Biography
You have entered the world of the woman on the front lines of the war to bring the EDGE, the DEPTH, the SUBSTANCE & the COLOR back to being a TATTOOED WOMAN.
To Hell with average art, average women & average tattoos.
This is DAWN of the LIVING DEAD GIRL…
Melissa Alabama Graves rose from the dead on October 16th 1984 in a small haunted town in the woods of New Jersey. By the age of four young Melissa had begun painting and drawing without the aid of schooling or proper training. By the age of six she was hanging out around the local funeral home and collecting the bones of various small animals and storing them under her pillow. And by the time she had reached junior high, had amassed a collection of classic zombie films and owned her very own coffin.
Thus began a lifelong career of creative creep-ery.
In the fall of 2003 Melissa moved to NYC to attend the School of Visual Arts. She immediately planted her roots in both the underground music and fetish scenes, and was a regular spectator at the Coney Island Side Show every summer. Here she found a love of tattooed performers, and befriended local legend Eak the Geek (with space tattooed on her face) and herself became involved in the NYC tattoo culture – a move which has since launched her into a career in modeling and live performance.
At SVA, under the guidance of some of the best working artists in contemporary world, Melissa expanded her technical expertise and artistic vision by delving into volumes of historic texts and photographs from early 20th century circus companies, medical libraries, the Mutter Museum and the Musée Dupuytren in Pairs. Her first show in December of 2006 (Festering Through Infectious Time) debuted her vision of the art show as circus theme, even capping off the show with a spoken word poetry performance by none other than Eak the Geek. This show was applauded by the school, and followed immediately by inclusion in a group exhibition at the Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea (Tomorrow’s Artists Today). Her graduation show in May 2007 (The Aristocrats) expanded her vision of the living sideshow, a vision launched by her research in the history of medical deformities and crime scene photography of the 40’s and 50’s.
Since graduating in May 2007, Melissa has shown her work in several group exhibitions, including multiple shows at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and with collectives including False Aristocracy and the After Sputnik Project.
In the summer of 2008 she traveled to France to rendezvous with several famous French tattoo artists and stars of the body modifications scene. While in Paris she expanded her studies of medical texts and historic photography at the Musée Dupuytren, the Musée d’Histoire de la Médecine, and the Museum of Eroticism.
Miss Graves now lives and works out of her own private enclave on the Cemetary’s Edge in the great Garbage State, and continues to show her work both individually and in group exhibitions. This past year (2009-2010) she has had her own solo show at Ripley’s Believe it Or Not! Odditorium in Times Square NYC, had full spread features in multiple magazines including Tatowier Magazin, International Tattoo and Bizarre UK, as well as starring in episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (S.9. Ep.11) and Gossip Girl. You can also see her in Acey Slade’s music video for “She Brings Down the Moon” and the documentary on the ground breaking Dharma Punx movement in NYC entitled “Meditate & Destroy,” produced by Blue Lotus Films Inc and currently for sale online.
Currently LDG Inc is perusing her modeling career in NYC, still battling to become a Suicide Girl, and is continually gracing the pages of tattoo publications world wide from her appearance at the 2010 NYC Tattoo Convention. Look for her in magazines including Inked, Prick, International Tattoo and MORE this fall!
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