A Cape Town tattoo artist set up a pop-up tattoo parlour in a Kwelera art studio and has had East Londoners queuing up to get inked – many for the first time.Daniel Lotz, 33, himself covered in head to toe skin art, is the son of award-winning East London multi-media artist Kathryn Harmer Fox, whose fibre art image of her son called A Life Lived in Ink won the prestigious Carrefour European du Patchwork in France in September.
Lotz has been in the body ink industry for 10 years and has worked in Spain, Miami, Hollywood and south Carolina. He has tattooed Hells Angels, priests, judges, gang members and grannies and his decorated body has been in demand for advertising campaigns from ripped jeans to lingerie shoots.
First in line this week were photographer Leigh Skinner-Tebbutt and her son Morgan, 17.
“I’m having my three sons’ names tattooed on my left wrist so that they go everywhere with me – even to my grave,” said Skinner-Tebbutt who was also forking out for her son’s tattoo.
“I’m paying for his tattoo because my sons must express themselves how they want to,” she said.
Son Morgan said he was “a little nervous” about his first tattoo of script reading “Appreciate what you have before it turns into what you had” and his mother’s birth date on his inner bicep in honour of her battle with cancer.
Lotz, who got his first tattoo of a dragon on his shoulder blade as an 18th birthday present to himself is now enveloped in art that mirrors his life experiences. His right cheek is emblazoned with the word “loyalty” in response to the American Playboy model who cheated on him.
Above his left eyebrow “cést la vie” recalls a French pop star he dated and on his chest his ex-wife’s name Kathrin is in the process of being adjusted to his mother’s name Kathryn.
Lotz is involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of pitbulls used in dog fights and the initials “LB” which stand for Little Brasse, a dog who died in heartbreaking circumstances, will forever be etched on the side of his head.
Like many tattoo enthusiasts who regret the inking choices of their youth, Lotz will be covering up Salvadore Dali’s face on his left arm. “It was done by a guy who was jailed for attempted murder and so it gives off a very bad energy.”
He is sensitive to negative energy and turns down requests for pornography, Satanistic symbols or swear words. “I don’t want to mark their bodies with negative stuff. I also won’t do work on people who are drunk or high or who make a spontaneous decision they may regret later.”
He may be a sought-after artist, but Lotz is by no means aesthetic purist when it comes to his own body art. Some of it – like a street child’s 2010 doodle or an apprentice’s bath duck – is there simply because they captured “a moment” in his life. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Body art tells of lives lived to the full
Daniel Lotz, 33, himself covered in head to toe skin art, is the son of award-winning East London multi-media artist Kathryn Harmer Fox, whose fibre art image of her son called A Life Lived in Ink won the prestigious Carrefour European du Patchwork in France in September.
Lotz has been in the body ink industry for 10 years and has worked in Spain, Miami, Hollywood and south Carolina. He has tattooed Hells Angels, priests, judges, gang members and grannies and his decorated body has been in demand for advertising campaigns from ripped jeans to lingerie shoots.
First in line this week were photographer Leigh Skinner-Tebbutt and her son Morgan, 17.
“I’m having my three sons’ names tattooed on my left wrist so that they go everywhere with me – even to my grave,” said Skinner-Tebbutt who was also forking out for her son’s tattoo.
“I’m paying for his tattoo because my sons must express themselves how they want to,” she said.
Son Morgan said he was “a little nervous” about his first tattoo of script reading “Appreciate what you have before it turns into what you had” and his mother’s birth date on his inner bicep in honour of her battle with cancer.
Lotz, who got his first tattoo of a dragon on his shoulder blade as an 18th birthday present to himself is now enveloped in art that mirrors his life experiences. His right cheek is emblazoned with the word “loyalty” in response to the American Playboy model who cheated on him.
Above his left eyebrow “cést la vie” recalls a French pop star he dated and on his chest his ex-wife’s name Kathrin is in the process of being adjusted to his mother’s name Kathryn.
Lotz is involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of pitbulls used in dog fights and the initials “LB” which stand for Little Brasse, a dog who died in heartbreaking circumstances, will forever be etched on the side of his head.
Like many tattoo enthusiasts who regret the inking choices of their youth, Lotz will be covering up Salvadore Dali’s face on his left arm. “It was done by a guy who was jailed for attempted murder and so it gives off a very bad energy.”
He is sensitive to negative energy and turns down requests for pornography, Satanistic symbols or swear words. “I don’t want to mark their bodies with negative stuff. I also won’t do work on people who are drunk or high or who make a spontaneous decision they may regret later.”
He may be a sought-after artist, but Lotz is by no means aesthetic purist when it comes to his own body art. Some of it – like a street child’s 2010 doodle or an apprentice’s bath duck – is there simply because they captured “a moment” in his life. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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