Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist by Jonathan Shaw, Paperback, 9781681629155 | Buy online at The Nile
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Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist

Confessions of a Tattoo Artist

Author: Jonathan Shaw   Series: Scab Vendor

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Description

  • Huge Network of Influencers: Born as the son of jazz legend Artie Shaw and Hollywood actress Doris Dowling, author Jonathan Shaw has a rich matrix of connections, from Johnny Depp to Debbie Harry to Iggy Pop. - Cover Art by R. Crumb: Legendary cartoonist, R. Crumb gave the cover art to Jonathan Shaw to use exclusively for Scab Vendor. R. Crumb's unmistakable style will be instantly recognized by his large and devoted fanbase and can be tapped into for selling through on the book. - Bestselling Author: Jonathan Shaw's previous novel, Narcisa, was on the Amazon bestseller list for six consecutive weeks.
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Critic Reviews

“Praise for Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes "Shaw is an optimistic cynic, breaking all common boundaries [with] a literature as compelling and hot as a sticky summer night that won't let you sleep." -- New York Times book review "Jonathan Shaw is the next Bukowski." -- Rolling Stone "A darkly hilarious litany of doomed love, drug addiction, compulsive sex and mutual enslavement..." -- VICE "The grunge of Bukowski [and] the teeth-grinding momentum of the Beats." -- Kirkus Reviews "Nightmarish talent . . . wedged between outlaw and genius . . . [with] serious street cred." -- New York Press "Shaw's work ranks with the best." --Johnny Depp "Jonathan Shaw is the great nightmare anti-hero of the new age." --Iggy Pop "Is he bitter? Oh, just a tad." --R. Crumb "Jonathan Shaw's writing is one hell of a wild ride through the bizarre netherworld of his own damaged consciousness." --Jim Jarmusch "Fearless storytelling." --Marilyn Manson "Written in blood, his writing takes us places most people never come back from." --Jerry Stahl "Jonathan Shaw's passionate descriptions of the surreal, paranoid jungle he inhabits capture the haunting poetry of his soul.'' --Hubert Selby, Jr. "To immerse ourselves in this bare-bones attitude is what a novel is supposed to do for the reader. Lucky us.'' --Debbie Harry Praise for Scab Vendor "[Jonathan Shaw is] a literary madman." -- Vice "Impossibly transportive. Scab Vendor smelled like rum, tobacco, and malaria. And I read it on a computer. A must read." --Jeff Johnson, author of Tattoo Machine: Tall Tales, True Stories, and My Life in Ink , Knottspeed (Turner Publishing, February 2017), Everything Under the Moon (Soft Skull Press, September, 2016), and Lucky Supreme (Skyhorse Publishing, 2016).”

Praise for Jonathan Shaw

"Finally, after twenty-plus years of coaxing, cajoling, pleading and basic needling on my part, my ol' scallywag brother, Jonathan Shaw has put his pen to paper, dragging and drudging up virulent and violent hallucinations from his not-so-cute brainscape. Been waiting too long for this. So have you, whoever you are, believe me. If you don't yet know him, you will. If you didn't want to, too bad. Once he's in, he's in. Jonathan Shaw's words, work, life, lives, deaths, rants, rage, hilarity and taste rank with the best of 'em. If Hubert Selby Jr., Charles Bukowski, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Neil Cassidy, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the Marquis de Sade, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Edward Teach, Charley Parker, Iggy Pop, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, R. Crumb, Robert Williams, Joe Coleman, Dashiell Hammett, E.M. Cioran and all of the Three Stooges had all been involved in some greasy, shameful whorehouse orgy, Jonathan Shaw would surely be its diabolical reprobate spawn."-Johnny Depp

"Jonathan Shaw is the great nightmare anti-hero of the new age."―Iggy Pop

"Although known primarily for his work as a famed tattoo artist, Shaw is also a talented writer whose latest book, Scab Vendor, draws on his own life, vacillating between first person and third person to tell his story in this sprawling, experimental autobiography... The comparisons to Charles Bukowski are obvious, but Scab Vendor reminded me more of Hubert Selby Jr. and Henry Miller in terms of tone and style... Interspersed with vignettes from Shaw's life (and) foggy memories of a chaotic childhood ("other kids got [the] Hardy Boys... I got Hieronymus Bosch"), Scab Vendor [is] a whirlpool of drugs and alcohol. The gritty, gutter prose is sharpened by Shaw's gift for dialogue and sharp insight. This tale is one of shame, humility, and wonder at how it all happened."-Publishers Weekly

"The grunge of Bukowski... The teeth-grinding momentum of the Beats."-Kirkus Reviews

"Jonathan Shaw is the next Bukowski."-Rolling Stone

"{Shaw is} a hunk of shit fish-asshole cunt-sucker!''-Charles Bukowski

"Is he bitter? Oh, just a tad."-R. Crumb

"Compelling and hot as a sticky summer night that won't let you sleep."-New York Times Book Review

"Jonathan Shaw's writing is one hell of a wild ride through the bizarre netherworld of his own damaged consciousness. His experiences are real and his language and insights kinetic and brutal. This is what the French would call "littérature maudit," and Shaw's writing certifies him as a subversive and criminal inhabitant of the world of human expression."-Jim Jarmusch

"Jonathan Shaw is a decorated veteran of the drug war whose deviance is only exceeded by his clever ability to weave his own sickness into a true classic of American literature. He is Oscar Wilde and Charlie Manson tattooing a portrait of Dorian Gray on the white underbelly of a society desperately in need of this type of fearless storytelling.''-Marilyn Manson

"Jonathan Shaw has been a Zelig-like figure in American underground culture for the past forty years."-Esquire

"...{Jonathan Shaw is} a real writer..."-Henry Rollins

"Jonathan Shaw has made it through the eye-of-the-needle into our lives. This kind of rite of passage gives his perspectives a sense of the physical world that he creates for us. To immerse ourselves in this bare bones-attitude is what a novel is supposed to do for the reader. Lucky us.''-Debbie Harry

"Jonathan Shaw's passionate descriptions of the surreal, paranoid jungle he inhabits capture the haunting poetry of his soul.''-Hubert Selby Jr., author of Requiem for a Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn

"Shaw's writing reinvents and promotes life. Be prepared to see yourself in the pages of Narcisa, the essence of your own poor humanity, weak and vulnerable and unprepared - and to see at the sa

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About the Author

You might know of Jonathan Shaw as the first tattoo artist to ever appear on The Tonight Show with David Letterman. Or maybe you've seen his likeness depicted by Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Art Spiegelman on the cover of the stately old The New Yorker. Or you might know him as the son of legendary Swing-era bandleader Artie Shaw--or maybe the tattooed thug playing opposite Clint Eastwood in the movie Tightrope. You may have seen the magazine Jonathan Shaw founded back in the 90s, International Tattoo Art, at your local newsstand. Or you could have read his book, Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes, published by Johnny Depp's HarperCollins imprint, or his recent visual exploration of tattoo art, Vintage Tattoo Flash. You may have read mind-boggling excerpts from his long-awaited memoir-style novel, Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist online. Or maybe you only remember the name Jonathan Shaw as the infamous "tattoo artist to the stars" who recently made headline news for being indicted by a New York City Grand Jury and charged with 89 felony counts of illegal weapons possession.

Or . . . maybe you've never heard of Jonathan Shaw at all.

For decades, Jonathan Shaw was a world-renowned celebrity tattoo artist. Over the course of his well-documented career, he was one of the most infamous and influential tattoo men on the planet. Described by Iggy Pop as "the great nightmare anti-hero of the New Age," Shaw's client list included names like Johnny Depp, The Cure, The Velvet Underground, The Pogues, The Ramones, Marilyn Manson, Jim Jarmusch, Joe Coleman, Johnny Winter, Kate Moss, Orlando Bloom, Tupac Shakur and the notorious Great Train Robber, Ronald Biggs. Jonathan Shaw is still one of the most respected names in the tattoo profession today--despite having retired over 15 years ago from an industry with an absurdly short memory--an industry he was instrumental in pioneering.

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Product Details

Publisher
Turner
Published
21st March 2017
Pages
400
ISBN
9781681629155

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