- TattooArtProject.com – The best realistic tattoo artists in the world.

As the years go by, I realize in many ways that I have always been and always will be an introverted and emotionally-driven person that turns sharply in the mood of thousands of different reasons. It sounds like it ought to be a weakness and a negative characteristic. In all honesty, I have enough in the episodes in my life seen this behavior as a weakness and a lack that neither is socially acceptable or, indeed, contribute to some form of personal success. But since I have been working an awful lot during my childhood to accept who I am, and watch my qualities as strengths rather than weaknesses, I have also built up my confidence and self esteem in an informed way!

I describe my own view of my behavior and personality to other people, the majority will look like bird feeders and wonder what in hell I’m talking about. It is a fact that whatever I’ve taken on in the later part of my life has been outgoing and socially active, where I usually ended up in positions to act as some sort of leader or representative of other people. And how paradoxical it may sound, this is exactly what I’ve been doing, and how I have been. It is only within the past year that I realized that I had to take the chance to test these “skills” to see if it really is so that I’m the type of person who everyone says I am. Therefore, I decided to take a job as a supervisor for three departments in a company that both target the production and sales, while also leading people who for various reasons not yet got into the open labor market. Without going too deeply into that aspect, I can say that sometimes it does not feel like I left my old job as a social worker at the treatment center.

Why do I use the song title “I Wear My Life” in this Tattoo Art Project blog article? The answer will come, but it requires that I continue to frame everything with a little more frippery.

The last few weeks at my new job I have really struggled with divided feelings and thoughts about if I really made the right choice and started working as a supervisor. It is incredibly stressful and split tasks constantly make me feel that I have a hard time catching up and get a grip and control on things. I might not be the biggest control freak in the world, but I contend with a strong will to do a “good job” and be present for the people I work with. But as it is at the moment I more or less run around doing a thousand different things, in a thousand different places. It simply does not harmonize the moment.

Here comes my inner conflict with who I am, what I believe in, in direct collision with the requirements of the new work is organized. What makes it extra difficult is that I do not know if what I feel is a result of the fact that I am new to the leadership position and have not learned everything practically and theoretically yet. Maybe it has to do with me trying to repair the damage that my predecessor has caused, so intense that I did not give myself the opportunity to create a decent picture of what the work actually could be? Or is it a third aspect, where I simply chose to work on something that I’m not meant to do? The confusion is total, but it still makes me confident is that I know I will make the right choice, whether I stay or move on. And here I somehow land in an inner security and self-esteem that I’ve struggled to build up throughout my life.

In my own little introverted mental and emotional world, I have developed a creative thinking and imagination  that is quite powerful, but in other ways is extremely fragmented and distracting. It was only when I started reading the blog www.creativesomething.net, and later the book Imagine by Jonah Lehrer that I realized that it is about developing my capability and creative talent in the right way, and the right direction.

So a couple of days ago I decided to take one of my little innovations I had in stock and visited a company that works with help people like me, with an idea of an innovation, but do not really know how to move from idea to product.

I met a man who definitely didn’t give the impression I had expected. He began by telling me about his past life and how he worked from an early age with a variety of sophisticated things, trained as a mechanical engineer of some sort. He started different companies and came up with an innovation that at 25 years of age made him a multimillionaire. He told how he frantically continued in the same line of business initiative and gush forth innovations, until one day he woke up and realized that he was doing something fundamentally wrong with his life. He chose to give up everything he achieved, company, work, just about everything. He instead began a special education, where he spent several years focusing and prioritizing the life of the pluses and minuses. It resulted in him selling off pretty much everything he had and instead began focusing on different ways of helping people to realize their ideas. He brought up his way of thinking in such a way that I simply after our meeting walked out from his office with the feeling that my innovation was quite pathetic and that I should devote myself to doing good for the world instead.

A few days after that visit, a lot of what he told me has sunk in. I still believe that my innovation is good, but if I push through it is uncertain because I do not know if it helps me slip away in a trace of life that will make me feel more fragmented and lost than I do now. I also got the chance to tell about my own life for this innovation genius, and I realized that I soon got into a lively description of the Tattoo Art Project. The strange thing about him was that he probably found out when I told you about Tattoo Art Project, that it is the one interest that I have a true passion for, except my family off course.

He took out one five-point list of things that must be found for the innovation you have to be a success. I was also to grade each point in a 1-10 scale. I think definitely my innovation meets all five points, but I also realized that I graded each item fairly low on the scale, and it made me a little worried. Not because the product is not possible to produce and sell, but that maybe I should not waste time and energy on this project in this particular phase of life. Maybe I should let the experience sink in a while and focus on the most obvious things that make me happy.

After meeting with Mr. “Innovation Man”, I went home slightly confused and deeply absorbed in thoughts. I put on my jacket and went for a mind-cleansing walk. The thoughts were going hay wire and it was very difficult to keep focused on one single thread of thought. All of a sudden it was like if my brain had reached the boiling point and it bubbled thoughts from every cut and corner. In the end I had to stop and put on my headphones with music to distract the brain with a predestined impression. Somehow it worked and the thoughts started to calm down and I slowly received a more linear thought flow. I’m sure there are many of you will recognize this phenomenon, in which music can contribute to like a kind of concentration battery.

Five minutes later came a song in MP3 player that means a lot to me emotionally, and which incidentally is on my “funeral playlist”. (the “funeral playlist” is songs from different artists that I will have played on my own funeral that will help describe who I was when I was alive.)

Suddenly the uncontrolled flow of thoughts going fast again, but this time in a much more positive and constructive way. Those who have been through this kind of experience know what I mean by when being “in the zone” or “the flow”!

I realized in that moment that I had to do a sub project within the main Tattoo Art Project, which aims to describe my life through music and art! It is hard for me to try to explain in this article how the project should be done, but I promise that when given opportunities to be realized, I am going to flow out of me information! I can at least say that it must contain my “funeral list”, Tattoo Art, and an special art exhibition. Cryptic, I know, but I am a very cryptic man.

I pretty much ran back home to start sketching and smudging down my thoughts on paper to sort the ideas and strategies to implement the project. There are obvious obstacles to many of my sub projects, and that is that somewhere along the way It needs money to be feasible, which is money I do not have. Simply put.

Therefore, I got then down at the computer and wrote an application for cultural funding for my project aiming at 2014 when Umeå, the town I live in is the European Capital of Culture. I have no idea if I will receive funding for this project, but I really hope so. If I don’t the funding from this place, I will still sooner or later to complete it. I’ve made up my mind. And so far in life I have achieved everything I planned once I made up my mind!

It was a few days ago that I sent this funding request, and as I have described earlier, I’m mostly hovering between hope and despair about my job, and direction of work. I have learned to notice pretty quickly when I start to commute over the negative and gloomy thoughts, and therefore I try and attack it by stimulating my creative thinking in every way I have knowledge of. One of the best trick I have is as mentioned earlier, to take walks and listen to music. But this time I decided to take the mp3 player and go to the store to buy some food. It almost always work when I choose music with a combination of nostalgia and positivity. So I chose to play Jo Dee Messina. It is perhaps not the music I usually listen to these days, but there was a time during the 90′s when I listened to her a lot. Therefore, I know that her songs and old nostalgic memories would relatively quickly get my fragmented thoughts narrowed down and filtered in purer form and order. Music and nostalgia brings order out of chaos, one can say.

I calmly walked around the shop, picked me food, listening to music, and suddenly the song “I wear my life” starts playing in the headphones. There I’m standing completely still at cheese and ham section, just listening to the song and the lyrics. It’s just like there was a higher power that made me choose that particular song by Jo Dee Messina. In an odd way it speaks to me and give new a explanation to the meaning of why I started with Tattoo Art Project, or even why I chose to tattoo me at the first place!

When Jo Dee Messina sang the chorus, it was almost as if my legs would give way on me and I wanted to sink down on the floor of pure shock and revelation:

I wear my life, right on my sleeve

Who I am ain’t no mystery

Where I’ve been has left a mark on me

No, I’m not one to try and hide

Or keep it all locked up inside

It may sound crazy to everyone else, but I’m starting to think that my “funeral playlist ‘is predetermined, and I really just wander like a ghost to sum up a life already lived. Every time I try to wrap my brain around this life-project that I created, it becomes more and more complicated, asking questions, while providing crystal clear explanations and easy answers.

I have most of my life lived according to a circular philosophical idea, which states: The meaning of life, is to search for the meaning of life. This philosophy is a subjective truth that I have believed in for over 25 years, long before I started with either “funeral playlist ‘or Tattoo Art Project.

What I have realized today is that I need to learn to accept and deal with the existence of pure fate and predetermined truths.

I am super stoked to have the awesomely talented Thanassis Pimpas from Greece and the studio EREVOS creations, joining Tattoo Art Project.
I have had my eye on his work for quite some time now, and must say that I really dig his realistic touch and style!

As it says in his bio:

“His love for photo realism, detail and anything that has to do with new trends is what characterizes him and EREVOS creations.” 

This Rembrandt piece that he made at Copenhagen Ink  Festival is a great example of his awesome realistic tattooing skills and his eye for details. And also the pic with the girl and the mirror reflection is also a superb piece that really pops like crazy!

I’m certain we will see a lot great realistic work from you in the future, So very welcome Mr. Thanassis to the Tattoo Art Project!

I have noticed a slight positive visiting trend on the main site and the FB page these last days. That makes me glad because I don’t have any cunning marketing plan, contests, polls, or any other BS promotion where the tattoo art actually becomes secondary when looking closer!

Tattoo Art Project is focusing on high quality realistic tattoo art made by professionals in the business, nothing else!

So to all of you visitors, “likers” and “sharers” out there…we know this is the shit!

It is strange how some days feel completely drained of energy and creative power, the next day be filled to the brim with inspiration and new ideas. Perhaps it is the way life should work, but I must say that it is incredibly life-giving, when the latter days occur…and this was a good one!

It may sound like philosophical new age blather, but I am absolutely convinced that my life has a ready way marked, but that I continously have to draw my own map to follow in order to arrive at my final destination. It’s just so frustrating to not be able to discern the liberating whole based on the fragmentary clues that create paths in the map. However, I am absolutely convinced that every part of the map has a link to a larger significant meaning.

There you go, now I’ve probably confused 50% of all readers, and 40% sit and snort in irritation. But maybe the other 10% have a small idea of ​​what I mean. I do not like numbers and statistics really, so I think 10% is quite enough to continue my blather!

This evening I took a lovely evening walk, most for the sake of exercise, but also to clear the mind from the daily work stress. I listened to wonderful music and my thoughts wandered slowly off to this year’s Copenhagen Ink Festival … which in itself made me frustrated because I was not able to attend. But while I thought about how happy I am that I was able to was there last year and get my long awaited tattoo of an owl by Boris. My thoughts continued to wander into my other tattoos and how it becomes so important for me to tell a story about my life through tattoos.

And there I suddenly some kind of flash of revelation, I realized suddenly how I would piece together a number of my ‘map pieces’ into a giant section of the map. It suddenly became clear. Like when you are stumbling in a dark room with a flashlight with a bad battery, and you suddenly find the power switch on the wall to light a 300 W lamp.

However much I try to explain what I mean, it will only appear disjointed madness. But for me it’s clear as day. There are certain keywords that are included in this “mapping section”. Tattoos, the past, the future, funeral music, family, relatives, bucket list. Surely nothing says these words to you, but in their interconnected context, draws up a huge part of my life map that I follow.

I have added a couple of tattoos I somehow feel captures my somewhat euphoric state of mind and has an important connection to my life map. The first one is a incredible feather tattoo by Rich Pineda, and the other one is a amazing sleeve work from Csaba Kolozsvári.

I do not even think there are drugs that can achieve this … anyway I do not need such a drug!

There are cool tattoos, and then there are COOL tattoos!

Tattoo artist Jens Bergström dwelling in Åkersberga, Sweden in his studio Heavenly Ink Tattoo and Piercing, is one of the world’s top tattoo artists and certainly one of those out there who managed to make some of the COOLEST celebrity tattoos I’ve seen.

Jens is a very broad and extremely talented tattoo artist who absolutely doesn’t just do celebrity portraits. On the contrary, he is capable of a hell of a lot, but it is perhaps best in the genre realistic that I think his incredible skills shines brightest. Jens often use his own artistic “frame niche” in the compositions that I really like. But it is his incredible ability to create realism that makes me gasp for breath every time I see one of his new motives.

Jens won “Best of Realistic” at the Svenska Tatueringsmässan i Norrköping – 2012 with this stunning portrait of Gene Simmons. There is so much to praise in this portrait, including how he managed to capture the characteristic features of “The Demon” perfectly. The contrast between the dark parts of the make-up, and the brighter parts of the skin is perfectly balanced. And on top of that Jens created 3D-depth, shadows, highlights, glossy effects and magically smooth shading…well then you just want to shout it out loud!

Although there may be more to be desired when it comes to photography’s quality, so it makes little difference … for anyone to see that this is a realistic tattoo portrait of Gene Simmons in absolute world class.

Jens is an awesome all-around artist and he has also done an oil painting by Gene Simmons, that is amazing.

I can without hesitation say that everyone who is a true KISS fan can appreciate Jens Bergström works…and probably everyone else too!

I think I should once again post a little reminder about the Tattoo Art Project book funding campaign. Maybe everything isn’t perfectly in place, but along with the development of this Indiegogo campaign page, more info, images and perks will be added. I have already added a bunch of cool perks to those who help out with funding, so visit the site and read the project description, and you’ll know what I mean!

http://www.indiegogo.com/tattooartproject?a=563391

Sometimes I think American tattoo artist is stuck in an own realistic style that can look “to neat”, and maybe even a bit boring. But this guy is definitely not one of them. Steve Wimmer is an incredible tattoo artist who does tattoos that will leave you breathless!

Steve seems to enjoy doing realistic portraits and wildlife tattoos, both colour and black and gray. And what realistic work it is! Steve’s ability to create solid saturated colors and super soft shading and transitions is simply spectacular!

Steve began his tattooing career in 2006, and 2010, he received the opportunity to start working with Shane O’Neill in his new studio Infamous Tattoo. I do not know if there is a chance, or coincidence, but I see myself find many similarities in Steve’s and Shane’s style. And if that is the case that Shane has inspired him,  it is perhaps not the worst thing to have your own “Ink master” as inspiration.

Whatever the inspiration comes from, Steve Wimmer has evolved in becoming an amazing tattoo artist and he does tattoos that make me just sit and smile when I peep through the gallery.

So I am very glad that Mr. Wimmer has joined Tattoo Art Project, and we will follow with excitement how his future creations will look like!

I’m not really fond of showing tattoo artists work that’s obviously “branded”, but once in a while I make exceptions. Perhaps I’ve been trying to censor anything and everything just because I don’t wanna offend any artist? Maybe, I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe I’ve been trying to censor an advertising channel that really should not be censored?

I know that most tattoo artists are in need of help and support of manufacturers in order to finance his travels and exhibitions, etc. Who am I to weed out good material containing tattoo’s subject matter, just because it is obviously packed in a manufacturer’s wrapping paper? Maybe it’s time to stop filtering. And when I stop filter, I will not distinguish which manufacturers may be shown more than in my own subjective view that there is a serious business, and that production of good quality. Because even if it’s an awesome tattoo artist who makes superb tattoos, but the video or photo is of poor quality. Then I reject it without hesitation!

I consider myself as the creator of this project have completely free rein to screen and censor what I believe are of high quality. There are enough sites that represent the other side. They may keep it the way they want. Not me! Not Tattoo Art Project!

Therefore it is particularly fun when I got this movie from Silvano Fiato, because itis a shining example of good production quality together with a clear focus on the tattoo artists job being presented. The video is made by Haki production and is a indipendent video and audio production from Italy.

The video clip is more than obviously to show off Stigma Rotary machines. But that’s ok, because I know that it’s a quality brand, and a lot of professional tattoo artists use those tattoo machines. These kinds of movies like this, I have no problem at all to promote, even if it is elaborately designed with product placement. As long as I can see the end product from the artist. And in this video it’s carefully shown how Silvano works his way to an incredible black and grey portrait!

I’m not really sure why I got so much “tee inspiration”…but hell, I think it is great fun to design new Tattoo Art Project t-shirts when ever I’m in the mood.

Samuel O’Reilly invented the electric tattooing machine in 1891. O’Reilly improved upon an earlier tattoo machine invented by Thomas Edison that did not succeed commercially. So in my book, Tomas Edison was a hack…and O’Reilly was the real deal!

I thought I’d make a tribute t-shirt on that topic.

The t-shirt is of course also available for women!
http://tattooartproject.spreadshirt.com/

Maria Anna Pabst, a researcher at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, who trained optical and electron microscopes on biopsies of Otzi’s preserved flesh says that Ötzi the 5300 year old Tyrolean iceman’s simple tattoos may have served a medicinal purpose, not a decorative one.

I have another theory, Ötzi was a cool dude, ergo – he got himself tattooed!

I know that some may think the t-shirt design is a little freaky…but I don’t really care. I think Its cool, and makes a statement. That’s what I’m aiming for!

Available in the TAP t-shirt shop, for both women and men!