The tattoo artist's name is Noon. I love this guy, so here's more of his tattoo images. Yeah, I know about Filip Leu and Guy Aitchison and Paul Booth, but, to me, Noon is as valid a tattoo artist as any of them. He's inventive, funny and, graphically, taking more chances than ninety-five percent of the world's best known inkmeisters. For the naysayers, it's like looking at Picasso's "Nude Descending a Staircase" and proclaiming, "That dude can't draw." Ridiculous. Picasso was way past representational art. And, safe to say, so is Noon (although he does, at times, include precise photographic images as part of his freaked-out renderings).

First, everybody did the same Tasmanian devil, then the same biomechanical rip-offs. After that, it was koi fish and dragons. Everybody became Japanese. Now, everyone thinks they're Bob Tyrrell, and Dimebag Darrell is the tat du jour. Not in Noon's world. I didn't say he's the next Sailor Jerry Collins, but just as Collins merits his own star in the tattoo universe, so does Monsieur Noon. Except his has six points with a pair of lips and curlers in its hair.

    -Bob Baxter / SKIN & INK