The last year has seen a pushback within the tattoo community; with tattoo artists uploading their own tattoo videos to the internet as an antidote to cable network programmed tattoo “reality shows” that are anything but real.

But you know the old saying- “there’s nothing new under the sun”. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of tattooists took the bull by the horns and produced their own tattoo films. Royboy, Crazy Ace, tattoo fan Michael O. Stearns- folks who documented tattooing for a niche market of worldwide devotees who at the time had no outlet for tattoo programming.

I’ve been collecting these tapes (have you held a VHS tape lately? They’re comically huge) since they originally came out and, fearing that these glimpses of our history may end up forgotten, digitizing them for my ‘Occult Vibrations’ blog. The idea is that if folks all over the world have access to them, they can never disappear.

Instead of talking about the specific tape (dude… you should see the outtakes. Debra dancing butt naked in a snow cemetery, rolling around naked with tigers and a baby… so fucking weird) I figured a little blurb about where the video came from would be more fitting.

–Guest post by Shawn Porter of Occult Vibrations

We’re looking for quality guest blogs from tattooers & enthusiasts–shoot us an email.

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