The Show Won’t Go On goes on author's arm

The Show Won’t Go On tattoo, freshly inked on 21 December 2019

Burt Kearns, who, with Jeff Abraham,  wrote The Show Won’t Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, has commemorated the publication with a different kind of ink.

Crankee of the Inkpire Tattoo Studio in Northridge, California, was the artist.  Kearns also has a tattoo for his book, Tabloid Baby.

Is this the world's first Jerry Lewis-Jacques Tati tattoo?

Cinephiles and comedy aficionados know the effect that French filmmaker and comedic actor Jacques Tati had on Jerry Lewis (and some would say, vice versa).

Now, that connection is more than skin-deep, with this tattoo, inked by Crankee at his Inkpire Tattoo Studio in Northridge, California, on the forearm of a producer and author we all know.  (It is his second Lewis inking but his first Tati tat).

The Lewis picture is based on the  work by American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.  The drawing of Tati is from French comic strip artist and caricaturist Cabu (Jean Maurice Jules Cabut), who died in the January 2015 attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper office.

JERRY LEWIS BY CRANKEE, BASED ON AL HIRSCHFELD CARICATURE

JACQUES TATI’S MONSIEUR HULOT BY CRANKEE, BASED ON CABU CARICATURE

Frank, Dean & Sammy! Producer inks the Rat Pack

Word’s in that our man Burt Kearns, the writer-producer who made headlines in 2014 as one of the few people in show business (Richard Belzer is another) to have the famous Jerry Lewis caricature tattooed on his arm, has taken his obsession to a new level with the Rat Pack.

A version of the classic Three Hipsters work by the artist Shag was inked by acclaimed tattooist Mister Crankee at the So Cal Tattoo and Art Gallery on Ventura Blvd in Tarzana.



This is one of Crankee’s last works before he takes his inks and needles to Mike Devries’ MD Tattoo Studio in Northridge on Monday.

A Disneyland Club 33 tattoo by Sean from Texas

Tattoo artist Sean from Texas did a favor for Burt Kearns.

With the original logo for the exclusive Club 33 (which his family visited on July 7, 2012) on his arm, Burt is hoping to get into Disneyland for free.

Sean from Texas inked an alien abduction on Burt's arm

More ink on Burt Kearns' upper arm, done by Sean from Texas.

Sam got an Amy Winehouse tattoo by Sean from Texas

The artist Sam Kearns got an Amy Winehouse tattoo on his forearm from acclaimed artist Sean from Texas on July 18th. 

By July 19th, everybody wanted one.

Burt Kearns got two tattoos by Sean from Texas in the past month; Sam Kearns got one

Burt Kearns' arm, Sean from Texas' artwork

Andy Warhol on Sam Kearns' arm, Sean from Texas' artwork