Folk Art Tattoo Flash

by Rosie a.k.a. Tino Camanga and Don Ed Hardy

Tino "Rosie" Camanga (born 1910) came to Honolulu from his native Phillippines sometime prior to World War II. After observing fellow Filipinos tattooing in the many shops in the downtown/ Chinatown area, in 1944 Rosie was granted a part-time job, and began a career birthed in wartime Honolulu and that lasted until the 1990s.

The flash sheet format was a mere jumping-off point for the world he created. Sheets were collaged with images clipped from magazines, assembled from previous designs, and often depicting things and sentiments never seen in any other tattoo context. He continued to draw after he stopped tattoing, using the flash format for ever more unexpected forms.

Rosie's art anticipates today's stretching of the boundaries of the canon of tattoo themes but unlike many younger tattoo artists with a self-conscious and ironic stance, Rosie was the real thing: immensely prolific, completely sincere, and driven by a passion for drawing that ultimately sought to satisfy only himself.

This book contains color flash sheets drawn and painted in Rosie's primitive, distinctive, and obsessively drawn style, from standardized versions of classic tattoo designs to eccentric and mysterious scenarios that were his alone.

Hardcover. 88 pages. 8 3/4" X 11"

Sorry, this item is out of stock.

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