Legendary American tattoo artist Ed Hardy's groundbreaking tattoos flash drawings and
artworks are gathered together for the first time in one brash book. Ed Hardy's (b. 1945)
unique vision spans decades creating an indelible mark on popular culture. Accompanying a
major exhibition this profusely illustrated survey of his life in art traces his inspirations
rooted both in traditional American tattooing of the first half of the twentieth century and in
the imagery of Japan's ukiyo-e era. Hardy raised in Southern California became intrigued with
tattoo art at the age of ten setting up shop in his parents' den. After attending the San
Francisco Art Institute in the 1960s he rejected a graduate fellowship from Yale to apprentice
at studios up and down the West Coast. It was his intention to rescue tattooing from its
subculture outsider status and elevate it to at least the level of folk art. Hardy's success
at breathing new life into the art form is chronicled in a plethora of tattoo designs
paintings drawings prints and three-dimensional work spanning fifty years. While the world
that inspires him may be lost Hardy's distinct visual language is vibrantly alive within
American visual vernacular synonymous to some with the spirit of the West Coast itself.
