Ben Corday - Tattoo Travel Book
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ARTISTBen Corday
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AUTHORDon Ed Hardy
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PAGES36
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BINDINGHardcover
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SIZE8" x 10"
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WEIGHT0.82 lbs
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CONTENTColor flash and history
Tattoo Travel Book is a hardcover facsimile of the personal flash album Ben Corday carried while working the road as a tattooer and carnival man. Published by Don Ed Hardy, it reproduces designs Corday painted in the 1910s and early 1920s, originally glued into a leather souvenir album.
The fine-line ink and watercolor designs appear at their original size across 26 pages - eagles with banners, roses, cards, women, a California bear flag, hearts and daggers. Photos and pitch cards round out the picture of Corday's life and career, giving context to the flash.
It is a compact, well-produced piece of tattoo history and a useful study in vintage tattoo flash for artists drawn to early American work. Collectors of Ben Corday will want it next to Late of the Guards.
Ben Corday - Late of the Guards: Tattoo Designs by Ben Corday
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ARTISTBen Corday
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AUTHORRich Hardy
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PAGES74
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BINDINGHardcover
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SIZE8.25" x 5.5"
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WEIGHT0.83 lbs
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CONTENTTales, Photos, Paintings, & so much more!
Late of the Guards is a carefully made facsimile of an antique design book painted by Ben Corday, one of the defining Los Angeles tattooers of the early 20th century. Corday, a tall former Scots Guardsman, filled an artist's sketchbook with 45 designs around 1918, when his work was at its peak.
The designs show why his flash set a standard: graceful, confident lines and a bright, clear palette - dancing ladies, coiled snakes and the classic imagery of the period. Reproduced in a compact 74-page hardcover, edited by Rich Hardy, and housed in a presentation slipcase, it captures the feel of handling the original book.
For tattooers who work from vintage tattoo flash, it is a close look at how an early master built a design. For collectors, it is one of the most attractive Ben Corday objects available, and pairs naturally with his Tattoo Travel Book.
