Tattoo Age is a documentart which follows Dan Santoro at Smith Street Tattoo Parlor. The first clip gives us the chance to get to know Dan Santoro, alongside his shop mates Bert Krak, Steve Boltz, and Eli Quinters. Dan takes a nostalgic view on how destiny landed him at Smith Street, and what a person can expect to find if they enter this hallowed bastion of traditional tattooing.

In the second episode of  we get enlightened about the flash that adorns the walls at Smith Street Tattoo Parlor, and since this is about Dan Santoro, we focus on what set his flash apart from the rest of the pack. Flash, for those of you who don’t know, is the term for the tattoo designs that are on the wall at a tattoo shop. Dan also goes past the tattoo realm with some of his more personal art, and shares it with us at his home.

In the final installment of the Dan Santoro series we get an inside look at the impetus behind his collection of antique objects, and how he turned his childhood dream into reality.

The project was created by Joris Debeij, a European currently residing in LA, who wants to document the city through portraits of intriguing and unique personalities living there. Each single one on people who found a specific niche for themselves in a city of millions.

Enjoy the selected clips, we know we did.

Salvador Preciado has lived in East LA for most of his life. Growing up, he always was impressed by the tattoos worn by local gang members and he later decided to become a full-time tattoo artist. Sal is now the proud owner of El Clasico Tattoo, a tattoo shop in Echo Park.

Sean Martin has been riding bikes for over ten years. He started out on a BMX and now feels “one” with his fixed-gear bike while riding through the streets of LA.

Imagine this: There are mature fruit trees planted and cared for all over your neighborhood, so you can just pick fresh fruit and enjoy it as you walk down the street, without ever needing to go hungry. The guys of Fallen Fruit started 7 years ago as a one-time project that involved mapping out the locations of public fruit trees.

Ever wondered how ink is made? Well, in the following clip a Chief Ink Maker shows us how colour and ink is created from the raw ingredients: powder, varnish, and passion. Everything designers and printers need to know about the process, the challenges and joy of ink making and this in under 10 minutes.

Met some great people, had some great experiences, (re)discovered artists, heard some great mixtapes, saw wonderfull street art, got some (product) reviews up and overall featured some great content (although it was not always that great ).

Concertwise we had a good year, with highlights being a studio session by MGMT, the Prodigy concert in Lille, a showcase by Janelle Monae, Chromeo in BXL and the Gorillaz concert in Antwerp.

We also crossed the border several times. Ended up visiting London for Young Scum and ended up there two weekends in a row due to circumstances, went to Paris for the Offf Festival, where we got to stay in the great Hidden Hotel. After that we topped this all off with held a midsummer roadtrip to Croatia & Slovenia before finishing the summer with a quick visit to Amsterdam.

Started reading again in between this all and did some home brewing before finishing everything of with some family time in MT.

As you can see, we ended up sharing all these experiences and still this ended up being the blogpost which read the most throughout the entire year.

All we can say, 2010 has been a blast and who would have thought we would be able to have done it all from one of the greatest cities in the world! Have a great time going from old to new and we’ll see each other once again in 2011! Out with the old one says!

Amazon dropped some fresh stuff last week. Amongst several Christmas gifts some new books for yours truly. The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia is a nice addition to my bookshelf.

Fascinating stuff the Russian tattoo, especially the fact it goes hand in hand with criminal culture in which tattoos are codes one must learn to master early in life. I recently even read an autobiography on growing up amongst a Russian criminal community and how important they were as one knew his place within a group through them, recognising superiors. There’s an exhibit on the matter in London right now which looks pretty good btw.

Finished reading Siberian Education by Nicolai Lilin which in my opinion is a must read if you are into non-fictional books.

The small republic of Transnistria, which declared its independence in 1990 but has never been recognised, is a remote part of Russia in which a community of honest criminals settled years ago. It is in this (post)communist region that Nicolai grew up and the book gives us the story of his upbringing within Siberian criminal culture. By the age of six, Lilin was given his first pike knife by an uncle and by the age of twelve he has been convicted of attempted murder.

A confronting story of an underworld where he got some hands on experience running through the ranks as a kid and young adolescent as he lived according to the tradition of Siberian Education in which violence, crime and an unique code of honour play a central part of life.

Nicolai gives a mix of his story while drifting of into other tales of his grandfathers, uncles and important figures within his life. He gives us an idea of the stuff he would get caught up in and how at the heart lay a long tradition. 

Steal cars instead Nuff said. Now get out of here.

For a while now I’ve been following Ross Kemp on Gangs over on Discovery (needles to say one of the greatest channels on the digital screen). As the subject has always fascinated me I also started reading his books on the matter. Fascinating!

For that reason I have also been meaning to blog about this other documentary I recently watched, namely “Crips & Bloods: Made in America“.

Narrator Forrest Whitaker (indeed, Mr Ghostdog himself) will take you through the history of American gang culture and uncovers the true root of this phenomenon. Now I often make funny remarks about this gangsta matter, but when push comes to shove, I can not imagine growing up in such an environment. Judge for yourself and educate yourself

You can check parts one through four overhere or ask your local torrent grocer for a fresh delivery. Also google & YouTube Kemp’s program also by the way, as it will take you into a world you can hardly grasp. You can also check his episode on San Salvador overhere. Out.

Last night I found myself at NTGent, spending an evening with Henry, Henry Rollins that is. Now for those of you who are not familiar with this 40-something pissed off tattooed hardcore punk-rock icon on Vans, Google and YouTube him as you might learn a thing or two. You might then find out you know him as the face for Black Flag. Yes, the band that never before sold as many t-shirts as the passed years as hipsters worldwide embraced them

Now I have always been fascinated by Mr Rollins and since he was in the neighborhood I thought I could not miss out on him. Having spent all day painting the new house I definitely was up for some good old fashioned entertainment. Am I glad it was Henry who had the honors to do so, as what I witnessed was a verbal machine like no other. A missile on speed, telling his stories and experiences at such a rate I have never witnessed before, and this for almost 3 straight hours (without even drinking a sip of water!!).

From his experiences traveling the world, to his new acting adventure playing a skinhead in Sons of Anarchy to his involvement in the US presidential elections. It all got a place in his storytelling.

If there is one element that remained stuck in my mind, it was his rant on “Freedom of Speech” and how important this is for him. A pillar of the American institution and the essence of spoken word I might say, although he walked a fine line with certain statements there. Out.

1. Unyielding in severity or strictness; unrelenting: relentless persecution
2. Steady and persistent; unremitting: the relentless beat of the drums.

Relentless, an unfamiliar word for many I presume. A great word, a word which carries raw energy. A word also connected to a brand which I had never before heard of: Relentless. Yet another energy drink [owned by Coca Cola] it seems.

I added the trailer above of what I must admit is a ‘branded film’ like I have never seen before. Nicely captured images and edited with fitting finesse and music. The full length film [embeded below] was released in October. You can satisfy all your extra information needs overhere.

What follows is a journey through snow filled landscapes, the roaring waves under the Tahitian sun and a walk through the sweaty moshpit of a Gallows gig. All in super slow-mo with a theatrical soundtrack in the background. Out.

There even is a site totally dedicated to them: knuckletattoos.com. Some of the knuckle tats you come across there are simply great or hilarious. Out.