Untitled 2-3-71 [study for "tattoo" book] 1971

This is a study for a tattoo book, made by James McCracken Jr. on the 3rd of February 1971. You can see it's a straightforward drawing, a kind of try-out, with lots of motifs that have that familiar biker-tattoo vibe. I like how immediate it feels - the black ink laid onto the plain white paper. The process feels really present. McCracken’s working quickly and you can see the differences in the weights of the line, thick and thin, solid and dashed. My eye keeps returning to the curly shapes, like worms or larvae, placed so freely across the sheet. I think the skull at the bottom might be my favorite though. He’s taken the time to add more detail, and the hatching gives it a sculptural quality that the other figures lack. It makes me think of H. R. Giger - I could totally see this stuff airbrushed onto the side of a van. I think we can embrace the fact that art isn’t about being finished, but about being open to different ideas.