The 8th Annual Ink-N-Iron Tattoo and Kustom Culture Festival hit Long Beach, California, this past weekend, using the legendary Queen Mary as the backdrop along with a flock of men with facial tattoos, cabaret dancers and pole aerialists. This unique festival not only showcases the work of tattoo artists from around the world, but also live music, art shows, burlesque girls, pin stripping, vintage cars and motorcycles and even a pin-up girl contest.
Sorrel Smith is one of the most glamorous creatures I’ve ever met. A painter and costumer working in Paris, Sorrel is a fixture at the Carnival in Venice, runs Dr. Sketchy’s in Paris, and never leaves the house without being fully decked out in vintage finery. Her art is equally awe inspiring- meticulously historical paintings of pinup beauties stripping their flesh off rather than their stockings. In our interview below, we talk about glamor, influence, and what to wear to a costume party in Constantinople.
I’m what one might call a Doctor Sketchy’s veteran. Or an almost-veteran, at the very least. By some bizarre twist of fate, a former roommate of mine happened to be the head of Sketchy’s LA a few years ago. It was through her that I met and became friends with Skecthy founder Molly Crabapple, and it was thanks to her that I ended up posing for four or five Sketchy’s sessions, so far. When Molly suggested that my husband and I pose for a Master and Margarita-themed Sketchy’s on its home turf in NYC, I actually, literally squealed. There could be no idea more enticing, considering Ales and I are both huge fans of this literary masterpiece, and I love New York, and he’d never been to New York, and, and, and! Excitement all around. If you’re unfamiliar with The Master and Margarita but can’t read Russian, I recommend you pick up this translation and consume it as fast as your schedule allows. It’s both a critique of Stalinist regime and an elaborate parable of good and evil, where cats swig vodka, curse, and shoot guns, the Devil himself wreaks havoc on 1930s Moscow, and love conquers all. Sort of.
Art, boobs, booze! Do we have your attention? That’s the idea behind Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. Founded in 2005 by fierce New York artist Molly Crabapple, the cabaret life drawing phenomenon has spread across the globe, now boasting over eighty chapters in several continents, everywhere from China to France. For four years artists, burlesque performers, and drunks have joined forces under the Dr. Sketchy’s flag to dispel art scene pretense in the name of creativity and fun.
