Issue 2 - MonsterMania!

When the pandemic started, I decided to put some work into a project that had been in the back of my mind for a long time. I had been collecting tattoo magazines for years before I ever even started tattooing. This was before Instagram, before Facebook and MySpace too. If you wanted to see good tattoo work you had to look for it. Picking up a new issue was always so cool. Seeing all the work tattooers were doing from all over the place, different styles and applications. Lots of flash too. I started remembering artist’s names and the shops they worked at, keeping a lookout for more of their work and others from the same shops. Instagram is cool, but there was something more fun about finding out about this stuff on your own, and kinda putting the work in to find more information when it wasn’t all there at your fingertips. From even further back I was always into movies, particularly horror, crime, action, and exploitation films from the ‘70s and ‘80s. In those days video stores were the place to find new movies and older hidden gems. The frequent trips to the video store left me with a similar feeling as I would later find with those tattoo magazines. I’d walk around and check out the boxes, pick some to rent and make mental notes of others I’d come back for. I started remembering directors names and cast/crew members, checking out other stuff the ones that I liked most made. I’m sure many others have the same kind of memories, whether it was movies, tattoos, music, or whatever else. So I wanted to do something that combined tattoos and movies. It could have been just another Instagram account, but that didn’t seem to be the best medium for what I was looking to do. In my younger days I worked on punk rock zines and later contributed to various tattoo art shows and books. I wanted to make something you could actually hold in your hand, rip out a page and put it on your wall, or keep with your tattoo magazine collection, EC Comics reprints, or old issues of Fangoria. And then, just about when I got the submissions from the contributing artists, I was back at work full-time, and between that and other unexpected things coming up, it was delayed. But once it was finished it was pretty fucking cool! Everyone involved did a great job and it’s full of rad tattoo art! After an overwhelming positive response, we started working on the monster movie-themed issue 2, which is available now, and includes over double the amount of submissions, plus an informative article on monster movies and how they reflect societal fears, and the amazing work of photographer Caleb Oglesby, creator of the Monster Girls! Follow @violent.world.magazine for more info, and tell your friends! Also, check out the artists that contributed! Keep your eyes out because there’s a lot more to come too! -Bill Blood - If you’re interested in joining the production team please get in touch! -