Long before he worked with everyone from Mötley Crüe to Marilyn Manson and designed skate decks and high-end toys, graphic designer Jim Koch (pronounced cook) worked with his hands in another way—as a lumberjack. "I was buckin' and haulin' logs and I said, Fuck that! I want to draw," he remembers of his teen logging years. Koch traded in his ax for a sketchpad and pencil and began doodling cartoon figures of clowns. He became obsessed with them after watching Red Skelton, a clown who became famous in the '40s for dressing like a hobo, and he later tattooed three vintage clowns on his biceps and forearm. Koch also names ...
"I don't like to do nice, clean tattoos or realistic stuff. A tattoo should look like a tattoo," says Lea Vendetta, the Paris-born 37-year-old tattoo artist whose journey has taken her from the City of Lights to Key West, FL . Vendetta started in tattooing in 1989, when, at the age of 18, she got her first ink—a Celtic piece that she has since had lasered off. In 1992, while in the South of France, she was introduced to Dave "Bastard" Archer by a mutual friend and tattoo artist. She married the native Floridian three years later and moved with him to West Palm Beach. "I was drawing and painting ...
Fifteen is a tough age to get anything right, let alone to handle the lifestyle and responsibilities associated with landing a major record deal. Christian "Yung Berg" Ward signed his first deal as a teenager and felt all was cool with his adolescent fame and fortune, though his parents didn't quite share the sentiment. "I was wild'n out and they had enough of it," admits Berg. "The deal wasn't as important to them as my behavior. They shipped me off to military school to get straight." After re-emerging from a Montana military school, Berg signed on as the tour hype man for fellow Chicago artist Shawnna and channeled his newfound ...
Rachel Larratt, also known as Chica Loca, takes a hair-pin turn at 129 miles per hour in her 2006 Lotus Elise and finds that the preceding evening's rain has washed away a large chunk of the stretch of Mexican roadway where she's been racing. She pilots around it and continues on, just a streak of gunmetal in Mexico's most perilous road race, La Carrera Panamericana. In the end, Chica Loca comes in first in class, first in exhibition, and tenth overall out of 103 entered in 2006. Not bad for a girl. In fact, this "girl" has had podium finishes in every rally series she's entered, including the Chihuahua Express; ...
Most artists are inspired by art they love, but it was a particularly bad backyard show by a Los Angeles punk group that spurred singer Liza Graves to form a band. "I went home and started my own band because I was so disappointed," Graves remembers. She teamed with her sister, guitarist Suzi Homewrecker, bassist Jacqui Valentine, and drummer Danni Harrowyn, and the new foursome started the snarling punk outfit Civet. "I think there's a stereotype that if you are a girl, you have to be girly. We're not afraid to say we've got balls but we're going to dress nice because that's how we are in regular life." Inspired ...
"It's scary." That's how Bradley Farrell, filmmaker, tattoo artist, and CEO of the social networking site eCirkit, describes what it's like to drive his matte black Ferrari 360 Modena on the track. "Even if you drive really well on the road, it's a totally different feel on the track, especially when you're throwing around a $150,000 car. You don't want to throw it into the wall." Farrell, 33, got into racing Ferraris after he sold his Long Island tattoo shop, High Rollers Tattoo, to a friend in 2005. Farrell opened the Hicksville shop in 1997, and over the years, filled it with a ping-pong table, a skateboard ramp, a gigantic ...
Ten years ago, when tattooer Horitaka traveled to Japan and sought out tattoo master Horiyoshi II with hopes of starting a back piece, he had no idea what he was truly beginning. "I wanted him to do my back piece, which is now finally completed, and we just hit it off," Horitaka explains. "If you had told me at that time that I would become an apprentice of his, I would have never believed you. The last 10 years have been magical." Horitaka, 34, was born in Japan and raised in the United States. Thankfully, his parents taught him Japanese, which helped later in his study of Japanese tattoo culture ...
Q & A with Montel Williams He's a former Navy spy, a medicinal marijuana smoker, and a tattoo enthusiast. Meet the other side of the daytime television king. Take one look at the half-sleeves blanketing both of his upper arms and it's clear Montel Williams lives up to his talk show's slogan, "There's More to Montel." Who would have ever guessed that underneath those neatly pressed shirts, this fixture of daytime jibber jabber is hiding intricate ink murals by the likes of the legendary Zulu from Zulu Tattoo? The "moreness" of Williams extends way beyond his surprising love of tattooing. He's an avid snowboarder, a skilled poker player, and an ...
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