ModBlog News of the Week: July 1st, 2011

First thing’s first.  Happy Canada Day to all our Canadian readers.

Now the biggest story this week is pretty easy to guess..  BMEFest 2011!!  It’s this weekend.  From Saturday to Monday everyone is welcome to come on down to BMEHQ and get together with the whole BME gang.  It’s been a few years since the last BMEFest, so we’re treating this one like a family reunion.  The event page has all the details, so be sure to check it out and sign up! You’ll get to see friends you may not have seen in a while, and also make a whole lot of new friends.  Just don’t forget your bathing suit, with the weather as hot as it is, we’ll be spending most of the time poolside, or on the slip’n’slides.

Now on to the news from the rest of the world.  Making headlines in the UK is Jeremy Castle, an NHS nurse who has been doing a little freelance work in his spare time.

Jeremy Luke Castle offers the £120 surgery from a dingy flat where his three cats run about.  Health experts last night admitted the practice is NOT illegal, despite being potentially lethal if jabs are not properly administered.  The Sun found Castle carrying out the “surgery” in Elephant and Castle, South London – where his pets roam nearby as he uses the grouting gun on men’s genitals.

Castle, who advertises online and admits he has had no formal training, said: “It’s not rocket science.  “The scrotum is very easy and it’s just a case of hitting the best place.  “There’s no law that says you can’t do it.  “It’s medical grade silicone. The equipment I use is sterilised with copious amounts of disinfectant. It’s not really dangerous.”  But he admitted: “If it’s done incorrectly you could inject silicone into the blood vessel and that would result in the patient being, well, dead.”

Castle, who claimed he banned the cats from the room when he was injecting the filler, added: “I’m a trained nurse specialist.”

I just..  wow.  Well, as long as he dipped the end of the caulking gun in disinfectant, it’s not a problem right?  But hey, it’s not dangerous, the worst thing that could happen is you die.  Wait, is that serious?

More news to come, including a couple of Aussies who have found an ingenious way to raise money for their Olympic team.

This week’s installment of “don’t commit a crime if you have an easily identifiable facial tattoo” is brought to you by the letters M and J.

If you’ll look closely, you’ll notice that the tattoo itself is actually terrible. The Jumpman logo is, of course, of a silhouetted Jordan skying through the air for a dunk. This looks more like a man delivering a pizza while wearing clown shoes.

See to me it looks like a guy running while holding a frying pan.

A few more crime related stories this week.  The first of which is a quick tale from Columbus, OH.

A man is stabbed during an argument over unpaid tattoo work Tuesday evening.  Corey Norris, 20, was with some friends in front of a house on Filco Drive at about 6:26 p.m. Tuesday.  A person Norris did some tattoo work for walked up to Norris. Apparently, the male didn’t pay Norris for the tattoos.  Norris demanded payment for his work.

Norris’ group and the other person’s group became involved in a physical fight.  The groups and the fight moved to the Walgreens drug store at the corner of South High Street and Williams Road.  Someone pulled out a knife and stabbed Norris twice.

The tattooed male and his group left the area.

So Columbus people, be on the lookout for a tattooed male.  It’s a shame that saying a suspect is tattooed is enough to qualify as a newsworthy identifier.

This next story unfortunately is much worse.  Not in terms of how tattoos are being represented, but what the tattoos in the story represent.

On Thursday night, a 16 year-old boy from Malwani reportedly raped a seven-year-old girl. Following questioning it was revealed that this was the eighth girl that he had  raped.  The incident occurred when the girl went to a grocery shop, where the boy started molesting her. The girl reportedly yelled at the boy, which is when he hoisted her on his shoulders and raped her twice behind the Malwani church.  After raping her, the boy tried to escape from the crime scene, but the girl followed him crying. They reached Rathodi village in Malwani, where they both live, the girl’s mother saw the boy running and her daughter following him crying and confronted him.   Locals caught the boy and handed him to the police. After the police questioning, both were sent to the Nagpada Police hospital for a check up. The boy later confessed to his crime.

During the interrogation, the boy was asked about a series of tattoos on his arms.  In what came as a horrifying revelation to the police, he revealed that the names tattooed on his arm was a list of the girls he had raped. Following the confession the police sent the boy to the Children Remand Home in Dongri.

Due to local laws the boy will be charged as a minor, and given a lesser sentence than if he were an adult.

Our last crime-related story is a follow-up to one from earlier in the year.  If you recall, a young man was kidnapped, beaten, tazed, and finally left with a tattoo that said “rapest” across his forehead.  This week the courts issued a sentence to those found guilty.

Four people charged with kidnapping a man, tattooing “RAPEST” on his forehead and shocking his genitals with a stun gun before beating him unconscious with a baseball bat have pleaded guilty to kidnapping and maiming charges.  Three of the defendants also pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in a plea agreement with prosecutors while the fourth pleaded no contest to the charge during a hearing in Oklahoma County District Court.  A no contest plea has the same effect as a guilty plea but is not an admission of guilt.

Richard Dellert, Zachary Provence, Kimberly Kirchler Vergara and Lorena Hodges were accused of attacking 18-year-old Stetson Johnson on April 17.  Special Judge Stephen Alcorn sentenced Dellert, 25, and Provence, 21, to 10 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation. Vergara, 24, who clutched a Bible during the hearing, and Hodges, 33, were each sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation in the attack a prosecutor characterised as “a brutal case of bullying”.  “I think a mob mentality took over,” First Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland said.  Johnson told authorities he was restrained with duct tape while “RAPEST”, apparently a misspelling of “rapist”, was tattooed across his forehead and a phrase that resembles “I like little boys” was tattooed on his chest.  The forehead tattoo has since been covered with another tattoo that looks like a bar code, and members of his family said he is working to have it removed.

Finally our last story of the day takes us down under to the magical land of Oz.  When it comes to competing in the Olympics most countries fund athletic programs.  But even with this funding, for a lot of athletes it just isn’t enough money.  Such is the case for Australia’s volleyball team.  A couple of members of the team have come up with an interesting way to ensure a trip to the Olympics for their team.

Some people would do anything for a buck. When you’re an Olympic hopeful who spends most of the time practicing and trying to fulfill a lifelong dream, the bucks can be tough to come by.  Luckily there are people like Australian volleyball player Claire Kelly who know how to think outside the box.

According to MyFoxDC via Fanattic Network, Kelly has petitioned companies to place permanent tattoos on her body to be seen during competition.  Packages are being offered directly to companies and sold on eBay for around $10,000 for a 0.8 inch x 0.8 inch on the left limb and roughly $50,000 for a 1.9 inch x 1.9 inch tat on the right arm or shoulder.  She said she hopes the money will help give her and her partner, Carla Kleverlaan, the financial backing they need for the 2012 Summer Games in London.

“It’s taken me months to get the courage to do this and now I’m going through with it,” Kelly explained. “I was thinking, ‘Tattoo my body with a business logo just so I can have a chance to play for my country at the Olympics? I’m crazy’!

If I recall, the Olympic rules are pretty strict on the amount of advertising on attire.  I wonder if the same rules apply to tattoos.

Oh, there is one more thing before I get going.  Toronto tattoo studio Seven Crowns is hosting their annual fall art auction in support of Art City-St. James, a charity that provides free and accessible art programs to underprivileged children in an urban setting.  The reason I’m posting about this so early is that Canadian artists who want to get involved know that they have until September 1st to submit their work.  More information can be found on the Seven Crowns website, or you can e-mail the boys at [email protected].

As far as I know this is for Canadian artists only, but feel free to get in contact with them for all the details.

And that’s all the news for this week.  Remember, BMEFest is this weekend, so sign up now, and I’ll see you in Virginia!