4 x 5 Film shots of Ryan’s Back

My posts on this blog are sporadic to say the least…..

In an attempt to share some photographs of my work and keep posting…….

Here is Ryan’s back photographed on Ilford 4×5 hp5 film, using my Graflex Speed Graphic with a Schneider Xenar 210mm f3 Lens, taken last month whilst in Texas.

Thank you for looking, and thank you Ryan for getting this work done and sitting through all of it.

A slow crawl through chaos to find order.

Creating art is something that I have found to be a necessary way to feel at peace and ease with myself and my surroundings, creating art and ornamental decoration for the human body is a complete privilege and a total honor. It is something I constantly marvel at, it feels magical and is a totally surreal occupation for both the artist and canvas. Ted has been coming to get tattooed by me since 2012, we started at Saved tattoo in Brooklyn and continued in Austin Texas, at Rock of Ages, he is one of only a few customers who only get tattooed by me, a stoic and kind man who has constantly followed through, completing each stage of his body suit with a keen integrity. His level of commitment traveling from Port Perry in Canada to get tattooed is nothing short of incredible. As we round the corner to the final stages with only one session left on his legs and his sleeves to start and complete, I wanted to take a moment to thank him and share some images of our last two sessions that we just finished up this week whilst I was guesting at Saved Tattoo.

Thank you Ted for sticking with it on this journey, I really can’t put into words how grateful I am.

JBXTH I II III IV

The first print in the JBXTH Series is available via the Burlesque of North America website.

https://burlesquedesign.com/collections/jacob-bannon-x-thomas-hooper

Last month I had the honor of collaborating again with my old friend and peer Jacob Bannon on a new print series called JBXTH.

Each print was made live at Full Bleed Exhibition last month in the Netherlands. A total of 100 hand painted were created alongside 80 mono printed backgrounds.

Embellished and mono printed 15×22” & 16×20″ prints, silkscreened and mono printed live at @fullbleedexhibition by @gemma_monostereo & @benbrlsq, each print in the series is an edition of 25/15 respectively.

These were available at the exhibition all weekend in April, and now the prints we set aside for online sales will be placed available consecutively in the coming weeks on the @brlsq website, starting this Tuesday with JBXTH I.

Thank you for your support and to everyone who came by the exhibition, said hi and/or picked up a print.

-Thomas.⠀

Paradox of Communication

I realize haven’t posted any new tattoos on here for awhile, in part due to laziness and also because of the ease of posting on Instagram. As the algorithms change in social media I am left with the problem of how to communicate what I do and what I have to offer to people who are interested in my work…….

How would you like to see my work?

That is the main question that keeps presenting itself. As I grapple with this obstacle I thought it might be nice to post some recent tattoos on here, maybe some of you have seen them, or maybe my feed doesn’t come up for you to see it and maybe some of you are not on social media, either way enjoy and as always an endless thank you for your continued support and interest in what I do.

First up is hunters recently completed sleeve…..

I really enjoyed this one, mixed some very old Polynesian influences against some of my more current geometric simple shapes and more complex dotwork mandalas.

Next up is Michael Waters finished and healed back piece, this I really enjoyed as we got to do some color mixed in with pattern work, a horse, wolf and a giant ornate human skull. This took a few years to compete as we finished the skull and took a break, thank you for your trust and patience Michael, it is immense!

April has been a good month for finishing projects! Here’s is Allen’s leg all finished up, really excited with how this one came together, I’ll let the pictures do the talking, thank you Allen.

Really happy with how Marks piece turned out below, a very non literal interpretation of a volcano. I love how this one sits on the arm by itself and has such a strong simple overall shape.

Below are some images of Kian’s sleeve, Really loved doing this one, the mix of Persian and Arabic ornament was a lot of fun and really interesting to research the beautiful historic art.

And the last images for this post are of Alana’s torso, I got to add to a really incredible collection of work, tattoos by Scott Sylvia, Jeff Rassier and Tim Lehi to name a few. Thank you for your trust Alana and patience to see this one through to the end.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my work and read through this post – Thomas.

Website and Portfolio updates

Hello, I’ve given this long standing website of mine a little overhaul, new art and tattooing portfolios, a new contact form and books, prints and ephemera website links.

thank you for looking!!!

Art Portfolio

Tattooing Portfolio

Contact Form

Books

Raking Light Projects

Burlesque Design

 

Mean Folk

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Andrew at Raking Light Projects has also updated my section on his website, Thank you!

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