Jonathan Shaw is the first tattoo artist to appear on The Tonight Show with David Letterman. His likeness was depicted by Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Art Spiegelman on the cover of The New Yorker. Shaw is also the son of legendary Swing-era bandleader Artie Shaw. Jonathan Shaw also played the tattooed thug opposite Clint Eastwood in the movie Tightrope (1984). He founded the magazine International Tattoo Art and his recent visual exploration of tattoo art, Vintage Tattoo Flash II has become a mainstay of collectors of tattoo art. Shaw's long-awaited memoir-style novel, Scab Vendor: Confessions of a Tattoo Artist was hailed by Jerry Stahl as "...beautiful as a dead drunk's bible..." and its sequel Homeward Bound was recently released to much acclaim. Shaw also made headline news as the infamous "tattoo artist to the stars" indicted by a New York City Grand Jury and charged with eighty-nine felony counts of illegal weapons possession. Described by Iggy Pop as, “the great nightmare anti-hero of the New Age,” Shaw's tattoo client list included names like Johnny Depp, The Cure, The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Marilyn Manson, Jim Jarmusch, Joe Coleman, Kate Moss, Orlando Bloom and Tupac Shakur. Jonathan Shaw is still one of the most respected names in the tattoo profession today for being instrumental in pioneering the tattoo industry.

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