PURE FUSION: TATTOOS BY DAVE WAUGH

By Michelle Delio

Dave Waugh's work is an excellent example of the strength and beauty of fusion-tattooing, he combines modern graphics and sensibilities with traditional tattoo techniques and formulas, and ends up with imagery that is vibrant, clean, and fun to look at and wear.

As a kid, he was fascinated by comic books, cartoons, monster movies, and music. Later, as a teenage aspiring musician and artist, Dave saw a video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and saw that magic mix of art and music. He started tattooing himself soon after. "I didn't have any friends so I sat around the house a lot and was pretty bored." (By the way, Dave's lack of people to hang around with was due to frequent location moves, not his personality - he's one of the nicest guys in the business.)

About his homemade tattoos, Dave notes, "At the time I thought they were pretty cool. Of course, a few months later I looked at them and realized they were pretty ridiculous."

When Dave turned 18, he got a job in the cemetery "cutting grass, digging holes, and throwing dirt on coffins." He was still living at home with his mom, so he decided to invest the bulk of his paychecks into purchasing skin art. "I lucked out, because there weren't as many tattoo shops in Baltimore as there are now." And there was only one that was respectable and everyone knew it - Dragon Moon. So I went in there and Tom Beasley did a dragon on me. After that I just kept getting more and more work whenever I could."

Dave doesn't think getting such extensive coverage at such a tender young age was a bad thing, especially since he knew he wanted to get into the tattoo business. "I think as a tattooist you have to have a real dedication to the art. If a tattooist doesn't have a lot of tattoos how can he tell his clients what it's like to live with very visible work? For me, having extensive coverage means that I can mark someone else up for the rest of their life with a clear conscience."

Not that anyone would mind getting inked a lot by Dave, his work is a prime example of modern tattooing at its very best. His designs are not only artistically sound, they're also marked by his wicked sense of humor. The foundation of his custom work is strong outlines, careful shading, and bold solid colors, all of which will keep the work looking sharp for decades to come. Layered on top of that strong substructure are images inspired by his favorite eye candy, comix and animation. The end result is the best of old and new.

Another principle that makes Dave's work great is his tendency to start a design with a simple idea, which he redraws and perfects. Then, once he's got the bones in place, he drops his own spin onto it. He stays away from over-detailling designs. "One day awhile back I dabbled with that cubist - biomechanical - based - traditional - fractual - surreal - color - field style, but it just didn't work for me."

After a few years of doing mostly custom work at Little Vinnie's Tattoos in Westminster, Maryland, Dave now spends a couple days a week doing flash straight off the wall at the new Little Vinnie's West Side Tattoos "It's good practice for me. Flash is fun because you don't have to labor over coming up with a perfect design concept. And since my custom work tends to be big and bold, it's easy to forget how to do those small tight tattoos that are most of our flash requests. Working in a street shop is also a good way to build up speed without sacrificing the quality of the work, because it seems like people who get flash are on a tighter schedule than my custom clients. Plus, Vinnie and I have our own flash on the wall, so we're getting a chance to do our own designs."

When he's not working, Dave spends as much time as possible with his son, Dave junior, who is starting to show definite signs of art talent. Dave also plays in two bands. The members of both bands are all the same guys, the difference is the music they play. "Iron Boss" does hard-edged rock, and "Frum the Hills" is, as Dave explained it to me, "punk bluegrass."

Obviously fusion is a theme in all of Dave's art-with his music he's taken the foundation of twangy bluegrass and zapped it up with a strong drum and backbeat and bass. If you want to hear how it sounds, have Dave slap the band's CD on when you're getting one of his fine fusion tattoos.