Tattoo Age

Valerie Vargas grew up in Scotland, but has lived and worked in London for the last five years. You can find her at Frith Street Tattoo in SoHo, where she's known for doing the prettiest "lady heads" in the world. Valerie has only been seriously tattooing since 2007, so she's proof that talent and hard work will never fail you.

In the second installment of the Valerie Vargas Tattoo Age series we take a closer look at Frith Street, the tattoo parlor works in, and it's owner Dante DiMassa. Valerie also gives us insight into what it took to develop as a tattooer, and why London will be home base for the foreseeable future.

In the last part of our Valerie Vargas episode, we take a closer look at the tattoo power couple that is Stewart Robson and Valerie Vargas. When we began shooting this piece, we didn't know how close these wonderfully talented artists were and found ourselves pleasantly surprised by their shared pleasure in tattooing.

Mutsuo tattoos in Osaka, Japan at the world famous Three Tides Tattoo. Mutsuo went from being one of the shops first customers, to the shops first apprentice, and now he is the most senior tattoo artist there. While at the shop Mutsuo learned from the many American tattoo masters that visited Three Tides to work, and got what Chris Garver says, "a 90's style tattoo education."

In this episode of Tattoo Age we delve into the history of Three Tides Tattoo. We hear from Mutsuo, Chris Garver, and Masa Sakamoto, as they give us insight into how western style tattooing really gained ground in Japan after the 1999 Tokyo Convention. We also hear about all the guest artists that have contributed to making Mutsuo the artist he is today.

Mutsuo wraps things up with his Tattoo Age series with taking a little trip to his home town. After a brief tour of the local temples, and a quick trip to his home. We sit down with Mutsuo for a more philosophical take on what tattooing means to him.

Tattoo Age is very proud of the fact that we are featuring Thom deVita. Even though Thom has been tattooing and creating art for almost 50 years, there is not much in the way of information on him. He began tattooing in the mid 1960's in New York City's Lower East Side (tattooing was illegal from 1961-1997) and quickly began to forge his own style. He drew influences from everything from Puebla indian designs to Lord and Taylor shopping bags for his tattoos designs. Thom also began to form relationships with other tattooers around the United States who were revolutionizing tattooing as art form by bringing in influences that went far beyond the usual array of images found in most American tattoo parlors at the time. Thom and his work are hard to describe, but we have interviewed Ed Hardy, Nick Bubash, Clayton Patterson, John Wyatt, Scott Harrison, Angelo Scotto, Robert Ryan, and Bubba Reeves to help tell Thom's incredible story.

In the second part of the Thom deVita Tattoo Age series we focus on the touching and often hilarious relationship he has with Nick Bubash. Thom and Nick met in the early 1970's and soon after Thom started to tattoo Nick, he also started to teach him how to tattoo. Over the past 40 years their relationship has gone way beyond tattooing, or even art for that matter, but they still continue to create together.

In part 3 of Thom deVita's epic Tattoo Age series we take look at his personal history, and how he came into tattooing. We also hear from tattoo legend Angelo Scotto on the history of tattooing in New York City.

In the new episode of the Thom deVita Tattoo Age series we explore the neighborhood in which Thom live and worked, the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We also go into the types of tattoos Thom did, and what it took to talk someone into getting tattoos that were a little out of the norm.

In the concluding part of Thom deVita's Tattoo Age series we have to cover some ground, so sit back and prepare to go from the days before people wore gloves while tattooing to Thom's current state as an artist.