Another White Palm

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Cross-spectrum body modification artist Wayne Fredrickson of Zodiac Tattoo in Moreno Valley, CA — one of the few practitioners who’ve been featured here for tattoos (don’t miss that crazy link), piercing, and scarification — just posted a good example of how clean white tattoos often look, and how successfully they generally heal. It’s weird, even in these edumacaterd days, the urban myth persists that white ink tattoos are next-to-impossible to do, to keep from fading or changing color, or are even dangerous (someone emailed me just yesterday concerned because they’d been told that white ink is fundamentally toxic). In reality white ink is as non-toxic and inert as any modern tattoo pigment (that is, safe to tattoo with, but a carcinogen if you spend a decade snorting large quantities of the pure powder base), and appears to last better than most, resistant to fading and other discoloration. In addition, when you’re talking about white-only tattoos, I feel like there’s some trick-of-the-eye that makes them more “forgiving” — slight breaks and imperfections in the linework are less likely to be caught by the eye, which makes them ideal for work on the palm for example, a location where it can be difficult to get ink of any color to stay perfectly (something which the eye instantly picks up on in black ink).

In the example below, done on a palm (the location would have created more of a challenge than the choice of ink) you can see the tattoo progressing from fresh, to two weeks later, and finally to two months later. There’s no reason to believe that it will look nearly identical to that third shot two decades from now as well, although the lines may blur slightly due to the mechanics of skin. You may recall in November I actually posted a similar tattoo — click here to see a 13 year old white ink palm tattoo (that one is more yellow because of the pigmentation of the wearer’s skin, not because of its age). As usual, click the pic to zoom in.

Nasal Orbital

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Ruslan, who has both large nostrils and a septum (which can function as a nasallang) just posted a unique looking picture of himself wearing a ring through them, making for a nasal orbital, a very unusual look. It instantly reminded me of another creative icon in this community — there’s a 2007 photo on ModBlog of Eaten Placenta wearing a similar configuration.

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A turn for the worse

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Something that often surprises people is just how quickly a trapped infection can move from nonexistent to serious. These cheek piercings were about two months old and by all appearance doing just fine, when the wearer decided to switch the jewelry. In the process, they somehow managed to drag bacteria into the still-healing fistula, probably bacteria that was on their hands. Within the week the piercings were seriously swollen or infected, so they headed to their doctor, who insisted that the piercings be removed and put her on antibiotics. This photo was taken when she got home from the doctor.

cheek infection

Mistake number one: Changing the jewelry in a still healing piercing without proper attention to contamination control. Be aware that cheek piercings often take a long time to heal, and perhaps more importantly, piercings of all types will appear healed long before they actually are healed (and even young technically healed piercings may have very thin skin, making them highly susceptible to injury). Ideally a piercing that’s still healing shouldn’t have its jewelry changed, but if it must, the jewelry needs to be sterilized and gloves and other appropriate cross-contamination must be in place. Whenever possible this should be done at a piercing studio — most will autoclave and change jewelry for a small reasonable charge, or even do it for free when you buy the jewelry.

Mistake number two: When a piercing is infected with significant amounts of swelling and discharge, the presence of jewelry is both good and bad. It’s bad because a foreign substance in a wound can greatly increase the population of bacteria by giving them a “foothold”, but it’s good because it can keep the wound open and is often the only thing keeping the infection from becoming an abscess. The piercing allows the wound to drain, as the antibiotics (or alternative treatments) work to eliminate the infection — saline soaks and other treatments can also work to draw out the discharge, but can only do so if the wound is open. Even if antibiotics eliminate the infection, you can still have serious complications if a large pocket of pus is trapped under the skin. For this reason I feel it’s important to always have someone familiar with the treatment of troubled piercings involved in such complications — doctors are notorious for making problems with piercings worse due to their unfamiliarity with them, even today. Any reputable piercer is always happy to take the time to look at a piercing having difficulty (whether they did the piercing or not) and give you advice on how best to treat it (and that advice in this case likely would have been “go to the doctor, but don’t let them take out the piercing”). Better yet, piercers, unlike doctors, rarely charge for this service in my experience — although you should always tip them!!!

Sure beats a tracheotomy!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Here’s a wonderful little story about the healing power of body piercing from Dion Jacobi at Modscene in Gladstone, QLD Australia (modscene.com.au). In this case I’m not talking about the oft-touted psychiatric or spiritual healing power of piercing, but something much more physical and literal.

Dion had a “young fella” about sixty years old come in, who after a failed nasal repair (centered on his right nostril) that was then made even worse by a blunt force trauma a month later, completely destroying what progress had been made, had been unable to breathe through his nostrils for the past fifteen years. As Dion says, “imagine what it would be like to have sleep apnea for a decade in a half, to not be able to do any major exercise, or to even eat and breathe at the same time.”

The guy decided that getting two large holes behind the collapsed passage might allow a little bit of air, so he went to Modscene to have them do a pair of 2ga nostril punches. What Dion found he was working around was as if someone had cut away the front portion of the septum, causing the tip of the nose to collapse in to the philtrum area, blocking airflow — the only way the guy could breathe through his nose was to physically push up the entire tip to open the airway. After the first hole was made, it was clear it was going to work, and after the second one was done — there were some unavoidable symmetry issues due to the extent and unevenness of the existing damage — he was, for the first time in a fifteen years allowed the use of his nasal passages.

“He left with the biggest grin,” Dion Says. “This is why I love my job!”

breathing holes

Cammy Stewart Interview

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

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Cammy Stewart, whose work has been featured on ModBlog in the past, is a Dundee, Scotland based tattoo artist who started like most do — self-taught, tattooing anything they could on anyone they could find — but had an epiphany when he met neotribal, blackwork, and sacred geometry tattooing pioneer Xed LeHead at London’s Divine Canvas. He began merging this new style and philosophy of tattooing into his own, and became a part of what began with the idiosyncratic style of a small handful of outsider tattoo artists and has become a full-on art movement. Find Cammy at Metalurgey in Dundee, Scotland, online at facebook/cammystewart or instagram/cammytattoo, or email him at [email protected].

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* How do you create the designs in your tattooing?

I design all pattern work I use for tattooing on Photoshop. Sometimes I draw sections by hand on paper, scan them, and then replicate or manipulate them using the computer until I’m happy with them. Any other drawing or layout for the tattoo is usually drawn directly on to the skin with a selection of pens until it is clean and easy to follow.

* Does the core of the design tend to come from you or from the client?

I like my clients to come in with a rough idea and let me do my own thing with it. The only time I like to have full creative control over a tattoo is when I either know the customer well and they trust me fully, or I get a vibe from them that they are open minded and genuinely don’t mind what I do.

People always say, “do whatever you want,” but I know deep down they don’t really mean it. If the client has existing tattoos that I have to work around or cover up this will also have a massive impact on the final design. I try to use this to my advantage and let it help with the shape, and the shape of the clients body can also influence what kind of design I use or how I place it.

In my opinion the body should be treated as a whole when possible. The un-tattooed space is as important as the tattooed space — how it fits, how it flows, how it becomes a part of the wearer and looks natural on them…

* Do you have a library of artwork that you do in advance and then look for clients for, or is it all drawn for the specific person?

I design everything for the client, and most of the decisions for the final design are done on the day. I don’t like knowing exactly what I’m going to do in advance as I feel this isn’t really the most creative approach — I like to work in the moment, for my life on that day to influence how I go about coming up with the design. It feels raw, and that’s what I get a buzz from.

I do make patterns and designs and keep them in folders on the computer for possible future use, and I also collect things I find that look interesting from books or online that I feel might be helpful for ideas or for reworking in Photoshop at a later date.

* Maybe a silly question, but why do you use almost exclusively red and black? It seems a common palette for this style in general.

The reason I choose red and black is because it is a striking combination — bold and raw, and it works well on the skin. No other colours have the same power for me. I’m not sure why they are popular as a whole though. I imagine for the same reasons that I’ve just described…

* How do you introduce individuality into designs that by their nature are somewhat repetitive?

Every day is like reinventing the wheel. People see my work and all want similar things done, but I try to persuade them that they should look beyond my previous work and do their own thing to something that will suit them — obviously I have my favourite patterns and motifs but I try not to overuse them.

* What do you draw influence from as an artist?

I draw influence from everything — my family, my friends, day to day life, emotions from within myself and people I respect within the tattoo industry. I don’t really look at tattoo magazines these days and I try not to look at too much tattoo work online as I don’t want to draw to much from other peoples work. I’d much rather look at books on graphics, street art, and so on to keep my work is as original as possible and not have it be a copy of other artists’ work…

* What would you say to the criticism that geometric tattoos are, while technically advanced, are devoid of a certain artistry?

Art to me is a raw expression of ones self, a tool to communicate with people without language… and mostly something that makes people talk, so whether you like something or hate something, as long as you want to discuss it and it makes you think, then it has much artistry as a portrait or any other kind of tattoo. And really, “what is art?”

* How did you learn and mature as an artist?

It’s been a very long drawn out process. My background was in graffiti art so that obviously has has a big influence on the tattooing I am currently doing. However, when I started tattooing I didn’t have a clue about anything. I am self taught, so the first few years I was just learning the technical aspects through trial and error — I was tattooing whatever came my way really, wanting as much skin as possible to get better.

The biggest turning point for me was meeting my now good friend Xed LeHead from Divine Canvas. As he tattooed my face and head, I remember him saying, “you wear the sacred geometry, so why not take this path and explore it for yourself?”

It just seemed like the right thing to do as I had so much respect and admiration for his work and his take on tattooing and life in general. I felt at home around him and all of the wonderful people working alongside each other at his studio. He shared everything with me –machine knowledge, patterns, tattooing techniques, Photoshop use… the lot! It got me started with this form of art, and gradually, as I got more confident I put my own twist on it and used my own art background to help me develop further… I don’t feel this process will ever stop, and if it does I’ll stop tattooing.

* Is it frustrating being seen as specializing in a specific style, or does that help you push it further than you could if you were a more “general purpose” tattoo artist?

I much prefer working in only one or two styles. I don’t feel you can be really good at everything — it’s impossible to be great at every style. I’d rather concentrate my brain on one thing and be the best I can be at it than be OK at many styles while never really excelling at any of them. Being an all rounder was never really my thing.

I also feel its easier for people to remember you and your work if you work within only one or two styles — it makes your work instantly recognizable. You could compare it to marketing a brand of anything. When I was still doing other styles, but was already changing from doing a bit of everything to specializing in one style, I felt it a good idea only to display in my portfolio the work I wanted people to come to me for rather than everything I’d done, so that in time people would know and accept that this is what I do.

* How do you see you style evolving from where it is now?

The work will evolve as the customers evolve. Without people I am nothing. What I’ve been starting to find is, as more people see my work they are keener to give me larger spaces to work on and I have more freedom with design. Everything I do inside and outside tattooing helps me grow and evolve. Also, as equipment gets better it can make tattooing more fluid and allow me to cover more area more efficiently. Long term I would like to work on larger projects rather than small tattoos, but this will only happen when the time is right.

I think geometric/blackwork/abstract work will continue to grow as new artists enter this world and do their own take on it — the possibilities of it are endless with people who are prepared to take risks and push the boundaries of modern tattooing, ignoring all the conventional rules and thinking outside the box…

I just like to tattoo and want my customers to be happy with the final outcome… I want to make images that people remember and that fit the body well.

Alien Ear (Earlobe Relocation) Healing Update

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

I wanted to post a quick update on the earlobe relocation that Mary Jo did on her husband Jefferson. It’s healing quickly, and at two weeks in Mary Jo tells me it’s strong and healthy, although not as solid as it would be naturally. It’s funny, the ear looks very natural — but if you look at the slight discoloration (I’ve circled it here) you can see just how far the earlobe has been relocated.

UV Ink Rubbing

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Dundalk, Ireland’s Baz Black (facebook.com/BazBlackPiercing) did this UV ink rubbing over a skin removal scarification of an exclamation mark. The top row shows the scar as it was fresh, back in December, and the bottom row shows it as it is now, seven weeks into healing. In an attempt to get the ink to stay more solidly, he had the customer come back every day for the first three days of healing, so he could change the dressing for him and reapply the UV glow ink each time. There’s a little bit of patchiness, but overall the effect is very solid.

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Lesya and Rouslan

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

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Lesya Toumaniantz’s radical facial tattoo has recently gone viral, posted on thousands of Facebook pages with captions like “next level face tattoo” from Russia. So I thought it was time to tell the real story behind this remarkable tattoo.

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About a month ago, Rouslan Toumaniantz, a well known and sometimes notorious Belgium-based tattoo artist (of Tattoo Box in Kortrijk), and Lesya, a designer living at the time in Saransk, a city in central Russia started talking via chat (Rouslan speaks fluent Russian) and realized they had a lot in common, and quickly began falling head over heels in love. About a week ago they met in person in Moscow and decided to get married — their plans for their life together include her learning to tattoo (Rouslan tells me she’s already a talented artist), apprenticing under her husband-to-be, while she also gets the full-body ink that she’s always dreamed of (biomech is the current plan) — and of course a family.

Her new facial tattoo that’s getting all the attention, a huge commitment for both a person with limited experience as a publicly modified person and for a new relationship screams out the intensity of their commitment to their new life, reads “RUSLAN”, the name of her betrothed. At first glance the tattoo echoes Latin American gang tattooing — MS-13 is the first thing that’s come to many people’s minds — and I worry that it could complicate future travel in the Americas, to say nothing of putting her in danger in some cities (of course, these are places where deaf people speaking sign language occasionally are stabbed when foolish gangmembers assume they’re throwing rival gang-signs). But to be clear, the tattoo has nothing about committing to a life in a gang — it’s a commitment to love.

I know that there are people who are terrified that Lesya has made a rash decision that she’ll regret horribly, but sometimes the best decisions are the ones you make in an instant with your heart rather than the ones long-debated in your mind. I know many people whose favorite mods are the ones they got “on a whim”, and who are still happily married to the person they fell for the instant they saw — “love at first sight” is an old truism — and proposed to within the week. I wish them the best of luck and hope that their life plays out as they dream it to be.

Edit/Update: People have asked why it says “RUSLAN” when I’m writing his name as “Rouslan”. It’s simply because one is the French spelling, and the other is the Russian/English spelling of the name — they chose the latter because it fit better on her face.

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Continue after the break for a more explicit photo.

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10 Ridiculous Piercing Patents

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

The patent offices are overflowing with silly, ill-conceived inventions on all subjects, and the world of body piercing is no exception. It seems like there is a long list of people who are not experienced with piercing personally, but have seen it and decided their great intellect can contribute various creations that would improve the life of a pierced person. Unfortunately, these ideas are the sort of ideas that make sense to the outsider, but are complete nonsense to those who actually know something about piercing firsthand. Below are ten of the more ridiculous piercing patents I’ve come across in my research.

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“Medicated Ear Rods”
Patent 4353370, Filed Nov 17, 1980

The idea behind this invention is an earring where the end is hollow and full of a cleaning solution, with the rod designed to “provide a constant supply of cleaning solution to the earlobe to prevent infection of the ear hole.” As piercers know, one of the most common reasons for complications in healing is overcleaning — can you imagine what would happen to a piercing that was being cleaned non-stop? Best case this patent would keep a piercing in a perpetually unhealed state… worst case is far less pleasant.

“Method and apparatus for maintenance of pierced orifices”
Patent 6047209, Filed Apr 2, 1999

Many of the patents are obsessed with overcleaning. This one unfortunately I can see easily making its way into stores. It’s basically a tool for injecting cleaning solution into a piercing via either a dull syringe or a ring with holes around its circumference. At first glance this might seem like a good idea, but the problem is that not only does it encourage over-attention to cleaning, but it requires the the person fully remove the healing piercing to clean it. This constant removal, agressive cleaning, and replacement cycle would actually result in slowing down healing far more than speeding it up. The only case in which I can imagine this having any value is in cleaning a severely infected piercing that has been permanently removed.

“Disposable cleaning apparatus for pierced human body parts”
Patent 6358221, Filed Aug 17, 1999

Another silly cleaning concept that makes the same mistake as the previous one — requiring the jewelry be removed over and over — this one is actually a patent for a portable kit comprised of the container, the solution, and what is best described as “piercing floss”. It’s literally a dull sewing needle and some thread.

“Method and device for holding a tongue in a forward position”
Patent 6408851, Filed Oct 1, 1999

This one gives me nightmares! It’s a device “for pulling a tongue forward thereby preventing obstruction to the flow of air during sleep or an emergency.” That is, it’s a retainer or mouthguard-type device that hooks onto the teeth, and a variety of attachment designs that let you hook the tongue piercing to it. During sleep, this would be extremely unpleasant and almost certainly damage the piercing. During an emergency, there are better and certainly less complex methods to accomplish the same goal — especially considering that this aparatus blocks the mouth quite effectively in and of itself, potentially complicating the emergency.

“Tongue jewelry clip and method of wearing the same”
Patent 6978639, Filed Apr 15, 2003

This ridiculous piece of jewelry exists in two forms — pierced or non pierced. The non-pierced version is held in place by pressure, which would be incredibly uncomfortable, and both versions would unpleasant even without that pressure. The design completely immobilizes the front half of the tonge, making legible speech virtually impossible. Clearly this is yet another patent submitted by a person who has never tried their own invention.

“Tongue and mouth stud for dispensing a substance”
Patent 8006516, Filed Oct 31, 2003

This is a design for a tongue barbell that’s filled with “a substance such as a chemical, breath freshener, pleasant flavor, or medication”, which it then releases either into the mouth, or into the tongue itself, via holes in the bar and/or bead. Another idea that seems clever at first glance, but that anyone with experience can tell you isn’t going to work. In addition to almost certainly irritating the tongue, the holes would be almost instantly plugged up with plague (and perhaps bacteria) and become quite disgusting. Just have a mint instead.

“Nonpiercing jewelry that presents pierced effect”
Publication US 2005/0199003 A1, Filed Mar 10, 2004

Yeah, because that’s what piercings look like. Can you imagine how foolish a person would look with this pretend piercing? And more importantly, can you imagine how unpleasant it would be to wear this in your mouth? It’s nuts.

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“Tongue retention device”
Publication US 2007/0163603 A1, Filed Jan 18, 2006

Another extremely unpleasant device intended to combat sleep apnea and snoring by combining a mouth guard with a device that attaches to a tongue piercing. Again, I cannot imagine anything more awful than using this, and I don’t think it would do wonders for the health of your tongue piercing. It would stop snoring though — as a side effect of stopping you from sleeping. Maybe it has applications as some sort of BDSM fetish toy.

“Self-Expanding Dilation Plug”
Publication US20120324949 A1, Filed Jun 20, 2012

I was split on including this because it’s the sort of thing that looks like a great idea at first glance (and was actually invented by a Colorado tattooist). However, as we learned when people started trying “constant pressure” stretching using silicone jewelry, the body does not respond well to constant pressure. It routinely results in horrific tears in the ear. In addition, the ear when stretching is extremely sensitive to uneven pressure. This design is super-cool on so many levels and many of us with stretched ears have tossed around similar concepts, but in the real world, this concept has proved itself to be a terrible idea.

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“Cleaning device for pierced openings”
Patent D490521, Filed Mar 28, 2003

It’s a stick — the bundle of grapes is the handle, and you’re supposed to stick the rod into a piercing hole to clean it. You can really patent something like this?

Textural Work In Scarification

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

About two months ago Wayne Fredrickson of Zodiac Tattoo Studio in Moreno Valley, CA did this scar of an ammonite fossil. I like the way the design leaves out the edges of the shell, but instead focuses on the texture of the shell. The resultant effect reminds me of a textural rubbing of a fossil, and seems especially well suited to the scarification artform.

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In terms of building up a tactile texture landscape, I’m also reminded of this scar that Iestyn of London’s Divine Canvas (divine-canvas.com). It’s about four years old in this photo.

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