Here Is one of the recent paintings I made. This is tattoo flash, that ends up hanging in my shop. I usually end up tattooing most of the flash that I paint. A lot of the designs come from ideas or are close replicas of vintage designs from the early 1900's. It is common for traditional tattooers to replicate old designs to pay homage to the masters of the past.
The girl to the right is one of the images I referenced. She was painted by one of my favorites, Bert Grimm. He was born in 1900 in Springfield, MO. He worked in Springfield, and other cities such as Chicago, San Diego, and Long Beach. He ended up in the Pacific Northwest in his later years, where he opened Seatramp Tattoo, Portlands longest running tattoo shop.
His tattooing is a great example of stripped down American Traditional. Even though his style was very simple, it was bold, very readable, and had so much impact. I will probably post more on Bert in the future, as he is definitely still one of the biggest influences on modern day traditional tattooing. He definitely has a huge impact on the way I draw and tattoo.
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Thanks for looking!
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