I just finished this up for Karl at Jinx proof. They are for a sticker and T-shirt design. I never get tired of drawing grim reapers. F W acrylic paint on coquille board with black colored pencil.

-Murray

Shawn McDonald's book is out!

My friend Shawn McDonald put together this amazing book over the last few months. Let me tell you folks, it is amazing too.
It's available through Blurb.com. If you like tattoo inspired art this book is DEFINITELY for you.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a248/Murrwolf/shawn2.jpg

This thing is going to be a super rare collectors item so get it while you can y'all!

'Mericans

I made this after saturating my brain with non-stop news for the last few weeks to see what would happen to my mind. NPR in the morning, AM radio on the way home from the shop.CRAZY AM radio late at night when I Paint. A couple of hours cable news in between. It's enough to turn you into a real hyper-aware animal thats for sure.


-Murray

I got too tattoo and finish up some fun stuff over the last couple of weeks including this big ass snow tiger that I couldn't wait to have come back.I love doing big stuff and not too many people are strong enough to complete tattoos on that scale.This gal sat like a champ.

I decided to change the heading picture this week too.
The photo is of my girl friend Melissa Kolentus and was taken by respected Local photographer mark swerdloff.Seriously, Look him up. He's amazing. The tattoos on Melissa are by Rick Brown, Gunner, Myself and Nate drew of Lost art tattoo in Salt Lake City UT.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Murray

I've always found anti-social imagery compelling. It challenges ones common sense; a persons sense of decency and their idea of "Good & Evil".
It also can adversely reaffirm ones core instinctual concept of right and wrong and, if you are so inclined, bolster a persons "Fuck You" attitude about the world around them. So in this regard such "taboo" subjects prove to be different masters for different servants.

I find the hazy margin of ambiguousness an image commonly held as offensive exists in fascinating. How is it that one image is acceptable to one person while it causes another to shrink in terror or sneer in disgust? Inside this line in the sand so to speak are the real questions.A question that cuts to the core of the subject matter itself. What is right and what is wrong? If there is such a thing why can't everyone agree what it is in the first place? And more over an even deeper question arises from that as well. If we are merely animals then wouldn't the horrendous nature of such a dark symbology just be an extension of our core instinct to annihilate what ever gets in out way?
Finally where do you fall INSIDE the line of demarcation ? This taboo no mans land?

While I obviously Cringe at the idea of romanticizing Nazism in any form and just so I'm clear I don't feel the manner in which this painting was conceived does that by the way, what is it about this painting that identify with and even like? Why would I chose to spend my time painting such negativity into the world?
Perhaps it's my desire to be left alone by most people? Nothing in the world could possibly top this as a way of letting people know to stay the hell away from you. Still I feel the composition grasps on to a certain charm as rotten as the core may be.

My painting is drawn in a style indicative of 80's tattooing A period of time I view as more cut and dry compared to today's blurred line of reality and fantasy. Of real and unreal. Of scripted reality Vs. cold harsh brutal reality.Of black and white (no pun intended).

Happiness and "feeling good" is what our society is based upon here in the West after all. This belief sprung from the 1960's, flourished in the 70's, matured in the 80's and 90's. And now at the start of a new decade in a new millennium the cracks have begun to form at the base of this structure from the shear weight of all of its moral and social entitlements. And of its own grotesque vices as well....I'm Left to ponder: what are the consequence of this way of life both good and bad going to be for us all?

I feel I made this painting because I just felt like adding a few more needles to Joe camel's back so to speak. Not for some kind of pro-nationalist statement or an affirmation of some kind of bloated illogical racial idea but because I felt like saying fuck this easygoing softness in us. I want the viewer to reaffirm their commitments. I want them to think past the fleeting pathetic pre-programmed plastic knee jerk television has drummed into them. I want the viewer to connect to the painting in a manner that causes either anger and resentment or praise and adoration. And ultimately I want the viewer to emerge from the moral no man's land that so many in today's world apathetically wonder through recommitted. I want battle lines to be draw so we can bring last centuries tired arguments and the beginning of this centuries short comings and false promises to a close.
In essence I want the house of cards to fall.

-Murray

Split sheet With Kyle Sajban

They keep coming so I keep painting them.
Kyle Sajban did the the Beautiful pin up girl. When I saw it I figured a Nice Horny wolf would an appropriate compliment to her.
I really appreciate the over all rollo feel to this painting. This was Super fun to do.Kyle's a brilliant artist and tattooer. He works at Monster ink in stony point New York. Look him up!

-Murray

Philly convention

I will be working at the Philadelphia tattoo convention this weekend with Jinx proof and olde city tattoo. I am honored to be able to tattoo along side of them.
If you'd like to get tattooed by me I'll be there. Or you can call my studio at 860-832-8411 or email me at murrayftw@gmail.com
Thank you.

-Murray

Finally finished.

I've been working on this painting for tattooer Karl Hedgepath off and on for about 3 weeks in between the moving and unpacking I mentioned previously. I tried to attach some real meaning to this one. Each Animal represents the the Chinese zodiac animal for each member of his family including his own.

The "arm of doom" design in the center of the painting is a redux of a tattoo on Karl that Dan Higgs tattooed on him back in the days when he was still tattooing. I essentially called it back in to service for his family as a sort of new coat of arms for them.

The green background has a slight metal flake effect in it that I added to the paint I used. Basically I couldn't get the desired effect that I wanted on my test sheet so I resorted to mixing my own paint instead.In the end I feel it turned out to be a pretty effective maneuver. You can't really see it in the picture, but in person it manages to be subtle yet eye catching and adds to the whimsical nature of this painting. Karl expressed that he didn't want this painting to be scary or violent since it was for his family so I tried really hard to go for a more modest look.

Over all I'm very pleased with the outcome. Karl has been a huge supporter and collector of my work for a while now so it was an honor to do this for his family.

The skull and praying mantis tattoo is on a long time client and friend named Mary Heitzenrater.
I jumped at the chance to do this one. Super fun!

New stuff.

So I recently moved my family to West Hartford and I haven't really been able to paint in the capacity that I'm used to because of having to move and unpack ect. But now that that's almost over I've started painting again surrounded by boxes and boxes and boxes of crap.
So here are a few tattoos and a collaborative drawing that my friends and I made during the great blizzard of 2010 down in Baltimore MD which incidentally ruined the convention that weekend. HA! The list of contributors on the drawing are as follows: Paulie B/S from Glenn's tattoo service in NC, Myself, Marcus Mancini from My shop, Teddy Safarian From Tattoo paradise in DC, Rick brown from Empire tattoo in NC, Jason Goldberg who owns Olde City tattoo in Philly PA and Tomas Garcia who is in between Spain and tattoo paradise. I drew the skull and dagger with the rain clouds and ribbon that reads 2010.

The Hand tattoo is on tattooer Kyle Slayban of Monster Ink in New York, The Rick Brown inspired Fudo Myo sword is obviously a work in progress on one of my best and most faithful Clients Tim Davis who I did the neck tattoos on a few blog entries back. The Folky style Namakubi (roughly meaning Severed head in Japanese) is on another one of my other favorite clients Arielle Zaczyk.

Thanks for looking and commenting! See y'all soon.

-Murray

Did this for fun last night...

-Murray

Justin Lee/Murray Sell split painting

Its done! Justin Lee does it again with his CRUSHING imagry and smart use of colors. What a good time I had doing this one with him. I think we're going to do another one now too. I live to do exciting stuff like this so why not?

Tims big photo shoot!

Here are some tattoos I did on a buddy of mines throat recently and a picture from photo shoot that he did shortly after.

haha! Amazing. I wish I could take pictures this good! Tim is a really good guy with a good heart.One of the hardest working dudes that I know in this state. I'm really glad I get to tattoo people like him.



-Murray

I've been very Busy this past few months. Painting after work as much as I can. I've really started to get myself into the habit of painting. It seems much less like "work" and more of a natural extension of myself now then it did when I really started to seriously paint a year ago.
I sleep maybe 6 hours a night now...which is a little less then normal for most folks but not much at all for a lot of tattooers. The days of sleeping 10 hours a days are a hazy, distant memory to me. ha!

Seems like the more driven one becomes about doing something you feel is important, or if you love something so much you require far less rest. I can only describe it as almost like being infatuated with someone. Or on days where you are tearing yourself down its almost like you've been dumped or divorced...You can't sleep, you can't think about anything else. Real pathological obsessional type stuff.
I feel like if people would just devote themselves to their passions they'd be far less caught up with the day to day grind of life.

Lately, tattooing has become easier, faster, more solid and more fun. I feel like I'm really starting to gain some clarity on things related to composition now too. Which is FUNDAMENTALLY the most important part of tattooing. The smoothness and the brightness and over all solidness is just an extension of that understanding and not the byproduct of the tools you use or the technical trickery you've been taught.

Anyway, all these paintings I'm putting up today have already been traded off or have already been promised to other tattooers. They took weeks of tireless work to do. The resin coating ensures that the owner will get at least a hundred years of work out of them. I added the glitter as a modern, eye catching sort of element as well. When you walk past them you can't help but want to look over and see whats up.My iphone pictures don't do them justice so my narration will have to do for now. It is awesome. Most of the designs are from older sources that I repainted and slightly updated. The eagle and skull is my own and the painting with the green glitter is of my own design as well. I plan on doing more of these resin coated flash sheets down the road but it is very expensive and time consuming and SUPER EASY to botch. I went through two other sheets and ruined them before I got to this point even. So preparing four at once was a nightmare. I don't think I even slept the night I let these guys cure.

I've had a few offers and some interest in my work recently and I was kind of flirting with the idea of selling my stuff, but honestly I only want tattooers to own originals of my stuff so I'm not in any hurry to start whoring my art out to the masses or anything...Not that it's a bad thing to desire money and the security it can bring necessarily, but I'll leave that to the more financially motivated of us in tattooing. For now trading art to fellow craftsman is more than adequate for me. And just going to work every day and tattooing provides all the security I need currently.

So Right now I'm enjoying the winter sluggish season and working on a split sheet of flash with Portland Oregon tattooer Justin lee which I will post in a week or so when its finished. Let me tell you folks, he is a bad ass tattooer and painter. And when he asked me if I wanted to split a painting with him I attacked it.
Until I put it up, here's a link to Justin's web page so you can see what I'm talking about.
adornbodyart.com/tattoo-portfolios/portland-artwork/art-by-justin/

Hope you dig what I've done so far this year. I have MANY more things planned for the months coming up.
Here's part of a poem by Bukowski that I think about sometimes at night when I'm painting...It's kind of sad, but in the end if you just keep pushing and pushing someone somewhere will pick up on it someday.

“and as my grey hands
drop a last desperate pen
in some cheap room
they will find me there
and never know
my name
my meaning
nor the treasure
of my escape.”

Hey Y'all, Marcus Mancini and myself will be at the Baltimore tattoo convention next month.
We will be tattooing at the olde City/jinx proof/flying tiger booth.
We look forward to tattooing the crap out of as many of you as are willing. We will also have a ton of Original hand painted flash
for sale and to get tattooed from and most likely to trade too.
Contact me at my studio if you want to get something done or just want to rage in our hotel room.Biker style.
(860)832-8411

Thank you so much!

Jack Dracula article in the Connecticut Day news paper

Jack Dracula, born Jack Baker, is a famous tattooer who spent the 60's tattooing and getting into trouble in New London Connecticut.
His story is both compelling and interesting. From the looks of this article, New London CT was a VERY different place back then. Probably a lot more interesting then it is now even.

His birthday is on Christmas day. He has no family or children of his own and is a ward of the Park Pleasant Nursing Home in Philadelphia.
I'm encouraging you all to send this colorful and pleasant old man a card this Christmas season.
He is also a fan on McDonald's cheese burgers so if you go to visit him in the nursing home I would suggest bringing him a small token of your appreciation.

Thanks to Dan owner of Whaling City Tattoo in New London for the heads up on this article!

Park Pleasant Nursing Home
4712 Chester Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19143
(215) 727-4450


http://www.theday.com/article/20091213/NWS01/912139999