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Ink Shack #4: What the f*** is Tiger King?

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In his Ink Shack, Jon Gregory riffs on mountain biking — well, bikes in general. Or, at least, stuff loosely relating to bikes. Then he makes a limited edition product that is available for one week only. This week he’s been mostly chasing cowboy dreams… Read his post and get the LTD stickers below (available for one week only).

Ink Shack 4: What the f**k is Tiger King anyway?

Words: Jon Gregory

A lot of people have mentioned Tiger King lately and I only got as far as the first episode. It all felt a bit wrong. Big cats in captivity. Upsetting. I have been told to persevere, though, but not sure whether I should.

Anyway, the chain of inspirational events went a bit something like this:
 
On Monday I pulled out a print from a load of old papers lying around. I remember having it up behind my computer at the Dirt office in Monmouth, I think. Can’t remember. Anyway, I had forgotten who had taken the shot so I fired off a text to big dog Rose (Mike, ex-Dirt Editor, now an owner of Cannondale bikes) and asked him if he could remember who took it? He beamed back all suspicious with a ‘Why?’, so I had to explain that I just pulled it out and was interested in finding out a bit more about the photographer.
 
 
Rosedog came back with Bob Osborn or John Kerr and then later confirmed it was Bob Osborn, sending over three photos of his copy of ‘The Complete Book of BMX’. One of the photos was the exact spread I had of the black and white print-out and it had the caption ‘Buff-O-Matic, pitched out and flattrackin’, right into the photographer, almost’.
 
Tuesday morning rolls around and my first job of the day is sticking the semi-battered old print-out up behind my computer in the office. The next thing I do is I type Bob Osborn into Google and hit search. I spend some time looking at what the now fairly-mature Robert Osborn has been up to: Living in Montana and taking beautiful photographs of Cowboys and Indians. On his website, there is a great little film about how he has spent over six years taking photographs that will be displayed in an upcoming show. You get a rare view of the infectious glint in his eye when the peak of his cap rises every now and then to the light.
 
Osborn’s love for photography and his craft just oozes out of him. He’s still searching for that perfect shot after so many years. Anyway, he was really enthusiastic about the shape of the cowboy hats and how they became integral elements of his compositions. I started looking into cowboys, their rugged style and the array of different shapes of hats and facial hair that define them.
 
– Jon
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Ink Shack Limited Edition Stickers

Get the latest LTD creation by Jon Gregory, his Ink Shack stickers.

There are three options (see above), all roughly 10cm and they cost a whopping £5 each.

£5 each! Why so expensive?

Because you get all this with each sticker:

/ a code for 15% off anything in our store*

/ a separate code for 20% off our ‘Neck Chief’ bandanna*

/ a lifetime subscription to Analog Zine (OK, it’s free for everyone, but that includes you)

/ you get the sticker, which is a way of showing you love what we do, not least the wild and free ideas that come from Jon Gregory

Through buying the stuff we make, you help keep us in business, which means we can continue making books that record the history of mountain biking. We thank you in advance.

Stickers are available for one week only.

GET THEM HERE

*one-use discount codes will be emailed to you after your purchase and can be used at any time, so you could save it for a future book or merch’ purch’

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