Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos
“I’m not a public figure,” claims Hardy, the iconic tattoo pioneer whose distinctive artwork now enlivens everything from T-shirts to energy drinks. In his compelling memoir, cowritten with pop-culture author Selvin, Hardy now reveals the man behind the needle. Born in 1945, he grew up south of Los Angeles during a time when only sailors commonly sported tats. Hardy surfed, drew, and hobnobbed with hipsters, airbrush artists, hot-rodders, and the few tattooists around, then studied printmaking in San Francisco. There artist Phil Sparrow rekindled his passion for body art, inspiring him to open his first shop in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Hardy energetically describes his subsequent founding of tattoo parlors in Seattle and San Diego, finding love in New York, inking the Yakuza (the Mafia) in Japan, and winning a lifelong battle with alcoholism. Hardy also portrays enigmatic and elusive Sailor Jerry, America’s tattoo patriarch, with whom Hardy partnered to kick-start his billion-dollar, worldwide franchise. Versed in high art, pop culture, and fringe lifestyles, Hardy is a wise and charming guide through the fascinating history of American tattoo art. --Jonathan Fullmer