Doc Lounge: Scab Vendor

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 twenties, 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. Jonathan faced many battles with alcoholism and drug abuse throughout his life, something he experienced from an early age with his mother. At the same time, he saw his own reflection when dealing with his narcissist and estranged father. Going deep into the psyche of our character, the documentary explores how a man at the height of his career as a tattoo artist chose to give up on his celebrity lifestyle in order to escape from his own vicious cycle.