Monthly Archives: May 2009

interesting questions …

Let’s first juxtapose modern tattoos shops studios: very upscale Club Tattoo in Las Vegas and a small, just opened place in Austria; both do the same job, both strive to deliver the highest quality possible and yet they send quite different a message, don’t they?

Technical aspects in ‘new line of premium tattoo needles’ and a really interesting one about ‘small devices playing ever-bigger role in medicine’ (tongue magnet(ic implant?) mentioned here).

Something for my anthropology section: ‘seven sacred ceremonies’ that, a.o., describe briefly the Sun Dance.

Two pretty interesting questions raised in ‘is tattooing a child worse than piercing ears, circumcision?’ (make sure to check the comments posted by readers!) and ‘should tattooing animals be considered cruelty?’ (another one on the subject).

And let’s end with a request from a German online newspaper: if you have tattoos and some cool stories behind them, consider sharing them with the newspaper and its readers 😉

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(almost) doubles

The ‘Tattoo Highway’ show had its TV debut yesterday; two reviews of the show then, one including an interview with Thomas Pendleton.

Pretty interesting tattoo convention reviews from the NYC Tattoo Convention.

And one pretty odd piece of news: ‘Brooklyn tattoo artist against city after alleged sodomy attack by cop.’

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(too) colorful

The Nuggets NBA team made the news recently and looks like the topic of NBA and tattoos is still overly popular: ‘tattoos have made NBA almost unwatchable’ and ‘neck tattoos in NBA.’

A nice slideshow from the Tattoo and Body Art Expo in Houston, TX and a review of the Expo Tatuaje in Mexico Monterrey; also, an article in Spanish featuring a Mexican tattoo artist Jorge Castro.

Body art on TV: ‘he’s inky and he’s going to be a TV-star again’ (interesting how the title is totally different than the contents; makes the whole thing less convincing IMHO) and a review of the ‘Global Ink,’ a documentary by Lars Krutak.

Another touch of small town tattoo/body piercing shops in ‘leaving his mark’ from Canada.

Tattoos and soldiers in ‘tattooed under fire’ (or the stories of US soldiers in Iraq) and something entirely different in ‘tattoo for troops’ as a way to raise some funds for a good cause.

A touch of body piercing in an article from Australia about microdermals.

And finally something nicely exotic: ‘tattoo show to be staged’ in Mongolia; there are countries that never make the global news, so it’s always interesting to come across something shedding some dim light on them.

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the ways we use skin

Growing popularity of tattoos (nothing new by now), people and their tattoos in articles from MS: ‘tattoos as diverse as the tattooed’ and ‘rethink ink.’  ‘Indelible imprints’ are from India and briefly discuss the fact that now also middle-aged and older people are eager to get a tattoo done.

Celeb-‘stained’ touched tattoos in ‘Tusconan gets inked for appearance on ‘Tattoo Highway’ and some samples of the ‘Ruthless and Toothless’ clothing line.

The ‘Skin and Bones’ exhibit was already mentioned on here; ‘ink at sea’ presents some shots from the exhibit – nicely old-school photos.

A nice read-up on ‘ink slinger Jimmy Vegas’ and tattoo industry in OK (tattoos became legal there only in 2006).

Something for ‘indirectly related’: ‘Body art. Literally’ where you can read about an artist using human skin to work on in not that usual way.

A quick switch of the  subjects, I know: another example of ‘piercing’ humor – an example of ‘single point piercing’;)

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a few facets of tattoos

A nice set of articles from IA: two of them, ‘colorful shops welcomed’ and ‘tattoo quotes,’ focus on the recent change in the state ordinance while the third one is more about local businesses ‘mobilizing against tattoo parlor.’

When there’s resistance, there also must be something good to look forward to, so here’s a short one about one ID parlor that’s making difference and helping local community.

One of my German friends used to laugh at the ink-TV shows and point out how fashionable ‘memorial tattoos’ became thanks to them – almost each and every one show episode was about someone commemorating something. Here’s another memorial tattoo but this one makes for quite unusual a project.

Growing popularity of tattoos in an article ‘tattoo artists come of age.’

Interview with one of the great ones: ‘Mark Mahoney.’

Another piece of info about Infinitink in ‘too fickle for a tattoo?‘ Personally I love the permanence of tattoos and there’s always a cover-up option, isn’t there?

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bars, tracks and permits

Nice coincidence: just when I got in the mail a book about prison tattoos, there appeared some articles on the subject, too: ‘Illinois inmates and jail tattoos’ and an exhibit on ‘iconography of the streets and jail.’

Sports tattoos are also enjoying some attention: ‘professional athletes with tattoos,’ Nuggets team and their tattoos and ‘Iowa athletes think ink.’

A short follow-up on ‘Free Tattoo Day’ in Omaha, NE and an article about community-oriented tattoo parlor in NM – not so scary and unapproachable as one could think?

Two articles more about the Prestons and their fight to open a tattoo parlor in Tempe, AZ(two lines above and you can see that people from the local tattoo parlors can actually be a good asset to a community).

‘The pierced people’ is a general piece about modern body piercing but mentions two quite reputable shops from OH – Piercology and Evolved.

Something non-English to end this post: a few lines about this year’s Asturia Tattoo Convention.

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Urgent!

The sad news I received yesterday from Håvve Fjell:

“Dear All –

Friday night, a fire occurred in Matt (director of our L.A. chapter)
Brawley’s building, and destroyed everything that he owns. He was not
home when the fire started, and was thankfully not hurt. However, this
fire means huge losses for him personally (he is self-employed, and
works out of his home), as well as for CoRE’s L.A. chapter, as
everything was in Matt’s home. (All of their flight cases,
one-of-a-kind costumes, fully-stocked piercing department, all of our
cheek spears, merchandise, their cash box (with cash), gurneys and
massage tables, set pieces, full rigging department, etc.)

If you are in a position to donate funds towards the rebuilding of
these losses, we will gratefully accept your help. At this point,
anything helps. We’ve created a donation page via paypal, so if you
follow the link below and donate, we can get the money to Matt as
quickly as possible.

Here’s the link for donations:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=5488862

And here’s a short piece on the fire:

http://cbs2.com/local/fire.downtown.Los.2.1011193.html

Thank you all very much!

Steve Joyner and Patricia Cram
Constructs of Ritual Evolution (CoRE)
www.wearecore.com
director@wearecore.com
Houston, TX
Los Angeles, CA
Oakland/San Francisco, CA”

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sometimes too young but never too old

Modern body modification is usually associated with the younger crowd and the most common question asked seems to be ‘what about the time you’re 80 and your tattoos not so cool anymore?’ (myself was never asked this question, though). The truth, however, is that more and more older people get tattoos and piercings – Isobel Varley is an extreme here but it’s not so uncommon these days to come across read about people in their 70’s or 80’s who decide to get their first one – here’s a nice sample of such stories (as a reaction to an article criticizing tattoos at that!); and here’s a link to an older entry of mine linking to another article about the elderly and their tattoo experiences).

One must be careful with their choice, though, so here’s ‘five tat commandments’ for those in need.

Personally I don’t buy the overly touching stories behind tattoos in ‘ink reality shows’ but the people involved seem to be convinced they’re making a ‘real’ thing – ‘former ‘Inked’ artist hits the ‘Tattoo Highway.’

Bastian drew my attention to a nice (new?) site called lifemodified – you can read there an interview with an *in*famous red-eyed guy (I posted a link to another interview with the guy here but, sadly, the link doesn’t work anymore).

In other news, ‘Free Tattoo Day‘ in Omaha, NE and a nice article about trademark tattoos from Australia.

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weirdly interesting

A nice set of quite unusual ones:

Let’s start with body piercing and so-called ‘single point piercing’ that, apparently, is ‘new body piercing trend exploding in popularity’ (the phrase ‘heavy metal movement’ is priceless, methinks!)

Tattoos ‘used for medical alerts’ juxtaposed with ‘lower-back ink sexy or slutty?’

‘Man’s Ruin’ tattoo art exhibition in Canada plays with traditional naval tattoos.

Henk Schiffmacher in a role of an expert on tattoos to help the police.

News from Sweden about an unusual way to publish a magazine in ‘a new kind of skin magazine’ and a new kind of sexy lingerie that ‘tattoos’ the wearer’s skin.

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always proud, not always showing it off

The speed of internet is nicely amazing! The American version of the article about breaking a piercing record (‘freaking’ 1,197 needles in – impressive or just bizarre?) was soon followed by its Dutch versions.

More about body piercing (always less coverage than tattoos) from PA: ‘piercing thoughts’ playing with the ‘you never know who got what done’ idea.

People and their tattoos: another short article about Goeff Ostling (with a better shot of his tattoo body suit) and an interesting article about the guy who’s not only a tattoo artist but also a fireman.

Something more serious in ‘tattoo artists question proposed Minnesota regulations’ and a pretty interesting article about obviously booming body modification industry ‘even in recession.’

Finally, a tattooed candidate for Darwin’s Award??? ‘proud of your tattoos – even during a bank robbery.’

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