Pseudo-tattoo clothing vs. the real deal

Tattoo fashion is everywhere now. There’s pseudo-tattoo, or “tattoo-inspired” clothing, and then there is the real deal. It’s due time someone gives the full scoop on what is out there. It might as well be me.

Let’s start with Ed Hardy. Ed Hardy is everywhere. Primary colored t-shirts with bold-lined tattoo graphics. There’s also Ed Hardy jeans, bags, drinks, perfumes, you name it. Ed Hardy is worn on every Reality TV show, celebrities of all stripes are seen wearing it in the tabloids. But the genius behind the art that the brand is named for, tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy, is lost behind the giant script flourish “Ed Hardy” (by Christian Audigier) splashed across the one-trick-pony graphics of the brand. Let’s face it, Ed Hardy as a brand is one big marketing machine and has little to do with the artistry of tattoo (can you say Ed Hardy air fresheners?).

Ed Hardy shirts feature bold graphics and giant script branding.

It’s too bad. Don Ed Hardy is an American tattoo artist icon. A protege of the great tattoo legend Sailor Jerry (also has a tattoo clothing line), Don Ed Hardy brought the Japanese style of tattoo art into western tattoo art. His art should transcend the bells and whistles that Christian Audigier has attached to his name. But unfortunately, the massive Audigier branding operation has probably engraved itself deeply, and beyond repair, into the collective conscience now. That’s probably why Don Ed Hardy has now filed suit for over 100 million dollars, in an effort to regain his identity.

Ed Hardy marketing expands to energy drinks, air fresheners, and perfumes.

It’s ironic, but in one fundamental sense, the Ed Hardy line by Audigier is not much different then the Sleeves Clothing brand in Hollywood. Not in appearance, but in what the product actually is. Sleeves Clothing aptly defines its tattoo clothing as “fake tattoo” or apparel with the “illusion of tattoos”. Started by Hollywood makeup artist Christien Tinsley, the Sleeves Clothing brand began as a costume design for a film; a shirt designed literally to give off the appearance of an actual tattoo. The shirt created waves after Brad Pitt was photographed wearing the shirt for a two-page spread in L’Uomo Vogue, so Tinsley used the exposure to expand the concept into a larger line of tattoo clothing, which now includes tattoo underwear for women. To Tinsley’s credit, Sleeve’s Clothing doesn’t pretend to be anything beyond it’s “illusion of tattoo” roots, although it certainly can be worn as a fashion statement.

On the couture end of the spectrum, John Galliano rolled out tattoo leggings on the runway for his Christian Dior collection in 2004. He used original work by tattoo artist Tin-Tin. This collaboration spilled over to other “high fashion” designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, and for a time the Paris runway spilled over with tattoo accents. Ultimately, though, even top fashion designers chose the path of “tattoo inspired” motifs, translating original artwork into designs of obscurity, where the art became a kind of modern day paisley, lacking the tattoo origins that shape hearts and minds of people receiving real, personalized tattoos.

Jean Paul Gaultier transformed tattoo art into modern day paisley.

In the background, a quiet giant is quickly rising; one that bridges the divide between the oversaturated pop-culture approach of Audigier’s Ed Hardy and the diluted art approach of the big fashion designers. YellowMan Tattoo Clothing by Peter Mui boasts the largest collection of original tattoo art from over 70 of the top tattoo artists around the world. Mui has been building his massive art collection for nearly two decades, and started building his tattoo clothing brand before Galliano, Gaultier and Ed Hardy, and others hit the scene with their tattoo clothing collections.

YellowMan's impressive archive of art from over 70 tattoo artists worldwide is strong and growing.

But if you are wondering why YellowMan isn’t a household name yet in the growing tattoo clothing arena, there is a reason: Peter Mui has chosen the distinct path of “art first, everything else follows”. Mui is not watering down the original art for the sake of fashion, and is not whacking everyone over the head with marketing schemes to promote name recognition. Mui has instead chosen the path of the tortoise, where the slow and steady promotion of individual, original art will likely win the race of longevity. YellowMan tattoo clothing is authentic, made with unadulterated tattoo art. It has all the hallmarks of fashion and function, but Peter Mui will tell you himself that he dislikes the word “fashion”, and views his line as “everyday clothing” for all people, to be worn however the individual wants to wear it.

The YellowMan brand is built on a sincere love for the art of tattoo, and the admiration for the artists and their respective cultures and traditions. YellowMan doesn’t just offer an extremely wide range of tattoo art and styles, but also garments. Limited edition shirts are featured in long sleeve styles, but there are also t-shirts, underwear, cycling shirts, and first-layer performance items made with proprietary MadKool technical fabrics that boast superior performance. For all of YellowMan’s positive traits, their clothing can be on the pricey side, but the price tag isn’t gratuitous. It goes towards the cost of commissioning the original art and careful manufacturing of high-quality garments.

YellowMan tattoo clothing is all about the authenticity of the art.

There are other tattoo clothing capsules, like the recently announced limited edition Star Wars tattoo shirt collection that is in the works. This collection aims to produce limited edition shirts based on original art from a range of prominent tattoo artists. Shirts are to be packaged in collectible tins that feature the artwork.

Tattoo shops frequently sell small lines of their own tattoo shirts. Wild Rose Tattoo in Milwaukee, WI has taken their tattoo clothing line seriously, and have risen to modest prominence in the last year. They offer nylon shirts similar to those of Sleeves Clothing, as well as leggings and select cotton tees.

There are too many tattoo clothing brands/lines to list them all. One thing is for sure though, there is quite an appetite these days to wear tattoos. If you are in the market for tattoo clothing, hopefully this post offers some background to help you make a choice that best suits you.

 

Profile Magnet

Seen today on 42nd Street: a woman in a burqa, driving an empty bus in the direction of the UN. I can’t help but wonder how many times she was stopped on the way to her destination.

Sorry, no picture. I couldn’t get the photo in time.

 

iPhone Elbow

You know you have a serious iPhone addiction when you start developing “iPhone elbow”, a nagging twitch or cramp in the elbow due to holding the iPhone in the same position for extended periods of time. That’s only one of the symptoms I experience from repetitive iPhone use. I also experience “thigh buzz”, a random buzzing sensation on the thigh of my left front pocket area, where I usually store my iPhone when I’m not feeding my iPhone elbow condition. I keep my iPhone on “vibrate” to reduce bystander annoyance, and over time my upper left thigh has developed an overactive iPhone vibration alert, even when the phone isn’t in my pocket.

Of course, this is all insanely and embarrassingly ridiculous, but many people with iPhone’s probably can relate. I have a friend who is addicted to iPhone applications (like this guy). His goal is to fill up his iPhone with as many pages of apps as possible, even though I’m sure he’ll never use 99.9 percent of them.

When I “watch” tv, I usually play with my iPhone. It’s mostly senseless. How many times do I need to check my email or see if there is a new post on crooksandliars.com, anyway?

Not all iPhone addictions are bad. I’m a photography nut. I usually like to photograph with my digital SLR. When I got that it changed my life. I’ve been snapping away like a fiend ever since. But lately, I have been addicted to iPhone photos. I have been snapping away on my iPhone instead of my SLR. Truth be told, iPhone’s take surprisingly good pictures. I say “surprising” because you never really know quite what you are going to get, but the results are usually rewarding. Using the iPhone camera is kind of like a game or sport. It’s a good and different excercise in photography.

I remember one of my brother’s ridiculing me when I bought my iPhone, “so you gave into the hype, huh?”. But he was quite wrong. The iPhone goes far beyond the hype. It is one piece if technology that never ceases to amaze me, even with the side effects of iPhone elbow and thigh buzz.

 

Saving a Business with a One-page Design

I recently got thrown the daunting task of designing a single catalogue page to literally save a declining multi-million dollar company. What’s more, I had to redefine the company, and represent it in a way that is totally contrary to what it’s identity currently is. All of this with scant material to work with, and precious little time.

For now, I won’t mention the company here, nor show my solution, but I will say that this challenge was quite exciting for me as a designer. Essentially, if my one-page design generates business, I can take full credit for achieving the unachievable during an economic downturn.

My design has not yet been published, but it has already succeeded in one way; the company employees have a renewed sense of excitement, where they had otherwise been feeling impending doom. So, in one sense I have already done my job, by giving a company a new identity and sense of purpose.

Few non-designers understand the power of good design, and how it can completely change a company and it’s workers. Good design changes behavior on all sides. It is highly emotional, and provokes a response.

I feel lucky to have been given this challenge where the emotional rewards have huge potential.

I will follow up on this post as the results unfold.

 

De-FaceBook

I recently set up a personal FaceBook profile to enable me to set up a promotional page for my company. I never intended to actually use my personal profile, and probably never will. Everyone I know with a FaceBook account (most people these days) tells me it is a big waste of time, but they charge forward with it anyway. For me, it really does look like a waste of time, and I cringe at the thought of reconnecting with people I worked so hard at to shake off.

Sure, there are passing impulses of curiosity about how things turned out for ex-girlfriends or defunct classmates from high school. Or finding out whether the pretty, unapproachable blonde that sat in front of me in English class is still pretty.

The truth is, I don’t really want to know. I don’t want my archived memories to be modified and updated. I’m quite content with how things are already registered in my memory banks.

In today’s technological age, my life is full of so much clutter that I spend most of my time trying to manage all the information that comes in. And managing friends can also be difficult. Over the years I’ve whittled my friends and contacts down to the essential few. I still have fond sentiments to most of those outside the essential few, but I think we all benefit from the distance in the end.

So, as each day passes, my FaceBook profile sits there collecting requests from old friends, distant relatives and passive contacts. More than once, I have hovered my mouse over the “accept” button, ready to click the trigger. But my better judgment kicks in to resist the temptation to modify my world.

So, you may ask why I don’t just shut down my profile. I probably will. As I mentioned earlier, I only set it up to promote my company, but even that I don’t have the time or patience to manage.

When I finally do shut my FaceBook account down, I’ll see all those friend requests one last time, their faces short-circuiting my memory banks for an instant. Then, hopefully I’ll return to my happy world of a few friends and the selective fond memories that have survived the passage of time.

 

The Zax and The Bookreader

Some time ago I posted about a Mysterious Bookreader I had been noticing in the park, always facing the same direction, reading the same book, day after day. At the time, I thought it might make for an interesting photo journal. I’m beginning to think that it really will.

Progress continues even when Dr. Seuss's Zax creatures refuse to budge.

Right now the image of Dr. Seuss’s The Zax comes to mind, where two creatures refuse to budge and progress takes place around and over them. These days, The Mysterious Bookreader continues his daily ritual even as preparations are made for the annual Holiday Market in the park. He has had to move slightly from his usual post, but he continues close by… still facing the same direction, and in a close vicinity to his original position.

The Mysterious Bookreader moves from his usual post as Holiday Market Booths (as seen in foreground) are beginning to be assembled.

And later, after the booths are assembled…

Once the Holiday Market booths are assembled, the Mysterious Bookreader moves closer to his original position, always facing the same direction.

Even more than Seuss’s The Zax, I am reminded of a fantastic Brodsky and Utkin exhibition I saw many years ago at the Ronald Feldman Gallery. This exhibition was one of the most impressive I have seen in NYC. Anyway, it featured some etchings that included images of a fictitious great city, that was built around the house of a hermit. The result was a development around the hermit’s house that formed an eye (the house being in the pupil) in the center of a towering and bustling city. [My weak description doesn't do the work justice].

 

Ice Skating Nun at Bryant Park

The sign at the left reads “Skate At Your Own Risk”.

 

The Starbucks Decline

Starbucks take note: I’m your best customer.

Starbucks is on the decline. I say this with remorse, because I am one coffee aficionado that admits that Starbucks coffee can actually be pretty good. I grew up next to a coffee plantation in Guatemala. There, we drank unfiltered coffee of the most robust variety. Coffee is in my blood.

Recently, throughout the US and elsewhere, Starbucks closed a huge number of their locations, which is a major decline in and of itself, but this is not the decline I highlight here. I am talking about basic customer service.

"I just don't feel close to you anymore."

There is a growing trend of a party atmosphere taking place behind the counters of most Starbucks locations (at least in NYC). This results in longer lines, longer waits, and frequent incorrect or lost orders. Cappuccino’s are thin and liquid, and complaining customers are on the rise.

This is all very unfortunate, because the original business model for Starbucks was generally good. Founder and original CEO Howard Schultz emphasized fair treatment of his Starbucks employees, and ethical business practices around the world. Schultz also believed strongly in the coffee-drinking experience (which includes anticipation, atmosphere, and a variety of sensory stimulation) which is in my caffine mind the most important ingredient in good coffee.

It seems to me that Starbucks’ decline began shortly after 2000, when Schultz left Starbucks and was replaced by a new CEO, Jim Donald. The timing seems consistent with Starbucks’ decline, although I have no idea what Donald did or didn’t do while he was in control. But the good news is that Howard Schultz is back again, so maybe the return of the foamy cappuccino is on the way.

The first thing to address with Starbucks’ downslide is the party atmosphere. I don’t go so far as to ask for a stiff and cold reception, but when chatter behind the counter stands between me and my coffee, my caffeine blood starts to percolate.

The other day, at a Starbucks on 42nd Street, a long line was amassing as the manager, flanked by nearly the rest of the staff, was explaining all the fine points of some membership card. Customers were waiting for drinks that had been already ordered, and other customers were waiting impatiently to order. I heard the manager in his pitch for the membership card, “…I like to take care of all my customers” referring to the benefits of the card. I just wanted to wring his neck. Just give me my coffee. I don’t even care if I have to pay extra. I want my coffee so I can get off to work!

I feel like the staff at Starbucks these days just doesn’t get it. Coffee is an experience. It’s the smell and the sound of grinding beans. It’s the reverence and special attention that gets placed on every cup of coffee. It sets the pace for the whole day. It initiates conversation between friends and business associates. It is the lifeblood for many of us.

Unless Starbucks employees get the picture, the brand will fall. There are plenty of other places (at least in NYC) that “get” the coffee experience. Sorry Starbucks, but you are losing me, and that will certainly put a dent in your business, I assure you.

 

Ice Skating in NYC

When thinking of ice skating in the wide open air of New York City, people usually conjure up images of Rockefeller Center. But I’ll let you in on a secret. You can ice skate for FREE (with your own skates, $12 for rentals), right behind the New York Public Library, at The Pond at Bryant Park, and you won’t even have to fight off the crowds. You still get the magic of skating in the heart of NYC, and have more room to do your fanciful figure-eights.

On most weekday mornings, you can watch a charming man making the rounds in speed skates, looking like he’s going twice as fast as he actually is. If he doesn’t get your holiday spirit going, nothing will.

For more information on ice skating at Bryant Park, you can go here.

There are other options for ice skating in NYC as well. Enjoy!

 

The Mysterious Bookreader

Over a period of several months, I have noticed a mysterious hooded man studiously reading a book in the same location, facing in the same direction, every morning. Sometimes he is standing, and other times he is seated at a table, but there he is, with the finger of one hand following the lines of text as he hunches over his book. Likely, it is a religious text of some kind.

Why this man methodically chooses this same location each day is a curiosity. He otherwise shows an indifference to his surroundings, never once looking up from his text. This might make an interesting photojournal. Will he still be there each morning once the snow falls?