Outsider Art? Tattooing from Lew the Jew to Today

Born in Japan, raised in California, Takahiro Kitamura graduated with a BA in community studies from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1994. In 1998, he began tattooing under the artist title “Horitaka” and continued to work under that name until 2014, after which he took the title “Ryudaibori.” In 2002, he opened State of Grace Tattoo in San Jose, California. Since 2004, he has also been the co-founder and co-host of the Bay Area Tattoo Convention. Kitamura is the author and publisher of multiple books on tattoo culture and has spoken at University of California, Santa Barbara, University of California, Berkeley, Virgina Museum of Fine Arts, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Morikami Museum in Florida, and The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, as well as at conferences worldwide. Kitamura has curated two exhibitions for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Roxx taught herself to tattoo at the age of fifteen. She started out by hand poking pieces on friends in some of London’s punk rock squats. She has since owned studios in Edinburgh, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and now Los Angeles. Her work has been included in numerous publications and has been exhibited globally, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

Adam Vu Noir is a multimedia and tattoo artist from Los Angeles, California. In 2017, he received wide public recognition for his groundbreaking feat of tattooing on all seven continents. He is the curator of StrangeLove, a collective of like-minded artists across the globe with the prime directive of pushing tattooing forward into the future. Heavily inspired by his vagrant travels, classic propaganda, pulp art, and tattoo history, his body of work is haunting and humorous. Vu Noir brings all his influences together to form his own surreal narrative of the world.

Kari Barba has been tattooing since 1979. Kari has spent her career crushing presumptions and prejudices, while also inspiring dramatic improvements to tattoo shop cleanliness accross the industry. She is a world renowned artist who has won over five hundred awards, including a Lifetime Achievement and Best Tattoo Artist award (twice nationally and once internationally). Despite an uncertain beginning in a very competitive industry, Kari has successfully run her own business since 1983. Currently, she owns two shops under the name Outer Limits Tattoo, one in Long Beach and the other at the CAMP in Costa Mesa. The former, once known as Bert Grimm's World Famous Tattoo Studio, is the oldest continuously running tattoo shop in the United States. Kari also attends Mondial du Tatouage each year, and has judged alongside fellow tattoo legends Filip Leu, Luke Atkinson, Mark Mahoney, and the late Bill Salmon.