Sheep-faced earthlings milling around in lines of futility under the iron fist of the Matrix; pacified from time to time by TV and fleeting gagging media diversions. The Brazilian poet Ze Ramalho said it years ago with his priceless phrase, Povo de Gado. The Human Herd. Slaves is all I can see, stumbling blindly through the […]

Another day in Hollywood. Sitting in the Belly of the Beast with a ringside seat to the apocalypse. What to do? The shit’s getting pretty damn gnarly. I’ve been saying it for years. Now it’s happening. Apocalypse, Kali Yuga, whatever ya wanna call it. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, civil wars, nuclear meltdowns, mass insanity and […]

Worst nightmare. My motorcycle broke down and now suddenly, in the wink of a cockroach’s cunt, I’m a helpless pedestrian walking the streets of Los Angeles. Oh god! Riding the bus in Hollywood. Got on the rolling garbage can of lost souls at Santa Monica and Vine – the belly of the beast. Sitting on […]

There’s some kind of weird black magic in the air in my life this year. Whatever occult angels or gods or demons or spirits mysteriously rule my world have finally decided to put me under house arrest here with the other hoary ghosts on the Hollywood hamster wheel. So here I am again, making friends […]

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This article was written by Jonathan Shaw for Art Alternatives Magazine.

Saturday December 28th 2002 Lost In Fun City A Poem to pass the time in Hell… Ambling aching waiting endless Pac Man circles, gorilla sounds of mechanized tedium echoing behind tin ears, speakers of nothing in hollow tapp tapp against a back drop of long gone glowing night. Waiting in patience of solitary godhead and […]

This article on the visionary painter Robert Williams from Outlaw Biker Tattoo Revue was written by Jonathan Shaw. To see more archives, including the first several issues of International Tattoo Art Magazine, you can visit the “Articles” page or click here. I am constantly working to give Jonathan’s readers a more user-friendly experience, so any […]

Language. Words. As I wandered the crowded little streets around the old mercado, observing those strange indigenous people and feeling their wonderful magical spiritual aura, I realized that was the most unpleasant thing of all about where I came from; the fact that words and the intellect had somehow totally replaced the simple essential things […]

Today’s featured archive is Jonathan’s 1973 cover article “Weird Tales” from the Los Angeles Free Press offshoot, The Staff.

Surreal nostalgic strains of calliope music weave a faded tapestry of images in the aging tattoo man’s mind as he reads… An old amusement park… Tattooed bikers, sailors and drifters loiter on the boardwalk in front of a dingy tattoo parlor smoking cigarettes, drinking beer from cans… A kid peers into the tattoo shop window… […]

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As seen in Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist … I have found a perfect way to get away with antisocial behavior and yet maintain a good image. All I have to do after committing an atrocity is to say it was a practical joke. Everyone loves a practical joke. If I get caught […]