events, exhibits and more

Quite eventful weekend with the Philly Tattoo Convention and the Superbowl Games (very tattoorelated!) 

Pretty interesting exhibitons, too: ‘exploring the black male identity through tattoos’ in Chicago, IL and ‘Mayan Fashion’ in Poznan, Poland (and this one I’m going to see when I meet my piercer for my next procedure in April!).

On the verge of art and shocking value is an Australian tattoo artist who uses his own blood to create his tattoo: Rev Mayers (and more on him).

An interesting article about the Maori heads being returned to their native land.

Finally, some weird ones: sounds incredible but who knows – ‘German man tattoos ‘mini’ on his penis to win a car!’ Much more interesting one, though, is a blog post about carrot tattoos.

self-mutilation and a few other gems

Seeing how I’ve recently read, written and posted a review about ‘Word Made Flesh,’ here more links to articles about the book; at least worth checking out.

The Vegetarian Festival still popular and here you’ll find not only an interesting background story about it but also an article with a much-telling title ‘festive self-mutilation.’

Tattoos and (possible) regrets in ‘do you regret your college tattoos?’ and an article about a Canadian initiative ‘Think before you ink!

Tattoos for good cause in an article about an activist (‘every tattoo tells a story’) and ’75 paw-print tattoos for an animal shelter.’

It just had to happen: ‘open your heart and be modified!’ makes fun of Church of Body Modification. Why not? Modified people usually have a sense of humor!

This one, in German, I got from Bastian but here you also have an English version of a story of a tattoo fan having gone for quite an unusual tattoo!

depraving, scary and still enticing

Who knew that gays and tattoos always go hand in hand? Apparently, it’s a secret known only to the Southern gentlemen and one of them decided to reveal it to all other people out there: ‘Chambliss: if gays will serve, there will be tattoos’ (more). Senator Chambliss was heard by many and people’s responses were quite interesting. On a side note, here’s a very tiny article in Polish stating that in the Polish army tattoos are not a problem (most of the time).

The ‘job market’ argument against tattoos sounds reasonable (‘Starbucks employee claims he was fired because of his tattoos’) but maybe it’s just a question of good mimicry skills (‘Scotland’s scariest teacher’). Now let’s just wait and see if this Scottish teacher’s openness won’t bring any bad consequences for her.

Times change and an approach toward tattoos changes as well (which is obvious, of course). A pretty interesting article about a kind of ‘new wave’ of well-educated people in the tattoo industry shows it quite well.

An interesting article from United Arab Emirate describes the tattoo underground there!

Finally, something lighter: popularity of ‘Prison Break’ came and went but its fans can revive it with a little help of a new game based on the show.

miscellaneous stuff

Otzi was mentioned on here at least a few times but it’s always interesting to read about him (although I don’t like looking at him much), so here’s another short one on the subject: ‘Otzi remains mysterious.’

 An interesting addition to my ‘anthropology’ category: ‘Egypt’s Christians uphold tattoo tradition.’

 Health and body modification: ‘tongue stud ‘brain fatality risk’ and ‘Kendal hospital unveils nipple-tattooing machine.’

 A German article ‘between art and madness’ hints on the latter while discussing the current trends in body modification while a text from India focuses more on the question of addiction when tattoos are concerned.

 No more secretive piercings and other mods? New full body scanner is supposed to reveal everything!

 One of the human marvels, the Enigma, in a short review of one his shows.

 Finally, a pretty cool one from Omaha, NE – creative captions contest, body modification-related, of course.

events, itches and fake moustaches

A few events for starters: ‘multicultural celebration’ event in Australia, ‘triathlon of awesome’ in OH and launching a special edition of phone with stuff by Mister Cartoon.

Body piercing-related stuff strikes yet again in ‘corset piercing’, ‘body piercing itch’ (aftercare tips’ and something I named ‘body piercing from a scary medical perspective.’

Tattoos: Green Day and their tattooed past, ‘tattooed librarians‘ and an interesting guy from India who wants to set a world record with flag tattoos.

And tattoos again in a slightly different light: ‘book of Isaiah refers to tattoo’ (it’s cool, really!) and a reader’s opinion in ‘Don’t judge people on if they have a tattoo or.’

Speaking of judging, ‘tattooed gangster forced to look like tom Selleck’ (here with pictures) to make a better impression in court! Maybe he should use Kat Von D’s tattoo concealer instead, though, as her promo stuff looks pretty convincing!

tattoos, piercings, ads, fashion and more

According to a Dutch blog, the star tattoo girl is a hoax (in English); before we all start saying ‘I knew it!’ though, let’s try to learn something from it, for example how important it is to think beforehand and then choose a good shop. The article ‘tattoos are permanent, folks – that needle can be ‘dangerus’’ sums it up nicely, not to mention that it deals with the whole tattoo spiel in a nicely humorous way!

A bit of entertainment in two slide shows (Body Art Expo and tattoos in Bundesliga) and an article about a fashion and suspension show. Looks like these days suspensions are not for spiritual reasons but rather to entertain random people eager to taste a morsel of the alternative edge/whatever. Fine with me but it’s a bit sad, too – if things get that common, we won’t able to experience them in a very intense way anymore.

And a tad of history of ‘Piercing Pagoda’ brand no less; interesting to read but also scary as it seems that time stopped right there and piercing guns are still a way to go (which they are not!).

Tattoos and other marks used for soft biometrics in two articles on the subject; quite interesting, I must say.

Tattoos and money in ‘tattoo advertising’ and ‘fashion’s tattoos on clothing’ (pretty nice pictures in this one).

What’s the point of tattoos?’ doesn’t say anything new about tattoos per se but I like how it shows how far the current norms of beauty force us, esp. women, to change our appearance and physicality to fit. When you discard the boring part about tattoos, the rest makes a decent food for thought.

‘What’s the point of tattoos?’ can be easily answered, though, if you’re  a balding man and wanna hide this fact! ‘Hair tattoo for the balding man‘ is a new thing, isn’t it? and how meaningful at that!

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.

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.’

reviews, profiles, laughs

Tattoo convention reviews are usually pretty much the same; this one, describing Tampa Bay TattooFest, seems more interesting than others, though. In a similar vein, the very first tattoo convention in IN took place in Fort Wayne.

When your teen gets a tattoo’ discusses a new book on the subject, ‘Adoloscent Reputations and Risks.’

An article about literary tattoos with an interesting link to a blog devoted to such tattoos.

Paul Booth, embellished with a ‘king of creepy’ name,’ on Forbes.

Two humorous pictures to practice our sense of humor: ‘piercing humor’ and ‘kung-fu’ featuring Paully Unstoppable.

‘there was blood…’

Recent tattoo conventions in Philadelphia, Detroit and Santa Rosa.

Unfortunately there were some problems at the Philly convention: ‘biker brawl at tattoo convention’ (more) There are also other pieces of news that show tattooing in bad light: ‘’officer beaten in brawl at tattoo shop’ and ‘police break up illegal tattooing session.

Let’s take it a bit further: ‘tattoo shop owner: license denial blatant bureaucratic discrimination;’ on the other hand, though, one can also look at tattoo businesses this way: ‘friendly neighborhood tattoo artists.

Weird news from Russia (in Dutch to make it even weirder but pictures speak for themselves): ‘tattooed pets;’

A tiny piece of good news in this one: ‘parent’s primer on piercings’ states that piercing guns are not sterile and thus not recommendable.