Hours and hours of Big J’s work goes into creating artworks of this size, requiring many sessions under the needle for the client
Wyland, with tattoo artist Deano Cook
Molly Demorest Tattoo by Scott Robertson “I got it out of love for the ocean, and as a reminder of what I want to explore.”
Hyperbaric chamber technician Stu Simms’ hard hat
Mary Lynn Price
Tattoo by Don Ed Hardy Abstract approach!
natural direction for the scuba enthusiast and aspiring tattoo artist to explore professionally.
Stovel had come in looking for one thing and went home with a Great White Shark inked on her back, the result of their shared enthusiasm for diving, the ocean and, ultimately, agreement that her fi rst tattoo should celebrate the sea. Before long her referrals - Wainwright says his business is 90 per cent word of mouth - were showing up with their own photos and ideas for tattoos that would reveal their undersea passions and experiences. “It’s pretty cool,” he says years after it all began for him. Today, he inks custom images that run the gamut from one-off tattoos (see DIVER Gets Inked page 30) to ‘sleeves’, full arm designs, and other large scale work that covers a back or front or leg. There’s no limit until you run out of skin. And the good news is that skin is the largest organ of the body. In Vancouver, Wainwright is a go-to guy for dive tattoos at Three Point Tattoo. And this raises a point. Collected wisdom for the prospective tattooee is: be sure to do your homework before you go under the needle. If you’re looking for specialized imagery then take the trouble to fi nd out who and where the specialists are, which may not be in your local tattoo parlor. This body
art doesn’t wash off so make sure you get what you want, and that may require some travel. Scuba chat boards might be helpful in your quest sourcing the perfect tattoo, and tattooist.
Deano Cook, an Atlanta, Georgia-based tattoo artist and diver is tops in marine theme work today, calling on his own dive experiences to create dramatically realistic underwater imagery for his clients, among them fellow dive artist Wyland, whose paintings inspired him as he was perfecting his tattoo craft and his own painting. Wyland’s work, especially his large scale undersea wall murals have earned international acclaim over the years. Their design collaboration on a marine life sleeve and Cook’s tattoo artistry bringing it to life make Wyland the walking, talking embodiment of the ocean world that he champions through his own art. Across North America, there are distinguished tattooists whose marine themed work inspires. In California, now retired Don Ed Hardy infl uenced the art with his wide-ranging creations that include an abstract style as seen in the back tattoo shown above. As visual art has taken many diff erent forms through the centuries so has tattoo art evolved and expanded from the primal of early man to the varied styles explicit in today’s world.
Revered and Reviled
All this present day activity across the western world is not to suggest that tattoos have broken the last of the barriers and are now embraced with open arms the world over. The enduring art form has, and continues, to weather storms of condemnation from the high and the mighty, past and present. The bible’s book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 28 admonishes: ‘Ye shall not make any cuttings in your fl
esh...nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord’. But the early Christians put to death because of their faith tattooed a small cross on the inside of the wrist as an indelible statement of their belief. And Crusaders overlooked the biblical injunction, tattooing the Jerusalem cross on their bodies, ensuring a Christian burial once hauled off the battlefi eld.
The Egyptians revered tattoos. The Romans forbade them. Evidence in Egyptian hieroglyphs suggests tattoos were held in high regard and reserved for royalty and high priests. In Roman times tattoos were used to brand slaves. Period. They considered the human form sacred, as evidenced in their sculpture and other art. Centurions battling fi erce, tattoo-bearing Britons on the front lines of the expanding empire gradually changed this mindset, adopting the ways of their foe. In time, however, this tattoo groundswell
www.divermag.com 21
Photo: Scott Stevenson, Russell Clark,
www.wyland.com, Mary Lynn Price
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