Adornment
The fast word is that Leather Tiger Tampa has engaged two skin ink artists on tour. Three weeks is the gig, hiatus of sorts, Miami before, Chicago to come. Will Anders and Ami James (Pronounced Ahmi) roll in with their kits and pictures, while Tattoo Carol, Leather Tigers regular ink artist, graciously gives them space and encouragement. Time off is good too, afterall. For the two travellers its a new venue, and a chance to add work to already impressive portfolios. Doug Shelton, THE Leather Tiger, immediately puts Ami to work on a massive oriental coverup, a shoulder and arm dragon, and early on Doug states: I expect it to be one of the most beautiful pieces in my collection.
There are other seekers too. Magic: see it, feel it, be it. The Order Of Light reigns as palimpsest happenings sparkle down to one particular time and place, creation occurs again, mystifications rune, the measure of it being its proximity to self, photos of souls.
The first night moves forward. Ink flows. During a lull Will sits the decorative planter outside the Leather Tiger strumming his guitar and smoking, as Ami banters with passerby, setting up appointments, discussing art. The writer, a lifetime leathersmith, approaches through skin and it works. The record of Will and Ami's stay in Tampa must begin soon, or will not be. The first session is set up and the wheels of creation churn further. Ybors Saturday night winds down slowly, people disjoin, tendrils of energy pull, pull, then snap, to reattach new moments elsewhere, which become hours and days. The work makes time go fast, and all at the Leather Tiger experience the frisson. The many people arriving to be pierced by Artist Doug Shelton experience Leather Tiger combustion, and become part too, and here can be seen that the excepted views of Carnal Knowledge are nothing but limits for the intellectually enslaved. Ecstasy in Being with no false illusionment, coupled with the sure knowledge of Physical Transience awakens Tribal Identity. An identity just recently retrieved from thieves. Coalescence is revived. Eternity Manifest. Good Art.
Plans are made and background gotten. The photographer peruses magazines to familiarise himself as much as possible with the subject to shoot. He sees a picture of a woman with multiple piercings and lots of ink. He saysI feel repelled by her while strangely drawn too, like a fly to a campfire. The author expounds on his theory concerning the new popularity of body piercing as prelude to implantable technology. Ami relates a story concerning a mispelled tat which took place under dubious, if not inebriated circumstances, where the gentleman concerned acquired the words "Sink Head" across his knuckles. Will Anders, 25, talks of travel, and tats, and Denver Colorado. He grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida (Partially explaining this stop on the duos tour) but travelled at an early age to do his apprenticeship with Mickie Kott in Denver (2 1/2 years) followed by two years at the Emporium of Design in that same city. Its where his personal adult history resides, and all that entails, and he hopes to see it soon. Ami James, 22, was born in Israel, but came to the U.S. as a boy with his family and calls Miami home. He has always drawn representations from his imagination, and when his room mates got together and bought him a tattoo kit for his birthday about three years ago he was off and running. Two years at Lou's in South Beach gave him a chance to develop his style (Oriental is his specialty) and to gain experience. This sojourn on the road will be well spent, adding to his photo book, as both he and Will grow daily in the living art which is theirs. The bottom line is this: the chance to make use of a chosen medium for artistic purposes is what Life is all about. Haggardness happens, and all artists see very early that there is something here that would very much like to see art die. The struggle. True happiness cancels and surpasses that darkness though, and it is both reason and end. It calls to some, and they MUST follow. Simple as that.
When asked if the road gets old, both men look at the questioner as if to say of course it gets old you silly idiot, but then the look softens and they realise that not everyone gets the chance to do what they are doing. Only the ones that really want to, do. It requires a fair degree of confidence and belief, because even your basic neighborhood gnome with a simple TV awareness realises that many parts of the world are not pretty, and that all people are not nice, and when progress is plotted in miles, one will experience as close to every facet as is possible in the time alloted. A fair sampling, at least.
There is a system of thought that sees everything alive as a single entity, and perceives people as direct forces of this lifeform. Each a part forever, acting with knowledge, and sometimes love, and wondering, always wondering. As the artists continue their wondrous tour, one can but wish them luck, and an early arrival at where ever they are headed. And Good Art. Of course. Good Art.
