Jonathan Shaw (tattoo artist)

Jonathan Dowling Shaw (born July 4, 1953) is an American tattoo artist and writer. He founded New York City's oldest tattoo shop, Fun City Tattoo, in 1976,[1] before tattooing was legal in the city.[2]

Jonathan Shaw in Fun City Tattoo, showing the ring of the Death Is Certain Club.

Biography

Son of the bandleader Artie Shaw (1910-2004) and the movie actress Doris Dowling (1923-2004), Jonathan was raised in Hollywood, Los Angeles. When he was 19 and working at the Los Angeles Free Press he met the author Charles Bukowski who inspired him to hitchhike from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro in 1972. He arrived in South America as a sailor and learned tattooing between ships and ports.

In 1976, he headed back to United States and opened Fun City Tattoo, the oldest tattoo shop in New York City,[3] where he specialized in neo-tribal tattoos and tattooed celebrities as Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop, Jim Jarmusch, Max Cavalera (Sepultura) and Kate Moss.[4] He also founded the first magazine exclusively dedicated to tattoos, International Tattoo Art in the 1980s.[5]

After 28 years tattooing, Jonathan retired in 2004 and moved from New York to Rio de Janeiro, where he wrote his first novel Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes, published in 2008 by HarperCollins.[6] Iggy Pop described Shaw as "the great nightmare anti-hero of the new age".[7]

In 1990, Jonathan Shaw, Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop and Jim Jarmusch founded the Death Is Certain Club to celebrate their friendship. The club involved each member getting a matching ring and tattoo.[8]

References
  1. "Meet the Man Behind NYC's First-Ever Tattoo Parlor". PAPER. 3 August 2018.
  2. Kennedy, Randy (26 February 1997). "City Council Gives Tattooing Its Mark of Approval" – via NYTimes.com.
  3. Richardson, Davis (28 June 2016). "Last Punks Standing: Fun City Tattoo Is a Relic of NYC's Punk and Hardcore Glory Days".
  4. J. Lueck, Thomas. "On the Tattoo Map, It's the Sticks; New York Plays Catch-Up at First Skin Art Convention". New York Times. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  5. O'Neil, Luke (25 April 2016). "Legendary Tattoo Artist Jonathan Shaw on Why Old-School Design Is Just as Relevant as Ever". Esquire.
  6. Morris, Alex (2015-04-28). "How Tattoo Artist Jonathan Shaw Became the Next Bukowski". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
  7. "A personal interview with Jonathan Shaw: writer, tattooist, hellraiser & 'anti-hero of the new age'". Huck Magazine. 10 November 2015.
  8. Shaw, Jonathan (20 March 2015). "My tattoo pact with Johnny Depp, Iggy Pop and Jim Jarmusch" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
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