Paul Booth is the king of macabre tattoo art. He is well respected by the tattoo community for his dark art and is in high demand. He’s become a favorite artist for band members in Slayer, Pantera, and Slipknot.
He’s originally from New Jersey and attended Catholic schools all the way through high school. Even back in those days, he was scolded by the teachers for his doodling. He first tried a career in graphic design but it wasn’t for him.
He got an apprenticeship in 1988 but the work was uninspiring. He soon opened his own studio in Manhattan and then eventually moved his shop to Hell’s Kitchen in 2007. His shop, Last Rites Tattoo Theatre, is decorated like a haunted castle with dungeon decorated rooms, red candles and black walls. It sounds like a haunted tattoo parlor.
His shop includes several thousand square feet of space which houses a video theater, a display of Paul’s paintings and his collection of bottled body parts and instruments of torture. Paul also devotes some of the gallery space to other artist’s artwork. He likes to support the drawings and paintings of tattoo artists that like to express themselves in other mediums. Projects like Paul’s help to change the perception some people have of tattoo artists. It shows the public that tattoo artists are truly talented and should be respected for their talents.
Back in 2000 he created a unique art movement call “The Artfusion Experiment” for tattoo artists. He recently expanded his artistic interests to film and his debut work was about the ArtFusion project. In his latest piece, he gives his fans a tour of his studio.
- His web site:Last Rites Tattoo
- His Myspace Page: http://www.myspace.com/paulboothtattoo
- Paul Booth Merchandise
- Paul on Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Booth
- His paintings; http://beinart.org/artists/paul-booth/
- His forum: Last Rites Tattoo Forum
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
you are a amazing artist and i thought my tattoo guy was the best. Love your work .
wow where are you from?