“An Artist’s View of Tattooing”: Aba Bayefsky and the Tattoo Scenes of Toronto and Yokohama, 1978–86

Abstract

This article investigates a series of tattoo-inspired artwork produced by Toronto-based artist Aba Bayefsky during the late 1970s and early 1980s. To do so, I draw heavily from archival documents that belong to the Aba Bayefsky fonds at Library and Archives Canada and newspaper articles published in the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. I reconstruct this period in the form of a historical narrative and use what I call a “tattoo scene” as a frame for my analysis. In doing so, I argue that by creating work that depicted members of the tattoo scene, Bayefsky merged disparate social and cultural groups and their respective visual cultures locally in Toronto and later transnationally between Toronto and Japan.

Bad Bastards?: Tattooing, Health, and Regulation in Twentieth-Century Vancouver

“…80 The relationship between tattooing and fine art at a local level co-existed with similar national and international developments. 81 Consequently, tattooing experienced increased normalization and acceptance by the end of the twentieth century. By continuing to tattoo in spite of state efforts to hinder their work, tattooists played a vital role in contributing to the continuity and current popularity of tattooing.…”