One of the dumbest ideas I’ve had as of late was to try and interview artist Sunny Buick while she was tattooing me. I lasted one question and then just stopped talking. I did get some nice portraits of her after the tattoo session. Hopefully, I can pick her brain next time she is in town and I’m not getting inked by her. This photo was taken while in the middle of being pricked. Lots of fun.

Skin & Ink Magazine just published a feature story I wrote about tattoo portrait artist Shawn Barber. For those that don’t know, Shawn does portraits of tattoo artists and uses really surreal techniques to capture their limbs at different angles. He was a great guy to interview and I think he chatted with me for over two hours during two separate interviews. The August issue is on newsstands now.

He tattoos, he paints, he paints portraits of tattooists–Shawn Barber’s business card must be a mile long, and I’m sure he’s handed out a ton of them judging by the vast amount of pieces collected in his “Forever & Ever.” The 256 tome, published by 9mm books, includes paintings of some of the greatest living tattoo artists–their faces, their hands, their tattoo machines. Barber even offers a ton of supplemental material, including sketches and associated photographs.

Barber has spent the last few years traveling around the country photographing tattoo artists and their tools of the trade. He then meticulously renders the photos into stunning works of art, often transposing different angles of the subject’s hands to better show off their body art.

Life In a Bungalo will have a review up as soon as we get our hands on a copy.