two steps forward, one step back ;)

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A British tourist deported from Sri Lanka for a Buddha tattoo made headlines this week. You could read about it all over the Internet. Here you have samples in English, German and Polish. An interesting perspective is, however, presented in this article: ‘No tattoos, please, we’re Buddhists – but casinos no problem!’ BBC also used this opportunity to remind the Westerners where else tattoos can get you into trouble.

Antitattoo class is offered in Germany but it doesn’t seem as awful as it sounds. However, some Cali teachers are expected to cover their tattoos at work which seems too much for them. *sigh* and to think that there are so-called civilized places where apparently you can’t be a teacher and do your work all covered up and , at the same time, be a tattooed person in private as it allegedly violates the mythical ethical code. The world is a very interesting place, isn’t it? 😉

Tattoos of memory’ is an American exhibit focused on immigrants and their hard experiences . Modern art also experienced by means of your body in form of tattoos (this time real ones) as a concept from Bytom, Poland. In Canada there’s an interesting exhibit focused on body art and indigenous cultures of Squamish and Lil’wat peoples.

The Washington Post informs that there won’t be a 24-hour waiting period for tattoos and body piercing in Washington, D.C after all which is good news for people from the industry and people interested in body modification. In New Mexico you can learn much from a state ad campaign against unlicensed tattoo artists.

Top 5 tattoo artists in Mexico.

I should use my rudimentary Dutch more often, so here you have an interview with a Dutch hip hop artist who says he’ll be a cool grandpa and talks his tattoos. In case he would like his grandchildren to have his tattoos after his death (a somewhat disturbing idea, I do admit), he can use the service offered by a Dutch tattoo shops called Walls and Skin that has something interesting to offer:

‘Proud of your tattoo? Proud of the moment it represents? Proud of the pain, time and money you put in the making of it and proud of the artist that made it for you?They say tattoos last a lifetime and then some, now your tattoo can really be forever with our service to put your skin as an artwork on the wall (after you died of course).’

two men, two stories

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If you’re into body modification, you know who Fakir Musafar is! You should know his early experiments with corsetry, his modern primitive  incarnation, his involvement into the modern body modification scene. It’s always interesting to see him featured in the news, so I loved reading this article on a Suscon that just took place in Dallas and what Musafar had to tell participants about body suspension:

“I want the kids at Suscon to really understand what they’re doing. This is not part of scientific culture. It came from somewhere, you’ve borrowed it, you’ve acclimated it, you’ve adapted it, without understanding where it came from, you miss out on parts of the experience,” Musafar says. “It’s an old and honorable tradition and this is what they did and why they did it. And now here’s what we’re doing today.”

here’s a video of Musafar and Jim Ward doing their (own version of ) Sundance. It’s very interesting to watch, especially if you are coming from the modern way of looking at body suspension. Reading the comments is also interesting as it shows from how many POV it can be perceived.

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I’ve never heard about James Hall a.k.a. Blue Man and stumbled upon this tidbit of info only thans to an article about a tattoo convention in Baltimore. Another article is quite old (2009) but the link still works, so enjoy reading it and meeting Mr. Hall! He seems a very fascinating person. Not only he went for a total body suit but also is an Ivy League graduate, a retired city planner and sems a  nice man! He’s one of these people who show you, no matter how critical towards body modification you may be, that being modified (and really heavily at that) doesn’t mean you are an idiot and that you never know how modified may be all these people you come across in your life! Life is full of surprises and that’s the best about it! 🙂

here’s a video about Blue Man!