Monthly Archives: September 2009

Dust of the Dust

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And hey, while we’re on the subject of Mr. Wiscombe below, let’s keep things black-and-gray-ish (and western Canada-ish) with this perturbed and tortured demon-type by Shawn Thompson at Strange City in Edmonton, Alberta. Now, as an impartial resource, we can neither confirm nor deny the frequency with which Mr. Thompson conjures such wretched hell-beasts, nor do we feel comfortable offering an opinion on his dark and terrible talents. We will merely suggest that you do not cross him. That is all.

See more in “Shawn Thompson Tattoo Mini Porfolio“ (Tattoo Artist Portfolios)

Above the Range

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We last featured Winnipeg’s Kurt Wiscombe as part of BME’s coverage of the Art Fusion Experiment two summers ago, where he was among a group of collaborators that included Paul Booth, Matt Ellis and Alex Adams. Kurt’s artistic credentials, clearly, are no joke, so it should come as no surprise that he would be responsible for a piece as handsome as this “waves, rocks and peonies” sleeve. Luckily for all of us, we’ve got a few more shots post-jump.

See more in “Oriental-style Tattoos“ (Tattoos)

Oh, Balls

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There’s a proud and storied tradition of steering apprentices towards amusing and potentially embarrassing tattoos (more), for loyalty’s sake, which is one of those traditions that rubs some people the wrong way, but, hey—as long as there’s no real coercion, a funny tattoo is a funny tattoo. Well! Aaron Chapman, the owner of and head artist at Eternal Ink in Madisonville, Kentucky, sends in this BME Pain Olympics-inspired tattoo, forever etched in place on the leg of his apprentice, Michael Agnew. That Pain Olympics video was a hoax (shh, don’t tell all the YouTube reaction-video participants!), but this? This is as real as it gets. Ha ha, balls.

Dreams Come True

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And with that, ModBloggers, we bid adieu to Tuesday, with professional waver Bluetat doing said bidding on our behalf. What’s the secret to looking as happy as our friend up there, you ask? According to him: “Spend 13 years or so getting tattooed blue, then post stupid poses of yourself with a mannequin named ‘Baby-May-Sue’ on the Internet.” Hey, whatever works! If you’re going to try that, though, make sure you go to an artist as capable as Matt at Westside Tattoo in Westend, Queensland, Australia, who’s handled about 80 percent of what you see above—and also, what you see below. As in, you know, after the jump.

He Can’t Even Blink

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The last time we saw Bree, she was much too covered up for us to have any idea of what was going on on her gams. But hey, lucky for us, she’s not nearly as bundled up this time around! Frankly, we feel better about it this way. It would have been rude to ask her to ditch the pants at any time, let alone in the dead of winter. And! We’ve got a close-up after the jump of this excellent, colorful work by Ben There and Josh Schwegal from Seattle’s Slave to the Needle.

See more in “Oriental-style Tattoos“ (Tattoos)

Fire’s Focus

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David writes in about his tattoo:

Several months ago, my beautiful friend Aly sent me this image via E-mail and followed up with several text messages demanding I check my E-mail right away. I did and was totally blown away by the image that was there—a photograph of this woman (that several people claim to believe was involved with Tawapa) sitting in front of me. I knew seconds later that she was going to be be tattooed on me. I went back to Daniel Jones (of Asylum Studios in Salem, Virginia) who had done another beautiful color portrait of another indigenous person and asked him to do it. He studied the image for about a month and we scheduled the tattoo for opening day of the 15th annual Greensboro (Little John), North Carolina, tattoo convention. Daniel felt challenged and nervous but confident. His focus and dedication to this tattoo were unmatched by anything I’d seen him do and it ended up winning him first-place color tattoo of the day! This whole experience has been awesome fore me and Daniel alike. Thanks got out to Aly, Daniel, the photographer who took the original picture and everyone at the Little John tattoo convention.

It’s excellent work, but this is certainly reminiscent of this post—another instance where the quality of the work was widely praised, but some readers felt uncomfortable with the idea of getting tattooed with a “random face,” for lack of a better term. On the other hand, though, is this all that different from getting a tattoo of a piece of (non-face) art with which you feel a deep connection?

The Reindeer Effect

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Oh Jesus Christ. The last time we saw Josh, he was about to murder us with an ax, as he is wont to do. Well, this monstrous beast has returned, and he is just terrorizing the Crystal Lake campers, or something, as captured by intrepid photographer Dave Barnhouser of 13th Hour Photography. Barnhouser, by the way, has a gallery opening at Gallery 788 (788 Washington Blvd., Baltimore, MD) on October 1 from 6-9 p.m. This will surely be, if nothing else, a testament to his immeasurable bravery. More shots of your friendly neighborhood ax-murderer, after the jump.

You Know Her Name

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The last time we featured Brianna here on your old pal ModBlog, we got a pretty good look at her Nerd Life and BME tattoos, but weren’t really offered a similar vantage point of her Amaryllis flower shoulder tattoos by Tim Senecal at Pisst Fish in West Springfield, Massachusetts (who is also working on the aforementioned BME piece). Which, you know, is a shame, considering we love the placement, and they’re awfully pretty to boot. But hey, while the Internet may never forget, at least it lets us right our wrongs on occasion, so enjoy. A few more shots in different locations, after the jump.

(First and third photos by © Photo-a-Gogo, second by © Michael William.)

See more in “Floral Tattoos“ (Tattoos)

See more in ““Standard” Female Nipple Piercings“ (Nipple Piercing)

The Fish is a Fish

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And just like that, David Pozo of Forevermore Tattoo Parlour in Glasgow, Scotland, wins the afternoon! “After the Buttergina’s appearance on ModBlog,” he says, “people seemed to dig the rib piece (seen above), so put it up as well!” We don’t make a habit of humoring threats like this, but we’ll make an exception in this case on account of the unfettered joy a weaponized Sailor Jerry shark gives us. Also, it’s good to know we have someone on whom to rely in the event that Party Shark gets out of hand.

See more in “Old School (and Old) Tattoos“ (Tattoos)