{"product_id":"tarek-dem-scimitar-34-360-x-510mm-original-artwork","title":"Tarek Dem, Scimitar 34, 360 x 510mm, Original Artwork","description":"\u003cp\u003eAcrylic ink and gouache on watercolour paper. 360 x 510mm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBorn in Beirut in the late 1970s, Tarek Dem came of age against a backdrop of conflict and chaos. Confined indoors during the war years, he built his own creative universe — Lego, drawing, fantasised weapons and war machines.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom an early age, the pages of Métal Hurlant became a portal to another world — Moebius, Druillet, Caza and Juan Giménez feeding a visual imagination that was already hungry for the dark, the fantastical and the extreme. These were the seeds of an obsessive visual language that would define his work for decades.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1989 he moved to Paris, plunging into graffiti in his early teens. At 13, he bought his first record solely based on the cover — Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast — a moment that crystallised a lifelong fascination with the dark, fantastical imagery of metal album art. Paris opened the doors to a whole wider visual universe that had been out of reach in Lebanon — one he consumed voraciously and made entirely his own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNow 48, his practice spans graffiti, painting, installation and tattooing. He pushes a subject to its limits, until it becomes automatic — then abandons it. Like an album played too many times, he sets it aside, only to rediscover it years later with fresh eyes. Restless, prolific and allergic to repetition.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\u003cp\u003eSince 2015, tattooing has become a central pillar of his practice. A discipline he had long been fascinated by, finally pursued — and one where all his influences converge. A craft governed by collaboration and client vision, it operates under different rules to his painting, and he embraces that tension.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDark, unpredictable and impossible to categorise, Tarek remains one of the most singular voices to emerge from the collision of street culture, comic mythology and fine art.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tarek Dem","offers":[{"title":"360 x 510mm","offer_id":67637486584053,"sku":"SCIMITAR34","price":1000.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0756\/1986\/0725\/files\/Screenshot2026-10-07at5.21.40pm.png?v=1791354114","url":"https:\/\/blacksound.com.au\/products\/tarek-dem-scimitar-34-360-x-510mm-original-artwork","provider":"Blacksound Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}