Australia
SMALL DOESN'T MEAN FAST
Eight years in. Still not rushing.
Australia
Tattooing across Australia, from capital-city shops to the regional towns doing some of the best work in the country.
Places
WHAT IT TAKES TO START A COVEN
Almost two years, a lot of spreadsheets and a venue that took some finding. Helen Highwaters and Carly VanVidler are bringing a different kind of tattoo expo to Melbourne on 24–25 October.
People
MY DEMONS LIVE WITHIN YOU TOO
Celia Dunne has spent twelve years in the chair. Her first solo exhibition is a confession, a love letter, and an exploration of what tattooing can do to a person.
Places
WHAT IT TAKES TO OPEN A DOOR
LiveArt Tattoo almost didn't happen. Three years of rejection, an industry stigma nobody talks about, and one man's obsession with getting every detail right. This is what it took to build it.
People
BUILT WITH TATTOO ARTISTS. ROOTED IN JAPAN.
Tachibana Co. started because Takumi Furukawa couldn't find a birthday present for his dad. Eight years later it's something else entirely.
The Work
THIS TATTOO MACHINE USED TO BE A DISPOSABLE VAPE
Philip Island tattooist Connor Cardus spent years wiring buildings. Now he's pulling apart disposable vapes and turning them into tattoo machines. It started because he couldn't bring himself to bin a battery.
The Work
MADE TO SUIT — NO BRIEF. NO CLIENT. JUST THE WORK.
Made to Suit is five years old and getting harder to ignore. The exhibition putting tattoo artists on the wall, not behind the machine.
Places
THE CLOSEST TATTOO EXPO WAS A FLIGHT AWAY — SO CAIRNS BUILT IT'S OWN
No competitions. No corporate backing. No website. No bullshit. Jake Straat built Far North Queensland's first tattoo expo on word of mouth and sheer will — and the artists are already calling it the best in the country. This is how Rainforest & Reef came together.
People
A DICKADE OF DICKFISH
Paul Tuyen Tran has spent a decade being overshadowed by his own joke. The joke, as it turns out, is one of the most recognisable bodies of work in Australian tattooing.
Field Notes
'HERE TO STAY' — MJ FORREST DOCUMENTS MELBOURNE'S TATTOO SCENE ON IT'S OWN TERMS
Someone had to make it. MJ Forrest decided not to wait.