About Us
These products will include jewelry, candle holders, wall sconces, table top statues, wallpaper, curtain rod ends, and other decorative items. It will also includes soundscapes and framed art from Paul.
About Paul Booth
Paul Booth is a tattoo artist, sculptor, painter, filmmaker and musician. Through multiple mediums, he focuses on the dark, macabre and surreal, as a means of personal development and therapy. Each creative endeavor requires Booth to spend time with his own demons so he may confront and dissolve his individual fears and venomous experiences. Both his audio and visual work are laced with deep meanings and thought provoking facets that beckon individuals to explore and confront the darkest depths of their own psyche.
Booth’s artistic passion started early on when he was just a child attending Catholic school. Completely self-taught, he always found comfort in painting darker and more monstrous subject matter. Through his own experimentation and personal growth, he has developed a technical style of his own, quite analogous to his method of tattooing. Booth’s utilization of a multi-layer approach, similar to that of the early Flemish painters, allows him to achieve a level of depth and texture that results in a visually stunning, realistic painting. Booth can be best described as a dark surrealist and has exhibited both domestically and internationally.
Perhaps best known for his impact as a tattoo artist, Booth took the world of tattooing by storm with his formidable use of black and grey ink to depict demons, beasts, evil fetuses and other nightmare-worthy visuals. It wasn’t long until a cult following developed and swelled to include heavy metal rockers, actors, musicians and other purveyors of the dark aesthetic.
Booth’s signature imagery graces the skin of many celebrities including Greg Allman, members of Slayer, Slipknot, Pantera, Down, Lamb of God and many more. This following, along with his quintessential imagery has led Rolling Stone Magazine to dub Paul as “The New King of Rock Tattoos”.
In addition to introducing the darker side of art to tattooing, Booth has worked exceptionally hard to change the way the public views tattoo art. His strong efforts have and continue to elevate tattooing into the realm of fine art. Booth looks to skin as he does canvas, inks as paints, and utilizes the same approach and technique to all of his artwork. Through his unique artistic talent and ambitions for his industry, Booth has been recognized and inducted by the National Arts Club – the oldest and one of the most respected art institutions in the United States today.
In 1998, Booth opened up Last Rites Tattoo Theatre in New York City. With some of the finest tattoo artists in the world, Last Rites Tattoo Theatre quickly became one of the best studios to get inked and a legendary destination for fans and advocates of Booth’s dark empire. In 2007, Booth expanded his artistic and professional scope, and opened the first dark art gallery in NYC, aptly named Last Rites Gallery. Under one roof, Booth’s artistic passions coalesced and birthed a haven for those who resonate with darker aesthetics.
Last Rites Tattoo Theatre and Gallery provides its patrons with a sensory experience. Booth created an immersive world, first of its kind, in which guests can view the best of dark art, some of the best tattoo artists at work and an atmosphere unlike any other. Last Rites calls the darkest depths of one’s psyche forward through its powerful visual repute and dark ideologies; No soul leaves the contemplative and moving environment unscathed.
In 2000, Paul co-founded an international charitable art organization called The ArtFusion Experiment (AFE) with world-renowned peers, Filip and Titine Leu. In association with The International Child Arts Foundation (ICAF), AFE is devoted to bringing art to underprivileged children from around the world. This tattoo-centric art movement focuses its energy on a unique collaborative art concept and demonstrates the strength of the contemporary tattoo artist’s ability to work together as a community. This aspect of AFE allows artists to put their egos aside and collaboratively fuse their individual styles to achieve unequaled works of art. It also gives the artist the opportunity to be both a student and a teacher simultaneously. This unique nature of AFE provides artists from around the world a chance to work together to create a single piece.
In 2007, Paul’s directorial debut, The ArtFusion Experiment had the honor of winning Best Feature Documentary at The Newport Beach Film Festival and continues to extend the reach and success of the movement he created. His second film, the experimental pseudodocumentary Paul Booth's Last Rites: Volume I deftly illustrates his unique twisted vision and reveals the sinister depth of his eclectic universe. The film provides not only a closer look into the process of Paul’s art but more importantly, a glance into the lifestyles that surround him.
Both films together share a juxtaposition that offers a glimpse into the mysterious mind of this enigmatic artist.
For more information about Paul Booth and The Last Rites Tattoo Theatre and Art Gallery, please visit Lastrites.tv