The Truth It Becomes You

Posted on by


Positivity parade! This expertly rendered Nelson Mandela portrait/inspirational bust comes all the way from Cape Town, South Africa, and more specifically, from Rob Turner at Freestylers Tattoo Lounge in said city. There’s a lot to like here; this is really lovely work of a figure who’s probably one of the players on the world stage least likely to tarnish his own legacy any time soon. That said, I’m looking very forward to the revelations in the comments that he sold poison milk to schoolchildren or uses leaded gasoline or collects Jonas Brothers memorabilia or whatever.

Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

29 thoughts on “The Truth It Becomes You”

  1. never mind the fact that the South Africa De Klerk Administration,and Apartheid was yes…evil, in it’s treatment of blacks,but under Mandela,the place fucking imploded,and Whites are now summerially killed and the farms that THEY made work,given to the blacks who dont know fuck all about farming,and ruin it in short order….Fuck Mandela,Communist asshole of the highest order

  2. never mind the fact that the South Africa De Klerk Administration,and Apartheid was yes…evil, in it’s treatment of blacks,but under Mandela,the place fucking imploded,and Whites are now summerially killed and the farms that THEY made work,given to the blacks who dont know fuck all about farming,and ruin it in short order….Fuck Mandela,Communist asshole of the highest order,it isnt even a good portrait

  5. no,it means it DIDNT say …”You posted”,or I’d ADDED a line.
    get bent,I know a South African,in fact he was my best man at my wedding,His FAMILY is white and suffering through this bullshit..personally,so dont tell me about “agnst”,you have no fucking idea about the political strife that this country is no enduring..both races arent doing well at this point.

  9. It’s horrible that white farmers are being killed. I wish the price to pay for rectifying past wrongs was lower but sadly, I don’t know that humans have that capacity just yet. I don’t know that the violent oppression of MILLIONS gets to be a “never mind” statement, however. Nature223, that alone made your statement sound like you value white lives over blacks. And given the ratios that does come across as rather “angsty”.

    Nevertheless, what Mandela achieved and stood for PRIOR to his presidency makes him a hero. And this portrait is decent.

  15. Sorry, in my opinion it isn’t an “expertly rendered” portrait, althoug it could be worse.

  17. awesome!!!

    and i think its funny that people overseas have stronger opinions about whats going on here than we do, things here really aren’t so bad.

  18. I love how modblog isn’t a bitching ground for people to moan at anything and everything, it’s always about appreciating mods.

    … Oh wait.

    Haha, couldn’t resist. (Even if it is contradicting myself also)

    PS. Awesome tattoo, awesome man, awesome quote.

  19. I would just like to say that tattoo is by no means an “expertly rendered” black and white portrait!

  20. Oh, you know a South African? Good for you.
    What is going on in SA is pretty good considering what it came from. What you have said is extremely exaggerated. Violence against white farmers is based on class, not race. A lot of the farmers have wealth that is unimaginably unattainable to most working class persons, and that wealth is generally built on theback of apartheid. You can’t blame it on the ANC, it’s the natural outcome, the power being redistributed.

    And please don’t talk like whites in SA are all now township poor and struggling. If you ever go to Cape Town, take a note of the white to black ratio of persons on the street, then look at the ratio of motorists (Bakkies don’t count).

  22. Hmm,

    It seems to me that nature223 is a tad misinformed.

    Madiba (as the man is affectionately known by us South Africans) became an icon during his long political imprisonment. He became the focal point of a lot of anti-apartheid sentiment, allowing others to push for change. When Madiba was elected president he extended the hand of friendship to all political parties in an attempt to right the wrongs of the past.

    South Africa suffers from a great debilitating gap between the rich and poor (one of the highest in the world), and a culture of violence and crime has set in – regardless, SA is slowly on the mend, and men like Mandela will help save it. There is no targeting on “whites”, there is a targeting of wealth.

    Why not come to the Tattoo convention in Cape Town next January and judge the country for yourself – its truly amazing. And generally people come to the country and are not affected by crime – but leave moved by its beauty and the warmth of its people.

  23. Indeed, some serious misinformation going on to mister nature223… Sounds a little more like Zimbabwe. Try a little further north, you ignorant knob.

    I live in Cape Town, South Africa, I have all my life, I was born and raised here. And it has its flaws, but its nowhere near what you think it is. Yes, there is some racial inequality and crime, but its not everywhere you go. Its pretty damn decent. It’s beautiful as hell.

    And yes, (all of you) come to the Tattoo Convention in Cape Town next year, this year’s was amazing. And no white people were slaughtered outside or inside! SA is pretty damn civilized compared to the bullshit described by nature223…

    Come on, dude. At least visit SA before you say what its like… I suppose its a little scary if that’s your idea of it…

    And, while the tattoo is pretty reasonable as portraits go, and Freestylers is a decent parlour, Cape Town does have some better tattoo artists to visit/ feature/ have work done by… check out Garth Staunton of Wildfire, or Tyler B Murphy and Lee Herbert of Sins of Style

  25. oh so “Equity” is when the WHITES who are in the minority,now get their land taken away from them,after THEY made it produce,and they caused the financial gains that improved everyones lives,and they made the place better.
    rather then the people who were FROM there and lived in squaller,and continue to support a disfunctional government…which wont LIFT them from squaller
    got it…your ALL fucking idiots,thanks for eludicating that.

  27. I think this is ridiculous. Why not put all of this fury and verbal fire to good use? Go protest, or try and make a difference. Absolutely no point in flaming up a post having to do with art.

  28. Ah, equity…

    Consider that the wealth of the country is still held by 5% of its population, mostly whites, and that the systematic destruction of literacy and numeracy in the majority of people seems to be keeping it that way.

    There have been very few land reclamations – typically farmers are reimbursed for farms where the land is being returned to the people who were displaced by apartheid. Of course some farms do fall into disrepair – but there are many success stories.

    Equity shall be when those best for jobs are selected, but because of equal access to education and healthcare this job pool reflects the demographics of the country.

    I’m sure you are referring to the “squatter camps” when you refer to “squallor” – note that shanty towns exist in most developing coutries where urbanisation is common (look at Brazil), this is people trying to change their lot. Families of 6 live on $50 per month and try lift their children to a better place.

    I agree the current government policies are not ideal, and that corruption exists – but I do believe that things are improving.

    And on the note of tattoos – I’m not wild about this one – but there are many excellent SA artists. And many international artists like Paul Booth and Chad Koeplinger like SA so much that they are returning again next year.

  29. Comments are closed on this post. Personal threats won’t be tolerated here. Grow up.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *