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Stream of Consciousness Tattooing
Rev. Chad Wells Has Developed a Revolutionary Approach to Tattooing
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"Following the tattoo where it wants to take you is truly a new direction in modern tattooing! The freedom this type of tattooing represents is a key to allowing the artist's mind to grow exponentially. This is any tattoo artist's dream!" Durb Morrison Hell City Tattoo Festival "Pushing tattooing to it purest most primal form, this just may be as real as it gets." Joshua Carlton Great American Tattoo Company, Alla Prima Ink "To me it seems to be a different approach in the mind of an artist, which could potentially create a product that would be radically different than anything anyone expected or has created before." Sean Herman |
Q1: What exactly is Stream of Consciousness Tattooing?
A: Stream of Consciousness Tattooing is a form of improvisational freehand tattooing that I've created and have been performing for several years. It's very purposefully unplanned. It is a technique where neither the artist or collector enters into the tattoo with any preconceived notion of what the tattoo may become. The artist purposefully works in a way as to force himself to use instinct and his subconscious as well as the curves and texture of the collector's body to guide the development of the tattoo. The images that emerge in the tattoo are influenced by an unfiltered stream of ideas from the artist's subconscious and at times, maybe even a "collective unconscious", as defined by Carl Jung and of course a laundry list of different spiritual belief systems. I like to equate it with improvisational Jazz music where the players will riff on completely random musical ideas and as an idea develops, they will throw a curveball at the piece in the form of a random, seemingly out of place flat note or something that will force them to instinctively play the piece and not fall back on learned experiences but to rely purely on their instinct or "soul". By the end of the piece, a theme may develop, like a repeating riff or melody that will carry the piece into the realm of a slightly more traditional song form.
Q2: What was your inspiration to start this technique?
A: I've always been into improvisational music, art and writing. In school we would have creative writing exercises based around "Stream of Consciousness Writing" where the class would be instructed to think about nothing before picking up the pen to write. We would be given a specific amount of time, usually a random amount of time, like 6 minutes or so. In that span of time we should not worry about spelling or punctuation or a theme. We would just write whatever came out of heads no matter how random and nonsensical. Also we had projects in art class where we would have to splatter ink all over a page in random splats and splashes and we would then take pens and find images in the inkblots and draw details on them. If a blot looked like a face, you would add the eyes and features. I always enjoyed that kind of stuff. I'm a huge fan of improvisational music from freeform Jazz to Noise. There's something about the immediacy and the anticipation that I find attractive and almost a little dangerous. I'm also a big student of fairly arcane subjects and have always had a certain fascination with things like "Automatic Writing" and things of that nature. Are these people running up an antenna and catching the voices of spirits or tapping into a collective unconscious or just the thoughts running through their own heads? I don't really know. When I do these sort of tattoos, I don't think I'm necessarily doing anything supernatural, I like to think it's more just a random drip from my own subconsciousness. So like most artists, I started having clients that liked my work enough to tell me that they wanted me to freehand anything I wanted on them. They didn't care what it was as long as I did it and it looked good at the end of the day. So I started just jumping in the skin without any safety net. No concepts, no stencils, no reference materials and no rules whatsoever.
Q3: Tell us about some of the tattoos you've created with Stream of Consciousness Tattooing.
A: Sometimes SoC ends up just being background, filler stuff. Recently it's become much more sought after as the main tattoo by itself. Generally they end up full of weird organic forms, bio-mechanical forms. Skulls and faces emerge a lot. I call these "apparitions" because they sort of appear like ghosts at first. Like some formless cloudy shape that just keeps picking up bits of facial features. Genitalia is common. Anything body related may form. I think a lot of the pieces end up being vaguely similar to the forms and images of the more far out stuff by the Dadaists and Surrealists and Occult artists like Rosaleen Norton, Austin Osman Spare, HR Giger, Salvador Dali and artists of that ilk. Who almost randomly, but perfectly combine sacred and profane images, biological with mechanical, plants and man made items, deep psychologically connected images and themes that are not really trying to tell a story but are still very much communicating something about the mind of the artist or the the viewer.
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Q4: Do you use this technique with all of your clients or do you set up special Stream of Consciousness sessions? A: I think to a certain extent, I'm always using bits of the SoC toolset because my tattoos are usually allowed to develop and change all the way up to completion but if I call it SoC it's because we have decided to do that specifically and are sort of "following the rules" that set up the foundation of this "art-form without rules". I still do a lot of tattoos in the traditional sense of "concept first, then sketches, final line art, either stenciled or drawn directly on the skin and then tattooed on". I do far more "normal" tattoos than I do SoC tattoos but I think it's always in there somewhere. Q5: You've demonstrated Stream of Consciousness Tattooing at industry shows and conventions - how has it been received by other tattoo artists? Where can we expect to see more demonstrations in the future? (What upcoming shows/conventions will you be demonstrating Stream of Consciousness Tattooing?) |
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A: I've done a lot of SoC tattoos at shows and they do generally draw some spectators but the only time I "officially" demonstrated SoC tattoos was at this year's Gem City Heart Attack in Dayton and I found out I would be doing it the night before when Brian Brenner, one of the hosts of the show, announced that I'd be doing a seminar the next day. I had done a seminar about getting publshed and getting your name out as well as opening up your artistic mind and getting "outside the box" a week or two prior in Nashville that Brian attended and I guess he thought I should have the opportunity to do it again in Dayton. Well, I was all booked up the next day with no time to leave the booth to do the seminar so John Montgomery, Brian's partner in putting on the show, had heard that I was doing an SoC tattoo that day and suggested I just make the SoC tattoo a demonstration. It was a Sunday and it wasn't a pre-planned demonstration so it wasn't all that heavily "attended". A lot of people wandered up and would watch for a little bit and then move on. We played the DVD that comes with my SoC book and people would watch that and comment and then move on. There were like 4 or 5 people that stayed and watched and asked questions throughout the entire thing but a lot of people checked it out. I am not planning anything specific for any upcoming shows but I'm always willing to do stuff like that. If a convention wants me to do it and I can round up a collector who's willing to do it, then I'd be honored to show it around more. I'd like to plan the seminars or demos in advance so we can set up the best possible viewing scenario for the spectators. As far as other artists, they have been really supportive and excited about it. I've almost sold out of the first printing of the book and DVD and I'm supposed to be distributed by one of the big supply companies so that'll get out even more of them. I haven't heard any negatives at all. A few people don't get it and think that maybe I'm just re-packaging regular old freehand tattooing or they think that I'm doing something more "mystical" than I actually am. I had one guy tell me that he thought it was a "Hokey" idea until he watched the video and saw the final result and he really liked it. So far, no negatives. It's all been really positive.
Q6: Is there any preparation involved in Stream of Consciousness Tattooing? Do you have a general idea of what the end product will be before sitting down to tattoo or do you simply let your creative juices flow?
A: I have no idea what the end result will be until midway through and then there are some images that just beg to be what they are going to be and then a little bit of a theme or at least an overall composition has formed. I just let my hands sort of make some light sketchy or smokey filler in the background and then I start working through that and giving it some form and usually it happens like cloud gazing. I see stuff appearing in the inky mess and I start roughing it in and then work it to fruition. There's no special preparation but I do like to be in the right mindset. Doing one in the middle of a busy day is kind of like switching gears. You have to leave your logical brain out of the process and allow your creative brain to become fully engaged. In my studio, it's pretty Zen compared to the street shop atmosphere I used to work in. I burn scented candles and play music that helps me feel creative and I try to create a real lush, comfortable vibe so I and my customer are feeling fully safe and relaxed and open to exploring the art. This atmosphere seriously caters to the right kind of vibe for an SoC tattoo. Sometimes an SoC tattoo collector will ask for something with a certain feel. They may want something uplifting or evil or scary or sexual. Instead of allowing myself to make the laundry list in my head of images that I could inject in a piece to get those vibes, I'll push that thought out of my head but play music and burn scents that will make me feel those moods. If I'm listening to some light Ambient music we may get a different vibe than if we listen to old Country or seriously depressive Black Metal. Sometimes it's all abut creating the right mood that will take your project to the Next Level.
About Rev. Chad Wells
Aside from being an accomplished tattoo artist, musician and painter, Wells is also a published writer, whose work has appeared in many books, magazines and newspapers and is currently a regular contributor to industry heavyweight magazine, International Tattoo Art and also writes a weekly blog at www.internationaltattooart.com.
Call or E-mail Rev Chad for a free consultation at wells73@aol.com or (937) 286 3127 or visit the Rev's Website at http://www.wellstattoo.com. You can also get a good look at Rev Chad's tattoo gallery right here on GetInkMidwest.com!
Read Last Month's Article Featuring Monkey Bones Tattoo