News
Hori Smoku Review in the Austin Chronical
08/08/08
The Austin Chronicle
Stephen Moser from The Austin Chronicle missed out on the Hori Smoku screening at SXSW, but made up for it with his own little private viewing. Check out his review below!
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"RAT-A-TAT TAT Unfortunately I did not get to view the documentary Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry (www.myspace.com/horismokumovie) during South by Southwest Film. They did send my sister a DVD of the film directed by Erich Weiss, however, and we watched it privately. Which was a good thing because it contained quite a bit of footage and interview with Rollo Banks, aka Michael Malone, the world-famous tattoo artist who just happened to be married to my (newly single!) sister, Margaret, making him my husband-in-law. The film is a tribute to Sailor Jerry, the Honolulu-based tattoo artist whose classic World War II style has become the tattoo standard. You see this style everywhere. Ed Hardy (we knew him as Don Ed Hardy back then) was Sailor Jerry's other best disciple. Between Rollo and Hardy (and notables like Kandi Everett and Keith Underwood), tattooing was saved from a fate of fine-line mediocrity and restored to its pinup glory. It was hard for us to watch Hori Smoku when Rollo was onscreen; the foreknowledge that he'd be dead by his own hand within the year is overwhelmingly sad. Even after they divorced, he and my sister remained extremely close, and she was editing his stories at the time of his death. And Rollo marked me indelibly, inside and out. I proudly bear tattoos on either arm from him; we were roommates during one strange Odd Couple phase and were great friends, as well as brothers-in-law. Every time I see Ed Hardy's name inked on a shirt on the back of someone like Bret Michaels, I want to put out a line of shirts for big boys called Rollo. My sister wants to put out a line of shirts for big girls called Kandi, but frankly, she's better off sticking to the Music Awards and lolling around backstages. The Alamo Ritz brings Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry to the screen this Friday and Saturday night at midnight."
