I AM

I’ve written about tattooed Christians in the past, and there are many of them on BME’s community site as well — some very Conservative and born-again, and of course many more free thinking ones as well (and plenty who’ve lost their faith). One of my favorites is IAM:GotPriapus who has a great “matching tattoo” with Jesus that I quite like conceptually.

Tattoo by Chris C. (after Stephen Sawyer) at American Tattoo in Pittsburgh.

Desi’s New Lips

You know all about gag tattoos like the tattooed finger mustaches that I post semi-regularly… but how about gag piercings? Check out Desi‘s new lips, care of a play stapling on IAM:railville. Not that I’m not 100% in support of any possible prank, especially ones that involve body modification, but methinks people may have a little too much time on their hands — and that’s a good thing!

Upside-down Hooks

It doesn’t matter who this is a picture of (and I think it’s actually an old picture anyway), but I always cringe when I see this particular hook placement for pulling — and I see it very regularly. When someone pulls, they never lean backwards (since humans tend to fall over when they do that), but pullers almost always do lean forward… Think about the way the hooks will rotate when the body leans that way, and you’ll see that they can easily either rotate out completely, or rotate just part of the way, hooking and piercing the inside of the hook channel. Ouch!

Childhood Memories?

I like both of these two tattoos quite a lot. I’m down with demonic visions and skulls eating snakes and pinups and all, but sometimes it’s nice to see a sweet tattoo. On the left is FIVE!, done by Cedre at Diving Swallow in Oakland, CA — in the style of The Monster at the End of this Book (starring lovable, furry old Grover from Sesame Street). The tattoo on the right is by King Ron at Halo Tattoo in Liverpool, New York and represents a boy looking back on his childhood and remembering the neighborhood.

Love

I am a giant fan of the tattoo concept that Crumbs (want to learn how he got his name?) is working on. It’s a mix of very simple heavy geometric blackwork and solid color work with hearts and other primary shapes… Some time sooner rather than later I have to do a nice long interview with him for BME I think. Anyway, the work in this photo is by Lee Jonas at Alan’s Tattoo and Body Piercing in Moreton, England.

Looking glum, monster belly!

Don’t get me wrong Brasil — you know I love you! Any country that names itself after fully waxed privates is A-OK with me. So don’t think I’m detracting from your wonderful smoothness in any way when I post these mildly hilarious pictures of a rite inflicted by Joao Caldara at Blitzkrieg Tattoo e Piercing in Petrópolis, RJ, Brasil. I don’t know which of these two pictures is funnier…