ModBlog News of the Week: May 6th, 2011

Well another week has come and gone and by the time you read this I’ll be off on another adventure down America way.  Before I go, there are quite a few stories this week, which is a welcome change from last week’s spartan entry.  Oh, and no celebrity news this week.  I figured you guys didn’t really care if some washed up actress/reality TV “star” got a new tattoo, or that another actress is having one removed.

To start this week off, we’ve got an incredibly nerdy story that makes me want to go out and buy one of the new Nintendo DS3D devices.  Oh, and there is video goodness to go along with it.

Last week I finally snagged a Nintendo 3DS and after playing the augmented reality games, the first thing I thought was “Oh shit, that AR card would make a killer tattoo.” And so this weekend, I got the 3DS AR tattoo and it’s fucking awesome.  The photo above was taken in my bathroom, showing my little Mii popping out of my hand.

Also, a couple things to note if you want to try this. Right now, the tattoo doesn’t always work in really bright light, like sunlight, but it works fine in dim-ish light. I think I need to go back and get an outline around it, because I think the 3DS is looking for the edge of the card and can’t find it in bright light. In the manual, it says to never obscure the white border around the card when you’re using the 3DS, something I didn’t notice til later. I thought the black border around the “?” would be an issue, but it doesn’t seem to be at all. When the 3DS recognizes it, you can clearly see the black outline, and I tested with a color printout of the card, and the issue does seem to be not seeing the edge, which is easily fixable.  The tattoo was done by Colby at Blue Flame Tattoo in Raleigh, NC.

I’m not going to lie.  That’s awesome.

There’s more news ahead, including more videos, and 2 articles on the same subject with completely polar opposite takes on it.

In what should come as no surprise to anyone who reads the weekly news, the media has picked up on yet another “new trend” in body modification.  This week’s subject of controversy, corset piercings.  What’s interesting is that I found 2 stories on corset piercings, both using the same images, and same interviews, but somehow spinning the story in 2 different ways.  The first story is of course the warning story, meant to scare parents about the dangers of surface piercings.  They get extra points for quoting a plastic surgeon.

Forget tattoos, belly button piercings and Lady Gaga-style silicone implants – the latest craze in body modification is ‘corset piercing’ where metal rings are pierced into the skin and joined together with a ribbon to give a corset effect.  The ‘decoration’, which can cost up to £300, can be applied to any area of the body where the skin is loose enough to pinch in order to thread a needle through. Popular areas include the back, ribs and, in some cases, even the throat.  But a cosmetic surgeon has now warned of the dangers of the bizarre trend which is sweeping the UK, saying the scarring following the procedure can be ‘absolutely horrendous’.

Today it’s possible to be branded, scarred and even have silicone implanted under the skin to create bumps and ‘horns’.  Eccentric popstar Lady Gaga is just one celebrity who’s jumped on the bandwagon. She sported bizarre flesh-coloured ‘horns’ on her face during a television interview in February this year.  According to piercing experts, the ‘corset’ modification is growing in popularity as more and more brave the pain.

But consultant plastic surgeon Kevin Hancock, a council member of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons who works at Spire Murrayfield Hospital, Merseyside, warned of the problems it can cause.  He said: ‘I can’t believe it’s something that people would be attracted to.  ‘Any piercing, superficial or otherwise, produces a scar and different people scar in different ways.  ‘For some, the scarring may be slight but for others it can produce problems where the tissue overgrows and you end up with a red lump which is permanent.   ‘In some cases this can be absolutely horrendous.  ‘I have to say it seems absolutely barking to me. I was amazed when I saw pictures of this piercing – it would be extremely painful and it’s only temporary.  ‘This is a row of rings which could also bleed and become infected. There is a risk of the rings pulling the skin and also becoming caught on something.

So, obviously if you intend to get a corset piercing, you’re either a fan of Lady Gaga, or barking mad.  Or possibly both.

Thankfully while the Daily Fail preaches on about the nightmares of corsets, the Daily Echo has a positive take on the same story.

Corset piercing is often done down the back and laced together, imitating a traditional corset but, explains Laura Hunt, who owns Dragstrip Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Bitterne: “Wherever you can pinch the skin you can do it.”  Other areas of the body where people may have corset piercing are down either side of the ribs, arms, the back of the legs or, in the case of Ant Evans, who went under Laura’s piercing needle, the front of your neck.

Laura says she would like to get it done again, too.  “Tattoos and piercings are just a way of decorating your body,” she says.  “If I get a new piercing or tattoo, it’s like someone else getting a new haircut. It’s just a way of changing the way you look and improving yourself, in your eyes.”

Now when I say “a positive take”, it’s more that it’s presented objectively and with the input of people who have experienced them.  As opposed to a plastic surgeon who has only seen pictures of them.

Of course corset piercings aren’t the only type of piercings making the news this week.  It turns out over in Plainfield, IL the school board is being forced by a court to allow boys to get their ears pierced.  Evidently there is a rule in place that only girls can get their ears pierced.  What’s really interesting is that the decision to overturn the rule is because of that supreme court decision last year that stated tattoos and piercings are a form of expression and are protected under the first amendment.

Plainfield, Bolingbrook and Romeoville high schools have given the green light to guys who want to sport a stud or hoop in the earlobe. But the Joliet Township High School Board is not convinced and recently voted to retain its ban on male ear jewelry.  Those who remember that male earrings once sent sexual messages are not wrong. At one time, a guy who pierced his left earlobe did so to show he was gay and sexually dominant; if he pierced the right, it meant he was gay and sexually submissive. Later, piercing the right ear signaled you were gay and the left meant you were straight.   Today, none of that applies. An earring is just an earring.

The Joliet high school board’s decision to uphold its longstanding ban might be surprising given that it flies in the face of a recent Illinois School Law Survey that shows that courts have ruled tattoos and body piercings are protected by the First Amendment and can only be banned if there’s medical or health reason to do so.  Earl Peterson, the board’s secretary, says he’s found one. Boys are using disc earrings, sometimes known as plugs or guages, to stretch the piercing hole to the size of a dime or larger, he said. Girls do this, too, but there seems to be no outcry to make the ban apply to both sexes.

Beyond that, though, Peterson says there’s an aesthetic reason for the ban. Earrings on boys are “really unsightly,” he says.

Well, that settles that.  The school board’s secretary thinks that ear piercings on guys is “really unsightly”, so they must be banned.  I did get the date right for this post didn’t I?  It is 2011 still, not 1950?

While we’re on the subject of schools, a Hampton, VA teacher is in hot water this week after allowing students to tattoo each other in class.

Virginia mother is outraged after learning her daughter received a tattoo from another student during class at Virginia’s Hampton High School.  “He had a packet of sewing needles and a mechanical pencil. He dipped the point in the ink that he had for everybody,” tattoo recipient Timisha Deloatch, 16, said.  According to Timisha, the student tattooed two others while her art teacher watched.  “She closed the door so no administrators would walk past and see, and at one point she took a picture and sent it to her friend,” Deloatch said.

Now having been a teacher, I can tell you that if a student in one of my classes pulled out some needles and ink and started tattooing another student, I would have asked them to stop.  Not because I disapprove of DIY tattoos, but because when the kids are in my class, I’m responsible for them, and the last thing I need is to get fired and face a lawsuit because I let it happen.

Moving on, you may have seen this story in the news as it was making headlines earlier this week.  An 18 year old boy was beaten, knocked out, and woke up to find the word “RAPEST” tattooed on his forehead.

A teen is moving from his Oklahoma City home after he was beaten, shocked and forcibly tattooed with the word “rapest” across his forehead by a sadistic gang of thugs.  Stetson Johnson, 18, said his attackers tied his hands together and beat him with a baseball bat before pinning his arms and inking his forehead and his chest during the vicious assault last month.  The gang allegedly wrote “I like little boys” on his chest and shocked him in the groin with a stun gun.  “They just put it on there,” Johnson told the Oklahoman newspaper. “They (said) ‘This is what you’re going to get.’ I tried to push my way off of them and they kept on holding me down harder.”  “It hurt,” he told the paper. “I (said) ‘Why is this happening to me?’ They (said) ‘Just shut up.’”  Johnson told police he was eventually knocked unconscious and left for dead during the assault, which cops said took place at the Oklahoma City home of one of his attackers’ mom’s house.

He recently covered up the word “rapest” – apparently a misspelling of the word “rapist” – with a tattoo of a bar code. The tattoo on his chest was still there.  The teen said he and his mom were moving for safety reasons.  “I don’t want no harm to my family or me or anybody else,” he said.

While we’re looking at crimes, a South African man was sentenced this week for the killing of his daughter.  The reason he killed her?  She got her tongue pierced.

A Durban father who was “incapable of remorse” was sent to jail for 15 years for brutally murdering his 16-year-old daughter with a live electrical wire for having had her tongue pierced.  A young relative of the victim Nonkululeko Dlangisa had testified to how the last time he had seen her, her father had been pouring water over her and electrocuting her on her legs, hands and shoulders with an exposed cable. The witness described her screams as that of a goat when it is being slaughtered.

On October 30, 2009, Dlangisa, who is not married and has seven children, found out that Nonkululeko, had had her tongue pierced.  After assaulting her in front of her siblings, Dlangisa told her mother, Nompumelelo Maphumulo, to bring her to his house to view the girl’s tongue stud.  The court had heard how Nonkululeko was assaulted during the night and early the next day, she was tied to an electricity pole outside his house, had water thrown on her and electrocuted until she lost consciousness.  Some time later, the girl was taken to the KwaMashu Polyclinic for treatment, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The judge said women and children were not owned by their fathers and that the payment of lobola did not mean that one owned a person.  Before sentencing Dlangisa to a 15-year prison term Gyanda said:  “Had you been a human being capable of remorse, you would’ve stopped short of beating her into unconsciousness.”  He said that regardless of several media campaigns to stop the abuse of women and children, it was still rampant. “All over the media, we hear that authorities are clamping down on men who abuse women and children, but it seems like people are still not learning,” Gyanda said.  “The message must go throughout the country that the abuse of women and children will not be tolerated in our courts.”

I’m happy to post this story as not only does it show the father was punished, but also that the judge is sending out the message that abuse is not tolerated and will be punished.

Moving on to lighter news now, a company has released a product called “Violent Lips”.  They’re being marketed as temporary lip tattoos.

The wet-and-apply stick-ons will turn your pout into something … else. Like a leopard, or a rainbow, or a glittery explosion.  I’m not sold. I think the look is cool, but I only see Ke$ha really wearing this, and the “bad girls” who go to prom that pretend to not want to go to prom, but go anyway, and with lip tattoos. Am I right? They’ll regret it though, if they want to have a make-out sesh ..   Good news is these lippy tattoos are only $15 for a pack of three, so if you want to try them out, you won’t have to dive too deeply into your piggy bank. And I guess the even better news is that they’re temporary, and will come off with a good ole scrubbin’.

I know, they’re not “real” tattoos, but they are being marketed as “temporary tattoos” so I let is slide.  And remember, relax your lip, and go “ahh”.

Now in what may be the most important story this week, the Mercury News out of Silicone Valley is reporting about some major changes to ordinances in the city of Oakley.

The City Council recently approved a change to an ordinance that will allow people to keep up to three hens in residential areas. Backyards are still off-limits to roosters.  In clarifying the existing rules that also govern the number of horses and barnyard fowl allowed in residentially zoned areas, the amendment specifies that pet owners also can have up to three rabbits.

At the same meeting, council members approved a conditional use permit for a tattoo parlor at 3420 Main St. in the city’s downtown.

So good news Oakley residents, not only are you getting a tattoo studio, but you’ll also be able to keep up to three hens in your home!

If you remember last year, I posted about a tattoo convention in Doncaster that was looking for people who wanted to break a Guinness world record.  Well, the numbers have been totaled up, and everyone who attended has received their certificates.

AN EVESHAM tattooist is all smiles after playing a part in scalping out a brand new Guinness world record.  Terry Fuller, owner of Full On Ink tattoo shop on Port Street, was on hand as a total of 223 people broke the record for the most number of artists simultaneously tattooing clients at any one time. The achievement took place in Doncaster last year in one of the many popular tattoo convention events and Terry has just received his certificate for playing his part in recording a new global high.  Terry told the Observer: “It’s nice to have been given this certificate and help break a new world record. It will be going on the wall and shows off the good work we do here and it’s something that not many other people can say they have done in their lifetime.”

Now last week was the royal wedding, so this week you would think that there would be no more stories about it.  Well you’d be wrong.  In fact, you’d be as wrong as the guy who tattooed the wrong date on his thigh.

Stephen Nesbitt, 33, had asked for “Good Luck William and Kate” with the date April 29 inked on his thigh.  But tattooist Alan Fleck, 35, wrongly put the 28th instead at his studio in Newcastle.  Stephen only realised when a pal later pointed it out.  Alan refunded the £30 cost – but Stephen said he doesn’t mind the error.  He said: “It’s quirky. It’ll be the only one in the country with that date.”

Our final story today touches on the biggest mainstream news story this week, the death of Osama Bin Laden.  As part of the operation to take him down, specialized dogs were used.  The Daily has an interesting story about the 4 legged companions that were used in the mission.  What was most interesting is that the dogs were fitted with titanium implants for teeth, to better enable them to take down a combatant.  Due to how The Daily prints their articles, you’ll have to go to the link to read the story, but there is a photo up on Flickr that shows a police dog with the same type of implants.

So that’s it for the news this week.  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and make sure to call your mom on Sunday!  It’s Mother’s Day this weekend.  (This is not me posting a reminder to myself to call.  Really!).

And as always, if you find something in the news that you think should be shared, just send me the link and I’ll try to include it in next week’s news post.  Non-IAM members can just click my name below this post and send me an e-mail directly.