You can find the oldest tattoo shop in the world nestled among a diversity of worship buildings in central Israel. Between the churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship in Jerusalem you’ll find Razzouk Tattoo, operating since 1300; just a 1 minute walk from the Tower of David. The Razzouk family brought their tattooing […]
Category: History
Important contributors to mainstream tattooing, and the evolution of tattooing
Friday the 13th
In lieu of Friday the 13th I thought I’d dig a little more into the history and see what the trend is all about. Many of the articles I found credit the trend to Ink Master judge Oliver Peck and his shop Elm Street Tattoos in Dallas Texas. Though Peck was one of the first […]
Whang-od Oggay: A Living Legend
Whang-od Oggay is a 104 year old Phillipino woman who lives in Buscalan, a mountain village in the Kalinga province of the Philippines, about 15 hours from the capital of Manila, and she is single handedly keeping the tattoo tradition of the Butbut peoples alive. She is the last of the mambabatok, which is the […]
Trash Polka, More Than Trash, Not Quite Polka
Trash Polka started at a small shop in Würzburg, Germany and has quickly spread all over the world. Though you may not have heard of Trash Polka in those terms, chances are you have even seen someone wearing a Trash Polka tattoo. Some people who have Trash Polka like this hidden aspect, that not everyone […]
Neo Traditional
So we’ve gone over some American Traditional.. Quite a bit actually, and there’s still more to say about it. For such a simple looking style it is so complex and has such a deep history. This week though I want to go into one of the styles that has branched off of traditional, and as […]
Medicinal and Therapeutic Ancient Tattooing in the Arctic
This is a bit of a long one but I hope it’s worth it! I’ve included a bunch of headings so that if you want to skip to the more interesting parts it’s easy to find. However the cultural context is important to really understanding why they tattoo so I encourage you to read it! […]
Hand Poking Part 1: Asian History
I’ve been having some writers block this week so first I’d like to thank my friends for suggesting this topic! Everything I mention is about the style of hand poking tattoos by professionals, not stick and pokes done at home. Make shift stick and poke tattoos can be very dangerous and we recommend going to […]
American Trad Pt 2: Bert Grimm
Bert Grimm is an important figure in American Traditional tattooing who lived from 1900-1985 and spent nearly 70 years tattooing. Grimm got into tattooing at a young age, he started hanging around shops in Portland around 11 and had his first tattoo machine in 1912. When he was 15 years old Bert ran away from […]
American Traditional Part 1
American Traditional is a simple but complex style with a large history, so this is going to be a multiple part series. This week I’m going to start with the key characteristics and establish a foundation and then in coming weeks we will dive more into specifics and some different traditional images, people and history! […]
Historical Figures and Their Tattoos
Throughout history tons and tons of people all over the world have gotten tattooed, no one is surprised there. You might be surprised though to learn about some historical figures who have tattoos. Starting at one of the earlier figures King Harold II. King Harold II was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, he reigned […]