By Marie Kloor & Dan Nielsen for Scrimshaw Collective
“You have any tattoos?” was the question of the evening. Scrimshaw’s New York crew are becoming regulars at Cooler Gallery, the Navy Yard’s former icebox, where we discovered Kate Hush and her neon exhibit: Female Behavior. This latest visit upped the ante to onsite tattoos!
The show, dubbed, Flash Me, combined visual art with live tattoos. The gallery invited all types of artists to create flash sheets – the predesigned artwork that is displayed on the walls of tattoo parlors to give customers inspiration for tattoos to get inked quickly. There were over twenty wildly different flash sheets on display, each perfectly capturing the essence of those artists that submitted work. Brave attendees could choose their favorite piece and have an onsite artist immortalize the design on them right then and there. Pain is temporary… ink is forever!
“Are you getting one tonight?” The next question we asked as we made our way through the crowd surrounding the live tattooing stage. Most of the people getting tatted were adding to already substantial collections of ink, but there were also a few first timers in attendance. A phenomenal carrot tattoo was a surprising winner of the night. We spoke with a handful of flash sheet artists, who seemed slightly awestruck that absolute strangers were getting their bodies permanently inked with their work.
We cumulatively had three tattoos amongst the Scrimshaw gang (albeit all are on one member of the crew), but none of us bit the bullet to add additional nor new. The sign up sheet was completely full and the tattooing went on much later than expected. Modelos were flowing across the Brooklyn crowd, as all bore witness to the artists’ live work. Before leaving we were invited to attend yet another great show at Cooler Gallery (this place is truly unbelievable). Make sure to follow us for details on future exhibits -- you should considering attending with us!
