The Funnies

Don Ed Hardy

born 1945

The Funnies, 2002

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: wove paper; color etching

Dimensions:
Plate Mark/Block Dimensions (Height x Width): 200 x 103 mm
Plate Mark/Block Dimensions (Height x Width): 7 7/8 x 4 1/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 285 x 260 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 11 1/4 x 10 1/4 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in

Credit line: Gift of the KU Art Department, Intaglio Area

Accession number: 2002.0196

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Inked Bodies

This playing card begins a dialogue between life and death, showing a woman on one side and a skull on the other. The tattered edges of the card are reminders of how both paper and skin deteriorate with age. As Ed Hardy wrote, “When people first get tattoos, they’re often obsessed: ‘How is this going to hold up?’ and I say, ‘It’ll hold up the way you will.’ Because it’s on a living organism, it’s always in transition.”

Brosseau Center for Learning: Six Degrees of Separation: Prints from KU and Beyond

Printmaker and tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy—best known for his fusion of Japanese and American tattoo techniques and styles—develops his illustrations from an extensive knowledge of global fine arts pictorial traditions. In The Funnies, the words “die-a-log” fill a scrolling figure-eight element typical of commercial “tattoo flash” designs displayed on the walls of tattoo parlors to give walk-in customers tried-and-true suggestions. While the top hat–wearing skull suggests similar associations with commercial tattoo culture, the subject would seem equally at home in a print or painting by the influential Belgian avant-garde artist James Ensor. Etching is an intaglio printmaking technique. Intaglio includes all techniques (most commonly engraving and etching) where incisions or indentations are made in a plate to hold the ink and create lines. In etching, a metal plate is prepared with an acid-resistant ground. The artist draws lines through the ground that are ‘bitten’ and made deeper when the plate is immersed in an acid bath. Once the ground is removed, the artist applies ink to the plate that rests in the sunken lines but is wiped from the plate surface. The artist then places the plate against dampened paper and passes it through a printing press, which exerts the pressure necessary to transfer the ink in the sunken lines to the paper. Tap on the web icon to read more about Don Ed Hardy and to view some of his other works.

Exhibition Label: “Embodiment,” Nov-2005, Kate Meyer Printmaker and tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy is equally at home with an etching needle or a tattoo machine; with paper or with skin. Best known for his fusion of Japanese and American tattoo techniques and styles, the “die-a-log” in The Funnies, draws primarily on more commercial “tattoo flash,” the formulaic patterns used in tattoo parlors.