TOLEDO – Tattoo artist Paul Timman to discuss the relationships between art, tattooing and life
during a free Masters Series lecture Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle.Dubbed the
"Rembrandt of Sunset Strip," his clients include Angelina Jolie, Tommy Lee and Mark Wahlberg’s.In
anticipation of his talk, the Museum has partnered with Timman on TMA Top Ink, a search for the region’s
best Japanese-inspired body art judged by the tattoo artist.His appearance and the TMA Top Ink competition
are inspired by the Museum’s fall exhibition Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints, a collection
of 343 woodblock prints from the early 20th century. Japanese woodblock prints, especially those from the
Edo period, have had a "profound effect" on tattooing, he said.Timman, who graduated with a degree
in sculptured glass from the Cleveland Institute of Art, had intended to find a more traditional,
gallery-centered creative outlet"I was 17 or 18 and on the hardcore music scene in Toledo," he
said. I started seeing this new wave of tattoos that were artful, well-drawn. I couldn’t help but notice
them."So he took a day off from his summer job and acquired his first ink, a figure on his right arm.
As he continued to decorate his body, his college classmates took notice, and elected him "the tattoo
guy." They started to ask him for tattoos, and a career was born. He headed to Los Angeles, building a
reputation for his tribal, Americana and Japanese designs.