Black History Month: Miya Bailey Shows Us Art Outside the Lines

Strawberry Spotlight

Miya Bailey among other great artist change the game with their tattooing. With their bold lines, color and shading technique, he among others such as Chicago's Ryan Henry and Twig Sparks of Cleveland just to name a few; are the small percentage of African American artist who are keeping the art of being "tatted" alive.

Artist, Co-owner and Founder of City of Ink in Atlanta, Miya Bailey should be one for the history books when it comes to being both an artist and a business owner. His approach on art is impeccable and his respect for culture is something that is rare in this new age of young owners.

He always has positive words of wisdom to share which he does on his Twitter and Blog pages. Even when rumors spreaded that he and New York owner Ceasar from Black In Crew where beefing, he quickly deaded the problem by reaching out to them directly.

"We as black people need to stop tearing each other down and I think it's up to the elders to handle that, "said Bailey about the situation. "There is no beef. We're cool." He added.

Bailey has strong views about being supportive in the black community. Three years ago he started on a documentary focusing on tattoo artist that tattoo African American skin. One of the reasons he made the film was to show people the truth behind the struggle black tattoo artist face. With so many "scratchers" entering the industry, it makes it harder for TRUE tattoo artist to sign through. Even with numberous tv show now like Ink Master and Best Ink, sometimes its hard to determine the true artist from the trend of the art form.

This is one of the reason Bailey along with film director Artemus Jenkins decided to create the documentary Color Outside the Lines. The film goes around the world interview numerous tattoo artist all colors who work with dark toned skinned. It higlights the struggle of getting into the industry and breaking down the barriers.

Check out the trailer of the movie Color Outside the Lines below.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/35061716?color=c450d9" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/35061716">Color Outside the Lines (Trailer)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/artemusjenkins">artemus jenkins</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

You can order the movie now on DVD on the official website.