Scab Vendor is a feature film documentary about the life and adventures of Jonathan Shaw. A legend in the tattoo industry and underground arts community, the film delves deeply into Shaw’s psyche and his major career shift to reinvent himself as an iconic underground novelist.

A deep archeological dig through Jonathan's extensive personal archive of historical pictures and audio interviews recorded with his famous parents before their deaths, video recordings of him tattooing celebrities such as Johnny Depp, as well as incredible footage of his motorcycle travels, the documentary highlights revealing narratives by Jonathan about his enigmatic past – his relationship with his father, the famous Jazz band leader Artie Shaw and mother, screen star Doris Dowling, who encouraged him to leave home at the age of 14, never to return. 

The film is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall journey into the secret underworld life of one of the last true great American outlaws, a deep and compelling look into Shaw’s substance abuse, his connection with the spiritual world, his surreal relationships and experiences with a bizarre and unusual landscape peopled by a notorious cast of characters rarely seen by outsiders, and his ultimate redemption through art and writing. 

In a bland post-modern media landscape stifled by stuffy, politically-correct, boring, predictable tales of mediocre nothingness, the inside story of a widely influential artist and adventurer who has lived a limitless and borderless cinematic life on the edge simply demands to be told.