Marcus' View (Day 10)

Here's an article about how Marcus Kuhn feels about Scott Sylvia.

Scott Sylvia Work Fucking Hard By Marcus Kuhn It was my intention to write an article about a tattooer who inspires other tattooers. I would like for people to realize that most of what they have read previously is standard gossip. My experience of Scott Sylvia is that he is a man of few words publicly and when he does speak he is thoughtful and respectful. He is surely one the most influential tattooers of his era and has contributed much to the artform. His first tattoos were done by his high school friend, Aaron Cain, at home in Monterey on Aaron's mother's couch when they were just 15. For those that already know, Aaron also ended up a luminary in the tattoo world, but back then they were just two kids in high school. Aaron had begun working in a local tattoo shop before he was even 18 and he was able to get Scott a job at the shop by showing the boss some of Scott�s drawings. After a few years there of tattooing enlisted guys Scott met Eric Hogan and they opened a shop together- American Graffiti. They worked hard and Scott, like most of us at that time, was busy following the twists and turns of the then exploding tattoo scene. His motto has always been "Work Fucking Hard," at everything you do and stay inspired. When the opportunity to work for Marcus Pacheco at Primal Urge came along, he knew it was time to steup up. At that time, in the early nineties, new styles were emerging in the tattoo world- Marcus was doing cubist stuff, Aaron and Guy Aitchison were developing in a more abstract, biomechanical direction, and a new wave of younger tattooers were redefining the scope of tattooing again and again. Scott was attracted to the styles he was immersed with while at Primal Urge, and was accomplished at mimicking all of them, but he was also drawn back to the tougher, more straightforward imagery of the past. The images of skulls and daggers, eagles and cobras...all the tough-guy iconography of tattooings rough beginnings here in the states. They were fundamental and impactive. Scott recognized the inherent power in the simple, yet timeless, presentation...and he built upon that foundation. The past work of Owen Jensen and Bert Grimm began to lead Scott to develop something different, a new style. Now that it is part of popular culture and tattoo repertoires everywhere it seems strange to explain its origins. But few realize that Scoot Sylvia, along with a handful of other hard-working tattooers like Jef Whitehead and Dan Higgs before him actually pioneered and refined this style, this look, that's so common today. It has been referred to as �American Power� tattooing. Scott would later expand this style to also include more Japanese themes, but always kept the impactive execution of early American tattooing in his work. For the complete Scott Sylvia article from Issue #10, Subscribe to Tattoo Artist Magazine.