IAM/ STAR CROSSED TATTOO

Ollie Walker is a talented friend of mine who co-started the wicked website AWEH, an online portal connecting you to cool creatives from around the world.  Since Ollie resides in Seoul but is South African, much of the content that he creates and curates for AWEH is based on people of interest who are living in Africa and Asia - two highly undervalued continents when it comes to worldwide recognition of their contemporary art scenes.  

With the advent of the internet - and therefore sites like AWEH, Durban is Yours and (hopefully) Chincha - the global, English-speaking audience is recognising that worthwhile art is not limited to European and American cities.

This video by AWEH has just been released, and is part of a new collaboration with South African clothing company IAM.  The video follows two SA tattooists Rich Phipson and Ross Turpin, who own a studio in Hong Kong called Star Crossed Tattoo.  It follows their mission as tattooists and shows some awesome shots of the tattooing process, as well as the pair's intensely unusual designs.

If you're ever in the Hong Kong area (come to Asia, it's amazing), you should definitely swing by the shop to see these guys in action.  I'm already planning my trip.

Pretty as a Picture Collage

I'm not generally a fan of tattoos.  I find that the average person has terrible taste (sorry, different taste) and I don't appreciate most of their clothing choices, let alone the tacky marks that they often choose to brand themselves with.  I also find the concept of eternally inking your skin a little bizarre in our world of constant fads and changes.  You probably already hate the generic pattern on that dress you bought in Topshop last September, so why are you surprised that two years later you also hate the generic design that you got drawn on yourself permanently?

If I had to - and I stress HAD to - get a tattoo, I'd probably get a similar one to Top Left Corner Girl.  Perhaps one a little subtler and more whimsical though.  And then I'd never wear my hair up, ever.

Moving on, let's name Top Right Corner Girl and Bottom Left Corner Girl Sasha Pivarova.  I'm not sure if it's her so am using my amateur model knowledge in guessing.  I also don't know which magazine I got these images from as I'm useless.  What I do know is that I've started incorporating hats into my dreams of SS11 sunglass buying.  Yes, it's still woolly jumper weather, so I emphasise that these are merely fantasies and that I am not about to purchase or wear sunglasses or hats anytime soon.  

I'm particularly keen on the straw boater however, and urge you to let me know if you see a similar one floating around in your own daydreams, or on the high street.  Just for the purposes of research of course.

I leave you now with this small surprise: Bottom Right Corner Girl is in fact Savannah and Sienna Miller's Mother in Paris, in the 70's!  Clearly she's passed on the genes of awesome hair and effortless style on to both daughters.  Lucky ladies.  I'd love to show you a picture of my own Mother looking particularly debonair in France in this decade, but I'm afraid I've seen pictorial evidence suggesting that she was more into posing gawkily in South Wales (like mother like daughter then).

(Images: Tumblr, Vogue).