Charles Gatewood

Photographer Charles Gatewood offers insight and comments on a variety of his work. His subjects include exhibitionism, transvestites, fetishism, scenes from Mardi Gras, and body modification such as tattoos, body piercing, and extreme weight gain.

Charles Gatewood is at it again, in this 'documentary' capturing San Francisco residents whipping, shaving—and drawing blood from each other.

Charles Gatewood documents a trip across the United States that stops in on many alternative lifestyle activities. Includes stops in transvestite bars, biker conventions, college spring break parties, gay and lesbian parades, and many interviews with people with tattoos and body piercing.

At Mardi Gras, in New Orleans, there are a million drunk people in the streets, all masked and laughing. The energy really gets reporter/filmmaker Charles Gatewood going. It's not just the subject matter, it's also the energy of the event.

The cult of Harley-Davidson; party at the Boot Hill Saloon; boogie music and get-down action; choppers and custom bikes galore; tattoos for bikers; behind the scenes at Iron Horse; the biggest biker bash; interviews, lady-bikers, and rave.

Charles Gatewood's tour video of the weird and wild in southeast Asia. Featuring sex shows, opium smoking, primitive piercing rituals, spitting cobras and "Exotic Erotic Bangkok, Sin City of Asia!".

Charles Gatewood's SOV tour of underground subcultures in late 1980's San Francisco.

How weird is weird? See for yourself. Join Hurricane Martha on this bawdy romp through Europe's Capital of Raunch. See Amazing Astrid showing her Queen-sized pierced nipples. Not for the faint-hearted. See tattoo museum, sex museum, clubs.

More crazy "subversive" culture madness from San Francisco photographer of fetish, body modification, and fashion—Charles Gatewood.

From the master of erotic tattooing and body piercing comes this fantastic video featuring the most exotic and erotic body modifications.

American photographer Charles Gatewood started out in the 1960s as a young man with dreams of showing the world the radical cultural developments that were going on in his country. He met many of the iconic instigators of change and documented them for posterity. As the decades passed, Gatewood drifted more and more into a personal expression of sexual subcultures, both in America and abroad. His powerful photos of pioneers within the tattooing- and piercing scenes helped pave the way for the movement that was to be called "Modern Primitives". It's a classic example of when art, and in this example, specifically photography, merges with its general environment and takes on new forms that are impossible to stop. Or, as the San Francisco based photographer himself describes it: "Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, you can't put it back".

Charles Gatewood captures a bunch of dummies with bizarre piercings and regrettable face tattoos in his 1990s docu-movie, "Penetration 2".