Is ed hardy still alive

A Southern California native born in 1945, Don Ed Hardy began tattooing in 1966 while completing a B.F.A. degree in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. He went on to develop the fine art potential of the medium with emphasis on its Asian heritage, frequently studying and working in Japan. In 2000 he received an honorary doctorate from SFAI. Although still maintaining his San Francisco tattoo studio, Tattoo City, Hardy no longer tattoos. His focus now is on painting, printmaking, and works in other media that have been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. In addition to curating several shows, he has written and published more than thirty books on alternative art under the Hardy Marks imprint. Hardy’s various works form the basis of the global fashion line Ed Hardy, that became an international phenomenon. His life and works are documented in a variety of books and films.

Don Ed Hardy Art  |  Hardy Marks  |  Wikipedia  |  Tattoo the World

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The proliferation in the early 2000s of wildly colorful clothing adorned with screaming skulls, tiger heads, hearts, and roses made the name Ed Hardy shorthand for kitsch. However, by the time he licensed his art to brands—most prominently Christian Audigier—Don Ed Hardy had already had an influential career in tattooing which helped elevate the art into American popular culture. Although the rhinestone hats and shirts that mimicked tattoo sleeves were much different from his custom work for decades of clients, their desirability reflected how Hardy had promoted tattooing beyond subculture.

“Though it is difficult to demarcate a clear boundary between tattooing’s encroachment on, or adoption by, fashion, the crossover testifies to the increased visibility of the practice in consumer culture and furthermore underlines how the outsider status of tattooing is being redefined as it is increasingly viewed in mainstream culture,” writes sociologist Michael Rees in Hi

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