Honour and Pride

This is what happens when you let Brian Decker take a scalpel to skin with heavy blackwork.

Here’s what Brian has to say about the pieces.

To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

32 thoughts on “Honour and Pride

  1. To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  2. To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  3. To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  4. To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  5. Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  6. Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  7. Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  8. Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  9. To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  10. To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  11. To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  12. To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  13. Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  14. Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  15. Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  16. Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  17. Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  18. Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  19. Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  20. Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

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