Behind the noise of SXSW down in Austin, Oliver Peck was sitting in the Sailor Jerry Rum vintage Airstream, tattooing special guests. Peck is famous to some for a previous relationship with reality tv star/tattooist Kat Von D and to others for being one of the most bad ass, old school ink slingers around. Based in Dallas, TX, Peck has made a name for himself out of Elm Street Tattoo and traveling the nation as part of the Vans Warped Tour (he also has a spot on our 50 greatest tattoo artists list). For Sailor Jerry, he provided the classics… deft hand stenciled tattoos direct from a Norman Collins archive of tattoo flash.
I went for some classics - a heart and banner (the name of the only woman I can ever love emblazoned within), an aloha monkey and the requisite snakehead dagger. Three tattoos in a quick hit. Not dissimilar from a sailor on shore leave.
Fitting really, as we were collected in the airstream in part to celebrate the release of Homeward Bound: The Life and Times of Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry, a new companion book to Erich Weiss' brilliant Hori Smoku documentary. The book is available at sailorjerry.com.
