While Ed Hardy: Deeper than Skin is on view at the de Young museum in San Francisco through October 6, 2019, Juxtapoz will be sharing reflections from influential artists who carry on the tradition of Hardy's unique tattoo career, including tattoo tales from contemporary artists, as well as stories from our archives that share the sentiment of Hardy's creative sphere.
Today, we talk to Bert Krak, the NY-based tattoo artist who works at the world-renowned Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn. With an interactive installation at Beyond the Streets this past month, we got to know more about Krak's work, which is a combination of classic flash style that is Hardy's signature mixed with his own unique and now world-famous thick line style. Also an accomplished painter, we asked Krak to talk about Hardy as a major influence.
"Ed Hardy is King of Tattooing. Everything he has done resonates with me. I have been in love with tattoo flash from the moment I entered the tattoo shop. Ed's red flash book is one that I still use all the time. My personal favorite. I traced the entire book line for line my first year of tattooing. I learned a lot from this exercise.
"I have been collecting antique tattoo flash since I started. t is very important to me to use this wide variety of classic tattoo reference I have collected over the years. I just want to carry on the tradition of doing traditional tattoos. The only way to do that is to study the tattoos and tattoo flash of the guys who came before me; without them, there would be none of us."
Experience Ed Hardy: Deeper than Skin at the de Young museum, July 13–October 6. Got ink? Your tattoo gets you discounted tickets, for a limited time only. Learn more at deyoungmuseum.org.
