Posts Tagged ‘Newsfeed’

Moonshin Tattoo Client Tests Positive for Hepatitis B

By Jordan Ginsberg • Mar 23rd, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


Well, this isn’t good. Last week, we mentioned the predicament in which Moonshin Tattoo and Peel Region find themselves—namely that, after it was discovered Moonshin had neglected its book-keeping for its sterilization practices for four years and that the local government had made no efforts to inspect the premises, both are now the subjects of a $20 million lawsuit by people who had been customers at the shop during the aforementioned period.

CityNews is now reporting, as seen above, that a man who received a tattoo from Moonshin in that time-frame has been diagnosed with hepatitis B.

“A close friend of mine went there before and said they were professional,” revealed the father and husband.

“You should feel comfortable and [be able to] get artwork done without fearing anything happening to you.”

A grain of salt is necessary here: The man has asked to remain anonymous, and his claim alone doesn’t prove anything. But, he also mentions he’d had blood-work done prior to getting the tattoo that recorded him as having a clean bill of health. If this is in fact true, and there’s nothing in his personal life to suggest he was exposed to the disease anywhere but Moonshin, this is a case that could have far-reaching and potentially devastating effects on future legislation.

Once again, there is no excuse at this point for irresponsible record keeping (or worse, sloppy practices not even worthy of record keeping). If you’re in the body modification industry and want to be taken seriously and treated like a professional by the public at large, then the onus is on you. It’s no secret what’s at stake; the fact that your carelessness can wreak havoc on an entire industry should be common knowledge. This isn’t to say there aren’t client-side responsibilities as well, like getting frequent blood tests if you’re getting body modification work done regularly, but nonetheless.

Whether or not the man interviewed above is telling the truth (and hopefully we’ll find out for certain soon, one way or the other), the fact that this is gaining traction at all isn’t doing the industry as a whole any favors. If Moonshin hadn’t dropped the ball, this probably wouldn’t be a story in the first place.

Tattoo Parlour, Peel Sued Over Possible HIV, Hepatitis Exposure [CityNews]



Full Coverage: Links From All Over (March 20, 2009)

By Jordan Ginsberg • Mar 20th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


[Telegraph.co.uk] So here’s some good old fashioned Finnish ingenuity! Jerry Jalava, a software programmer from Helsinki, lost half a finger in a motorcycle accident almost a year ago, and the doctor, when told what Jalava did for a living, was a bit of a wise-ass and told Jalava he should get a USB drive installed in place of his missing digit. Jalava briefly snapped out of his blissful morphine sleep to slap this chuckling goon in the face, but then it occurred to him that maybe this wasn’t the worst idea!

Using a traditional prosthetic finger Jerry has been able embed a ‘USB key’ - like the ones used in traditional flash drives - giving him the world’s only two gigabyte finger.

The finger is not permanently attached to his hand meaning it can be removed when plugged into a computer.

“It is not attached permanently in to my body, it is a removable prosthetic which has USB memorystick inside it,” said Jerry.

“When I’m using the USB, I just leave my finger inside the slot and pick it up after I’m ready.”

Jerry said he is already thinking about upgrading his faux finger to include more storage and wireless technology.

“I’m planning to use anther prosthetic as a shell for the next version, which will have removable fingertip and an RFID tag,” he added.

Not that losing a segment of a finger is the worst thing in the world, but it’s still nice nonetheless to see people finding creative ways to deal with inconveniences (if not disabilities) beyond their control. The real hero in this story, however, is me, for making it the entire way without making a single “thumb-drive” joke. Oh, damn it.

(Photo: NEWSTREAM)

[Toronto Star] This story has been bubbling up for a little while now, and we’ve been meaning to get an “in the know” guest on the podcast to discuss it (hopefully that’ll happen in the next couple of days), but Moonshin Tattoo in Mississauge, Ontario, has come under fire for poor record-keeping of its sterilization practices over a four-year period. A mandatory alert was sent out to all clients of the shop who visited during the period in question, saying that they may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Now, a $20 million class-action lawsuit has been filed against both the owners of Moonshin and Peel Region itself, with the suit claiming the latter failed to inspect the shop over that period, thereby allowing Moonshin to go on with its irresponsible practices. As the article states, “(p)ublic health authorities are required to inspect at least once a year personal services shops, such as tattoo and piercing studios, barbershops and others where there is a risk of exposure to blood.”

Truth be told, the chances of anyone having contracted anything are slim, but this is a clusterfuck any way you look at it. There’s no excuse for not keeping sterilization paperwork in order at this point, and even though the government is supposed to be monitoring that activity, when it comes to public opinion, situations like these do nothing but reinforce shitty stereotypes about tattoo and piercing shops. Well done, Moonshin.

[First Amendment Center] Oh, great, here’s a situation with literally nary a sympathetic party! Martin Robles and his shit-demon accomplice were indicted for breaking into a home in 2002 and killing two men, crimes for which Robles was sentenced to death in Texas. He lost an appeal, then made a last-ditch effort to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming, among other things, that his First Amendment rights were violated during the trial. How so?

[He argued] that his religious-liberty rights were violated when the state placed into evidence his tattoo of a religious figure. As described in trial proceedings, the tattoo depicted “Jesus with a demon devouring his brains.”

Oh. That probably didn’t go over very well in Texas.

During the trial, the judge forced him to remove his jacket and show the tattoo, located on his shoulder, to jurors.

[...]

During the penalty phase of Robles’ trial, the prosecutor said:

“You have a demon eating the brains of Christ. … Now, I don’t know what that means, but to me it’s a bad thing. That to me is a philosophy. I don’t know if it’s satanic. I don’t know what in the Sam Hill it is, but if it tells you something about him as a person, that ought to tell you where his belief system is. His conduct shows you where his belief system is.”

Robles contended that the references to the religious nature of the tattoo and the “satanic” and “belief systems” comments by the prosecutor infringed on his First Amendment free-exercise-of-religion right.

Thank you, Texas judge, for forcing me to side with a double-murderer on something. I’m no lawyer (though I’m happy to dispense legal advice for a small fee), but offensive tattoos that don’t actually make direct political statements should probably be immaterial when deciding the fate of a man’s life, right? Unless the guy was killing priests—or worse, Jesus—I’m just not sure what role it should have played in the decision. There’s even a precedent set to that effect, which was consciously set in contrast in this case:

[U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack] distinguished Robles’ case from the 1992 case Dawson v. Delaware, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a defendant’s First Amendment associational rights were violated when prosecutors introduced into evidence his membership in a white supremacist group when such association had nothing to do with the underlying crime. [...] However, the Court in Dawson pointed out that “elements of racial hatred were … not involved in the killing.”

But in Texas, a demon eating Jesus’s brain is, I guess, worse than being a white supremacist.

Applying Dawson, Jack determined that the question was whether Robles’ tattoo was relevant evidence to his underlying crime and violent nature. She concluded that the “tattoo constitutes evidence relevant to a material issue, i.e., Robles’s violent nature and the likelihood that he would commit future acts of criminal violence.”

What we should be taking away from this, in the end, is that Mike Beer will never get out of jail when he’s arrested.




Full Coverage: Links From All Over (March 6, 2009)

By Jordan Ginsberg • Mar 6th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


[Whoa, Momma!] So this slutty sex doll, whatshername, Barbie, took a break from getting abortions and giving herself roofies to get some tattoos, just in time for her 50th birthday! This week’s overblown and self-important tattoo-related outrage comes from various people who are VERY OFFENDED that international drug cartel Mattel has released “Totally Stylin’ Tattoo Barbie,” a children’s toy that comes with 40 different temporary tattoos that will keep this bitch from ever getting a job, as well as a “tattoo gun” for the kids to give themselves their own temporary tattoos, which is completely inappropriate, apparently.

Yes, that’s right, a tattoo gun so instead of applying it with a wet wash cloth, 8 year-olds can simulate that milestone in every minor’s life experience of actual needles pumping permanent dye into their growing bodies.

Again, this has nothing to do with tattoos for consenting adults, but everything to do with age-appropriate toys. And in my humble opinion, the age 5 designated on the box is off by about 20 years and a hepatitis C shot.

This piece was squeezed from the mindgrapes of the Suburban Diva herself, Tracey Henry, who is positively aghast that CHILDREN will be using a FAKE TATTOO GUN, which is really just a stamp, essentially, but righteous indignation over stamps doesn’t get you featured on CNN, I guess.

There will be some who disagree, pointing out that Barbie is just keeping up with what’s in style right now and that this is merely a toy that kids can play make-believe like other adult activities.

I counter that bellbottoms and leg-warmers didn’t need to be removed with laser treatments and Barbie’s Dream Wedding gown didn’t come with bottles of Tequila for a pretend open-bar reception.

In conclusion, Tracey Henry was probably paid to write this.

[The Live Feed] Because there aren’t quite enough tattoo-related television shows, it was just announced that A&E will be airing Tattoo Highway, a reality program in which Thomas Pendleton, formerly of A&E’s Inked, will continue to tattoo people on camera, but there’s an important twist:

In “Tattoo Highway,” Pendelton and his wife and business partner, Monica (who also appeared on “Inked”), have transformed a 1970s tour bus into a mobile tattoo parlor. They will travel to cities including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, inking customers.

Boom. Nailed it. The bus angle worked wonders for Bret Michaels and his skank-banging, so it should really come as no surprise that others are picking up on this as the next big thing. I see big, big things for the future of reality television—big, bus-related things. The network is clearly thrilled about the prospect:

Executive producer Bob Horowitz said the traveling element will differentiate the show from previous tattoo docusoaps.

“All the other series have been based in tattoo parlors,” he said. “Here the premise is this is the first tattoo parlor on wheels, and he goes where the stories are. Imagine all the things that can happen when you take something like this on the road and all the things that can happen.”

Never mind that Horowitz is shamelessly hyping what is by far the worst part of these tattoos shows—namely, that great tattoos must have some big and important story behind them—but man, how exciting does he think a husband and wife going on a road trip is going to be, vocation notwithstanding? Are they going to be chased by land pirates? Did Dennis Hopper plant a bomb on the bottom of the bus that’ll explode if the speed falls below 50 mph?

“From the creation of the art to the environment that I tattooed in, it has always been about my customers’ experience,” Pendelton said. “In a street shop, it was easy to forget just how personal that experience should be. Rolling up and parking the shop right in the middle of someone’s life, well, there is nothing more personal than that.”

AND THEN THE BUS EXPLODES! No? OK, fine, whatever.

(Hat-tip to Warming Glow, a new teevee blog venture by man’s man Matt Ufford. Go read it.)

[Needles and Sins] Speaking of new blog ventures, fiery redhead and friend of BME, Marisa Kakoulas DiMattia, has escaped the evil (not so evil?) clutches of Needled and has struck out on her own with Needles and Sins, which promises the same lurid, untamed filth we’ve come to expect from her. Today, she offers a thorough review of the iPhone’s new “Tattoo Shop” application, which lets users ruin their perfectly good photos with the demon’s ink. Some of her findings included:

- [T]he biggest problem: the choice of artwork or lack thereof — and I use “artwork” almost facetiously. SonicBoom partnered with flash peddlers TattooJohnny.com but instead of loading up on, say, the cool Bob Tyrrell and Tim Creed commercial designs, the app finds itself heavy on the old Cherry Creek-styled jammies — aka tribal armbands abound and pin-ups with big 80s hair.

[...]

- [T]he leafy panties on the female belly skin is just disturbing. It looks like lettuce is growing from her vulva to her waist. It did make me hungry for a nice Greek salad though. [Ed. note: Gotta say ... that description had the opposite effect on me. Thanks, though.]

[...]

- The coolest thing about the app: using your own photos or being able to take one on the spot. I shot my non-tattooed sis to let her see what she’s look like with a Tyson tribal on her face. As the kids say, “Hawt!”

Listen lady, I know you think you’re all hip now that you’re back in New York, but the kids aren’t saying “Hawt!” The kids are riding buses, everywhere, into each others’ lives, and raping each other, with Barbies. Nice blog, though.




Full Coverage: Links From All Over (Feb. 20, 2009)

By Jordan Ginsberg • Feb 20th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


[CNBC] Scandal rocked the worlds of sports, print media and soft-core pornography this week when it was revealed that Sports Illustrated digitally removed IndyCar racer Danica Patrick’s lower-back tattoo from her photos in this year’s Swimsuit Issue. (The chilling photographic evidence is above.) When made aware of this startling injustice, Patrick’s camp issued the following response:

“Danica is aware of the edits and is comfortable with the final photos.”

What sort of high-level coercion are these Sports Illustrated fat-cats using to elicit this sort of timid, fearful response? The publication outright refused to comment on the subject, for at least a day, until CNBC’s Darren Rovell was able to squeeze the following explanation from an SI spokesperson:

“The Swimsuit Issue emphasizes natural beauty [...] The freckles are left on and, in this case, the tattoos came off.”

Oh. Well, that makes sense. When you look at it that way, actually, this is a fairly historic move for the Swimsuit Issue. Indeed, the magazine’s photo editors also went ahead and Photoshopped all of the models’ breasts back to their original sizes, used only natural light, and limited their airbrushing to erasing offensive tattoos like Patrick’s. The issue has thus far sold seven copies.

[Citizens Voice] So you may have heard about the case of this cretin, this fool, Holly Crawford of Sweet Valley, Pennsylvania, who was arrested for selling what she called “Gothic Kittens.” These are just like regular kittens, except this dildo had pierced their ears, the napes of their necks, and cut off their tails and pierced the remaining nubs, and then attempted to make a business of selling these to … who the hell would buy these? Anyway, the case is going to court now, Crawford is facing criminal charges and, as such, more details are emerging:

“This was tying a rubber band around a cat’s tail so tight that it falls off,” said Deputy District Attorney David Pedri. “She caused the cats pain. She did this to sell them to make money.”

Crawford’s defense attorney, Demetrius Fannick, argued state law “goes on and on” about specific acts of animal cruelty, but nothing about piercing cats and docking their tails.

Prosecutors said a part of the cruelty included Crawford tying rubber bands around the tails of the cats so they would fall off. She’d then pierce the nub.

“There’s nothing in the statute that expressly says you can’t pierce your cat’s ears or necks, or even crop their tails,” Fannick said. “It’s a case that you will be for or against as an animal owner. Let the legislature say you can’t pierce or tattoo your animal, and it will be different.”

Magisterial District Judge Paul Hadzick said the case was a gray area in the law and predicted it might one day cause for a clarification in the law. At the very least, he said it’s a case that should be decided by a jury or a higher judge.

“I don’t think that the decision is for me to be made here,” Hadzick said.

While it’s probably true that this is fundamentally not all that different from pet owners who clip their pets’ ears and tails, this just seems particularly idiotic to me for some reason — probably the winning combination of animal abuse with the hoary old “piercings are goth!” chestnut.

[Scripps News] Good news, tattoo artists, the recession is over! For you, at least! The anecdotal evidence is in and has decisively shown that people would rather get tattooed than eat or give their children medicine.

“My question is ‘What recession’?” said Kate Hellenbrand, a tattoo artist for the past 38 years. “Every day, new clients are being born. The media promotes the industry. There are ads everywhere and sports heroes, rock n’ roll stars and models all have tattoos.”

While this may be true, it may also be a touch skewed coming from one of the most famous tattoo artists in the world, but nonetheless. The article goes on:

Sergio Reynoso of Salt Lake Tattootland was one of the few vendors who said the recession has hurt his business. Since about 80 percent of clients are Latinos, many experiencing trouble finding a job in a down construction industry, he has noticed a drop in business. He has, however, been doing a good business lately repairing or sprucing up bad tattoos done on the street by less qualified artists.

I’m not so P.C. that I’m going to act terribly offended by the implication all Latinos seem to be in the construction industry, but holy crap is this poorly written. Anyway, let’s bring it on home:

Even in Seattle — where thousands have been laid off in recent months — tattoo art is a shelter in the storm. Seattle tattoo artist April Cornell keeps quite busy.

“If you weren’t watching the news, you would not know there was a recession,” she said.

Artist Vinnie Almanza of Anchorage, Alaska, said he was booked all weekend in Salt Lake and is booked through June at his home shop. “One thing people definitely don’t have a problem spending on is their ink,” he said. “It’s like an addiction.”

There you have it: A statistically meaningless sample size that likens the impulse to get tattoo work to your common booze and drug addictions, as proof that tattooing is recession-proof. I can’t wait to read several thousand more of these articles over the next 10 months, at which point I will have to sell my computer, to eat, or more likely, to get tattooed. Best recession ever!



Full Coverage: Links From All Over (Feb. 17, 2009)

By Jordan Ginsberg • Feb 17th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


[The Dieline] Surprisingly enough, this is not, in fact, some ass-backwards marketing campaign by foolish opponents of tattoos. No, instead, this is part of an art project by CCA student JuliAnn Miller, who, when given an assignment to design some sort of material for a political or social cause, she chose tattoos, and thus, the “Tattoo Tester” was born.

“This Tattoo Tester is a kit that comes with certain papers so that the user can create custom temporary tattoos (transfer paper and carbon paper). The kit also includes a brochure with information on tattoo statistics and a brief history of tattooing.”

The box is made from light cardboard and all printed material is printed on recycled kraft paper. All typography is in various weights of Myriad Pro.

The statistics are largely based on a poll that supposedly mentioned that most Americans who regret their tattoos do so based on the design and location choice, which, um, why else would someone regret a tattoo, really? At any rate, it’s a pretty slick looking project, and any effort to get people to give healthy consideration to tattoo work before getting it done is probably a step in the right direction.

[Gawker] So apparently there is some person named Peaches Geldof, whose father was Bob Geldof, and she is famous for, I don’t know, existing? Celebrity culture is just swell. Anyway, she was on a beach somewhere and lo and behold, she’s all tattooed! In the real world, this would mean she is a regular 19-year-old girl, but your common gossip vultures had a field day dissecting her tattoos, including the usually respectable-ish Ryan Tate:

- Doves = LOVE. Not to be confused with marrying a dude to his green card.

- Playing cards = good luck. Like being born to the right person.

[...]

- Unicorn eating chain of daisies = ???. WTF, because everything else about Peaches is deep and meaningful, you know?

[...]

- “An open book with a bizarre hangman’s noose hanging over the page” = to symbolize Peaches being “owned” by a metaphor-challenged ex.

Well, that was annoying. You criticize someone for being famous for being famous, and then you proceed to … give them the media coverage you’re criticizing them for craving? Hooray! Everybody wins/loses/dies, the end.

[CrunchGear] Oh what’s this, tattoos that people won’t regret or be made fun of for? What a concept! Some eggheads at the Draper Laboratory in socialist Cambridge, Massachusetts, have developed tattoo ink that will “change colors based on a person’s blood sugar levels,” which is an obvious benefit to people with Diabetes, or people who like to brag about their blood sugar levels.

The nano ink particles are tiny, squishy spheres about 120 nanometers across. Inside the sphere are three parts: the glucose detecting molecule, a color-changing dye, and another molecule that mimics glucose. When the particles are dissolved in water they look like food coloring, says Clark.

The three parts continuously move around the inside the hydrophobic orb. When they approach the surface, the glucose detecting molecule either grabs a molecule of glucose or the mimicking molecule.

If the molecules mostly latch onto glucose, the ink appears yellow. If glucose levels are low, the molecule latches onto the glucose mimic, turning the ink purple. A healthy level of glucose has a “funny orangey,” color, according to Clark. The sampling process repeats itself every few milliseconds.

This sort of immediate access to one’s blood sugar levels would be a major leap forward, although as with any technology, questions regarding the accuracy and reliability of such an invention have already arisen. Lab mice seem to be responding well to the initial experiments, however, and at this rate, it sounds like a human version may be ready within two years. Science, everybody!



New Article Posted! (Lizardman Interview)

By Jordan Ginsberg • Feb 9th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


Good morning, ModBlog! What better way to start off your week than by drinking a tall glass of the nectar that comes freshly squeezed from The Lizardman’s mind-grapes?

It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from him here on BME, and really, it’s been too long. The world is a much different place now (well, marginally different, at least), and it’s always reassuring to have him around as a bright green guide through the chaos that surrounds us. He and I recently exchanged e-mails over a couple of days, talking about the new American president, the rigors of life on the road and the difficulties of making the transition from sideshow to stand-up.

To read The State of The Lizardman Address, click here.

[Ed. note: Comments on this post have been disabled. Hoot and holler in the forum attached to the article. Thanks.]



Night of a Few Dozen Scars

By Jordan Ginsberg • Feb 7th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


Hey, look, it’s an article that combines some of my favorite things: Booze, random sex and scarification. But not in a good way! All Wayne Robinson, 24, of Fleetwood, Lancashire, wanted was a late-night drunken summer hook-up, like so many other 20-somethings. Unfortunately, he called up local idiot Dominique Fisher, who decided that once her suitor had nodded off for the night (with some help from noted sleeping aids vodka and Valium), she, uh, sliced him up for some reason? Seriously?

Mr Robinson woke to find his body decorated with a star on his back, ‘Dominique’ written on his upper right arm, and numerous slash marks on his left arm and shoulder.

[...] he was not awake during the incident on the night of June 14 last year.

Mr Robinson said he panicked when he woke up and took a taxi back to his home in Fleetwood, Lancashire.

He said: ‘I went to her place for sex, not to be tattooed. I can’t believe she did this to me and I hate her.

‘When I woke I was covered in blood. Dominique was snoring. I just had to get out of there. I didn’t even wake her to ask what she’d done.’

‘I’m scarred for life,’ he told The Sun. ‘I wish I’d never met her.’

Good grief. Look, everyone knows that it’s perfectly acceptable to tattoo people when they’re asleep — hilarious! — but this is really crossing a line. It’s a dangerous world out there, and really, if we can’t get shitfaced and pass out at the homes of strange ass, well, where can we take refuge?

Fisher was convicted of unlawful wounding, which sounds slightly worse than a traffic violation, and will be sentenced at the end of February. The article did mention, however, that she perpetrated the attack with a Stanley knife, a.k.a a box-cutter, therefore, she is a terrorist, throw her in a secret C.I.A. prison, the end.

One-night stand man wakes to find lover has carved her name into his arm [Daily Mail — more pictures here, too]



Body Modification Practitioner Arrested in North Bay, Ontario

By Rachel • Feb 1st, 2009 • Category: ModBlog

As some of you may be aware, Andrew Niland — better known to many of you on IAM as xbolloxx — was arrested earlier this week in North Bay, Ontario, along with his girlfriend, Adrianne Carbone. Here’s the pertinent information from the North Bay Nugget, a local newspaper:

Andrew Niland, 29, was granted bail Thursday. However, he remains in jail until he posts a $10,000 no-cash bond and finds two people approved by court to be his sureties to ensure he follows his release conditions.

Niland and his girlfriend Adrianne Carbone, 21, were arrested last week and jointly charged with aggravated assault for performing a labia reduction on a woman Jan. 18 at his residence.

Niland is also charged with two other counts of aggravated assault for placing an implant in that same woman’s chest — used to create a shape under the skin — in September 2007 and performing another labia-reduction procedure last April.

Court heard there are exceptions to charges involving bodily harm when it comes to piercing which could drive the issue into Canada’s highest court for a decision on consensual body modifications.

Justice of the Peace James Bubba heard that the women involved had asked to have the procedures done to them.

If he’s released, Niland is not allowed to perform certain procedures — such as branding or scarring — although he will be allowed to continue piercing if the procedure is done to accommodate a piece of jewelry.

He’s also banned from having any weapons.

Niland is facing additional charges of possessing a prohibited weapon and careless storage of that weapon after police found a .22-calibre handgun at his residence.

The weapons charge is another matter altogether, and BME takes no stance on that aspect of the case. However, the fact remains that Andrew was arrested for allegedly performing procedures on consenting adults, and the allegations of “aggravated assault” are ludicrous. He was charged as such because, under Ontario law, a person cannot legally consent to the procedures Andrew performed (unless, of course, they were being performed by a doctor). But this has always been a debate central to body modification, and now that its profile is only getting higher, these are issues that are going to have be addressed with the public at large: How much control do we truly have over our own bodies? If a grown woman, of the age of majority, of sound mind, and of her own volition, wishes to have a private practitioner perform a labia reduction on her, or to implant a silicone star, or any other number of things we see frequently in this community, should the state be allowed intercede? And if so, where is the line drawn?

If the story told is accurate, then Andrew did not coerce these people into having these procedures done: They sought him out. He is only in custody right now because the law dictates that adults are not allowed to make certain choices about their bodies. This case has the potential to have massive repercussions on the body modification industry and on our extended community, and we hope that you’ll all follow it closely. BME, of course, will keep you all up to date as much as possible. We’re currently looking into ways for people to support Andrew and Adrianne, perhaps by way of a PayPal account to help with legal fees. We’ll keep you all posted.

EDIT: Andy’s paypal is linked to aniland@gmail.com. Please send paypal payments to that address in order to help him. I’m not linking a direct “donate” button for reasons mentioned in the comments below.



CSI: Guelph?

By Jordan Ginsberg • Jan 25th, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


So Allen “Eagle Eye” Falkner was sitting down for his nightly chamomile and CSI when he noticed, hey, that poster on the right side of the screen looks familiar, doesn’t it?

Read more…



The Super Bowl, Ass Tattoos and You

By Jordan Ginsberg • Jan 21st, 2009 • Category: ModBlog


With the Super Bowl just around the corner, it’s the season for poorly conceived bets and all manner of bribery in exchange for tickets! What fun, right? And really, what better way to prove one’s devotion to a football (that is “soccer,” to Europeans, or something) team than getting a tattoo of, wait, a radio station logo? Hey, whatever works. Fredy Gutierrez, a fellow Arizona Cardinals fan, desperately wanted to go to the big game but could not afford the estimated million-dollar ticket price, but luckily, Phoenix-area radio station 620 KTAR was having a sadistic contest in which some poor sap need only tattoo their ass with the station’s call letters to receive two of these golden tickets. Mission accomplished! Photographic evidence above.

Gutierrez is taking his nine-year-old son, Marcus, to Sunday’s game.

“The only thing I can say is that I hope that my son enjoys it,” Gutierrez said about the game.

Marcus said he is looking forward to going to the game, and will likely have memories from the experience that will last a lifetime - just like his father will.

What does Gutierrez’s wife think about the new tattoo?

“She thinks I’m pretty crazy,” Gutierrez said.

Ha ha, crazy indeed. At least he got something out of it, though — consider the curious case of Deadspin editor A.J Daulerio, a Philadelphia Eagles fan who made a bet with former Deadspin editor and Arizona Cardinals fan, Will Leitch, when those two teams played each other in last week’s conference championship. Among the items Daulerio put on the line in the event of an Eagles loss (others included treating Leitch to a sushi dinner and letting the former editor smash him in the face with a cookie sheet, on video) was getting a tattoo of a buzzsaw — a reference to a depressing nickname for the Cardinals — on his ass. He was very excited about the prospect!

Let it be known: I currently have no tattoos on any part of my body, have never had any desire to get one, nor would I even take this bet unless I was 100 percent convinced there would be no possibility of me losing. So there. Shock me, Buzzsaw.

But because God hates a boaster, and patchy facial hair, the Cardinals were indeed triumphant over the Eagles! Daulerio took it rather well:

If anyone knows any tattoo artists who are willing to put a buzzsaw on me, well, let me know. This fucking sucks.

And indeed, last night, the soon-to-be-tattooed design was unveiled:

Hey, that’s pretty tasteful! Meanwhile, Daulerio has quietly accepted his fate.

I’m meeting a prospective artist over at DareDevil Tattoo in the Lower East Side in a few minutes to find out just how long, painful, and ridiculous-looking this image would be. Many people have tried to talk me out of following through with my end of the Mayor’s Bet (including the Emeritus himself), but, personally, I feel like not following through with it would be even more lame than actually having a buzzsaw tattoo forever.

Well, Daulerio is nothing if not a man of his word. This afternoon, he did indeed make the journey to Dare Devil Tattoo, and displayed the stoicism one hopes for in a “blogger,” as it were.

I was under the impression that tattoos, even the most pedestrian ones in the shape of power tools, would take a long period of time. Thankfully, Michelle from Dare Devil Tattoo is well-honed in her craft. It only took about 20 minutes, was relatively painless, and no blood was spilled. But now I’m forever scarred and, also, forever an unintentional lifelong supporter of The Buzzsaw That Is The Arizona Cardinals. Or woodworking.

Hey, it could be worse! You could be getting hit in the face with a cookie she— oh, right. Well, all’s well that ends well, or something. Did Daulerio at least learn a lesson from this sordid tale of intrigue?

I will never, ever bet on the Philadelphia Eagles again.

[...]

Fuck you, Eagles.

That’s the spirit! Go Buzzsaw!

He Did What? [620 KTAR]
Hope. Change. Buzzsaw Tattoos, The Buttsaw That Is The Arizona Cardinals [Deadspin]