Shawn Barber has recently begun to learn the art of tattooing, but he’s been painting pictures of tattoos and its surrounding culture better than anybody for most of the past decade. He’s had shows in some of the best galleries on both coasts and his work is in the collections of several celebrities including Robin Williams, Van Morrison and Christian Slater. He is not, however, a famous linebacker.

Barber has a dark, realistic style which depicts a completely modern subject in a classic portrait style. His recent work experiments with ghost-like images ala Chad Robertson or Eric White, which gives the illusion of multiple exposures within the same frame. We also like how despite the precision of the tattoos and body parts in the paintings, some of the canvasses appear unfinished around the edges with the paint simply dripping down the stretched cloth.

He’s also seen Kat Von D naked (see below), which probably pisses you (and Nikki Sixx) off. Check out some of his work below, or peep his recent show at Billy Shire Fine Arts in Los Angeles. Most of the folks in his paintings are either tattoo artists or fine artists, but all of them have tattoos.

And here’s a look at Shawn at work in his studio:

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