You’re flicking through the late-night television options in the haze of half sleep when you pause on the Cooking Channel because of the incongruity of what you’re hearing and what you’re seeing. From behind a kitchen counter on a cooking-show set that’s art-directed within a half inch of its life, a woman with the stage presence of Rachael Ray and the barely-legal beauty of Avril Lavigne circa 2002 gesticulates as if to say, “You talkin’ to me?”
“I have a weird thing with voyeurism,” says artist Natalia Fabia, whose paintings depict “rad, talented chicks” in private, doing things like hugging a stuffed bunny or eating an ice-cream cone, often while wearing little more than their undies. Fabia’s colorful paintings, which have made her one of the Los Angeles art scene’s fastest-rising stars, reflect a constellation of influences: fashion, pinup girls, burlesque, glitter, and rock ‘n’ roll. If the hyperfeminine world she portrays is sexy but not exactly sexual, that’s because Fabia is more interested in celebrating female camaraderie. Her girls are BFFs with awesome tattoos, killer bodies, and a taste for skin-baring fashion. They’re the Sisterhood of ...
Soccer players blur together on the pitch. Forget trying to read their numbers; they are reduced to a trail of their kit’s color. Maybe this is why soccer stars of renown (at least in the American consciousness) have had distinctive haircuts: Cobi Jones had dreadlocks; Alexi Lalas has a plume of red hair. Natasha Kai doesn’t go wild at the salon—it’s her time spent in tattoo parlors...
Nate Appleman, executive chef at San Francisco’s acclaimed A16 and SPQR restaurants, didn’t inherit his culinary chops from his parents. “They don’t cook,” says the chef. However, Appleman’s father did pass on another lifelong passion. When Mr. Appleman, a physician, returned from a business trip with a small spider inked on his leg, the future chef, then only 4, was in awe. “It made such a huge impression on me. I wantedone right away,” says Appleman. He had to wait 13 years, though, until he had a tribal mask the size of a basketball inked across his back at 17. “Of course, it’s the only one I don’t like,” he ...
"Hopefully when someone sees my work, they get something out of it and don’t just pass it by. I want it to make you stop and look for a second."
Believe it: The Bible is better fodder for tattoo inspiration than it might seem. In fact, New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert probably wouldn't have gotten his first tattoo if it weren't for the good book. "When I was really little, my mom gave me this Bible. On the spine, there was a shield with a cross in it," he explains. "At 15, I decided to get that shield tattooed on my left calf. I went to a shop called Bruce Bart's in Florida, and the guy told me if I got permission from my mom, he'd do it. I got permission, and he tattooed that shield on me. Now, ...
Hip-hop? Punk? R&B? No one can categorize this group of outcasts from upstate New York - and that's just the way they like it.
Lori Leven is not afraid to make waves for the sake of art. Though tattooing was illegal in New York City in 1996, that didn’t stop Leven from opening NY Adorned. Away from prying eyes, tattooers would sling ink behind concealed partitions while a jewelry shop (which would offshoot into a boutique named Love, Adorned in 2010) resided in the front.
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