Chris

Tattoos. Love'em or hate'em, you can't help but admire the level of skill that it takes to create a work of art on somebody's body. They aren't always looked at favourably, though - even as recent as 10 years ago, they were associated with gangs and criminals. In the recent years however, it has experienced a resurgency, and they are more mainstream than ever, infiltrating people from every walk of life.

To me, tattoos are personal. They are permanent. They are constant reminders of the reason you got them. They are almost like your announcement of your existence to the world.

Given the nose-snubbing tattoos take with the more affluent/well-to-do population, combined with how many of them actually have tattoos, its interesting to see how many people from all different backgrounds and jobs have tattoos. I've always wanted to capture these people with their tattoos, and thanks to Jade, an awesome tattoo artist, I get to finally do it.

I'm not very good at studio lighting, even after attending one of Don Giannitti's great workshops :) - with the terribly helpfulness of Francesco and what I learned at the workshop and info from the never ending source we call the 'internets' ;) , we got through this shoot; so this is first in a series of portraits that will be part of the The Tattoo Project"The Tattoo Project".

This is Chris.