All language subtitles for Tattoo.Uprising.2019.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

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With tattooing,
we're dealing with something

that I term a "lingua calda,"

tattooing is a hot language.

It's the cellular semiotics
of communication

that we're only now
beginning to realize exists

across the world
and throughout history

in a way that
no other medium functions.

♪

Almost all of my tattoos
have a story, a meaning,

a reason for them
that inspire me

and keep me going.

♪

I got involved with tattooing

because I guess I had
a lot of things

seeping underneath
my unconscious

and I wanted
to give it expression.

♪

My tattoo is

a visualization of myself

that I gather energy from.

When I look at it,
when I feel it,

whether physically
or psychically,

it allows me to be
my own person.

♪

♪

♪ Well, we all come here
to the tattoo convention ♪

♪ To show off
our tattooed hides ♪

♪

♪ We are the tattooed
world of the nations ♪

♪ One family,
and tattoo is our bride ♪

♪ If you ever come with us
to the tattoo convention ♪

♪ You'll see
the world's oldest art ♪

♪ And it is a time
of great celebration ♪

♪ And everyone here
is a star ♪

♪ It is a time
of great celebration ♪

♪ And everyone here is a star ♪

♪

I know initials give you--

Turn your chair around.

Sit sideways to me here, buddy.

Names or initials,
if you're a married man,

-give you a fit.
-Well, I had to put on...

I know it, but it's
some girl's name, ain't it?

-Yeah.
-And your wife don't like it,

is that what it is?

Well, not really, I just...

Here, put your hand
straight through here, buddy.

There you go. Now you lean--
you lean right.

A little--a little further now.

All right, did somebody
send you to me?

No, I'm just cruising
up the avenue.

-You haven't heard of me?
-No, sir.

Oh, raise your arm up.

Well, I'm known
all over the world,

so have faith in me.

When I was a junior in college,

I was taking a folklore course

and needed to write
a fieldwork paper.

♪

One night, I was wandering
off-campus with a friend.

In the distance,
I saw a sign that said,

"Tattooing by the teacher
of the art since 1928.

As ancient as time,
as modern as tomorrow."

♪

We got to the tattoo shop
and I looked inside,

saw the silhouette of a man
hunched over in a wheelchair,

electric eye
flashing on and off,

a basset hound howling
as I looked in the window,

and I felt like I was
in a different world.

This was, for me, at that time,

like being in the middle
of Franz Kafka novel.

♪

The next day, I went back
to the tattoo shop

with my 35-millimeter camera.

So, I took a few snapshots
outside the shop,

and the man inside
yelled at me

to stop taking pictures,
but he wanted me to come in.

I went inside
and he scolded me

for not asking permission
to make his picture.

I apologized.

I knew I was wrong.

He asked me to feel
his muscle

on his arm
and it was just bony.

And then he pulled a pistol
out of his wheelchair

that was hidden
and he put some bullets

on the table in front of him

and they were
hollow-point bullets.

And he said, "Do you know
what hollow-point bullets do

when they enter the body?

They shatter."

♪

And then he reared back
and laughed, and said,

"I can really take care
of myself.

I'm not afraid of anyone.

I've been doing this
a long time, buddy."

Yeah, I was kind of shaking
in my shoes,

and he started telling me
his life story.

I kept coming back
to the shop.

I went back every week
for the next seven years.

-Who did that tattoo?
-This is all me.

-The knee one.
-A friend of mine.

When we was drinking
a lot of beer.

We was young and putting
tattoos on each other.

I tell you why I never like
to ask a guy

who did his homemade job,

because sometimes that's done
in some unfamiliar places.

Yeah, so you don't want
to call the name

and you don't want to tell
where you was at

when you had it put on
so, therefore,

I don't embarrass him
by asking him, you see?

'Cause a lot of that
we call "chain gang tattooing."

Did in jail, a lot of it.

But you can do
the same thing at home

or sitting in Sunday school.

♪

What makes a good tattoo?

A good tattoo is something
the man studied

and thought it out
long before he got it,

then he got it.

-Or as an artist?
-As an art,

it's the shading,
it's not the color.

You could put just
a minimum amount of color

to real good shading
and it'll go over,

it'll stand out.

You take the old-timey tattooing

that was did this way
with heavy shading.

That's the way I was taught.

And I've seen these people
grow older,

their tattoos
still look better,

and they were put on
over 50 years ago.

In the making of the movie,
I wanted to bring

contemporary tattooing
into the film.

Stoney was averse.

He felt there was
a big generation gap

between the tattooing
that he made

and younger tattoo artists
who were starting

to come on to the scene.

Stoney described himself as
being part of the old school.

And Stoney felt that
most young tattoo artists

had no respect
for this tradition.

So, I'd keep suggesting people
that I read about

in little magazines
and otherwise,

tattooing was still very much

kind of an underground art form
at that point,

and came across an article
about a man

by the name of Ed Hardy.

And I talked to Stoney
about Ed Hardy,

and Stoney looked at me
a little surprised

that I knew about him
because I really was

just learning about tattooing.

And Stoney looked at me
and he said,

"Ed Hardy is a prince."

And he saw Ed Hardy
as being someone

of a younger generation

who really respected
the old school

and was carrying forth
with skills

that he didn't have.

And he agreed

to have Ed Hardy in the film.

You got a fantastic shop here,
this is great.

Oh, this is ancient stuff.

I never was much of a hand
to change anything.

Okay, so we'll build up
a design

within this snake form
that's already here.

This is like an infinity symbol

of the world
coming back on itself.

I'm gonna do a water principle
thing in here

since she's a water sign

and basically deal with
kind of a yin-yang form

but not a rigid format
within this oval shape here,

and make two opposing

kind of wave forces
swirling around.

I'm sort of a sucker
for recognizable imagery

that has a symbology
behind it.

You know, I'm into tattoos
and symbols too.

All mine are pretty much
amulets that I'm wearing.

So, if we could do something
to continue

with that kind of
Oriental thing of...

Maybe seasonal flowers.

If I can do a few
small cherry blossoms

and a few small maple leaves,
and that would stand

for the turning seasons
of the winter/fall season

and then the spring season,
which are both--

Fall is a prelude to winter

and then the spring
is a prelude to summer.

So, we'd get kind of
a double layer

of meaning that way.

Is that all right?

I just always thought
that flowers and trees

and things like that
were somewhat typical tattoos.

-Not the way I tattoo.
-No? Okay.

You've got to remember
that a lot of images

that have become popular
become kind of clichés,

there's a reason
they got so popular

'cause they're so well-suited
to being used as tattoos.

I'm kind of into tattoos being

you know, real one-of-a-kind
sort of things.

I never had one yet
that didn't hurt.

-Oh, don't say that.
-But...

No, I'm not trying
to flip you out or anything.

'Cause I'm really nervous.

I know, yeah,
everybody is on these,

but all you got to do
is, primarily,

if you can really relax,

I know that's easier
said than done.

Okay, and I'll start out--
I'll start out real small,

okay, with just a little bit,
all right?

When I got into tattooing
professionally 26 years ago,

I made a conscious move
to abandon the fine art

or high art world
where I was a printmaker

and was showing my works

and never thought that
it would really return to that,

but tattooing has gained
credibility

within the fine art world.

♪

Ed Hardy, during the height
of his career

as a tattoo artist,

was the most important
practitioner

of that art form
in the world.

He had a studio
in San Francisco

located on Van Ness Avenue

in kind of an office building.

Didn't have a sign out front.

It was very nondescript.

Ed Hardy clients were people
who were willing to spend

thousands and thousands
of dollars on their tattoos

but who generally kept

a very private, low profile

in terms of the presence
of their tattoos

within their normal work life.

They were bankers and lawyers
and artists and others.

♪

The first thing I remember
was Ed had

a tengu on the wall,
over here it was.

And it was the first thing
that I saw.

He had just opened
a short time ago before that,

and it was
the very first thing I saw

and it popped out of my head.

I went, "Oh, my God," I said,
"We got to get this,"

you know,
or something like this.

It's been growing ever since.

The legend of the tengu
is all over.

Yeah, these things,
I think, are so great,

these kind of mythical,
part bird, part man.

Well, they mean a lot to me.

Their protection
and their beauty,

and I like the Oriental art.

I always have liked that.

And to find
such a talented man to do it

is even more of an honor.

♪

When you really realize
that you are changing yourself,

that you're making
some kind of statement

with the piece, you know,
even if it's not--

not to be real serious
or overly mental about it,

but I think a lot
of people now,

the people that
I'm dealing with

and that some of
the rest of us,

you know, that are doing
more kind of conscious

whatever you might
want to call it, you know,

art tattooing
or more thought-out stuff,

they think a lot about
what they're going to get

and they're choosing something
that as a piece

that will transform
aspects of their life.

They're choosing it very--
tuning it down very finely,

you know, choosing it
very carefully.

And when you're able
to deal with an artist

who can visualize
what you have in your mind,

whose primary reason
for being there

is to interpret these things,

you get into a lot more
sophisticated kind of imagery.

♪

[whirring]

♪

-Are you okay?
-Oh, yeah.

I'm--I'm so surprised
how little I feel it.

It's, uh, it's amazing.

The objective
always was, I guess,

to get the most amount
of pigment in

with the very least
possible damage to the cells.

You know, before you started,

he told you that
all tattoos hurt?

-Yeah.
-They do.

There's no use in lying
about it

or buttered you all up, buddy.

Get you all relaxed
and then wham.

Don't get tattoos
just for the hell of it,

just because somebody
calls you chicken.

Maybe I was tattooing
in my last life or something

and then--'cause I was
aimed at it so early,

when I picked up on it
as a kid, I was just...

You know, it just seemed
so right for me

and I felt that that's what
I should do with my life.

And, so, I was thinking
if I do good enough

with it this time,
then maybe we'll really be out

in the rocket phase
next time around.

[whirring]

But I'm not really actively
worried about that.

I'm just having fun now.

Tattooing is so great because
it's the most immediate art

that there is,

and it's something
that you have to get

all the enjoyment out of.

It forces you
as a creative individual,

if you do it
when you can practice it

in a creative kind of form.

You can't always, you know,
depending on the person

and the circumstances,

but you have to do it--

It's going on immediately
and there's no mistakes.

You know, hopefully
you don't make any mistakes,

and you have to get
everything out of it

while you're doing it,
you can't--it can't be

like a favorite drawing
that you leave around,

you know, and look at
and decide

not to send off
to the gallery or whatever

'cause it just goes away.

And it cuts through
on a lot of the preciousness

and a lot of the bullshit
that I find

in the straight art world,
you know,

because with tattooing,
you just enjoy it

for what it is,
and the person has it,

then they leave,
and it's just--it's just now.

It's like everything,
it's just now.

♪

Ed Hardy had such respect
for Stoney

that he wanted a tattoo
from him.

♪

[whirring]

♪

You got a light touch, Stoney.

Nah.

♪

-Why'd you pick that one?
-I don't know,

I've always liked
cartoon rats, you know,

and it used to be
a nickname of mine

when I was a kid at the beach
and all that.

I just--I really liked
the looks of that on the wall.

It's like any of them,
you know, you just...

It seems like something
that's necessary to have.

This is great.

Yeah, I know this is
the high--high point

of my weekend here, I never--

never thought I'd get
to go home

with something to show
for the trip, you know?

[whirring]

I like Stoney's sense of humor
about his work

and his ability to get...

You know, his drawings
really got

a real, real good feeling to me,

and I wanted to get something
that had a real--

a happy feeling to it,
you know?

[whirring]

It's up there on the wall.

[whirring]

That's a Columbus rat.

They don't have
them kind of rats

-in San Francisco.
-Bring something back home

that's a little unusual,
you know?

That rat is right there.

I sure like the way
you blend colors in.

That's really, really...

I mean, I know you're
the old-school style,

but it's rare that
I've seen anybody--

I haven't really seen anybody
work in the old-school style,

the tradition you came out of
and using color and that,

the way that you've been
doing it.

I think that'll do,
that'll hold me

until the next one, won't it?

We got it solid on that, boss.

Yeah, that's not gonna
go anywhere.

Les Blank, a filmmaker
I'd long admired,

shot Stoney Knows How.

He really connected with Stoney.

In addition,
he really liked Ed Hardy

'cause he had thought
about getting tattoos.

♪

Before he left Columbus
and before Ed left,

they got together
in my backyard in Columbus.

Les got tattooed
with two carnival masks.

♪

♪

Les loved the tattoo
he got from Ed Hardy.

He was very proud of it.

He showed it to everyone.

And Les had gotten to know
Werner Herzog,

who saw his tattoo

and decided he wanted
an Ed Hardy tattoo himself.

♪

At that time,
Les was working on a film

called Burden of Dreams,

which was about the making
of Werner's film Fitzcarraldo,

which was being shot
in the Amazon jungle.

♪

Pacho Lane, who was one
of my collaborators

on the making
of the Stoney film,

was asked to be a translator.

We talked about him,
if he had an opportunity,

filming an interview
with Werner about his tattoo.

♪

Well, where are we?

We are in the jungle.

To specify it,
this is Rio Camisea.

The camp that you see,
I named

"película de muerte,"
"film of death."

We are doing
a pretty crazy film here

named Fitzcarraldo.

♪

And what you see down here
is Rio Camisea.

It's near the confluence
of Rio Urubamba

in southern Peru,

on the eastern slope
of the Andes.

So, you have to look on a map
to find it.

The next civilization is about
600, 700 miles away from here.

♪

♪

And I never thought of having
any tattoo in my life

and then, finally,
Les showed me his--

the man who operates
the camera right now,

we can't see him
because he's behind,

he showed me
a very beautiful tattoo,

and the next week,
I went to the same man.

I was in San Francisco.

His name is Ed Hardy,
whom I found very strange

but very intriguing.

A good man.
I liked him instantly.

He's quite weird,
but a very great master,

probably the greatest master
of his art.

And it is a real art.

♪

It has to do with ritual.

It is a very,
very deep-rooted

kind of atavistic,
archetypical

kind of self-expression,
I think.

And our modern civilization

is one of the few civilizations,

of societies that
does not know tattoos

as such a deep-rooted ritual.

♪

Whether you like tattoos
or not,

your primitive ancestors
were tattooed,

whether you be
from the white race,

the yellow race,
the red race, the brown race,

whatever race you came from,

everywhere the anthropologist
has gone in this world,

he's found tattooing prevalent
or it's been there and gone.

Your primitive ancestors
were tattooed, like it or not.

♪

[whooshing]

♪

I was first a fire-eater,
then a sword swallower.

Then I got tattooed,
was the tattooed man.

And with what little bit
of tattooing I have on me,

it was a lot of tattooing
in the '50s.

It just blew people away.

And, nowadays, I look out
into the audience

and there's people
in the audience

who have much more tattooing
on them than I have.

♪

The most dangerous part
is eating fire,

not blowing the fireballs,

because your lungs
are like an empty gas tank,

and if you should inhale
while you have those fumes

near your mouth, the next time
you put a torch there,

your lungs could literally
explode inside of you.

[exploding]

♪

And you see
when I put out a torch

and close my mouth around it,

I'm trapping the fumes
inside the mouth,

so when I bring
another lit torch here

and, boom, it explodes
and I blow it

to the next torch
before it does anything.

♪

[forceful exhalation]

We haven't left
our primitive roots.

We belong to tribes.

And the circus/carnival
people are my--

that's my tribe, my family.

That's who I relate to.

Outside of that,

the tattoo community
is my tribe.

I don't understand
the general public.

I do, but I don't understand
their way of life.

When I was being tattooed,
I wanted to get

a lot of tattooing done fast.

And never knew anything
that long lines

are a son of a bitch,
you know,

but I figured, you know,
a spiderweb covers

a lot of territory,
but I didn't realize

what I was in for
and all this...

[mimicking whirring]

All these long lines,

you know, on the side here.

I'm an atheist,
but when I had this done,

I saw Jesus in person.

If there are
ten qualifications

to make you a tattoo artist,
making money is number ten.

Number nine is
being an artist.

And if you have no idea
what the other eight are,

you don't belong
in the business.

♪

♪

♪ Have you ever noticed

when the other fellow
doesn't think or act like us ♪

♪

♪ Some of the rest of us

won't even sit beside him
on the bus ♪

♪

♪ We say that
he's a little strange

and brand him with
some hateful made-up name ♪

♪ Why can't
we all be different

and still respect each other
just the same ♪

♪ Oh, down through the ages,

the self-appointed righteous
make the rules ♪

♪ All those in opposition

are said to be
the evil heathen fools ♪

♪

♪ Tattooed people
have been around

for many thousand years ♪

♪ And they've been murdered,
scorned, and hated

by politicians and religions
out of fear ♪

♪ In the South Pacific Islands

lived the Polynesian peoples
long ago ♪

♪ Happy stories were told
on their drums

as they danced to and fro ♪

♪ Their tattooed legs
and bodies

bore the symbols of
their honest ties with life ♪

♪ Every mark and every line
told the truth

of their history and strife ♪

♪

♪ Out of the sea's horizon
came the ships

of the earth's other end ♪

♪ With the foreign people
who thought they had

life's answers for all men ♪

♪ They stepped
upon the beaches

of the Polynesian people's
sacred land ♪

♪ And in time
they tried to kill them,

every woman, every child,
and every man ♪

♪ Yes, these Christian
missionaries

who forgot about
the golden rule ♪

♪ Claimed any Polynesian
with a tattoo was a fool ♪

♪ And not one theologian
to this very day

wants to preach ♪

♪ How these tattooed people
were slaughtered

in the name of
the Prince of Peace ♪♪

♪

True story.

Well, normally, I wouldn't
expose a tattoo so easily.

It also has to do with
discretion a little bit,

but when you go swimming or so,
it shows.

But I'll show it to you.

It's here.

Yeah, that's death laughing
or singing

and, here, it's a microphone
of the '30s,

and it's CDF,
which is the second channel

of German television
and they have been my partners

in several of
my movie productions.

And I like it very much.

Do you think you might
get another tattoo,

you know, on your other arm
or some other part

of your body later on?

Yeah, I'm thinking about it,
but I don't know.

I don't know yet
what I should put there.

-You don't have an image yet?
-Well, I have seen

a very beautiful design
at Ed Hardy's place.

It was a coach of horses,

four or six horses
pulling a coach

and they were rushing
towards you

in almost three-dimensional,

and death was sitting
and whipping the horses.

I like that very much.

Which one do you like better,
Werner?

-Uh, my own.
-Why?

Because it's more elaborate,

and all the ladies,
for example, find it better.

I put it as a comparison here.

It's more elaborate somehow.

But that's a very,
very beautiful one.

I like it, I must say.

Les's--Les's was
very intriguing

because it's such a good idea,

death laughing
and death crying.

Why would you want
two death heads?

I mean, you say you want
another one maybe.

That's always--that should
be always included...

...on, uh, on a tattoo.

Every tattoo?

Well, you shouldn't have it...

You shouldn't have
your body tattooed

without at least one death.

♪

I learned so much about
tattooing from Ed Hardy.

And I was
particularly interested

in this fine line
black tattooing

that was being done
in East L.A.

♪

I learned that
this fine line black tattooing

had originated in prisons.

♪

It was a new style,
a new approach to tattooing

which was beginning
to take hold

in the tattoo world.

♪

And I did a series
of photographs

that I later called
the Hand of the Murderer.

These were men who had
committed violent crimes,

but they were young.

They were between the ages
of 19 and 21.

And their hands were, for me,
almost effeminate.

And they had tattoos
of seductive women

in this fine line style.

♪

Tattooing in prison
was illegal,

and inmates,

particularly
Mexican-American inmates,

were very ingenious
in the way in which

they created tattoo machines.

They usually get electric motor
of a cassette player,

like, for instance,
that would be a good one.

Any radio or anything
that has a cassette,

you could use and tear out,
break it down

and make a tattoo machine
of it,

and you use homemade things
such as pens, you know,

for a tunnel for the needle.

Homemade needles coming in
from the guitar strings.

[whirring]

♪

The prison tattoo machine does
a certain type of tattooing

that you use what you have,
and the end result

is a little bit different.

People are taking
these tattoo machines

and are actually tattooing
with them professionally.

There's certain tattoo artists
that are making their living

using these prison
tattoo machines

even though they have
standard tattoo machines,

coil machines available.

[whirring]

♪

You'll see a lot of Hispanic
people wear tattoos more

than any other
kind of people, you know.

It's just like part
of the culture, I guess,

and it runs in the families
of [unintelligible].

♪

Well, they're done
usually anytime,

but more or less,
like, when...

Evenings, in the evenings,
at night.

You know, you got
to watch out for the man.

If he walks in, you're gonna
lose all your equipment,

the machine, your ink, needles

and, also, on top of that,
get a misconduct report.

♪

Uh, there's idle time
and everything

and, you know,
inside a penitentiary,

just like anywhere,
I think it's only human

to get involved
in doing some type of thing.

♪

I do some of
the artwork myself.

I do a lot of tattooing
and, to me,

I see it as a piece of art,
as a work of art.

It's just a skin art, man.

You know, instead of
putting it on paper,

you put it on your skin
and show it, you know.

It's not for sale, you can't
go and hang it on a wall

but, you know,
everybody could see it.

And there's some that like it
and some that disapprove,

but there's nothing wrong
with them.

To me, there ain't.

In here, this is a whole
different world, man.

You know, a person puts on
a certain tattoo,

it's for a certain reason.

You've got to know
what you're gonna put on

'cause it's gonna be there
for the rest of your life.

♪

One of Ed Hardy's clients,
Duke, was the owner

of Ten Thousand Waves,
a chic hot tub resort,

a Japanese themed spa
in Santa Fe.

A couple of ex-cons

from the New Mexico
State Penitentiary

were now living on the outside
on parole.

So, I asked Duke--

it was a wild idea--

"Can we film a scene
with these men

showing their tattoos
in a steaming hot tub

in the winter?"

And he said, "Sure."

♪

Most of them that I have
were done in the joint.

It's, uh, just part
of prison life.

You see, that's the whole idea
of my back.

The back, I guess, was done

to symbolize my suffering.

Uh, getting busted,

and being in prison

was like the crucification.

And the bottom part,

this bottom part
where the guy is finally

busting out of the bars
and just taking off,

als--it symbolizes my freedom.

♪

And the tattoo on his chest
of Jesus

ties the whole thing
into the suffering.

And you'll notice that the bar
is through his hand

and he's crucified with that.

♪

The more I study tattooing,

the more I realized
that there were areas

in the history
of this amazing art form

that were so totally
misunderstood,

misrepresented,

subjected to intense
cultural bias.

One area that attracted
my interest

was early Christian tattooing.

♪

I found a book
on Coptic tattoo

and was just in awe

of what was there.

♪

According to the author,

Coptic Christians
had practiced tattooing

since the founding
of the Coptic Church in 50 AD.

♪

It had images made
from wood blocks

that were carved
with these tattoo designs.

Copts made annual pilgrimages
to the Holy Land

to be tattooed at Easter

with different stations
of the cross.

♪

It was a sign,
a symbol of devotion

carried on for centuries.

♪

These images reveal
the deep history

of an area of Christianity
that was little known,

so I began studying
this further

and looked more deeply
into why.

And through that,
I discovered that much

of the Coptic
tattooing tradition

dated back to references
in the Old Testament

but also to the New Testament.

♪

Leviticus 19:28 states,
"You shall not make

any cuttings in your flesh
for the dead,

nor print any marks upon you."

In the New Testament,

the references to tattooing
are more complex.

In Galatians 6:17, Paul says,

"Henceforth,
let no man trouble me.

I bear on my body
the marks of Jesus."

In looking more deeply
into the etymology

of the word "mark"
as it was translated

from the ancient Greek,

I realized that the word
in Greek was "stigma."

"Stigma" literally means

"the permanent marking
of the skin."

In Greece, it tends to be
associated with the status

of being an outsider,
being stigmatized.

Criminals were marked
with stigma.

They were marked with tattoos,
both in Greece and in Rome,

with little marks
on their forehead.

Then there are the stigmata
of Christ,

and then one thinks about
the idea

of what Paul
might've been saying,

which was that he bore
on his body

the tattoos of Christ,
the stigma.

[ethereal vocalizing]

♪

There are many
anecdotal accounts

that during the Crusades,

there were people
in the Holy Land

who had tattoos of crosses

on their wrist, on their hands,

so that they could be shown
to the Crusaders

to prove that
they were not infidels,

that they were Christians
and should be spared.

♪

Now, what about the one
on your hand?

-That little cross.
-This little cross?

Guys in la barrio
where I grew up

were all putting crosses
here on their hand,

and we were in this gang
called The Project Roamers.

Yeah.

I think I put this on
when I was 13 or something.

-What's that right below it?
-Here?

It was an S for an old
girlfriend that I used to have.

Shirley.

Have you ever felt
like you wanted

to get any of them removed

or do you feel happy
with what you got?

Yeah, I feel real happy.

I'm looking forward
to putting some more on

and just tying it all together

so it doesn't look
so spaced out.

And this way everything
will just be one tattoo.

Was there a book or something
you could choose these from?

How did you know which ones
that you wanted?

Well, these I had
designed myself.

I gave someone the idea.

I told them,
"This is what I want,"

and we sat down
and looked at different cars,

and from there we put
the patterns together

that I wanted.

Are you a lowrider yourself?

I used to be, yeah.

I've had a few, not anymore.

-In L.A.?
-Yeah, in Cali, yeah,

California, where I grew up.

What're you doing here?

I go to the College of Santa Fe.

I'm a student there,
Criminal Justice student.

Having thought about reasons
why people get tattoos,

and the way they get tattoos,

I started to put together
a philosophy about it.

The Japanese basic approved way
of tattoo

is that they contract
with an artist

and he does their whole body,

neck to ankles.

American tattoo
has traditionally, I think,

been a real scattershot
individualistic

type of approach where people

just get the tattoo
as their mood strikes them.

So, what I've tried to do
with my tattoo

is sort of combine
the two philosophies

and have a general overall plan

where the tattoo is always
complete in itself,

but it has always
got more work to do on it.

I was attracted
to the tattoo field

because of what I'd seen done
in Japanese tattooing,

which is probably the singular
place in the world

that it had been developed

as a very complex aesthetic
unto itself.

The Japanese aesthetic
in tattooing

builds on the imagery

of the ukiyo-e woodcut prints

of the 19th century.

They feature scenes
of what was thought of

to be the floating world.

♪

The man singularly responsible
for the birth

of modern tattooing
was Sailor Jerry Collins,

a Honolulu based tattoo artist
who died in 1973.

He was a traditional
American artist,

a fantastic strong stylist
within the American tradition

who began to really explore
Asian art,

and specifically the Japanese
tattoo tradition

in the early 1960s.

♪

Ed Hardy corresponded
with Sailor Jerry,

worked with Sailor Jerry,

and he brought
that aesthetic further.

At the height of his career,

Ed made annual trips
to Tokyo to tattoo.

He was very interested
in the Japanese aesthetic

of the body suit,
of the unified tattoo,

reflective of
the unified thinking

of the person
wearing the tattoo.

And I hoped to fuse that in
and create something similar

to that in a Western context

using our unique
American experience.

And it has succeeded
beyond my wildest dreams

in terms of the interest level

and the ability and enthusiasm
of the people

entering the field
both as tattoo artists

and what the tattoo clients,

the tattooees are bringing to it

as they see
the possibilities extended.

♪

Beyond the visible meaning
of a tattoo or subject matter,

the formal compositional
abstract qualities

were always of paramount
importance to me.

And this was true
especially in the Asian work,

the Japanese work that was
my primary initial influence,

and these began to be
more and more important

I think in the late '70s
and into the early '80s

as purely abstract tattoo
patterns begin to be used.

But in terms of minimalist
or abstract tattoo work,

some of the first works
in that field

that were really
the most beautifully done

and profoundly thought out
and executed

were by a woman
named Jamie Summers

who tattooed under the name
of La Palma.

♪

Beginning in the late 1970s,
she and I were associated

and she learned to tattoo
basically in my studio.

She was an installation artist
and a sculptor,

and she was interested
in making tattoos

that redefined
the affecting presence

of the human body.

Her tattoos were sculptural.

They were often abstract
or organic forms and shapes.

She saw the person
who got her tattoos

as a living sculpture.

She was a strong believer
in tattooing

as a therapeutic art form
in a sense.

She felt that individuals
could use the tattoo

to help discover
their inner psyche.

It could drive them
to deeper intuitive thinking,

greater and more profound
appreciation of themselves

and their relationship
to art, culture,

society, their place
in the world.

Jamie's really into
what she refers to

as biographical tattoos

and tattoos about
as closely linked to nature

as one can get.

I said, "Jamie,
I want some wings,

but I don't the typical
tattoo wings

with the fire
and all the color."

So what she did was photograph

some of her geese's wings,

and brought it in

and showed me
three different types

and I picked out what I liked.

And just by trade
I happen to be a messenger,

but there's no Hermes
implications there.

I am kind of light on my feet.

I am kind of light on my feet,
and, well,

the first day after I had
these wings put on

I bowled a 215, so.

[laughing]

Here they are.

This is the ribbing.

It's a two-dimensional wing.

This is the inside of the wing

and this is the feathered effect
on the outside of the wing.

So, if you look at them
like this

you can sort of almost feel
the flow of 'em.

Yeah, I really like 'em.

In the course of her work,
she influenced

a great many of us
with her concepts

and the pieces that she was able
to complete.

She tragically died
a very young death.

♪

Jamie was really advancing
in the art world

when she tragically was killed.

She had a studio in SoHo.

She was on her bicycle,

and a garbage truck
ran up over the curb

and she died.

♪

And Jamie's ideas and execution

and method of working
influenced a lot of us.

She particularly did some work

on an artist
named Cynthia Witkin

who's centered
in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Did a large piece
on Cynthia's back

and inspired Cynthia
to take the tack

that she has developed into
with her own tattoo work.

I had been to previous
tattoo parlors

and I'd been looking for
somebody to do something

very different looking,

and there wasn't a great deal

of black work being done
at the time,

and so when I met with Jamie
she was very excited.

We had a very good connection.

We talked about the tattoo,

and I came back the next day

and she did 11 hours
of work on me.

And that was the only time
I saw her.

We kept really close
correspondence.

We talked on the telephone,

and she was a great mentor
for me

to make the transition from

my initial long life dream
of being a doctor

to my new ambition
of being an artist.

♪

And Cynthia's probably working

to the greatest extent of any
of the younger tattoo artists

with this minimal, very intense
abstracted imagery

that comes from--drawing from
a spiritual tradition

that is very much her own,
that's centered

on the New Mexico landscape,

that's centered
on her experiences

and sensibilities
as a working artist.

♪

The idea of the white tattoo

that would blush pink
when a person was hot,

the idea
of the conceptual tattoo,

geometric forms,

art forms that related
to other art forms

to make connections.

♪

She's drawing from
a lot of these deep springs

of artistic inspiration
and bringing

a really unique sensibility
to her tattoos.

♪

Cynthia, at that time,
was married

to the photographer
Joel-Peter Witkin

and was very much involved
in helping

to style his photographs.

♪

Cynthia is in Albuquerque

and has done her best

to carry forth tattooing

as Jamie Summers
helped to redefine it.

♪

♪

Tattoos mean a lot of things
to different people.

Mine mean to me
the essence of life,

freedom,
my religious background.

I was never really a Catholic.

I was very non-denominational.

I believed in God,
but I didn't know His son,

but my tattoos,

they speak for themselves.

I got 'em in prison.

It was a homemade tattoo gun

and homemade ink.

We used shampoo

and other stuff to do it with.

It took a grand total

of 18 hours to make the ink

and it took two days
to do the tattoos.

This would happen when a guard
was up at the front

and we would use another inmate

to get his attention

or the officer knew what
we were doing and didn't care.

I put that tattoo in there
because that eagle,

he's free, but that doesn't mean

that he always gets to eat

because he's the king
of the sky.

The one I have on here
dove into the water

and came out with nothing,

and it's the same with me.

I came out of prison
with nothing.

I dove into this world
and came up empty-handed.

Death disguised,
looking around the corner

like a person out there
on the street.

He doesn't know when
his next meal's coming from.

He doesn't know where he'll be

within the next hour or so
or the next--

if he'll wake up in the morning.

♪

♪

Who's that
on the right arm there?

That's Walt Whitman.

It's a portrait
of Walt Whitman, 1887,

and he called it
The Laughing Philosopher,

although other people
have called it

the Santa Claus Whitman.

Tattoo was done right here
by Bob Roberts.

It's a very personal tattoo.

Been reading Whitman
for many years

and it's just one way I identify
a little bit closer with him.

What's your favorite poem
by Whitman?

Probably Song of the Open Road.

Can you recite part of it?

No, I can't,
I'm not that well-versed.

Pardon the pun.

[laughing]

This arm is my Oriental arm,

and that's the way I wanted it

'cause I've always had
a pretty deep fascination

with Oriental symbols and images

and landscapes and stuff.

Good deal of it was done
by Bob Roberts

and I was lucky enough to have
Ed Hardy finish it off.

Originally just had
a tiger here,

and then I realized
when I stepped over the line

and I wanted continuity,
I wanted theme,

I didn't wanna just have
a piece here,

a piece there, a piece there.

I wanted the thing
to be drawn in,

to have some kind of a theme,
you know?

So, I just had a tiger there
and Bob--

I came back and said,
"Bob, fill it up."

He said, "I knew you
were gonna do that to me."

♪

I was always fascinated
by tattoos

but I wasn't gonna go in
and just,

you know, just get one
and, you know,

I didn't find the work
that I'd seen

or the shops very attractive
at all

until I'd seen the work
of Ed Hardy

and seen there was
a whole different world

that was just starting.

This was from a Walter Crane
illustration,

another turn of the century
British illustrator.

Basically the idea behind it
is sort of surrealistic

tiger lilies
turning into tigers.

The mouths of the tigers
are a part of the flower,

and the woman in a little
tiger robe coming out of there.

But this was also planned
one whole idea.

You know, my chest piece.

This rather peaceful scene
goes into this,

you know, not so peaceful.

It's just busting out.

I really like that whole concept
of that piece,

both because of the
transformative nature of it.

I think that lends itself
real well to tattoo imagery

since tattooing
is a transformative process.

The work of Ed Hardy
really inspired me

and him as a person,
he really inspired me,

and I was lucky enough to get
offered an apprenticeship

with another tattooer
who was a friend of his,

Dean Dennis,

and it was a very special thing,

because there were very few
women tattooing.

So, it was kind of a--

I was in the right place
at the right time.

♪

We used to talk about
what our tattoos meant to us

and how you just--
some of 'em you'd had so long

you don't even
look at 'em anymore,

but really what they are is a--

they are a part of you.

I used to say, "Your brains
spilled out on your skin

and now you're wearing it,"

and that's why I'm comfortable
with the work that I have,

because I thought a lot
about every one I got

and they're my friends,
just like my books are.

♪

Tattoos are--just the way
they say you are what you eat,

you are what you wear, too.

♪

♪

Since the 19th century,

tattoo artists have done
drawings and paintings

to show the public what images

were available for tattoos.

These drawings and paintings
became known as flash

for their immediate appeal.

They were colorful,

they illustrated the thinking
of tattoo artists.

In some cases,
tattoo artists made stencils

from these drawings
and paintings

and then used the stencil
as an outline

to follow when making a tattoo.

♪

In other cases, tattoo artists

only used these
as an inspiration,

as a way of showing their public
what they could do.

And then when they made
the tattoos

they were done free-hand.

In the early 1990s,

Ed Hardy and I began talking
about the need

to exhibit these drawings
and paintings

that had been made
for more than a century

by tattoo artists.

We organized a show
called Flash from the Past

that was at the Hertzberg Museum
in San Antonio.

This became the basis
of a much larger

and more important show

at the Drawing Center
in New York

called Pierced Hearts
and True Love.

♪

In the process of curating
and organizing,

Ed Hardy and Chuck Eldridge
came to Arlington, Texas

for a tattoo convention.

There they met a woman
by the name

of Lotteva Wagner-Davis.

Lotteva was the daughter
of Gus Wagner

who billed himself
as a world champion tattooist,

globetrotter,
last of the hand tattooists.

Just prior to
the Hertzberg exhibition,

Lotteva died.

I went to West Texas
and I met with her heir,

Rocky Reisner.

Rocky was very nervous about
what to do with this collection.

It quickly became apparent to me

that this was the oldest

American tattoo collection
ever found.

♪

Gus Wagner's tattoo flash
amazed me.

He was a figure out of
the novels of Herman Melville.

He was a merchant seaman
who learned to tattoo

in Java and Borneo.

He made his own tattoo
instruments

hand-carved out of wood
and ivory.

His tattoo flash was contained
in little books

that he carried with him.

Hand-painted designs
on canvas pages

that showed the iconography
of the popular culture,

the folk culture
of the 19th century.

This was the root of this
tradition in American tattooing

as it had not been known before.

♪

My wife, Kaleta Doolin, and I
acquired this collection,

not for the purposes
of keeping it,

but as a means to bring it
into the world.

I promised Rocky that the work
would never be sold,

and ultimately,
we donated this collection

to the South Street Seaport
Museum in New York.

♪

When I was interviewing Stoney

I marveled at the series
of photographs

that were stapled on the wall

on the perimeter of the interior
of his shop.

♪

What I learned was that
these photographs,

these snapshots,
were sold by Bernard Kobel

in Florida in a catalog.

♪

In the 1950s and '60s,

there were not a lot
of photographs available

of tattooed people.

Bernard Kobel, who was
a collector of photographs

of heavily tattooed men
and women,

developed a catalog through
which he sold snapshots

that were sent to him
by tattoo collectors,

people who had tattoos,

people who were married
to people with tattoos.

Looking at these
photographs today,

one can only wonder
who these people are.

♪

They were people who were proud
of their tattoos,

but could only show them
in black and white photography.

These were photographs
that apparently

people traded among themselves.

They very much anticipated
the explosion

of tattoo magazines today

where there are thousands
of images

of tattooed people.

The photography is better,

they're in color,

but the spirit of them,

the mystery of them remains.

♪

♪

♪

♪

[waves crashing]

The seeds of the tattoo uprising
were sown in the 1760s...

♪

...when French and British
explorers discovered

in Polynesia and the cultures
of the South Sea Islands

tattooing on a scale
never seen before

in the Western world.

♪

The British Captain James Cook

is credited with introducing
the word "tattoo"

into the English language.

Prior to the voyages
of Captain Cook,

the word "tattoo"
meant a drum rhythm.

Cook, upon hearing
the word "tatau,"

which was a Polynesian word
that he found

in the Marquesas Islands,

coined the word "tattoo"

to describe this practice
of permanently marking the skin.

♪

On his expedition,
Cook brought the naturalist

Sydney Parkinson with him.

Parkinson did drawings

of plant life and vegetation,

but also did drawings of some
of the heavily tattooed people

that he encountered with Cook.

♪

In 1769, Captain James Cook

met a heavily tattooed man

who was called Omai in Tahiti.

In 1773, Cook brought Omai
to England

and introduced him
to British society.

People who had never
seen tattooing

of this magnitude
were introduced to the art form

in a way that, for them,

was likely strange and exotic.

Prior to this time,

tattooed people
were seen as savages.

But in the portrait
of Sir Joshua Reynolds,

we see a man of great dignity.

♪

Tattooing, for me, is a--

it's not just the art,
it's the liberty

to be able to do as you feel,
to be your own boss.

More importantly,
it's the clients

and it's the stories
that each of those clients

brings to the table.

Every day it's a new client,
a new story,

and it's a new adventure.

♪

I first started coming to Paris
about 15 years ago.

♪

And I fell in love
with the architecture,

the art, and I started
coming back and forth

from California,

and I got lucky
and met my wonderful wife.

♪

I think that the younger
generation has less fear

about expressing themselves.

Also their image
is very important to them.

You can look at the,

in French we say
"le réseaux sociaux,"

the Instagram, Facebook.

Nowadays, when I do a tattoo,
when I finish the tattoo,

not only do I take a picture
for myself,

I take the photograph
with the client's phone

so that they're able
to use that.

And a lot of the time
they're more interested

in looking at it on their phone

than they are looking at it
on their own body.

♪

I manage Handmade
Fine Tattoo Studio.

I do the social network
for them.

I also work with tattoo artists
when they need me to,

and I'm journalist
for [unintelligible]

which is a media
about tattoo artists.

I chose the name Stigma
because of a famous sociologist

who made a book
named Stigmata

about every stigma that
can you have, like tattoo,

and you choose them.

♪

I like to work
with found objects.

I go to the flea market.

I like to find
old brass fixtures

and I take those and I recreate
them into a tattoo machine.

♪

Yes, it is a tool,

but we can also take this tool

and turn it into an art object.

It has to work.

If it doesn't work anymore

it's just a beautiful
paperweight.

But I do believe
that it's something

that can be beautiful
as well as functional.

♪

In the early 1990s,
my wife, Kaleta Doolin,

an artist and feminist
arts advocate,

became interested
in utilizing tattoo imagery

in her sculpture.

When Ed Hardy saw these new
pieces that Kaleta was making

he invited her to become part
of an exhibition

that he was curating in Chicago

called Eye Tattooed America,

which involved artists
from around the country

who were incorporating
tattoo imagery in new forms.

♪

♪

By the early 1970s,
the momentum for the recognition

of tattooing as an art form

was beginning to build.

Lyle Tuttle emerged as the first
pop star tattoo artist,

appearing on the cover
of Rolling Stone in 1970.

In 1979, Chuck Eldridge

started the Tattoo Archive
in Berkeley.

In 1981, Marcia Tucker published
a groundbreaking article

on tattooing
for Artforum Magazine

in which she talked about
tattooing and its relationship

to new directions
in contemporary art.

Also in 1981, MTV launched

as a television channel.

For the first time,
the general public

was able to see tattoos
on rock stars, musicians,

and other icons of popular
culture as never before.

In 1982,
two important publications

on tattooing appeared.

One was Lyle Tuttle's
Tattoo Historian

and the other was
Ed Hardy's Tattootime.

♪

All of this builds
to Tattoo Expo '82,

spearheaded by Ed Hardy

on the ocean liner
the Queen Mary

docked at Long Beach,
California.

♪

This was the most amazing
gathering of tattooed people

and tattoo artists
ever assembled.

Tattoo artists came
from around the world.

It occurred in this
amazing setting.

There were seminars,
there were workshops,

there were film screenings
on the lower deck

of the Queen Mary.

People were proud
of their tattoos.

People were comparing the images
that they had on their bodies.

They were competing
with each other,

driving each other forward.

There was a whole energy

that was beginning
to manifest itself.

It was a community of people

dedicated to a shared mission
and vision.

Tattooing was emerging
as a global phenomenon.

♪

Ed Hardy, in my opinion,

helps to bridge the gap
between generations.

You have the older generation,
which was a--

I would say that tattooing
at that time

was more of a craft,
and Ed Hardy,

because of his background,
was able to bring in

actual art into tattooing.

♪

Ed Hardy, for us,
the younger generation,

he's a mythical figure
in a sense.

He's able to take
many different styles of art,

mix them together,
and come up with something

that's entirely new.

As a tattoo artist,
he was always ahead

of what was happening next,

and he continues
to own a tattoo shop

in San Francisco.

He isn't tattooing himself.

He's now devoting himself
to painting

and printmaking
and other artwork.

He's done ceramics.

♪

When I started
studying tattooing

I could never have imagined what
it was going to become today.

How tattooing went from being
one of the most forbidden

art forms in the Western world

to one of the most common.

Tattoos are everywhere.

We see them in the fine arts.

We see them in folk culture

and in popular culture.

We see them in advertising,
television, and movies.

♪

And most importantly,
we see the history of tattooing

being explored and represented

in gallery
and museum exhibitions

in the United States
and around the world.

♪

I think that tattooing is going
to continue to evolve

and surprise us in many ways.

Things that we wouldn't even
think of today

will end up being done.

Because of computers,

because of all the tools
we have at hand

I think it's gonna go in a lot
of different directions.

♪

I mean, the tattooing today,
you know,

it's ahead of everybody
probably around here.

Old timers and new people
in the business alike,

we've all seen, you know,
these changes come down

and there's more happening now.

A lot of what's happening
maybe won't last.

Maybe a lot of it's kind of
a flash in the pan

with techniques and designs
and that,

but at least it's something new,
there's some new blood in it.

I think there's more kinds
of people

interested in tattooing now

than there ever were before,
and I think that's good.

The more of 'em we can get out
and the people that see,

I mean, things like this movie
and magazine articles and that,

anything that's showing it
in a positive light

and presenting us as people
that are doing a craft

and not just showing it off
as something completely

off the wall, well,
people read that and they say,

"Well, I always have thought
about getting a tattoo

and maybe it's all right now
to do it."

They see that people
are working cleaner

and there's more colors
and that there's--

you know, it just gets it out
in the open more.

So, I think the renaissance
is on.

I think there's more exciting
tattooing being done now

than there ever was
in the history of the world.

You know, it's really--
it's just exploding.

♪

♪