News
Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry: The Life And Times of Norman K. Collins
10/09/10
Raindance
Screening:
* Saturday 9 October 5:00pm
Runtime:
73 mins
Book Tickets Online or Call 0871 220 6000
Director: Erich Weiss Country: USA
Writer: Erich Weiss Original Format: DV
Dir. of Photography: N/A Print Source: House PR
Producer: Erich Weiss
Cast: Don Ed Hardy, Michael Malone, Zeke Owen
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Film Details
UK Premiere
Short Synopsis:
Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry is a feature length documentary exploring the roots of American tattooing through the life of its most iconoclastic figure Norman 'Sailor Jerry' Collins.
Review:
Sailor Jerry is the moniker of Norman Collins, a legendary figure considered by many to be the father of modern American tattooing. Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry looks at Collins contribution to the history and development of tattooing and the unique style he created from the amalgamation of American and Japanese art and culture. Collins was also a key developer of tattooing milestones such as sterilization techniques and the development of new colours.
In a time when tattooing was associated with the seedy underworlds of criminals and members of the armed forces, ink was a serious and permanent statement of someone’s counter-culture intentions. This film also functions then as a social commentary on the Second World War period when the military’s uber-macho leave plans were to get stewed screwed and tattooed.
Refusing to give interviews, Sailor Jerry was suspicious of ‘outside forces’ (the media), and so his story is constructed through a stunning combination of vintage footage, photographs and interviews with other legendary tattooists, including Don Ed Hardy, Zeke Owen and Eddie Funk. Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry is a glimpse into the life a patriotic, right-wing prankster, who kept a picture of his enemy inside the lid of his toilet seat and changed the world of tattooing for ever.
Elsewhere:
Read the Empire review
Read the Raindance Festival Preview
All films to be screened at:
Apollo Cinema: Piccadilly Circus
19 Lower Regent Street
London
SW1Y 4LR
