Jump to content

Mike Malone Flash...

William Burgess
 Share

Recommended Posts

Ursula Hero

Ursula

Posted
Posted

I'd suggest looking through some tattoo book supplies to see if there any re-prints. The only original stuff I've seen was traded from tattooer to tattooer. It wasn't even a full flash sheet just a line drawing on the back of something else. There's probably someone out there somewhere who'd let you have something for the right price, likely gonna be hard to find though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
William Burgess Regular

William Burgess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Yup, that sure looks like a gem. What I would like to see is all the designs that were just standard shop fare at China Sea Tattoo, circa 1989-91. When pretty much everything on the walls and some in the poster rack were...all Rollo..all the time. Save for a few sheets at most, 100% hand drawn and painted.

Were they sold like the old S&R flash, lined and possibly black shaded, printed on a sheet that was suitable for watercoloring? Used to see a lot of that back in the day...designed by xxxx, inked by xxxx.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Xhooliganx Initiated

Xhooliganx

Posted
Posted

Were they sold like the old S&R flash, lined and possibly black shaded, printed on a sheet that was suitable for watercoloring? Used to see a lot of that back in the day...designed by xxxx, inked by xxxx.

yeah he sold flash like that thru Picture Machine and from his own company Mr. Flash . the Picture Machine ones come up often on ebay

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Stewart Robson Contributor

Stewart Robson

Posted
Posted

Bull's-Eyes & Black Eyes is a great book.

Maybe Keith Underwood has some of his flash?

I don't know if it's still being reproduced.

I wouldn't call them the ultimate in traditional American designs but they are super awesome. Efficient to line and shade, straight off the sheet.

He solved a shit load of design and layout problems and made them tattoo-able. (Much like Scott does too, in my opinion)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
William Burgess Regular

William Burgess

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Bull's-Eyes & Black Eyes is a great book.

I wouldn't call them the ultimate in traditional American designs but they are super awesome. Efficient to line and shade, straight off the sheet.

He solved a shit load of design and layout problems and made them tattoo-able. (Much like Scott does too, in my opinion)

Well thats just my humble opinion! Partially biased, got my very first professional tattoos by him. As far as his influence on me as an artist...I feel destiny had a reason for me, in my total tatoo obliviousness, on my very first attempt to find a shop, just stumble in to one of the most legendary shops of all time and get tattooed by one of historys best.

His shop wasn't the only one I have seen full hand painted, but like you said the effeciency and layout of the designs made China Sea the ultimate street shop in my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
William Burgess Regular

William Burgess

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Lucky Supply Tattoo Museum

There is some cool Malone flash here. As far as online tattoo stuff this is probably my favorite website. Not counting the one we are currently using.

Thanks a lot! Those brought back some memories. Plus a lot even fit my late 70's to early 90's criteria. Pretty sure I have seen the originals of a lot of those just on the walls at China Sea. Awesome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hogg Autobot

hogg

Posted
Posted

I also got my first tattoos from Rollo (in a motel in Austin back in 1992), and he certainly made a big impression on me.

At Skull & Sword, Grime has a Rollo original on the wall; it's a cobra and skull he painted in 1979. It might just be the toughest shit I've ever seen. It has lots of the cool trick elements people are using now--heavy whip shading, snakes with no eyeballs, hits of bright green--and he did that back in 1979. When I saw it, I felt so sad that I didn't have room for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ursula Hero

Ursula

Posted
Posted

So I'll let ya know sibce I've decided not to bid on these because at the moment I shouldn't be enlarging my collection since I won't even be home for at least another 4 month. There's two pieces of Malone flash on eBay right now. Currently the bid is $15 each but it's still got 4 more days so they will likely go much higher but good luck if you decide to bid!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
William Burgess Regular

William Burgess

Posted
  • Author
Posted
So I'll let ya know sibce I've decided not to bid on these because at the moment I shouldn't be enlarging my collection since I won't even be home for at least another 4 month. There's two pieces of Malone flash on eBay right now. Currently the bid is $15 each but it's still got 4 more days so they will likely go much higher but good luck if you decide to bid!

Nice. I guess they are the standard reproductions with coloring done by someone else. The "colors by" part was not signed on either sheet.

Being that his flash sets were one of the most commercial oriented of the time, sold worldwide and all, do you all feel its a good or bad thing that these reproductions are collecters item status, as opposed to readily available?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ursula Hero

Ursula

Posted
Posted

I'm glad they aren't readily available to the public because we don't need to be seeing horrible renditions of them plastered in every shitty shop and on a million assholes t shirts. At the same time they are readily available to be tattooed in most reputable shops. The sheets themselves arnt for sale of course. I know a lot of people who own the mass produced sheets he did. Like the 'grim harvest' or the 'odds and ends by rollo' and the others from that set. They are printed on kind of a card stock and are just lined and shaded. All of those people are tattooers and I've been lucky to have access to those sheets and based my last ten works on them. I too wish I could have been tattooed by him.

If it's some kid of project or something you're working on you could try contacting Doug or Ed Hardy. I know he was close with Ed and taught Doug to tattoo so they probably have some rad shit from Mike in their shop. I don't know if they'd be willing to share but it never hurts to ask!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paul Shachtman Regular

Paul Shachtman

Posted
Posted

I collect Malone crap. "Bull's Eyes and Black Eyes" is an excellent primer, not to mention a steal compared to what other tattoo books go for. Like someone said, if you keep your eye on eBay, reprints, sometimes painted by others, show up. I got ten high-quality reprint sheets of lined and shaded stuff for about $60 on eBay a few years ago. I'd like to get a look at anyone's Malone tattoos, if they're willing to post them. Here's what I got from him: Facebook Facebook

Funny, looking at that Malone skull again, struck me further just how minimalistic that tattoo is. Seth Ciferri did a spider near it at one point, and described it as being "belligerently simple", or something up that vein. It's like a skeleton in cool boxers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paul Shachtman Regular

Paul Shachtman

Posted
Posted

I collect Malone crap. "Bull's Eyes and Black Eyes" is an excellent primer, not to mention a steal compared to what other tattoo books go for. Like someone said, if you keep your eye on eBay, reprints, sometimes painted by others, show up. I got ten high-quality reprint sheets of lined and shaded stuff for about $60 on eBay a few years ago. I'd like to get a look at anyone's Malone tattoos, if they're willing to post them. Here's what I got from him: Facebook Facebook

Funny, looking at that Malone skull again, struck me further just how minimalistic that tattoo is. Seth Ciferri did a spider near it at one point, and described it as being "belligerently simple", or something up that vein. It's like a skeleton in cool boxers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...