The Goodbye Art Show Explores the Many Guises of Death
Four tattooists with kindred spirits got together to put on one hell of an art show at Kings Avenue Tattoo in NYC.
On the opening night of the Goodbye: New Works on Paper art show, most of the Kings Avenue NYC team was busy pulling lines and shading, while over the noise of thrumming tattoo machines, a few of its staff members and two visiting artists — Justin Weatherholtz, Zac Scheinbaum, Frankie Caraccioli, and Brian Paul — talked to us about their paintings. Walking through the small yet profound collection of visual art, we were confronted by depictions of the Grim Reaper, Fudo Myoo, lethal snakes, landscapes of the afterlife, and other deathly tattoo imagery.
A reaper bordered by other reapers by Justin Weatherholtz (IG—justinweatherholtz). #artshow #fineart #Goodbye #JustinWeatherholtz #KingAvenueTatoo #reaper
Weatherholtz produced a number of impressive pieces for the show, including several with his iconic skulls and a few inspired by Irezumi. Some of his most stunning illustrations were clearly inspired by comic books. “I decided to do a few that had a narrative element to them because of the theme and the stories behind it,” Weatherholtz explained. “I’ve loved comics since I was little, and my intention was to create an experience where the viewer could interpret death in different ways.”
The Goodbye show will be up until this coming Sunday, April 2, so if you’re in NYC this weekend and want to see some profound paintings made by tattooists, make sure to drop into Kings Avenue Tattoo. Who knows, you might even walk away with a powerful depiction of death to hang on your living room wall.
