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Baba
VINTAGE TATTOO
In 1989, Baba Austin – owner of Vintage Tattoo
Art Parlor in Los Angeles – started his journey in
New York City with tattoo artist Jonathan Shaw
when tattooing itself was still illegal in the Big
Apple. Originally, though, Austin was in the city
for graffiti, creating all the airbrush graffiti clothes
for numerous bands such as Bell Biv DeVoe, Guy,
Kid Frost and TKA as well as styling the wardrobes
for Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block) and
Vanilla Ice. One day, he sought out Shaw to get
tattooed, which ended up garnering Austin an
apprenticeship with Shaw.
In 1991, Austin left NYC to go on a world tour
with Vanilla Ice. When he got back home in
Los Angeles, he pursued a career as a tattoo
artist in Hollywood where he met another
veteran tattoo artist Mike Brown, who became
his mentor. Eventually, Austin built up a
remarkable reputation for lettering, graffiti
and American traditional tattoos.
He founded Vintage Tattoo Art Parlor in 1995, still
basing his style on the hard-edged pirate attitude
that he fully learned from Shaw. Now, he’s been
featured in numerous magazines, had his own
column in Skin & Ink Magazine (which was called
“The Gospel According to Baba”) and awarded
by Inked Magazine. He’s also the founding sponsor
of the Body Art Expo tattoo convention, and has
continuously toured all over the world.
vintagetattoola.com
360 MAGAZINE
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