Blotter Art

For as long as popular culture can remember, the use of LSD has been associated with the 1960s, hippies, music, film and art – and these associations can be felt even when it comes to the materials used for taking the drug. Anyone who knows anything of ‘drug cultures’ will know that one of the forms LSD – or ‘acid’ – can be consumed in is ‘tabs’ or ‘blotters’. These are created as large sheets of absorbable paper divided into a perforated grid, which can then be torn off like stamps – or like the packets of peanuts you buy down the pub to reveal the naked beauty beneath them. These small squares of blotting paper would look very unappealing if it weren’t for the psychedelic designs printed on them.

Here is a selection of our favourites, courtesy of the websites: http://www.blotterart.co.uk, http://www.key-z.com/ and http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/list.html