The Official Eddie Peace Tattoo Blog.

Every morning a long lumbering freight train slides down 6th street across Broad a few paces from the door of the shop.The tracks cross the Savannah river from South Carolina into Georgia over a trestle bridge at the head of the street. The line was first laid over 100 years ago to carry cotton from the fields of the deep south to the mills of the mid Atlantic states. Like the train, the art form of tattoo continues to slide along as it moves from one period of time to the next, it's strong momentum pushing forward.

"My parents tattooed in the hundreds of thousands of people. My dad must have-he started tattooing in 1934.He tattooed that Coleman style over and over...people indentified with it. The young kids now, they do not indentify with the older work...it's like a generation gap. They see it as older work-it's a cyclical thing-they want stuff that is contemporary to their time period."

LeDan hits the lights and illuminates a part of Americas tattoo heritage. The shops walls are covered with neatly arranged framed sheets of tattoo flash that stretch for more than 40 feet, from the front entrance to the work booth in the rear. The designs on the wall are a time-line of sorts, that show the progression of tattooing over the years. To one side of the shop are beautifully crafted vintage tattoo designs that are forever popular, to the other, a diverse selection of contemporary designs that use very popular black and gray shading, tribal, Asian, and Celtic art to create what a lot of tattoo customers are looking for today.

There is a knowledge about tattooing reflected in the designs that cover the shops walls- a knowledge that comes from experience. The art form of tattooing does not stand still: it is constantly changing as it caters to the shifting demands of customers who are looking for new imagery and techniques. LeDan, his wife Jennie, and their sons members of one of Americas important tattoo families, and have inherited a sensibility and knowledge from LeDans parents. They have a solid idea of where tattooing has been and how the skill of artists and the demands of customers keeps the art form vital and moving forward.

"One of my earlier memories about being in the tattoo shop was of Coleman: he was working in that Portsmouth shop. I remember glimpses of him walking around the shop-sitting and talking to my parents when they were not busy. Of course back then i never put any stock in it. I just took it for granted, i didn't know what i was i was sitting and watching.

LeDans parents started tattooing in 1940's. They wroked in the classic style of the American tattoo legend August "Cap" Coleman who worked with them for a time in Portsmouth, Virginia, in the 1950's. The maritime and military imagery of the Coleman style is the back bone of all American tattooing and paved the way for everything that came after it. Today's diverse tattoo tastes would not have flourished without the strong and successful design foundation of the Coleman style. The bold outlines, black shading, and strong solid colors of the Coleman style made for tattoos that brave the test of time. Customers recognized the superior quality of Coleman style tattoos and gradually the designs changed the look of American tattooing for the better. Eddie and Ann worked in famous South Eastern tattoo towns like Jacksonville, North Carolina, and joined in the Coleman style a long with other American tattoo greats like Paul Rogers, Huck Spaulding, Lathan Connolly, and Johnny Walker. LeDan, his wife Jennie, and their sons share in the accomplishments and associations of Eddie and Ann Peace. There is a depth of experience behind them that few tattooers can boast.

"As far back as i can remember is about 4 years old i guess. You know, my parents would take me to work everyday. They had me set up in the back of the shop with all of my toys- i just grew up in the tattoo business watching them tattoo all day long, i would always play around with my parents machines without any needles in them i kind of had a feel for the thing."

From an early age LeDan Peace was introduced to the images and values of Americas tattooing-he spent a lot of his early years playing in and around classic tattoo shops and feels at home with his art form. From his vantage point, tattooing has gone in several directions lately, and the introduction of new designs reflects the diverse and growing group of people who now get tattooed. His parents tattooed primarily military personnel and had to set up in military towns like Jacksonville, North Carolina, Portsmouth, Virginia, or Augusta, Georgia, to put bread on the table. Todays tattoo artists are experiencing a new found freedom in where they can locate because of the unprecedented popularity of tattooing to the general public.

"On pay days there would be at least 50 soldiers standing in line in the shop. Thursday, Friday, Saturday my parents might want me at the shop during the Vietnam war era, it was pretty neat having the last name Peace. The soldiers used to say, "you got a cool ass name..."

Augusta is no longer a big army town, and the days of recruits from Fort Gordon streaming into the shop on paydays have given way to a new clientele. People from every walk of life are now exploring themselves through the art form of tattooing. The art has shifted away from seeing the surface of the body as a warm place to collect stamp-like images. Artistic influences from Japan, Micronesia, Polynesia, and even Celtic Europe have revolutionized the concept of getting tattooed. Tattoo magazines that never existed in Eddie and Ann Peaces time, now serve to inform tattoo customers about the limitless options styles, and tastes available to them.

"The days back when people just came in here and said, i want that one...put it right here! You know, just have tattoos stuck everywhere with no continuity...those days are fading. Its a good thing that tattooing keeps changing, otherwise it will just stagnate. Around 85 when we started seeing it change. People found out that Jennie could draw almost anything that they brought in to get tattooed."

LeDan Peace has watched a lot of "Tattoo Time" slide past and he has learned from the passing. he has observed the creative process of the art form unfold as different generations push and reshape it to conform the popular styles of their time. The classic designs of his parents era remain, but the skoals and daggers with banners reading" death before dishonor" have been replaced by abstract black tribal shapes or Celtic knot work patterns from a world away.

Customers are identifying with exotic imagery from distant cultures as their sense of self continues to globalize. The lines of uneasy soldiers prodding each other to get and identical Screaming eagle on their biceps have changed into young rock and rollers influenced by the images of MTV. The army of recruits time-honored esprit dcorp, represented by the sharing of a single tattoo design among many has been over shadowed by a new feeling of civilian individuality. People no longer look to a tattoo as an identifying mark of the group, they want to have it your way like the jingle says. Customers now fret and pout at the possibility of wearing a tattoo design which is shared by another. The whole ball game has changed.

"I was 15 or 16 when i wanted to become a professional tattoo artist. I figure by then i didn't want to be a banker or a neurosurgeon. By then i had a taste of the tattoo business. I like the ambiance of a tattoo shop because i grew up in one from when i was an infant. I remember in Virginia, my parents closing up at night. They would wrap me up in a big blanket, throe me over their shoulders, and carry me out to the car."

I would have been 5 years old then and that was my grandfather Eddie Peace who did your tattoo.