Illustrations: 269 colour illustrations,
189 black and white illustrations, 101 colour photographs, 19 black and white photographs.
Binding: Hardback Fine Linen cover
Printing: Munken Polar 120grs Edition:
Limited edition only 1,000 copies
Tattooing Ask Here is a vivid collection of original and traditional flash, lively interviews, personal stories and photographs that detail the tattoo history of Felix Leu. An important pioneer of the Tattoo Renaissance which emerged in the 1970s, his artistic background and rich imagination led Felix to develop a very distinctive freehand tattoo style. The early flash which Felix drew, both in Goa and Lausanne, was shaped primarily by his client’s requests. Hippie, biker and punk images, artwork inspired by record covers, science fiction and comic books, as well as tribal and oriental designs were all used in his tattoo work. He was also an early protagonist of using freehand bio-mechanical, psychedelia, pop-art and cartoon elements in tattoo, most famously the image of the soft twisted tattoo machine. His innovative approach to re-inventing both ancient and modern designs can now be seen as the forerunner of many tattoo styles today. Felix Leu’s tattoo legacy is carried on by the many young tattooists he inspired and helped along the way and notably by his son Filip Leu who has become one of today’s foremost tattoo artists.
Author Born in 1945, Loretta Leu met Felix Leu in New York city in the mid-sixties. Both were artists and adventurers and from then until 1978, they travelled and lived in America, Europe, North Africa, India and Nepal, and in time were accompanied by their four children, who were all born “on the road”. In 1978 they discovered tattooing as an art form, one with which they could support their family anywhere in the world. In 1981 they chose to settle in Switzerland where they created “The Leu Family’s Family Iron Tattoo Studio”. Felix died of cancer in 2002. Loretta, lives in Switzerland, walks in fields and forests with her two dogs, and is writing a history of her life with Felix.
