Quick Facts
Biography
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 Streckenbach ("Tattoo Samy") (August 5, 1926 – June 27, 2001). Together they developed the barbell piercing in 1975. Kohrs invented a rotary tattoo machine with main part an electric motor and an ink reservoir.In 1977 Kohrs founded the first German Tattoo Artist Association. 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 to 1974 he plays Rugby in Hanover-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 Streckenbach took Kohrs in 1975 as a master student. In 1976, he began tattooing professionally. In 1977 he opened his own studio in Hanover and in 1978 he built a new rotary tattoo machine. It was invented by Samuel O'Reilly and subsequent improvements were made by the tattoo artists over the years. Kohrs tattooed Rio Reiser, Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and other several notable musicians, artists and celebrities of the time.
In 1977 Kohrs was an early member of The National Tattoo Club of the World 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.
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."
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.
Kohrs attended the first National Convention at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Denver, Colorado from 23–25 March 1979. He made a slide presentation of tattooed people with Tattoo Samy. 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. Kohrs, Streckenbach and Terry Wrigley (president of E.T.A.A), were present in October 1980 at the first German Tattoo Convention at Frankfurt. Kohrs gave up tattooing in 1990 and began studying economics in Hanover, Hamburg and at Ural State University of Economics. Since completing his economics degree in 1996, he has served as tax consultant and lecturer in economics at a private academy.
In 2016, after more than 45 years, Kohrs appears first again in the tattoo scene, he gave a detailed interview to Stadtkind Hannovermagazin and the Tattoo Kulture Magazine. In December 2016 he visited the exhibition Nailed to the Cross by PMA Tattoo Hanover and November 2017the 10. tattomenta Kassel.
Since March 2018, Kohrs has worked as a research associate in the estate project Nachlass Warlich. Since December 2015 Ole Wittmann is a postdoctoral scholarship holder of the Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur (Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture) working on a research project on the estate of the German tattooist Christian Warlich (1891–1964) in cooperation with the Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg/Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte. Manfred Kohrs is since 1997 chairman of the board of the Institut für deutsche Tattoo-Geschichte, Ole Wittmann executive board member and research director.
Documents
Art and design
In 1975, on the German Norddeutscher Rundfunk television show Nordschaumagazin, Kohrs met the well-known German artist Prof. Timm Ulrichs. In 1981, Ulrich was approached about Streckenbach to Manfred Kohrs in Hanover to be tattooed as part of an art project, the words "THE END" refers to an eyelid. In 1981 Streckenbach created that conceptual art-project with Ulrichs.
"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."In the years 1977 to 1981 created Kohrs some individual projects with the topic of tattoos. From 1978 Kohrs drew cartoons for various magazines. Since 2011 Kohrs is President of the art association in Wedemark, Germany.
The Tattoo Machine Manfred Kohrs 1978 K was in 2015 exhibited in a German Art museum.