Tony Cohen started tattooing back in the mid sixties applying his trade in the western suburbs of Sydney and over the last 35 years or so has built a reputation that is legendary in Australian Tattooing which also reaches the 4 corners of the globe.

During the seventies and the eighties, Tony travelled throughout the USA, UK and Europe gathering priceless amounts of knowledge and information on tattooing and has found the right formula with The Illustrated Man Tattoo Studio of Fine Art. Having originally started this studio in 1984 with Danny Robinson (another legendary Australian tattooist) in St Kilda, Melbourne, the studio had to close due to bureaucratic red tape and Tony being a Sydney boy at heart could not resist the bright lights and action that Sydney had to offer. Opening the Studio in East Sydney and then relocating to a bigger and better establishment now located in Elizabeth Street Sydney.
This Studio has and still is being used for just about everything in relation to tattooing. The Studio has featured in newspapers, TV News Programs, Current Affair shows and radio shows regarding our high standards of sterilisation and, of course, the quality of tattooing that is done here. Also The Footy Show, World’s Funniest Home Videos, Australian sitcoms and countless Australian movies have either filmed here or needed our advice on how to portray tattooing correctly for the non-tattoo community out there. The Sydney Olympics were a huge success as we also received major media coverage from NBC in the US, CBC in Canada and various newspapers around the world after tattooing their respective athletes. This included our own media with us tattooing a huge contingent of Aussie Olympians.
This studio also saw a turn around for Tony, running a tight ship where he only had a couple of tattooists working from him, to now having guest artists working here from all over the world and keeping the standard of tattooing at its best.
* Tattoo Lou and Troy Lane from Miami
* Ronny Ackers, Terry Roberts, Derek and Andrew Higham from the UK
* Chris from Germany
* Liz from Denmark
* Horigan from Japan
* Lucky Bastard and Adam Shields from the USA
* Jed Hill and Patto both from Victoria.

Also some Aussie artists that have gone on to do their own thing after working at The Illustrated Man – Andy Gould, Kiwi Kim, Fran Stinson, Jol Foster and Jimmy Myart.
We also get our fair share of Celebs and rock stars – Motley Crue, Scatterbrain, The Almighty, East 17, World’s Strongest Man Manos Ver, Nova Peris-Kneebone (the first aboriginal to win a Gold Medal at The Olympics), Toni Collette, Portishead, Hayley Lewis, Natalie Imbruglia, Darren Hayes of Savage Garden, Susan St James, Brian Setzer of The Stray Cats, Canned Heat, Johnny Winters, Rose Tattoo and not forgetting the infamous Corpse Grinders from Victoria, just to name a few, not all got tattooed but they have all visited our studio.

So as you can see we are not fly by nighters, our reputation stands alone and is second to none with the tattooists that are here today – Tony Cohen, Brett Cohen, Gary Southecombe, Heather and Little Johnny Casino – this standard and tradition with go on for many years to come.

Brett and Johnny work in unison...