Angelique Houtkamp

So, I've been researching traditional tattoos, vintage flash and tattoo art for the past few months all to get my ideas together for my own vintage sailor tattoo inspired pin up work.
I recently discovered the beautiful and striking work of Angelique Houtkamp, the Dutch tattooist and painter who's work is both exciting and inspirational!

I saw her work in the most recent issue of Nude Magazine. In the article she talks of how she originally worked at Tattoo Peter, one of Amsterdam's oldest tattoo shops and she got a lot of inspiration from the city's culture; the port and the sailors who arrived home covered in art work from far off places of anchors and mermaids.

Angelique takes influence from the classic tattoo masters such as Sailor Jerry, but she also has a huge interest in the 20's and 30's and the art work and advertisments from those times, and it's easy to see the similarites in her drawings.

I was intrigued by her use of watercolour. I always associated water colour with something wishy washy, never the strong yet delecate shades found in Angelique's work. But her method was backed up when I heard Tim Hendricks of Miami Ink state that his father's water colour artwork was what got him into tattoo art as the blending and application is so similar!

I emailed Angelique to find out more about her technique and ask her if she had any tips for me regarding my own tattoo work. She was kind enough to respond quickly and I was pleased to bits when she said she thought my work was "pretty sassy"! She advised me to keep looking at traditional flash and I've decided to give water colour a go; cue a trip to Fred Aldous, and £35 later...

I'll let you know how I get on, I'm raring to go as I now have three more designs ready to go!

Other news:

My work at Urbis comes down tomorow after 6pm, so if you haven't had the chance to see it yet get on down and bask in the burlesque glory that is Scarlet Fever.

On a totally unrelated subject, yesterday I was lucky enough to meet one of my favourite authors, Joseph Delaney!
The author of the amazing 'Spook' series was doing a signing of his new book, The Spooks Sacrifice at Waterstones in Bury and I was geeky enough to go over and meet him get some books signed and even get my picture taken with him! It was like meeting the Spook in person, although maybe he's not as gruff as old Gregory.

Anyone not aware of this fabulous series should go out and give it a go, it might be aimed at kids but it is truely scary, magical stuff and as the books warn, 'Not to be read after dark!'

Joseph Delaney wondering why security haven't removed this weido yet

A trip to the'Pool

Yesterday I visited the maritime city of Liverpool. After reading the books, watching the films and studying the artwork I wanted to get a one on one feel of the nautical scene for my new seires of work based on vintage pin-up sailor tattoos.

Liverpool has a rich history of maritime connections having once been one of Europe's busiest and most successful cargo-handling ports. The city is dominated by the River Mersey and you can see the strong sea faring influence in the architecture and details all over the city centre. Check out the dolphins wound around the lamposts as you arrive from the train station:

There are also Neptunes and mermaids scattered throughout the area if you look for them. They give a glimpse into the glory and success of Liverpool's ports during the Victorian era as they hold aloft a horn of plenty:

The main reason for my visit was to see the Merseyside Maritime Museum. I really wanted to get a feel for the sailors and shipmen who might have had the tattoos I've been looking into. To get there you first have to walk into the dock area with its great view of the Mersey and various small scooners and yatchs moored up. But the piece de resisitance for me was the enormous anchor situated right by the entrance!

Just look at the size of it!

Once inside the exhibits begin with huge models of ships including the famous Titanic, Lusitainia and The Empress of Ireland. This was a really moving part of the museum and focused on their tragic sinkings and the heroic dealings of some of their crew and passengers. There was some great irish jigs being played in this section too, which lifted the atmosphere a bit.

Moving on, we went on to explore the 'Battle of the Atlantic' and then the part most helpful to me, 'Life at Sea'.
In this section you are able to see what everyday life was like for merchant sea farers and saliors over the last three centuries. There are mock ups of sleeping quarters complete with hammocks and examples of tools used aboard ship like this wax pot used to stamp food that had passed the quality check:

It might not seem like much but it's small details like these that help fill in the gaps between the popular image we have of sailors and the real gritty elements of their working life. I like the shape of this pot and it's functional form.

I also really enjoyed this small section about 'Sailortown', the sleazy districts near the ports where sailors usually ended up in the hope of having a good time. The allure of drink, the company of the opposite sex and gambling was usually a powerful draw, despite the fact that these areas could also be extemely violent and dangerous. This was probably a similar place to where Sailor Jerry set up shop as a tattooist in Honolulu and perfectly illustrates his famous 'Screwed, stewed and tattooed' moto. My favorite part in this section is the piece written about the red cap you can see on the right;

'Sailor Trophy 1950's'
'This headband was worn by a waitress at the Moulin Rouge Club at the port of Recife in Brazil. These were much favoured trophies amongst seafarers visiting the club'

It's similar to a tattoo to mark the occasion or remember a lost love, or maybe just a memento to take home and brag about! Probably the last is most likely. While at the museum I also picked up this fab book, specifically about naval slang and it's use in everyday life. Perfect for my nautical tattoo pin-up series illustrating this very theme!

After visiting the Maritime Museum we took a quick walk around the Albert Docks. There lots of small scooners moored up and I liked the fact you could see all the paraphanlia neatly placed upon most of the decks. It was good to see the anchors and the chains and ropes that work them.

In all, Liverpool gave a fantastic insight into the maritime way of life and a deep sense of history. I definately got some ideas about how to refine my designs for the pin-up sailor tattoos I've been working on and feel in a better place to move ahead with them now.

Stewed, scewed and tattooed.

Carrying on from last week; I am researching vintage sailor tattoos for a new series of paintings based on the classic style and inspired by nautical phrases. My findings so far have covered some of the symbolism and history of this artfrom which I plan to expand on later...

However this week I wanted to highlight once again the genuis that was 'Sailor Jerry', the daddy of sailor tattoos and the original creator of the iconic look copied by many ever since. I've been wondering about him as a person and how he came up with his designs and what inspired his look. Then I found out about a documentary called 'Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry', I can't seem to find out much about this but have found some clips on youtube. If anyone knows where I can get a copy please let me know. In the meantime enjoy this snippet of machismo, tough guy living and bad language which seems to have summed up Sailor Jerry's attutude to life:

Hello Sailor!

Myself and international burlesque performer, the beautiful Beatrix Von Bourbon

As I metioned last week, I have been researching vintage nautical tattoos, as seen on many a burly sailor since the 1940's and 50's. But as you can see from the photo above this classical style of tattoo is still very much in favour among burlesque and rockabilly lovers today!

The reason for the research? My next series of paintings is going to be inspired by the artwork of the vintage sailor tattoo, using the pin-up girl as the main character, with each painting taking influence from different nautical sayings still in use today.

Have you ever called someone a son of a gun? how about hanging on until the bitter end? or even found yourself looking for some dutch courage? Cue some fab potential for some new paintings featuring traditional pin-up girls and sailor gear! I'm going to illustrate everyday sayings that began as true to life nautical phrases!

I've always liked the pin-up girls that featured it these classic tattoos. They are an echo of that other famous pin-up girl, Betty Grable. In fact Grable's famous rearview pose, hands on hips, is still an iconic template used for tattoos across the world.

But the pin-up girl that sat on a sailors arm were more than just a hot chick to keep morale high, they were also symbolic of the travels and places the individual had seen. For instance a hula girl meant that the sailor had reached Honolulu or Hawaii.
There is also symbolism to other well known designs; Anchors signified the sailor's crossing of the Atlantic whereas a swallow was for luck and loyalty as they always return home each year, sailors being a highly superstitious lot!

Images taken from www.sailorjerry.com

I've been working on some designs for my new paintings and as I've studied the styles and use of line and colour I've come to realise that this isn't like any other form of drawing. I've almost had to re-teach myself how to look at things. Dismiss my knowledge of proportion and perspective and think only in terms of what will work as a tattoo, as I want my paintings to look as authentic as possible. That isn't to say I want to carbon copy the orignal work of others, but for my work to be an obvious nod to the artists of yesteryear.

Here's my first design for the saying 'Rack and Ruin', meaning for a ship to become wrecked, as mentioned earlier, it's the pin-up girl who is telling the story;

Image copyright of Gemma Parker, www.gemma-parker.blogspot.com

In all my research I couldn't go without mentioning THE man who epitomises the classic vintage tattoo, Sailor Jerry! An artist who many see as the father of old school tattoo, who became a sailor himself at the age of 19, travelled the world and began his life long affair with tattoos. He studied the art of southeast Asia which became a huge influence on his style, opening his first tattoo shop in Honolulu's Chinatown which according to his official website was;

'ground zero for swaggering sailors, drunken soldiers and whoever else wasn't afraid to hang around volatile levels of testosterone.'

These rowdy sailors appreciated a bold impressive design that they could show off 'back home' and Sailor Jerry's signiture style became iconic in tattoo art acroos the world.