February 29, 2012
The sweetest thank you we’ve ever received! Can’t thank our artists enough for making this happen for the munchkins at Flying Kites.
December 11, 2011
The rough cut of Adam’s interview for the TTTP video
Meet the Artists: Adam Suerte
On the adorable, locally cultivated, uniquely too-cute-to-be-Manhattan street between Mystic Essence, an organic perfumer and “The New” St. Clair Restaurant, sits Brooklyn Tattoo, a warm and welcoming (not at all intimidating for someone who has accidentally dressed like a bad rip-off of ‘Working Girl’ that day—client meeting, don’t ask) store front. Enter the glass doors and you’ll find yourself in a massive wood covered space that splits itself between the actual tattoo shop and an adjoining Urban Folk Art Gallery.
A co-owner of Brooklyn Tattoo and owner and co-curator of the gallery, you can tell Adam Suerte is a man that has made it his life’s work to pursue what he loves and share that pursuit with others around him. Adam is involved with art in almost all of its forms, most notably taking his love and history with graffiti and urban culture and translating it into his realistic yet uniquely stylized work.
A man of few words who has an easy kindness that juxtaposes such a burly exterior (*note: we recently see from Facebook that Adam has a new haircut, can we say hottie??), we adore Adam and are so thankful for his help, support and participation in the project. His portrait of Benson, a driven little man full of strength, is a crowd pleaser at the fleas and tugs at the heartstrings of almost everyone who sees it.
Born and bred in South Brooklyn, the streets served as Suerte’s canvas long before he was putting the streets on his canvas. Drawing inspiration from his own graffiti career and his deep Brooklyn roots, his paintings often depict the area he grew up in as the wave of gentrification covers the finer details of the neighborhood he remembers and loves. Suerte is the founder and co-owner of Brooklyn Tattoo in Cobble Hill, where he tattoos as well as continues to paint, print make, illustrate comics, create murals, and teach art to children.
December 7, 2011
The rough cut of Robert’s interview for the TTTP video
Meet the Artists: Robert Bonhomme
If you need to know one thing about me, it’s that I’m a stalker. Haha you think I’m joking? Just wait until I’m spamming your inbox and Facebook friending you until you have no choice to respond back to me. Robert Bonhomme, sick oil painter turned tattoo artist found that out the hard way.
Through a loop of random connections of coworkers, friends and friends of friends, I was able to connect with Robert one summer afternoon at Ground Support, a coffee shop in Soho. True to form, I overwhelmed him immediately with my crazy-eyed enthusiasm for this project, but like a champ, this guy sat there and kindly heard me out before graciously agreeing to be a part of it.
On our way back from Ground Support, Robert humbly shared his experience going back to Haiti with his dad to do community work when he was a little kid. His dad would bring supplies and go door to door teaching villagers how to filter and heat water and cook with solar energy. And as he grew up, Robert continued to go with his father, and on his own brought more and more supplies and his brother and sister’s clothes to give away. Giving back was in his blood and he shared his excitement to be able to get involved again.
Oh you thought my stalker-like tendencies ended there? Oh no, no. I fully stalked Robert’s entire portfolio, and he just blew me away with his obvious artistic talent and his ability to truly take on a multitude of forms and styles. The realism in his recreations of paintings and objects is staggering. I paired Robert with Miriam, a soft-spoken, sweet little girl constantly thinking of others before herself. She had a quiet power about her that reminded me of Robert, and his great Koi and Bloom tattoos were truly incredible expressions of her character and beauty.
Starting his tattoo career in 2003, Bonhomme’s deep artistic roots shine through in his stunningly realistic portraits, black and gray work, and Japanese/Asian-themed tattoos. Bonhomme’s work, while impressive in its own right, is truly staggering in terms of its depth and his chameleon-like ability to take on a multitude of styles and forms. Bonhomme splits his time between Brooklyn Tattoo in Cobble Hill and Invisible NYC in the Lower East Side.
TTTP at 3rd Ward’s Saturday Handmade Holiday Craft Fair
Last year I went with my sister, bought a glasses chain, a tassel necklace and a soap with a lighter in it. Needless to say, girl knows how to work a craft fair…
This year TTTP joins the ranks of the kick ass stocking stuffers (or day 2 of Hanukkah presents) at 3rd Ward’s 5th Annual Handmade Holiday Craft Fair. Come find us at 3rd Ward this Saturday noon to 6, where we will be serving up temporary tattoos just in time for I’m-going-home-for-Christmas-next -Friday-and-still-haven’t-gotten-you-anything shopper.
Saturday, December 10th
Noon to 6 pm
195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY
FREE admission
December 5, 2011
Get on it. Or send us an email asking for an invite and we’ll gladly extend one to you.*
thetemporarytattooproject@gmail.com
*With purchase of a tattoo. Kidding. (Not kidding.)
Fab.com, Brooklyn Night Bazaar and Weddings
Hey tattooees. It’s been a while. We’ve missed you. And in true high school reunion style, we’re going to skip right over the obligatory ‘how have YOU been’ part and use this as an opportunity to brag about our children.
Quick and dirty 30 second update on our project. We’ve had a pretty kick ass year. Global warming has smiled kindly on us, bestowing temperate summer weather far into fall, allowing us to do some hustlin’ at both the Brooklyn Flea and Brooklyn Night Bazaar.
Upcoming news? Get out your day planners—this Monday the 5th (aka tomorrow!) our tattoos will be featured on Fab.com, an awesome site featuring daily design inspirations that make it impossible not to want to get in on whatever magical journey they’re featuring next. The sales runs from Monday to Thursday, so make sure you don’t miss out. Also, not this Friday but the next, there are serious rumors that The Temporary Tattoo Project will return to the Brooklyn Night Bazaar in Williamsburg.
OH and. We were humbled last month when we were asked the honor of being the favors of choice at a very special wedding. Best wedding reception pictures ever? You can bet your life.
Posts about our other super sweet artists, Stephanie Tamez, Virgina Elwood, Adam Suerte and Robert Bonhomme to come!
August 25, 2011
Officially, officially. We have a legit e-commerce site (and website!) up and running. If your excuse for holding off was: “Oh, I’m sketched out about purchasing out of Lauren’s purse in this dark corner” or “Purchasing off of this make-shift email order system, while magically efficient and breathtakingly organized, is too DIY for me,” well kid-o, today is your lucky day.
Check out the GALLERY of people rocking our tattoos as well as the SURVEYS the kids gave to the artists to help tell them a little more about themselves. Most importantly, the SHOP where you can now buy your tattoos in a civilized manner. Go forth, shop on!
August 15, 2011
Meet the Artists: Daniel Trocchio
The first time I met Dan I told him I might throw up on him. The conversation went something like this:
“So…has anyone ever thrown up on you before?”
“No, I can’t say that they have. Uh, is there a reason you’re asking that?”
“Oh yeah, I might throw up on you. I’m just letting you know.”
And the sweetheart that he is (sorry Dan, if I’m ruining your street cred by calling you a sweetheart), he responded like this: “Ah, well. You would be the first. And then I could tell people someone threw up on me. So I guess it’s not that bad?”
Let me caveat this conversation with the fact that I was getting my first tattoo and Dan was giving it to me. About two thirds of the way in, I calmly informed Dan that I was going to die and then politely requested that he tell me a story. Or you know, the exact opposite, but who’s keeping track. Then Dan proceeds to tells me a “story” on a theory of gravity he had just been reading about. Very little recollection of what he actually said, but from that point on, I knew we were going to be friends—right after I threw up on him. Joking! I didn’t do that, that time…
Fast-forward a year later. I’m sitting in Enid’s with Dan trying to sell him on the idea of temporary tattoos. “I love temporary tattoos, you can’t see why people would get them?”
“I mean. I guess I could get them, but then I would be covering up other tattoos?”
Ah yes, wrong crowd. But regardless of the fact that he was a tattoo artist for close to 18 years and wasn’t quite sold on the idea of a tattoo that you could scrub off with your thumb before your mom had the chance to cast the knowing stare of disconent, once I told him about the cause, he was onboard in a second.
The other night after taking many liberties in creating his bio, I told him I had Google-stalked him all day and haphazardly pieced together an “about me” that very liberally peppered in oh, small things like my assumptions on what his tattooing style might be like and his fake interests. It came out something like this:
Dan has been referenced as a “prolific artist, whether his art is on canvas or on skin.” Starting his tattoo career in ’93 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Dan has since traveled the world tattooing with stints in Scandinavia, parts of Europe and across the United States. Originally drawn to tattooing through the allure of supporting himself as an artist and working with the fresh cultish medium, Dan’s bold neo-traditional style reflects ornate detail woven into inventive, artist pieces. Dan works out of Three Kings Tattoo in Greenpoint.
(*This may be mostly true after I removed the part about his love for cats and his passion for tattooing single Asian characters wrought with meaning.)
I paired Dan with Isaac. Isaac is a tenacious little boy with determination to one day become a pilot. At the ripe age of 9, Isaac is already a lady-killer. When he arrived at Flying Kite’s program back in 2008 he had already arranged for himself an “inside girlfriend” (inside Flying Kite’s program) as well as an “outside girlfriend.” Dan’s rendering of the lion, Isaac’s absolute favorite animal, on a plane, Isaac’s dream vessel, could not have been better executed.
I already said it once and I’ll say it again, Dan is a sweetheart and possesses such insane artistic ability that you can’t bring up his name without having a magazine that he was covered in or his huge reputation precede him. At the fleas I would turn around to show people my bomb (fake) back piece and I’ll get ‘em every time. So thank you a million times over, Dan, for a badass piece of amazing art and also for my sunset tramp stamp which is a real beacon of truth and light in my life.
