Publisher Description
"Ed Hardy" is emblazoned on everything from t-shirts and hats to perfumes and energy drinks. From Los Angeles to Japan, his colorful cross-and-bones designs and ribbon-banners have become internationally ubiquitous. But long before the fashion world discovered his iconic designs, the man behind the eponymous brand spearheaded nothing less than a cultural revolution.
In Wear Your Dreams, Ed Hardy recounts his genesis as a tattoo artist and leader in the movement to recognize tattooing as a valid and rich art form, through to the ultimate transformation of his career into a multibillion dollar branding empire. From giving colored pencil tattoos to neighborhood kids at age ten to working with legendary artists like Sailor Jerry to learning at the feet of the masters in Japan, the book explains how this Godfather of Tattoos fomented the explosion of tattoo art and how his influence can be witnessed on everyone, from countless celebs to ink-adorned rockers to butterfly-branded, stroller-pushing moms. With over fifty different product categories, the Ed Hardy brand generates over $700 million in retail sales annually.
Ideal for ink devotees and Ed Hardy aficionados alike, Wear Your Dreams is a never-before-seen look at the tattoo artist who rocked the art world and has left a permanent mark on fashion history.
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“Tattoo visionary Hardy has produced an engrossing memoir that serves as both a colorful guide to the history of the tattoo revival and a window on the life of an ambitious, blue-collar artist…a thoughtful narrator…He paints vivid thumbnails of characters like Sailor Jerry and Christian Audigier…Hardy has no shortage of anecdotes and he’s not shy about copping to his mistakes…he never loses his genial tone. Tattoo couldn’t have a better spokesperson.”
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Publishers Weekly
About the Authors
Ed Hardy is an artist best known for his iconic tattoo work and his eponymous apparel and accessories brand. Ed holds a BFA in fine printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute. He currently splits his time between San Francisco, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii.
Joel Selvin is an award-winning journalist and music critic who covered pop music for the San Francisco Chronicle for over thirty-five years. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, and Melody Maker, and he has contributed liner notes to dozens of recorded albums. He is also the bestselling author of over a dozen books about pop music, including Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead’s Long, Strange Trip; Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock’s Darkest Day; and Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues.
About Johnny Heller
Johnny Heller, winner of numerous Earphones and Audie Awards, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has been a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award winner from 2008 through 2013 and he has been named a top voice of 2008 and 2009 and selected as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine.