Bio

Don Ed Hardy

Don “Ed” Hardy was born in California in 1945. As a young boy, Don showed interest in tattoo art and eventually landed an apprenticeship while attending the San Francisco Art Institute. He received a bachelor of fine arts degree in printmaking from the Institute in 1967.

Mr. Hardy has been a professional tattoo artist since the late 60s. He has fine tuned the art of tattoo making with emphasis on its Asian heritage.

In the early 70s, he lived and studied in Japan with a traditional tattoo master. It was in Japan that Mr. Hardy met his primary mentor, Jerry Collins. Since those early days of the 1970s, he has pioneered the art of unique tattoo commissions From his San Francisco studio.

Mr. Hardy, along with his wife Francesca, have written and published over 25 books on alternative art.

Today, he maintains the studio Tattoo City in San Francisco, with younger artists continuing to evolve and carry on his work format. Hardy’s primary focus is on creating and exhibiting works in more traditional mediums, including porcelain painting. He began developing this body of work in 2006 in a traditional Japanese setting.

Hardy pioneered the pop-culture tattoo-as-art space decades before the worldwide boom in tattoo art that permeates popular culture.

Don Ed Hardy Brands

In 2002 Hardy was approached by Ku USA, Inc. to produce a line of clothing based on Hardy’s art and a licence agreement was signed. Within two years, the collection had drawn the interest of Saks companies. Hardy and Ku USA formed Hardy Life LLC, which holds the trademark ownership as well as the copyrights to all his images.

In 2004 Christian Audigier licensed the rights to produce the high-end Ed Hardy clothing line, which is based on Hardy’s imagery. Prior to the Ed Hardy clothing line, Audigier was the Head Designer at Von Dutch Originals, which marketed the imagery of Kenny Howard|Von Dutch. Audigier has attempted to replicate the marketing techniques employed by Von Dutch Originals, by marketing directly to celebrity clients and by opening stores in high profile fashion districts. There are currently at least twelve Ed Hardy stores, located in Waikiki, Dubai, Kuwait, Tel Aviv, Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tucson, Houston, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Noosa on The Sunshine Coast, Melbourne, Sydney Riga and Gold Coast which opened slightly earlier than expected in late 2007.

The Ed Hardy toy line is just with a number of remote control toys now available - including helicopters and boats. Each month new toys are rolled out that carried the unique designs personified by Don Ed Hardy.