Guy Aitchison - Hyper Space Studios

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Aitchison ‘Hyperdimensional’ is how Guy has his work described, and there’s a scattering of other descriptives that fit him, too: try innovative, distinctive, distractingly brilliant, masterful and, well, unbelievable. He started out in 1988 with an apprenticeship in Chicago at a custom studio and he’s been gaining a reputation ever since.

He’s responsible for a lot of the BioMech style, man/machine fusion tattoo art; the 3-D cutaway style of ink is also something that he can do with frightening amounts of skill.

His portfolio is full of examples of full-torso pieces, sleeves, back pieces and chest pieces: he doesn’t like a limited canvas! He lays claim to the influences of comic art, modern art and even Renaissance styles.

His use of colour is phenomenal, alternating between subtle employment of graded shades in pieces that are otherwise black and grey or full on intensive shots of pure colour for scene-pieces. A back-piece cut away seems to expose an alien spine beneath clawed layers of black skin; a sleeve on another client shows a luminescent woodland with a dragonfly perched in the foreground. His take on the Japanese Traditional style has to be seen to be believed, saturated in modern colour scheme and ornate beyond comprehension.

Guy also works with painting when he’s got time off from working the needle – a multi functional artist for our times, he in fact started out his art career as an illustrator Aitchison 2 with a specialty in album covers for metal bands. He’s passionate about education and instilling in the public a true sense of what it means to be a tattoo artist and a true part of tattoo culture. This drive is epitomized in his published books and seminars he gives and is revered for.

He’s an artist who warily places himself between the two camps that divide tattoo culture, those all for as much popular exposure as possible and those who see high exposure as destructive, corrosive and an evil upon the ink scene. Blogging about his appearance on LA Ink, Guy describes the shows as a “lightweight pop-culture treatment” of his craft but quickly follows up that such shows have “inarguably been a large factor in the growth of our industry.” He refuses to lend any credit to coverage that will only “make a spectacle, while ignoring the fine art aspect of what we do” – but also acknowledges “television is not a fine art gallery, but an entertainment venue.”

What he’s ultimately most optimistic about as concerns these shows is this:

“Families watch them; even in the rural community we live in, the neighbours are sitting down with their kids watching these programs. What this means is that in 8-10 years, we’ll have a whole generation of young adults who grew up in an environment where tattoos were totally normal and acceptable. I look forward to seeing what that will translate to in real life.”