God Likes Tattoos by Johnny Thief

Thinking about the subcutaneous infusion of indelible polychromatic pigmentation via the application of the continual pulsating oscillation of precision surgical implements beneath the substrata of your upper epidermal tissue?

Yeah, I thought so,...

"Be good to tattooing, & tattooing will be good to you." Lyle Tuttle

After years of squealing little dirt rockers & assorted cretins of the Tampa Bay death metal scene & assorted still running after all these years bike clubs begging me to take up tattooing, mostly because going to a real shop would've cut into their stash money, I finally broke down & took up the needle. These pages will chronicle the journey I take from budding neophyte to clueless scratcher to electric demigod!

Originally, I had scribbled out a dozen pages of ranting & bitching about my first several months of breaking into the scene, confronting each & every current tattoo event & political tirade, from the whole starter kit debate to the battle between the old & new schools of apprenticeship. To be honest, I find it all extremely exhausting, to the point where I realize life is too short to be worried about all those hidden agendas & soap opera plots, so I'll use all the extra time & energy it would take to wage such a battle & put it where it belongs, in my art.

The one shot I will take across the bow of the tattooing community, as I would the punk community, the skinhead & oi! community, & the biker community, is the continual ongoing racism found in the scene. People, it's the year 2000, for chrissakes, we have better legacies to leave this life than fucking stupid ignorant hatreds against a people because of their place of birth. As a tattoo artist, you must realize that it's people who are inspired to wear your work & hatred against people just makes you less of a tattooist, as it makes you less human. Fuck that nazi pussy shit!

Please be kind to the imagery, many of these photos, & many of the ones that never came out, were shot with a Fuji Discovery, a fixed lens point & shoot job that blurred every single close up, & are now downsized for the Net. We've upgraded, proudly, to a Canon Rebel X with a 35-80mm close up lens, & promise that as I become more prolific, so will the photography. Thanks for being so understanding, that's what I love about you,...

Me slinking ink, Staten Island, New York, on a marine stationed on the west coast, visiting on shore leave, taking in the sights in NYC, up at Woodstock 99, & stopping by for some fresh scabs on his shoulder. Scary, that this individual is the country's first line of defense,...

The Tattoo Gallery will be updated as often as possible, so please bookmark this page, & watch as the world gets new skin.

ATTENTION! A brother needs your help!

On January 31st, 2000, Nicky Padulese, owner & operator of Little Nicky's Tattoo & Body Piercing, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was smacked to the curb by the hand of fate when a fire ravaged his shop. Quite a bit of the equipment as well as treasured personal memorabilia was lost, although salvage efforts are still underway. An outpouring of support is greatly needed, as Nicky makes plans to reorganize & rebuild. Please check back here in the next few weeks, as plans are already underway for a special fund raising event, to be held in March or April, that is guaranteed to be a blast, & as soon as the details materialize, I'll post em here. In the meantime, if you're planning on investing in some new skin anytime soon, & you're in the Philadelphia area, hook up with Nicky & let him show you his talent. Anyone who has ever made the attempt to open & operate a shop knows how monumental the process can be, & trying to rebuild what took years to put together can be devastating to morale, so take a minute to drop Nicky & his crew a note & let him know that you're pulling for him.

Nicky : lttlenicky@aol.com.....................Cheri: smrtass430@aol.com

or call: (215)781-0911

THE BLACK MARKS HE MADE

Poetry

by Shotsie Gorman

Shotsie Gorman is one of the most versatile tattooists working in the country. I've had the good fortune to meet Shotsie at a party & have a full length feature interview that will be appearing shortly on the pages of the Black Market Manifesto that you cannot miss. When Shotsie told me he was publishing a book of poetry, I needled him about how bad that could be, quoting all those horrible 'In Memory Of' type poems written by illiterate bikers in prison or on drug binges that always find their way into the pages of Easy Rider. You know the ones, that compare a lover's eyes to the frothy head of a cold beer,...

I knew Shotsie's poetry was going to be good, but I didn't expect it to be GOOD! And it is, it's amazing. My wife & I spent an entire afternoon on the beach reading his stuff aloud, stopping in awe at the seething surge of emotion he touches on. Shotsie, when not as his shops in North Jersey, is doing readings & slams all over the tri state area, ones where big burly tattooed guys come in, & are crying before its all over.

Master of many mediums,

Shotsie Gorman

"Shotsie Gorman is a true American poet! " Maria Mazziotti-Gillan -Editor / Director of the Paterson Poetry Center

Shotsie Gorman Paper Back Edition - $15.00

Spoken Word CD Jewel cased - $10.00

Leather Limited Edition-$40.00

Add $3.00 Postage and handling Specify number of each item. Add $2.00 per additional book and $1.00 per CD

Make all checks payable to: Shotsie Gorman

Send to: Shotsie's Tattoo Studio 1275 Rt.23 South Wayne NJ 07470

Visit Shotsie's Web site at shotsiestattoo.com

The Black Marks He Made is published by :

Proteus Press

In these following writings Shotsie Gorman crosses the line between New York, New Jersey and the world. Between contemporary culture and fine art. Between machismo and tenderness. Between poetry and transcendent experience. All this is evident in his first major book of poetry, "The Black Marks He Made", published by Proteus Press and released with a companion spoken word performance CD in September of 1999.

Allen Ginsberg can take some credit as Gorman's spiritual father. Both poets, fired in the crucible of Paterson, N.J., expose 20th Century American culture with a raw energy that never hesitates to show the soul behind the words. But Gorman's path converges as he takes on the job of defining the macho side of the male persona, with its antithetical components of brutality and compassion.

"The Black Marks He Made" has a dual meaning. It refers to the damage done by generations of men unable to communicate their emotions to their sons, the black marks left on body and soul by the misdeeds of the fathers. And it refers to Gorman's twenty three years as a tattoo artist of world renown, a process that helped him deal with his own issues of intimacy and connected him with an ancient heritage of tribal ritual and meaning. Like the tattoo tracings Gorman has perfected to be outward manifestations of the inner life, his poems reveal rich veins of experience.

In "Grandpa's Kitchen Tricks," for which Gorman was the second place winner of the 1998 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Competition, he speaks in simple language about the death of his Italian grandfather. The imagery evokes the sights and smells of a life of cracked linoleum, garlic and hard bread recalled by a child as he pulled on a wishbone with the beloved old man who never got the small end, until the last. Enjoy the readings and send some comments to Shotsie on your response to his writings.

STIGMATA

Yeah,

you think;

love, it's like driving down the highway at sixty

one hand on the wheel.

In your right hand is a heart shaped pin cushion

pierced through with hat pins you've collected in your traveling years.

You toss it up in the air just short of the roof liner.

It begins to descend toward your hand

seemingly

to you

straight up and

down.

But, to an x-wife

who was an ex -grade school English teacher

turned ex-bartender

and eventually ex-Erotic dancer

standing on the side of the highway

with a cardboard sign reading:

Anywhere but here!

For her, the bloody red

heart shaped form

rises in a slow arc moving passed.

Covering nearly one hundred feet

before it begins it's decent

at sixty miles an hour

stabbed through

with pins

she doesn't recognize as yours.

Gone from her sight

before it falls into your hand again.

She imagines it

impaled in you

blood trickling out from the punctures.

Leaving

a permanent mark there

in the palm of your right hand.

She thinks

yeah,

that's love for you.

Even with the stigmata

you need imagination

and faith

to get

hold of it.

And a friendly plug for a friend's shop, swing on by & let em know that I sent you,...

Twin Moon Creations

244-08 Jericho Turnpike Bellerose, NY 11001 516 488 3923

By walk-in or appointment

Tattoo Links:

Tattoos.com E-Zine

Alliance of Professional Tattooists

Eight Ball Tattoo

Dark Images by Paul Booth

Black & Blue Tattoo

Inkline Studios / Anil Gupta

Body Modification E-zine

Outer Limits / Kari Barbra

Russian Prison Tattoos

Spaulding & Rogers Tattoo Supply

Unimax Supply

Superior Tattoo Supply

Pleasurable Piercings

Johnny Thief's Aftercare Sheet:

Because I know how many of you lost the one I gave you, & now you have no excuse!! See? I'm here for you 24/7, yo!

Before Your Tattoo Session:

DO NOT drink alcohol

DO NOT drink caffeine

DO NOT take aspirin

These things will all make you bleed more while getting tattooed!!

EAT a good meal before you come for the tattoo!

AFTER CARE INSTRUCTIONS:

--the life of your tattoo depends on the care it receives in the first few days!--

DAY 1-2:

Keep bandage on until morning. Gently wash tattoo first thing in the a.m., using a mild antibacterial soap & warm water. You should use CETAPHIL or another unscented cleanser or soap. AVOID ALOE VERA, it makes the skin heal too fast. After you have cleaned your tattoo, apply a light coat of A & D OINTMENT or BACITRACIN (a natural alternative is "Herbal Salve," made from Golden Seal and Myrrh, and is available at health food stores.) You will notice plasma forming on your tattoo, plasma is what causes scabs to form, IN ORDER TO AVOID SCABS, you should take a clean paper towel and lay it over the tattoo. Apply slight pressure to the tattoo. The towel will absorb the plasma. Carefully peel away the paper towel (do not leave on until it dries) and reapply the ointment. Repeat above process twice a day for two days.

DAY 3-4:

Clean tattoo twice a day. Repeat paper towel procedure, if needed. Apply UNSCENTED lotion liberally throughout the day, or continue A & D Ointment, or Herbal Salve.

DAY 5-15:

Apply lotion as needed. DO NOT PEEL, SCRATCH, OR RUB. If it feels itchy, you can slap your tattoo, this will relieve you somewhat.

Remember, TATTOOS TAKE APPROXIMATELY 2-3 WEEKS TO HEAL COMPLETELY. Be kind to your tattoo, and it will be kind to you!

During 2 weeks healing process:

DO NOT use oily products such as VASELINE, or NEOSPORIN on your new tattoo

DO NOT swim, sauna, or soak (shower OK)

DO NOT expose to direct sunlight

ABSOLUTELY NO PICKING!

If a rash occurs, discontinue use of that ointment and try another brand. The top layer of skin will peel and the tattoo can be very itchy. Again, DO NOT PICK or scratch! Let the skin fall off naturally. Some people say the scabs, which will be colored like the colors of your tattoo, look like fish food, they are strange, but leave them alone! The base of the scab is where the color is setting, picking at the scab will pull this color from your skin & leave you with a blotchy empty spot. It's a good idea to get in the habit of sunblock, as the sun will fade a tattoo. The tattoo is your responsibility once you leave my place, use common sense!

(You have three months to come back for a touch up on your tattoo free of charge.)

Props to Black & Blue Tattoo, those girls put together the bestest aftercare form I could find.

Tattoos, The Bible, & your Eternal Destination!

"Do you read the Bible, Ringo?" Jules, 'Pulp Fiction'

So, we're crammed into the Continental, sweaty, tiny, punk rock dive bar that has been picking up a lot of the slack left over after the closing of Coney Island High, & leaving an entire crew of change begging gutter punks wandering aimlessly around St. Marks Place, & I finally get to see hometown crusties Furious George, playing openers for Boris the Sprinkler, & a dozen bands doing yet another Ramones tribute night. For some reason, I always miss seeing local bands, for example, I spent four years living in Tampa Bay, & never managed to see the Pink Lincolns. So it was cool to finally get to see Furious George Tabb, after reading his whiny columns in Maximumrocknroll & the New York Press for years, & after his appearance in Spike Lee's 'Summer Of Sam' movie this summer. I had visions of how cool it would be to tattoo George & maybe the rest of the band, I could see big glossy photos of them onstage, maybe at CBGB's, stage lights glistening off of fresh crazy punk rock tattoos on their extremities, blown up & hanging at a booth at a convention,... yeah! Punk rock baby,... so I flip George a card as he lugs his amp off stage, & joke about how it could make my career to have the honor of tattooing a big time rock star like him. He laughs & looks at me, & shrugs his shoulders & tells me he can't get tattoos, when I ask why not, he tells me, "I'm Jewish!"

What?! Punk rock, getting drunk & rowdy, drug usage, lap dances, these things are well & good, but suddenly you get this overwhelming batiston of morality when it comes to TATTOOS? Go figure! So,... that's just what I did, I set out to try to figure out where this whole 'tattoos are so ungodly' thing comes from, & if there is actually any sort of theological backbone to the whole premise, or just more puritanical holdovers from the days of witchburnings & inquisitions. If you're into the body modification professions, you may want to print this out & keep it on hand as reference the next time you get into a heated debate on the subject.

"Do not cut your bodies for the dead, or put tattoo marks on yourselves." Leviticus 19:28. This is the scripture that will appear in various tattoo magazines from time to time, & everyone seems to think that this means that tattoos are just plain out. In context, many of these commands given were for a very specific period of time, & for very specific reasons, mainly because people were worshipping evil gods with cutting & bloodletting, blood drinking,child sacrifice, all night orgies, & other practices that were either spreading fatal diseases like the plague or were just out & out murder. "Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech for you must not profane the name of your God" Leviticus 18:2. I mean, come on, they were living in a time, 4000 years ago, when someone actually had to sit down & write a law saying that child sacrifice was a BAD thing! All of these things of course had a spiritual significance, but even in practical terms, drinking blood or sex with dozens of temple prostitutes just wasn't exactly a healthy thing to do. Necromancy was also a broadly practiced theme, & the tattooing was specifically for communing with the dead, & was a hell of a lot more than just getting a heart with Mom written in the middle. "Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead for you are a people holy to the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 14:1 Many of these regulations were certainly specific to the time & place that they were written, a prime example are all the laws concerning slaves, up to & including penalties for sleeping with another man's slave.

It's obvious that body art isn't the issue here, the issue was the nation of Israel, rather literally, prostituting herself to pagan gods, & that wasn't a good thing. In fact, nose rings were used as engagement pieces, to the extent that when God himself is speaking allegorically of her chosen people, He mentions betrothing her with this piercing,.... "I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms & a necklace on your neck, & I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears & a beautiful crown on your head." Ezekiel 16:11-12 ( also in Genesis 24:22, Genesis 24:30, Genesis 24:47, Genesis 35:4, & Exodus 32:2-3 ) Piercings & all manner of body arts were used in the most sacred of the rituals, marriage, which was instituted by God as an earthly analogy of what it would be like to commune with him in Heaven.

In fact, I would venture forward to say that God himself is adorned with markings not dissimilar to tattoos,... although don't ask me who is artist is,... "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." Isaac 49:22 And like Father like Son, let's not forget the physical description given to a resurrected Jesus,... "On His robe & on his thigh he has the name written: KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS." Revelation 19:16 I can take it to a further extreme, & say that when Jesus rose from the dead, his wounds were not healed, He still bore them,... His hands, feet, side & scalp were all pierced, & were still there, as we can see when Thomas doubts the whole thing & demands to put his fingers in the piercings. "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands & put my finger where the nails were, & put my hand into His side, I will not believe it." John 20:25. Those piercings were the most significant act in all of human history, changing everything about society as we know it for millennia.

We must keep in mind the Bible's perspective on flesh, it's flesh that we try to separate whenever fasting is spoken of, it's flesh that dies off & is laid back to the dust, & it's the flesh that we are asked to crucify every day. Keep these last two passages in mind whenever some right wing mindless pat Robertson drone is blathering on parroting some mindless garbage out of context about your body adornment or attire:

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outer appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

"Stop judging by mere appearances, & make a right judgment." Jesus Christ, John 7:21

Can I get a witness?

Like what you see? I'm currently taking tattoo sessions by appointment only. Email me, & let's talk.