeling for this art is what is missing in the tattoo scene. Some of the pieces done by many artists are technically perfect but without life. I do understand many artists are coming out from the schools and have everything already planned and try to stick to it and buy big cars and houses. Many artists of today won't do any other style except the one they got used to. Some say: “Oh that's not my style, go somewhere else. But that's something I can't relate with. My D.C. underground experience of living on the edge, understanding and reasoning life and other humans in certain situation, has thought me about respecting this business and life around it. I grew up tattooing whatever my customers had on mind. I drew over and over again and asked if that's what they wanted and over the time became specialized in specializing.”

Being in this profession for 34 years Running Bear has demonstrated mastery of artistic skills applied in both traditional and modern context and shows untamable passion and dedication for this craft. He himself is also a passionate collector and has been tattooed by names such as Bob and Charlie Roberts, Mark Mahoney, Riley Baxter, Pote Seyler, Freddy Corbin, Eddy Deutsche, Maxxx Scott, Bill Loika, Lucky Bastard, Joe Vegas, Jesse Tuesday, Filip Leu, Elio Espana, Bit, Inya Taylor, Good Time Charlie, Molly van Oss, Reggie, Captain Caveman, Shane the Face, Reggie, Jerome Global and by himself.

More of Running Bear could be found on Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/RunningbearsArttattoo

Cultural Rescue of Ancient Tattooing in Mexico

OLMAN PROJECT - Cultural Rescue of Ancient Tattoo in Mexico

Mexico and, in fact, all of Mesoamerican cultures have fascinated Europeans for the past several centuries. Although knowledge of Mesoamerican 'phenomenon' was mostly incomprehensible for European moral and value standards and believes, many written studies on these matters have appeared in last couple of hundred years. Some people may still endow the land and its people with the tinge of exoticism while the others may both fear and admire the great cultures of ancient Mesoamerica. The term 'Mesoamerica' is used by historians, archaeologists and anthropologists to describe the large part of the territories of Central America, at the time of the Spanish conquest in the beginning of the 16th. century, including much of modern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, western strip of Honduras and El Salvador and on down through Nicaragua and Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica.

For a long time the western world have presumed that the tribes that lived in Mesoamerica were undeveloped and primitive savage bunch of 'Devil worshippers'. On the contrary, civilizations of ancient Mesoamerica have had a very rich history. Beside the fact that they have fully developed written language they are still continuing to amaze our 'modern world' with their spectacularly precise mathematical and astronomical measuring systems of time and space, as well as with the high level of aesthetics of their art and superb architectural skills which are puzzling the minds of the great engineers and architects to this day. Wise men of those great cultures left written manuscripts about life and death, about their thoughts and happenings around them, about their complex relationship with the Gods.

At the time of the Spanish invasion in 1519, which is considered to be an end of the 'Late Postclassic period', the Aztecs played major role on the continent, although the role of the Maya, Totonacs, Huastecs and Mixtecs remained important and it was speculated to be over 20 million people living in Mesoamerica. The first impressions of Spaniards with the customs and rituals of the indigenous people were both intriguing and horrifying. Miguel Luna de Orellana, a self proclaimed member of the Cortes expedition wrote:

"By all accounts, the Indians of this land to the west do not want us to settle there. They are hostile people who resisted two earlier expeditions, and they are a strange idolatrous people who wear body tattoos and practice human sacrifice."

Being oblivious to the habits of natives and blinded by greed, the quest for wealth and social advancement motivated Spaniards to commit brutal atrocities and almost totally obliterate millenniums of gradually developed knowledge. Following the fall of Tenochtitlan (todays Mexico City) in 1521, populated at the time by the Mexica people (how they called themselves) or Aztecs, Mesoamerican polytheistic religion (worshipping a number of natural elements, both zoomorphic and anthromorphic) was transformed rapidly and for ever. Native temples,sculptures, hieroglyphic writing and books were systematically destroyed and all religious exercisers were vigorously suppressed.

However not all of the books were destroyed. Some have survived and Cortes himself is thought to have sent two of the Maya folding books to King Charles of Spain and to Holy Roman Emperor. They are known today as Madrid and Dresden Codex (they are named after the cities or families in whose libraries they were conserved). But the most complete record of the Maya myths and history is Popol Vuh.

Beside human sacrificing and cannibalism, among other forbidden practicies the ancient technique of tattooing was included as well. Spanish have brutally unforced their own catholic religious believes upon the natives and not long after, the practice of tattooing was not only completely abandoned but it also faded out of the minds of the native population. Not many of the evidences of this particular practice has survived the conquest. Yet in the National Anthropological Museum in Mexico few clay figures deriving from the Olmec people (commonly accepted to be one of the first high civilizations in Mesoamerica, together with Zapotecs) enable us recognize high level of body adornment practices showing tattoo patterns from the waist down to the knees as well as head deformations. Also some survived figurines found in Yucatan Peninsula show a male figure with the cheeks and chin tattooed with the drawing of a jaw bone and another simple design in the center of the forehead. According to Dr. Schellhas "the tattooing consists of simple markings made either around or at the side of the mouth". Another terracotta whistle figure of a head found in Tecolpa, Tabasco show tattoo designs on each cheek and on the lips as well. It is considered that tattooing seemed to have consisted of spiral scrolls at each corner of the mouth. Examples for this type of facial decorations could be seen on the lintels of Yuxchilan and on the richly ornamented wall with projecting sculpture of the head found in Uxmal (now in Mexico City). There is also an impressive piece of evidence on few of the Olmec terracotta sculptures which show direct link between the black Olmec or Xi people of Mexico and West Africans. They show scarification marks which indicate presence of Mende West Africans in ancient Mesoamerica. The patterns used on these Olmec sculptures are still common in some parts of Africa. Also the same style of scarification tattooing is still used by the Nuba and other Sudanese tribes in Africa. Another Olmec terracotta head from ancient Mexico show identical type of keloid tattoos on the face as it is displayed on the faces of some young Sudanese girls. One of those figurines considered to be 4000 years old is on the display at the Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. More figurines from the early cultures of ancient Mexico, like the funeral pottery ones from Tepic, Colima and Western Jalisco, show complete reproduction of native ornaments such as ear and nose ornaments and facial and body decorations. Fresco paintings of Santa Rita in Honduras show portions of human bodies covered with geometric markings. Circles surrounded with dots, short hooks and short parallel lines are the prevailing motives. It may mean that tattooed images represented a close relationship between humans and the nature, considering their conscious harmonic synchronization with the nature and the cosmic energies.

Not to get a wrong picture, tattooing was not exclusive only for Olmecs. It is practiced also by other cultures. Noble women of Totonac people often tattooed their faces with red ink. Mayan standards of beauty, among common women included being tattooed (after the marriage) from their waist up except for their breasts. Bishop Diego de Landa reported that tattoos covered the Maya's people chests, arms and faces and piercings in their ears, lips and noses held shell and jade jewelry.

And as much as we could say, with confidence, that we are familiar with the fact that they have embraced tattooing, considering applied techniques very little is known to us. There are different theories: from extremely painful skin-stitching (which is commonly connected with the indigenous peoples of the Arctic) and scarification (skin cutting) techniques to hand-tapping and hand-poked techniques but none of them could be proven. Some sources suggest that tattoo designs were painted on the body and then carefully cut in the flesh. Rubbing the ink solution in the wound would form the tattoo. This process is said to be extremely painful and for this reason it is considered that tattoos were the signs of personal bravery as the process would cause the infection and temporary illness.

Today, the gap of several hundred years of excluding tattooing practices may made inhabitants of modern Central America be unaware of the folklore reasons for and about tattooing of their ancestors. However tattooing and tattoos are extremely popular and widespread not only in today's Mexico but Worldwide and Mexican related imagery are nowadays a fashion. Yet not many tattoo artists are trying to dig in the past or furthermore research and try to revive the ancient tattoo techniques and designs. Not many but few certainly do: Sanya and Samuel. With their 'Olman' project, which is named after Samuel's Olmec ancestors, they are trying to revive and "rescue the ancient tattoo techniques of old Mexico" and their studio 'Olman' is located in the jungle inside of camping Panchan, near the Mayan archaeological site in Palenque in Chiapas.

Sanya was born in 1979 in Slovenia, a place which has very little in common with Mexico. In 1992 destiny took her to Mexico where she "immediately felt a great connection with the prehispanic ancestors" and which eventually became her new 'home'. Always being interested in art and bewitched by her new environment she started digging deeper into a rich cultural history of Mexico.

"The more I learned about their culture and their beautiful artistic expressions, in all the aspects, the more I liked it and went deeper into it".

Just half a year upon her arrival to Mexico, the faith brought her to Samuel, who was a body modifier at the time, whom she apparently married not long after they met.

"Samuel introduced me to the world of tattoo and one year after we met I started tattooing, with the machine. This was also a time when I found myself having a great interest for the ritual of traditional practice of ancient tattooing. In Mexico after the conquest tattooing has literally disappeared. The Spanish have forbidden almost everything what was traditional at the time. There is about a 500 year gap of inability for indigenous peoples to practice and preserve the ancient way of their tattooing techniques".

Lack of interest and informations about this way of tattooing among the native population only powered her curiosity in search for the truth. One year later, after spending a great deal of time in the libraries and bookstores around the country uploading informations, Sanya met a person who will eventually set her on the right course.

"One day a person I already new gave me a bamboo stick because he knew I was interested in the ancient kind of ways of tattooing. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep for days. At first I didn't know what I am going to do with it. There was no manual how to use or a teacher to advise me and guide me. The emotions and thoughts were tumbling through my head that I started to have visions."

Sorting out her 'uploaded data' she remembered some of the references from the books and magazines she has read in the past year and spontaneously followed her intuition how to make her tools ready for use. She didn't have to wait long to get her first client. An archaeologist who has overheard the tales about Sanya's quest, offered himself for her first sacred ritual of an 'ancient' way of tattooing.

Sanya speaks with excitement about this experience: "I began with the copal ceremony (sacred resin of the Copal tree). It is used in all of traditional rituals that have been preserved until now and it represents cleansing, permission from the sacred energy and a connection with it. Than I started to tattoo him without thinking of how to hold my new instrument or which technique I would use. I just let myself flow and I felt it as if I had been doing it forever. I was very excited when it was done. Remembering and relieving their symbolism I channeled this energy to honor the ancestors that have given me the inspiration and I promised myself that I shall focus on the cultural aspect of preserving traditional ways of tattooing rather then a commercial aspect."

But lacking informations on 'ancient' ways of tattooing in Mesoamerica, the question still remains of how sure could we actually be about actual techniques that we say they have applied?

Sanya has an explanation: "It is difficult to say exactly: Yes, this was the way. I personally think that they used different techniques. Reading some books, Samuel and me, found out that some Mesoamerican people were using same technique the indigenous people of Pacific islands like Tahiti or Samoa use still to this day: tapping technique. We also found some ancient inscriptions of tattoos, back then, being made with the wooden sticks, which again reminds us on the traditional Japanese way of tattooing. And it is kind of common knowledge that they used scarification as a way of applying tattoos. Samuel was already using this aspect of tattooing when we first met. Different techniques applied for different sorts of body modifications. It's a part of their culture, tattoos either being just a beauty mark or representing hierarchy being symbols of status in the society. Or even for the medical reasons such as preventing the pains of arthritis and rheum by mixing certain herbs and plants with the ink solution, for which the great knowledge of the Nature was required, or by means of acupuncture: regenerating the damaged skin stimulated by the needles."

Perhaps we would have to be patient, to wait for the future discoveries of 'new' artifacts that could lead us in the right direction but for now we have to rely on the knowledge that we have and open ourselves to the sacred energies to be able to receive the great cosmic consciousness.