Jonathan Shaw (Gonzo Tattooist & Author)
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, before tattooing was legal in the city. He is another Living Legend!
Shaw was born in 1953. His father was big band musician and bandleader Artie Shaw, and his mother was the musicians’ seventh wife, actress Doris Dowling. He was raised in Los Angeles, and from his own description had a very rough upbringing. His parents’ marriage dissolved when he was three years old, and he developed a heroin addiction in his teenage years, occupying his time with varied acts of juvenile delinquency. At age 19, while 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, finding work as a deckhand and tattoo artist.
*info acquired from Wikipedia
*FULL DISCLAIMER* Jonathan Shaw DID NOT PAY ME FOR THIS AD. I listed him because he wrote an incredible blurb for Holding the Door for Barbarianas, by Mark Berriman! That, my friend, is worth infinitely more than a $50 AD. Thank You. Brother Berriman & I also scored some killer blurbs from Shane McGowan as well as Ohio Beat Poet Laureate John Burroughs! They can all be seen in the POETS/WRITERS section on Mark Berriman’s page. Our plan is to meet Brother Shaw and have him tattoo us along with some of our GONZO literary friends. We want to get a design that I drew YEARS ago . . .
The spectacular blurb Brother Shaw wrote for Holding the Door for Barbarians by Mark Berriman can be read below:
“This addictive little book is aptly titled. Mark Berriman’s words open portals into realms where ghostly barbarian voices sing in an indomitable language of the heart. This is poetic expression at its finest. Courageous. Authentic. Vulnerable. Raw. And more fun than a crackhead wedding. Respek!”
—Jonathan Shaw (Author of Narcisa – Our Lady of Ashes, and Scab Vendor – Confessions of a Tattoo Artist)
