To the list of tattooers from whom I want to get some work, including Stephanie Tamez (for the second time), Thomas Hooper, and Eric Jones, you can now add Eli Quinters. Formerly of Saved Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Quinters recently opened up a shop on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, also in Brooklyn, and is known for clean, traditional work (think animals, swords and flowers, etc.), some of which are on view at his site, Tattoos for the Unloved (check out the absolutely sick, Clash-inspired piece in the "Portfolio" section). For whatever reason, (is it the bright colors, or the not-to-be-messed-with designs?) I particularly admire the classic, Sailor Jerry-style approach to tattooing, which Quinters himself respects and to which he holds true. While it's true that the popularity of iconography in tattooing changes upon the whims of the public, I find that anchors, swallows, and other maritime imagery holds up best over time (anyone remember the "tribal" craze of the nineteen-nineties?), and will surely provide many a tattoo recipient with ideas for decades to come. I'm just itching for a new tattoo myself; I'm thinking of getting an anchor. No, a lighthouse. Actually, what I really want is a skull over a set of brass knuckles...
A link, further: Smith Street Tattoo Parlour
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In yesterday's edition of the New York Post, that rag which masquerades as a newspaper and which publishes the work of right-wing lunatics such as Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin, there was an editorial "cartoon," crude as it was, which depicted a police officer standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimpanzee. The speech bubble above the officer reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill." Anyone see a problem? A lot of people certainly do, and they have taken their distaste with the cartoon, and the paper itself, to the Post's headquarters.
Now, while the Post shrugged off criticism of the cartoon by noting that it was nothing more than "a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut," and that it "broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy," anyone with half of a brain cell can see that the cartoon, by Sean Delonas, plays upon ugly, racist imagery. Unfortunately, there is no satire, no parody, in comparing the President of the United States, a black man who has taken the lead in crafting an economic stimulus package, with an enraged animal which had to be shot after mauling a victim.
That blacks are compared to wild, barbaric animals is nothing new, of course; the practice dates back to "first contact" between Europeans and Africans all those centuries ago, and this cartoon simply extends that troubling narrative in human history. One would think, however, given the cultural changes brought about in the United States since the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and in other court decisions, that people, however conservative their politics, however rigid their views on race in America, would at least be aware of the kind of reaction this cartoon would spark. The cynic in me says that the editor responsible for publishing the piece knew full well that it would draw plenty of attention (he's got to see as many fifty-cent copies of the paper as he can), and that nothing more can, or should be, expected from the right-wing.
So much for American progress in the twenty-first century. Change, indeed.
[D | R]
A link, further: Smith Street Tattoo Parlour
*
In yesterday's edition of the New York Post, that rag which masquerades as a newspaper and which publishes the work of right-wing lunatics such as Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin, there was an editorial "cartoon," crude as it was, which depicted a police officer standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimpanzee. The speech bubble above the officer reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill." Anyone see a problem? A lot of people certainly do, and they have taken their distaste with the cartoon, and the paper itself, to the Post's headquarters.
Now, while the Post shrugged off criticism of the cartoon by noting that it was nothing more than "a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut," and that it "broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy," anyone with half of a brain cell can see that the cartoon, by Sean Delonas, plays upon ugly, racist imagery. Unfortunately, there is no satire, no parody, in comparing the President of the United States, a black man who has taken the lead in crafting an economic stimulus package, with an enraged animal which had to be shot after mauling a victim.
That blacks are compared to wild, barbaric animals is nothing new, of course; the practice dates back to "first contact" between Europeans and Africans all those centuries ago, and this cartoon simply extends that troubling narrative in human history. One would think, however, given the cultural changes brought about in the United States since the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and in other court decisions, that people, however conservative their politics, however rigid their views on race in America, would at least be aware of the kind of reaction this cartoon would spark. The cynic in me says that the editor responsible for publishing the piece knew full well that it would draw plenty of attention (he's got to see as many fifty-cent copies of the paper as he can), and that nothing more can, or should be, expected from the right-wing.
So much for American progress in the twenty-first century. Change, indeed.
[D | R]
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