Last week, after an overly hot day stuck in an office, I headed down to London’s Somerset House to check out their new exhibit, “Time: Tattoo Art Today.” The exhibit presented original works from 70 of the world’s most influential and prolific tattoo artists, commissioning them to create a totally new work for the exhibition on the theme of time. The artists were allowed to work on any medium except skin, giving a whole new dimension to the pieces and allowing fans to see these respected artists take on a new format, the resulting collection ranging from oil paintings, watercolours, traditional Japanese silk painting and event sculpture.
Involved are Ed Hardy, Horiyoshi III, Paul Booth, and Mister Cartoon, among a slew of internationally recognised names. Time itself is a classic theme in modern tattoo art, life, death and everything around it are certainly common from for many artists. Hell, even I have a clock tattoo on my arm.
I shot some photos of some of the standout pieces below, and if you’re in the area, the show runs until 5th October and is free for all.
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Somerset House is fantastic.
Time Machine by Timothy Hoyer, a tattoo artist and painter hailing out of Brooklyn, New York. See more of his paintings on his Instagram @TimothyHoyer.
Dust to Dust (left) and Ashes to Ashes (right) by Volker Merschky and Simone Pfaff, who operate out of Buena Vista Tattoo Club, based in Germany.
Hodie Faunas by Nikko Hurtado, a tattoo artist who specialises in colored portraiture.
This piece by Austin-based Nicholas Baxter, Heals all Wounds, certainly made everyone double take.
This is called Doll and it’s by the Oaxacan artist Dr Lakra. The doll is vintage and the drawings were all done with a tattoo gun.
Lowrider Girl by LA’s own Mark Machado aka Mister Cartoon, a graffiti artist and tattoo artist who is known for his lettering work.
ACBC by Dutch artist Henk Schiffmacher, pretty awesome. It’s on ceramic too.
Mark of Identity by tattoo artist Ami James, who you might recognize from NY Ink.
And finally, I love this piece although I’m not sure why, Tempus Fugit by Seth Wood.
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