Manfred Kohrs

Manfred Kohrs
Born	1957 Hanover, Germany
Occupation	Tattooist; Art-Painter; Master of Economics (USUE)

Manfred Kohrs (born January 24, 1957) is a German tattooist and conceptual artist, who has been tattooing since 1974. He was a student of Horst Heinrich Streckenbach ("Tattoo Samy") (August 5, 1926 - June 27, 2001). Together they developed the barbell piercing in 1975.^{[1][2] [3][4]} Kohrs invented a rotary tattoo machine with main part an electric motor and an ink reservoir.^[5] In 1977 Kohrs founded the first German Tattoo Artist Association.^[6] He gave up tattooing in 1990 and began studying economics.

Biographical and career information

Kohrs was born in 1957 and grew up in Hanover, Germany; from 1968 - 1974 he plays Rugby in Hanover-List.^[7] He´s still Member of SC Germania List. From 1971 to 1973 he trained as a mechanic at the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft and subsequently completed his military service at the Aufklärungsgeschwader 51 of the German Air Force.

At the age of twelve he purchased his first tattoo and in 1975 he was tattoed by Herbert Hoffmann. The integrated nationally recognized tattoo artist Horst Heinrich Streckenbach took Kohrs in 1975 as a master student.^[8] In 1976, he began tattooing professionally. In 1977 he opened his own studio in Hanover^[9] and in 1978 he built a new rotary tattoo machine.^[10] It was invented by Samuel O’Reilly and subsequent improvements were made by the tattoo artists over the years.^[11] Kohrs tattooed Rio Reiser, Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and other several notable musicians, artists and celebrities of the time.^[12]

In 1977 Kohrs was an early member of The National Tattoo Club of the World^[13] which was renamed 1984 to the National Tattoo Association, (N.T.A.). In the same year Kohrs was the founder-member No. 25 of the European Tattoo Artists Association.

Tattoo of an eagle tattooed by Herbert Hoffmann on Kohrs' arm in 1975

In 1977, Kohrs invited all commercially registered tattooists in Germany to an information meeting in Hanover. "At that time there were throughout the country, only 14 self-employed tattoo artist."^[14][15]

The purpose of this meeting were the establishment of a national association, and to introduce technical and hygienic standards. At that time, Kohrs and Streckenbach were the only German tattoo artists who used an autoclave for the sterilisation of equipment.^[16]

Kohrs attended the first National Convention at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Denver, Colorado from 23–25 March 1979.^[17] He made a slide presentation of tattooed people with Tattoo Samy.^[13] The speakers on the convention were Terry Wrigley, Peter Tat 2 Poulos, Diane Poulos, Don Ed Hardy, Bob Shaw (who spoke about the importance of using autoclaves and hygiene), Big Walt Kilkucki, Painless Jeff Baker, Dave Yurkew, Arnold Rubin and Jan Stussy.^[13] Kohrs, Streckenbach and Terry Wrigley (president of E.T.A.A),^[18] were present in October 1980 at the first German Tattoo Convention at Frankfurt. Kohrs gave up tattooing in 1990 and began studying economics. Since completing his economics degree in 1996, he has served as tax consultant and lecturer in economics at a private academy.^[19]

Documents

• 

  National Tattoo Club of the World, issued from „Philadelphia“ Eddie Funk,^[1] 1977.

• 

  European Tattoo Artist Association, issued from Terry Wrigley 1976.

• 

  European Tattoo Artist Association, issued from Terry Wrigley 1977

• 

  first Tattoo-Meeting Frankfurt 1980.

• 

  membercard "Kunstverein" Hannover 1981, signed by Kohrs

1. ^ About Crazy Philadelphia Eddie

Art and design

Skin stories - kunst galerie fürth 2015

In 1975, on the German ZDF television show aspekte, Kohrs met the well-known German artist Prof. Timm Ulrichs.^[20] In 1981, Ulrich was approached about Streckenbach to Manfred Kohrs in Hanover to be tattooed as part of an art project, the word "end" refers to an eyelid.^[21] In 1981 Streckenbach created that conceptual art-project with Ulrichs.^[22]
"Once the moment has finally come when the curtain falls for good, when my eyesight disappears and my eyes are closed for eternal rest, the pulled-down eyelid will reveal as a last, surprising theatrical coup the final punch line, in my view quite memorable: the “Last Picture Show”, presented with a weeping and a laughing eye, with a wink, the final performance of a life and a life performance intended to be spectacular and dramatic." Timm Ulrichs ^[23] In the years 1977 to 1981 created Kohrs some individual projects with the topic of tattoos.^[24] From 1978 Kohrs drew cartoons for various magazines.^[25] Since 2011 Kohrs is President of the art association in Wedemark, Germany.^[26]

The Tattoo Machine Manfred Kohrs 1978 K was in 2015 exhibited in a German Art museum.^[27]

See also

• List of tattoo artists
• The Tuscaloosa News - 25. Dez. 1978
• Streckenbach/Kohrs Tattoo Machine (German)
• tattoo-bewertung.de (German)
• Tattoo Nation - Tattoo Magazine, Issue # 1, July 10 2014, Page 35.

Selected bibliography

• Marcel Feige: Tattoo-Theo. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2001, ISBN 3-89602-355-1.
• Marcel Feige: Das Tattoo-und Piercing Lexikon. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2000, ISBN 3-89602-209-1.
• Marcel Feige: Ein Tattoo ist für immer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2003, ISBN 3-89602-381-0.
• Samuel M. Steward: Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos. Routledge London & New York 1990, ISBN 0-918393-76-0.
• Margot Mifflin: Bodies of Subversion. powerHouse Books 2013, ISBN 1-576-87692-6.
• Caroline Rosenthal, Dirk Vanderbeke: Probing the Skin: Cultural Representations of Our Contact Zone. Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015, ISBN 1-443-87518-X.

References