An introduction to the history of blotter art.
Blotter Art has been around since the 1960’s, before blotter art LSD was distributed in pill form but when dealers started to be charged based on the weight of the drugs seized rather than the number of doses they were caught with they quickly began looking for a lightweight alternative to distribute the drug.
In comes blotting paper, a lightweight ultra absorbent paper to soak up the drug and allow for easy distribution.
One of the first known blotters was of a single black dot know as “computer dot / spot”
This very simple design was printed on chromatography paper.
The sheet was made up of 5 rows of 20 dots, each dot contained 1000 micrograms ( μg ) and was intended to be split into 4 doses.
The photo shows an original computer dot from the 1960’s with some discoloration due to the age of the blotter.
With the newest and most effective way to distribute LSD now found dealers began to “brand” there LSD with a range of unique artwork and images, this helped them stand out from the crowd and build a reputation in the psychedelic community.
Dealers would often use different color designs to indicate a number of things including years of issue, dosage and even regions where the LSD would be distributed.
Over the years many blotter art designs have been printed strictly with the intention of being dosed and consumed making them hard to collect as they are almost immediately dosed with LSD, whereas some blotter art is printed as “vanity” blotter art without the intention of the artworking being dosed.
Blotter art has a vast history with thousands of unique designs, if you are interested in a more detailed history please see *insert*
We also have a photo archive of blotter art available at Blotter Art Archive.
Blotter Art Archive 