Hardcore Personalities: Dan Smith - The 'Unknown Tattooer'

In the world of hardcore, there are often personalities who don't exactly fit in with the traditional norms. We often see people who have come from the hardcore scene and have taken that ethos and transformed it into something else. I am talking business owners, filmmakers, tattoo artists, whatever; the examples are pretty much countless. Dan Smith is such a personality and this is why we feature him here on our blog.

Dan Smith is a UK born, New Zealand raised, US residing tattooist and musician. Admittedly, he is a man of many talents who has succeeded in many different aspects and in a way is a role model for many who follow in his path (choosing alternative and/or unconventional ways to earn one's living). As a tattooist, Dan Smith is following a pretty much traditional style of old school designs, but with trademark precision and detail. In many of his designs, one can see the shared influence and similarities that hardcore and tattoos have always had in their aesthetics. The straight edge aspect also comes up quite frequently in his work, as Dan Smith is a very proud X man! Here is some awesome work of his:

Dan Smith's music side is a totally different story from what you might expect. He sings for The Dear & Departed, a band which does not necessarily have much to do at all with hardcore. But it's really not that important, as the band plays a very nice mix of new wave punk, like AFI meets the Cure meets the Damned (or something). It is the kind of music which is perfect to chill out to after an intense hardcore show or when you're just not in the mood for hardcore. Definitely music with a unique sound, to put on as a background while you do stuff, like draw, make a zine or a flyer! In any case, The Dear & Departed already have a loyal following, and have played with bands like Sick Of It All, the aforementioned AFI and Avenged Sevenfold.

There is more to check from Mr Dan Smith for those who are interested. He has participated in Peta's 'Ink, not Mink' campaign (hooray!), has designed stuff for famous companies like Macbeth, and has participated in the world-famous reality TV show 'L.A. Ink'. All this is just to show that proper 'hardcore personalities' are not just bald guys who act hard. The way I see it, they are creative people from all walks of life who are out there doing stuff, working hard and making a good name for themselves. It's all about what you put in,  not the posturing.