Tattooers’ names are tossed around in casual conversation all the time. But unless they’re starring in a popular TV series or have a multimillion-dollar clothing line named after them, most artists aren’t exactly recognizable to millions. Except maybe Scott Campbell. Whether you know his name or not, chances are you’ve seen his work, and not just the tattoos. Campbell’s art and design skills have popped up on everything from packaging for Camel cigarettes to products for Nike, Volkswagen, BlackBerry, Yellow Tail wines, and a few other national brands. Campbell is also known for the company he keeps. He was close friends with Heath Ledger (and even attended the actor’s memorial ...
To say Jayceon “The Game” Taylor is a man of many contradictions is an understatement. An example: He grew up in Compton, CA, gangbanging with the Bloods even though his own mom was once affiliated with the Crips. He’s a cocky son-of-a-bitch who’s never been afraid to publicly champion himself as the greatest rapper alive. At the same time, he exhibits near-monk-like humility when it comes to thanking his friends, family, and hip-hop predecessors for paving the path of his success. Even The Game’s trajectory from Compton delinquent to international rap star has been riddled with paradox. He’s as hardcore a representation of West Coast as they come, and yet ...
She didn't want to sleep alone. It was July 2006 and almost midnight, closing time at Sacred Tattoo in downtown Oakland, and 26-year old tattooist Devon Blood was working on a back piece for another artist at the shop when his cell phone rang. His girlfriend Tanya [not her real name] wanted him to sleep at her East Oakland apartment. So when the shop closed, Devon rode his bike along the quiet streets to her live/work loft on 20th Avenue. Boxes filled the apartment. It was their last week in San Francisco. On Monday, the couple planned to move to Olympia, Washington, where Devon would tattoo and Tanya would attend ...
It started with a song that might be about masturbation. It was 2002 and R&B singer Tweet [born Charlene Keys] had spent time behind the scenes as a backing/guest vocalist on a few Missy Elliot tracks before pairing with Elliot producer Timbaland. The resulting track, “Oops (Oh My),” found sultry Tweet moaning lines such as “I was looking so good I couldn’t reject myself” and “Oops, there goes my shirt up over my head.” The ode to self-pleasure became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard R&B chart and her Elektra Records’ debut Southern Hummingbird, soon followed. Just like that, Tweet had become a major name in R&B. But because ...
VINNIE JONES IS A PSYCHO. It’s the nickname he earned himself as a pro soccer player, and if you had to pick just one word to describe the roles he’s pursued in his second career as a Hollywood bad-ass, “psycho” would fit the bill quite snugly. The 43-year-old British expat first came to notoriety in the ’80s. Though his skill and heart on the soccer field were undeniable, it was his brutality that made him stand out. Headbutts and career-ending tackles aside, it was one very legendary act of viciousness that catapulted his name to the top of the sports page. During one match, Jones “distracted” an opposing player by ...
New York City hardcore could never have been born anywhere else. The music was built in the city, for the city. It came stripped-down, muscled-up, and overloaded with all of the frantic energy and violence of the streets. It was designed to intimidate. The musicians were homeless, AWOL, and just plain crazy street kids who felt fed up with the chaos of early ’80s New York. President Reagan’s economics had knocked the poor to their knees. Unemployment and a raging drug epidemic tried to finish the job. New York hardcore gave that madness a voice. It took form slowly, in shitty clubs and even shittier rehearsal rooms. Agnostic Front built ...
The Lower East Side was once the exclusive domain of New York City’s poorest immigrants and most brazen drug dealers. Over the years, the neighborhood has been co-opted by million dollar condos, but Dr. Dave Ores (or Dr. Dave as locals have known him for 13 years), isn’t beating the anti-gentrification drum. Instead, in his street-front medical office—which looks like a lowbrow art gallery because it is—Dr. Dave powers up his laser equipment and offers expensive services like body hair and tattoo removal, facial rejuvenation, and wrinkle reduction to LES’s wealthy new residents. It’s these luxury services that help fund his family practice while he provides free or low cost ...
Five years ago, just before Estonian pop singer Kerli turned 16, she asked her conservative mother to let her get a tattoo of a “little Chinese hieroglyph” on the back of her neck for a birthday present and reward for her academic prowess. “She said, “No fucking way’” Kerli remembers. Instead, her mom challenged er to find every book in town about China, read it, and report back. If she thought the teenager knew enough, she could get the tattoo. “She thought I was never going to do it, and of course I did. So that was my 16th birthday present. It cost $10 from this little shitty salon in ...
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