PIHM Artist Spotlight: The Tattoos of Jo / slug
Hello! I'm Jo (also known as slug) and I have been tattooing at this moment for over a decade, and drawing and painting with enthusiasm since I had the dexterity as a child.
The shorthand way to describe my tattoos would be surreal traditional, and this is an approach I've had before I even started tattooing but have honed over the years, in terms of how I enjoy the aesthetics and power and longevity of traditional tattoos, but don't necessarily always resonate or wish to engage with old western traditional imagery. A lot of my work is a mixture of a running joke and a PTSD sorta induced fixation on how tattoos are a living art; and therefore go through what the human body is prone to - highs, tumours, pleasure, aging, warts and all. I also have painted and tattooed a lot of comfortable body horror, in that it can be quite violent images but drawn in a cartoonish manner; often dealing with my thoughts on body autonomy and being trans and how the public eye can tear you apart, but also the joys in how tattoos - for myself personally and even more joyously given to others - have been an amazing way of having some say in how we are perceived and what we see on ourselves.
instagram: @slugggg
