The Tattoo Gazette #5 gathers Clayton’s scrap book of Tattoo articles and pictures referencing the existential life and history of the Tattoo Society of New York. The TSNY was a club Clayton helped guide for a few decades, however with the advent of legal tattooing the need for a such a community fragmented into a culture at large. Richard Tyler’s perspective is amongst the many surprises adorning the pages of this limited edition. This art book opens a portal to the early emergence of tattooing as it collided with the fine art world in New York. Many of the forgotten artists who bravely carried the culture of tattooing into new and complex conjectures are noted in this publication.
A few years ago, I received an odd call. The voice on the other side wanted to know what had happened to the Phalanstery. With the Phalanstery’s founding Mother and Father, Richard and Dorothea Tyler having passed from this realm, there must have been people who were familiar with the Organization waiting to see what the continuity of the Phalanstery would be. The voice on the other side of the phone was of Lower East Side resident, artist and community activist Clayton Patterson. I have since had many conversations with Clayton and have grown to respect the wild manner in which his attention gravitates to underground culture, especially as it emanates out of the LES.
There is a community emerging from the LES which Clayton and all of us at the Phalanstery come into contact with and merge into. A community of “outlaw” and visionary artist alike. We are happy to help produce Clayton’s 5th Tattoo Gazette, a fascinating survey 20 years in the making.
