Hell City Phoenix is less than thirty days away–I don’t know about you, but I desperately need a vacation.
I’ll be there representing Tattoo Snob (Julene’s missing out, pansy), and loafing around by the pool. No contests planned this time around – but we’re open to suggestions if you guys have any.
I almost forgot how much fun I had in Columbus, but Alissa Brunelli did a great job reminding me by uploading all of her pictures from the event.
Hell City released their new iPhone app, Tattoo IQ, yesterday on iTunes. While we’re not going to give away answers to any of the questions, we’re proud to say that we achieved the ‘Tattoo Guru’ status on the first second try.
Continuing their attempt at word domination to centralize tattoo enthusiasts and artists, Hell City has expanded to offer a community-social-networking site: Hell City Tattoo Community.
The site currently contains all of the details of the Hell City Tattoo Conventions, as well as user forums, groups, blogs, and picture galleries. While this most likely won’t replace your Facebook, it seems like a logical place to gather to discuss plans specific to Hell City and related events.
The Pint Size Painting canvas was the talk of the tattoo convention in Detroit on Sunday. As the 2″x3″ canvases were being handed out, some artists gazed at the tiny canvas in amazement, as others didn’t hesitate to get their masterpiece started.
The following week I was fortunate enough to see the paintings in person, and I was blown away. Just when I thought I found my favorite one, it was quickly replaced by another moments later. The amount of detail and time put into these paintings was indescribable.
As we sat around talking about the different paintings, I was able to ask Durb and Tony some questions about the project and their future plans. Read below for the exclusive interview.
Tattoo Snob: What exactly is a ‘pint sized painting’?
Pint Sized Paintings: A Pint Size Painting is a unique miniature masterpiece, art done on a very small scale. All the paintings are on a 2”x3” canvas board, and each one has a huge visual impact.
TS: How many of the paintings were handed out?
PSP: So far we have shipped out almost 1000 canvasses, and received more than 400 back.
TS: With that many handed out, I’m sure you won’t be able to recite everyone that participated. Is there an official list online?
PSP: Yes, you can go to our website, PintSizePaintings.com, and see the list of artists who have submitted art work.
TS: Will we be able to see them live in person?
PSP: We will debut the entire Pint Size Collection at the Hell City Tattoo Festival, May 21-23 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Killumbus. Following that, the show will go to Sacred Gallery NYC in July. From there we will display it at Hell City Phoenix at the Biltmore, August 27-29. Then it will travel to Coil Tattoo Gallery in L.A.
TS: All of the paintings are going to be featured in a book, right?
PSP: Not all paintings received are printed in this first book from Pint Size Publishing. The book is a 224-page hardcover collection of these miniature masterpieces, with 208 of the paintings displayed in full color and printed to actual size.
TS: Will the book’s pages be 2″x3″ as well?
PSP: The book is 6”x9” landscape, and there are two paintings per page to give the focus to the amazing artwork. The book is printed in an art gallery format with bright, white pages and a very clean and simple view so as to not take away from the small paintings.
TS: Where can people pick the book up at?
PSP: You can of course pre-order the book from Pint Size Publishing on our website, Hellcity.com, and they will be available with a limited edition ruler/magnifying glass at Hell City Killumbus, available with the first 200 books purchased.
TS: I hear you’re already working on volume two? Is this true?
PSP: It is true, with the amount of Pint Size Packages we have already sent out, each submission received now is for Volume 2. Submissions pour in on a daily basis. There are hundreds of artists who have not yet sent in their Pint Size Paintings, and more want to be involved every day. Numerous artists have heard of this project heard through the grapevine, plus with the excitement for the release of Volume 1, Pint Size Paintings will most likely have quite a number of editions.
TS: If an artist is interested in being a part of volume two, who can they contact?
PSP: They can simply send us their mailing address to info@hellcity.com and let us know they want to be a part of Pint Size Paintings. We will ship them out a Pint Size Package containing two of our boards (required to use) and a release form, along with some promotional material. We encourage artists from all genres to participate, not just tattoo artists. Spread the word!
As most of you probably know, this past weekend was the Detroit Motor City Tattoo Expo. This year marked the 15th anniversary of the show, and despite the bad weather – the turnout was great. The artist turn out was nothing short than stellar, and the floor was packed all weekend.
As always, I brought out my camera and tried to capture some of the quality work that surrounded me. I snapped entirely too many pictures to post on here, so I’m just going to post the cream of the crop. Please remember, my photography skills are amateur at best.
If you’re interested in seeing all of the mediocre pictures I took, become a fan of Tattoo Snob on Facebook. All of the pictures from this past weekend are posted in the albums.
We’ve posted about his tattoo convention, the iPhone app he’s developing, and Julene even posted about her inappropriate attraction to him.
How is this the first time we’ve ever posted his tattoo work?
Tattoo by: Durb Morrison
Photo by: Alissa Brunelli
Hell City teamed up with artist and skate board designer Don Pendelton for the 2010 Hell City t-shirts. All the of the shirts are pictured below, and I assume they’ll be for sale online fairly soon. You could always pick one up in Columbus (Ohio) on the weekend of May 21st – 23rd or in Phoenix (Arizona) August 27th – 29th.
It’s interesting that these shirts say Hell City, and not Hell City Tattoo Festival. I wonder if you’ll see this in a Hot Topic or Pacific Sunwear eventually…
A couple weeks ago, we announced a weekly #FollowFriday post to share some of our favorite Twitter users. The weekly posts seemed to lack over the past two weeks due to the holidays, so we waited on posting this until now.
Obviously tattoo artists are the best place to start, so without further ado – here’s the list:
Shawn Barber – Tattoo artist and painter extraordinaire Shawn Barber shares his tasks throughout the day, and typically includes a snap shot showing off his jaw dropping work.
Myke Chambers – Myke updates his Twitter quite a bit, and is constantly sending out pictures, links, and letting everyone know when he’s tattooing live over UStream.
Durb Morrison – If you know anything about Durb, it’s he is always working on something new. You can try to keep up, but let me warn you – it’s not easy.
Adam Hathorn – Adam Hathorn AKA HonkeyKong is someone I make sure always check out his tweets. A mixture of unique tattoo work, and humorous tweets helps fuel my Twitter addiction.
In an attempt to make it easier for people to follow this group, and people that will be added to the group in the future – I’ve created a list off the Tattoo Snob twitter account. From what I understand you can follow this list as opposed to all the users, and still receive all the tweets.
I’ll be updating this list in the future, removing people that fall off the Twitter game and adding fresh faces.
The rumor was discussed and confirmed here, and the details are now finally starting to emerge about the Hell City iPhone applications.
Coming soon!
Tattoo IQ – test your tattoo knowledge
Tattoo Machine – feel what it’s like to tattoo
Tattoo Convention – take a step inside the world of tattoos
Tattoo Conventions – find conventions in any part of the globe
I’ve spoke to Durb about getting the scoop on these, and he’s assured me once they’re in beta mode – we’re going to get the full scoop. I’m really interested to see what these look like.
Allow me to show some of you gals one of my favorite hot snobs… Durb Morrison. I thought I’d share this gem with the ladies since so many guys seemed to enjoy the photos of Radeo by Powder Puff Pinups.
C’mon, what other tattooist can you think of that’s appearing in photos that would almost have you convinced he’s a supermodel? (You know, aside from the hand tattoos & the ability to grow facial hair thing.)
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All of these photos were taken by his wife, Alissa–a lucky lady indeed, wouldn’t you agree?