Old Men’s Tattoos (by Thomas Jeppe)

Let’s take it back to the old school, let’s take it back to the old
school…  As recently documented on here I’m a lover of tattoos but far too fickle/ un-rock’n’roll to ever actually go and get one. Instead I have taken to studying them in book form and admiring these inky skin portraits as things of beauty that I will never possess, just as I would whilst gazing at a Picasso or the work of Italian futurists. With all forms of art, I appreciate both ends of the spectrum and think a nice bit of doodling or graffiti can hold just as much character and charm as anything hung on the walls of Tate modern. I’m saying this because I’ve just bought my second tattoo book in as many weeks and this one is an indigo bible of the kind of old-school, pissed up, mad fucker type of tattoo. From a time when getting a tatt made a much different statement about who you were and just how little of a fuck you gave about society’s opinion of you. As it’s title suggests this motley and mottled collection of tattoos from (America, Australia and Europe) were all done between the 1940s and the1970s and just like a pair of well loved jeans have been uniquely faded and transformed by several decades of blood, sweat and beers. I never thought I would find myself spending this much time scanning old men’s bodies but hey, we all need a hobby don’t we? Elvis lives..

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