With a lineup like the one here at at Tattoo Hollywood, there has been no shortage of tremendous tattoo work walking through the doors. One of the most impressive projects we’ve seen, however, belongs to David up there, who’s been steadily covering his entire body in portraiture over the last few years. Having been worked on exclusively by brothers Mikey (at Rubes Tattoo in Arcadia) and Tommy Montoya (at Inkslingers in Alhambra), the suit is as cohesive as one could hope for, even though the subject matter varies wildly from musicians to horror movie characters to comedians to inventors. When we were photographing him, some of his friends were making light fun of him for being a bit on the heavier side (”Make sure you get his nipples in there!”), but to hear David tell it, if he were smaller, he wouldn’t have room for all this excellent work. Hard to argue with that. Lots more, after the jump.

Alright, alright! So, as we’ve learned over the past week, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama are little more than common grifters, unconcerned with the welfare of their fellow humans and dedicated almost exclusively to hedonistic earthly pursuits like celebrity poker and Cirque Du Soleil. Fine. With that said, I think we’ve finally found a portrait of a man beyond reproach—a man whose life was steeped in virtue, who had respect for all living things, and who, if nothing else could be said of him, undeniably made the world a better place. Try to shit all over Archie, you meatheads.

(Tattoo by Ron Antonick at Gen X Tattoos in Willoughby, Ohio.)

Good Shabbos, ModBloggers! We all got such a kick out of Timmo’s pimp-bee the other day that we figured, hey, it’s a mitzvah, right? Luckily, he had more work in his portfolio to provide us with the means for an appropriate celebration. L’chaim! After the jump? More of Timmo’s handiwork. Compton, stand up.

Ever since Michael Jackson died/was killed/got beamed back up to the mother ship/whatever, we’ve worked tirelessly to bring you the very best in tattoo portraiture to honor, poke fun at and generally remember the man and his music. Well, with the publication of this outstanding piece by Denis Prevost of Live Once Tattoo in North Bay, Ontario (on a 50-year-old client getting her second tattoo ever, no less), we’re going to close the book on ModBlog’s dogged pursuit of King of Pop pieces; we think this is a fine note on which to go out. Wouldn’t want to become too predictable, right? Right.

And with that, we’ll leave you for this evening. See you tomorrow, folks.

Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

As everybody knows, celebrities have been dying constantly lately, because they are probably under attack or particularly susceptible to some sort of terrible monster flu that we lesser folks are not important enough to be murdered by or something along those lines. BME has been doing its best to keep tabs on these doomed creatures and the grotesque memorial tattoos that follow, but holy smokes did we just hit the mother lode, as Jeremiah at Good Life Tattoos & Piercings in Akron, Ohio, just wrote in to inform us that Brian McFadden, also of Good Life, has just done a series of portraits of our favorite recently deceased famous people, and, sure enough…he has, indeed.

First up is noted auto-erotic asphyxiation-enthusiast David Carradine, seen above as a grasshopper, because, hey, why the hell not, with a conveniently placed rope in case you didn’t get the joke already.

Look, we all knew it was only a matter of time until the deluge of Michael Jackson tribute tattoos came rolling in. Within a few hours of his death, astute readers had already sent me links to photos of memorial tattoos, and there have already been a handful of newspaper articles about the phenomenon. Naturally. But this one, up there? We have no way of verifying this, but based on what the wearer says, we believe this could be the very first post-death Michael Jackson memorial tattoo. Says he: “I got a call that he had died and 15 minutes later this was drawn up and being tattooed on my arm.” Fifteen minutes! Is your mind blown? Yes. Yes it is. You can admit it.

Hello there, ModBloggers! On the off-chance you’re not outside enjoy this lovely weather, well, here’s the chilling, steely visage of Neil Patrick Harris to scare you off your computer. Just look at him! Those eyes are a window to a soul darker than midnight.

It’s a brilliant, sunny day here, ModBloggers—fit for a Friday, indeed. Let’s start the day with some wise words from old Groucho up there:

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

Sound advice! Embrace the day, folks.