Scab Vendor

Scab Vendor is a documentary about the life and times of Jonathan Shaw. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, as the son of jazz bandleader Artie Shaw and Hollywood starlet Doris Dowling, Jonathan’s teenage years were marked by rebellion against the glamorous life of his parents and extreme aversion to his mother’s alcoholism.

After almost dying of a heroin overdose in his 20s, hitchhiking from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro, and learning from the best old- school American tattoo artists, Jonathan Shaw became the go-to tattoo artist in New York City. His Fun City Tattoo Studio opened in 1993, four years before tattooing was legal in Manhattan. 

And amongst the people who visited the shop were his friends, Johnny Depp, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and punk legend Iggy Pop.