Fridays on ModBlog mean a couple of things.  It’s the day for the scarification follow-ups, there often is a BME Girl post, Sean posts the latest entry in his Cliff Cadaver series, and the day ends with the news.  With last week’s news being celebrity heavy, this week it’s back to business with some real news, although those damn attention seekers just couldn’t stay out of the news for just one week.

First up is an interesting story out of China.  A Belgian tattoo artist has set up shop at an Art Farm, and is using live pigs to display his art.

He decorates them with smiling faces, Louis Vuitton logos and various words. Art collectors can buy the pigs and pay for their upkeep or purchase their tattooed skins after the pigs pass away, paying up to a few thousand dollars.

Forty-six year old win said the pigs are a nice allegory that makes us think about what art means to us, and where the line exists between what art is and what art isn’t.

Now this story appears to be a couple years old, but looking back through the archives it seems that it was never featured in the news before.  As you can imagine, at the time a large number of animal rights groups were opposed to this type of art.  The main issue I see is the one about consent, in that animals can’t give it.  Judging by the video the pig being tattooed may have been sedated, as it reacted to the needle negatively, but only needed one hand to hold him down.

There’s more news to come, including a young man getting a skull tattooed over his face, and an implant that wasn’t wanted.

Much to my surprise, it seems that England has it’s own version of the Jerry Springer show.  Or possibly Montel.  Anyway, earlier in the week “Mad Dog” Deon appeared on the Jeremy Kyle show because his girlfriend wasn’t too happy with his recent facial tattoo.

His girlfriend Catherine, 31, also appeared on the ITV1 programme titled “How Could My Boyfriend Destroy His Own Face?”, during which she complained about his decision.  Kyle said: “I’m slightly struggling as to why anyone would have a skull tattooed on their face.”

Layabout Deon told the ITV1 show that he wasn’t finished with his “artwork” yet – saying he was planning to have even more tattoos on his neck.

Ignoring the biases in the article (the author referred to him as a Layabout, workshy, and a waster), it does appear that young Deon is relishing the attention being given to him as of late.

While Deon’s facial tattoos are affecting his family life, it seems that all over the world tattoos are becoming the new family scrapbook.  Gone are the days when a crafty type would come out of a shop with an armload of decoupage.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, tattoos were historically, “permanent designs—sometimes plain, sometimes elaborate, always personal—have served as amulets, status symbols, declarations of love, signs of religious beliefs, adornments and even forms of punishment.”  This has been going on for thousands of years. Not too far removed from where we are today.

I’m starting to understand that there must be a great emotional tie to this behavior. A memory of a loved one, a stand for independence or even an expression of deep seeded emotion.  The process goes way beyond the pain, the color and the permanency.

The author goes on to describe how her husband and son have strengthened their bond by getting tattooed together.  It’s sappy, but it’s always nice to see a story where people who get modified aren’t portrayed as lazy or criminal.

In fact, the myth that modified people can’t get a job is slowly disappearing.  The Vancouver Sun stopped by the Canadian offices of Google and discovered that business are starting to look at people for their skills, and not their appearance.

At Google’s Canadian headquarters, a strict dress code is enforced: employees must wear clothes.

There was a time when tattoos and piercings would mean difficulty getting onto an organization’s staff; today, eliminating employees with tattoos and piercings would make it difficult for many organizations to even have staff.

So while people may be more accepting of piercings and tattoos in the workplace, it seems that the idea of the Queen of England having a tattoo isn’t something everyone is ready for.

The cartoon-style image hangs outside the newly-refurbished Queen’s Arms pub in Acomb, near Hexham.  Acomb Parish Council chairman Major Charles Enderby described the sign as “most distasteful and inappropriate”.  But owner David Crawford-Emery claimed the image was based on his mother, who he said “looked like the Queen”.  The sign shows a woman resembling the Queen smiling, with what appears to be Buckingham Palace in the background, her arms folded with a tattoo of the name Phil on one of them.

Buckingham Palace said it would not comment.

While we’re on the subject of acceptance, the Arizona Daily Wildcat has an interesting piece on Jewish law and how it applies to tattoos.

While Jewish law explicitly prohibits having a tattoo, there is no basis for restricting burial rites for Jews who violate this rule, contrary to popular myth.

The Torah, or written Jewish law, states “you shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.”  This, as well as the Jewish concept that Jews are created b’tzelem Elokim or “in the image of God,” is sometimes interpreted to mean Jewish people are banned from getting tattoos, according to information provided by the Hillel Foundation. While, in Judaism, voluntary tattooing shows disrespect for the gift that is the body, it is no worse then violating any other “halacha,” or Jewish laws.

Max Rusinov, Hillel’s Israel fellow, said that tattoos are a symbol of slavery. For example, during the Holocaust, the Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners received number tattoos as a form of identification. This helped propel the myth that Jews cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery if they have a tattoo because it disrespects Holocaust victims.

Moving over to medical news, researchers at MIT have found a way to implant microscopic medical sensors into a person without having the body reject them.

MIT is exploring embedded microworm biomedical sensors that detect medical conditions. And reading them could be as simple as shining a light on the skin and seeing the microworm tattoos glow.

A number of research effortsare underway to exploit micro-particle technology to sense medical conditions, but though there are significant benefits to the technology the actual design of the system is problematic–nanoparticle and microparticle sensors can be swept away from where they’re supposed to be by normal body processes. Enter MIT and Northeastern University with a new variety of microparticle sensor that’s shaped like a long narrow tube–hence microworm–that is better at staying put in tissue and provides a greater surface area for chemical reactions. They’re also so small that the body is effectively unaware of  their presence, and there are fewer of the rejection issues that can occur with larger embedded sensing devices.

While the author of the article calls them fluorescent tattoos, they are much closer to an implant than a tattoo.

Speaking of implants, imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and discover that you have a piece of metal embedded in your flesh.

After a woman, Anne, in Lyon, France, complained of postsurgery abdominal pains, an X-ray revealed a pair of 4-inch-long surgical scissors that somehow had been forgotten and left inside her for five months.

Anne realized something was wrong after a coughing fit when she discovered that the point of the scissors had suddenly pierced her navel. The scissors were finally removed and she’s reportedly planning to sue the surgeon.

Ok, so it might not have been an implant in the traditional sense, but it does have a great gallery of other medical instruments found in people.

On a completely unrelated note, some people really love their iced coffee.

But Kieran Hollis of Stuart Park loves Paul’s Iced Coffee so much he had a carton of the stuff tattooed on to his shoulder.  Mr Hollis, 26, hasn’t even told the iced coffee manufacturer, Parmalat Australia, about the tattoo, because the thoughtful fellow feared it might be upset about copyright issues.

The tattoo was inked in “one of the better” parlours in Thailand, where his parents work, after a Darwin tattoo shop refused him. “They wouldn’t do it, they said it would look stupid,” he said.  At the airport on the way to Thailand, Mr Hollis downed a carton of the tasty milk drink before flattening it into his baggage, so the tattooist could recreate the image about six months ago.

He said that the tattoo cost about $100, and took about 7 1/2 hours.

I think the most newsworthy item in this story is that he got 7 1/2 hours of work done for $100.  I wonder if I can get that price from my artist.

To wrap things up with the real news, we have a story that isn’t actually news at all.  Heck it’s not even an article.  Irena Werning is a photographer working on a project that has adults recreate a photo of themselves when they were a child.    One of the subjects of her work is someone longtime ModBlog readers will recognize, La Negra.

I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today… A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future.

And now it’s time for the part of the news that really shouldn’t be called news at all… The Celebrity Round-up!

According to news reports, if you put two moderately tattooed celebrities near each other, they become the best of friends.  Because of their tattoos.  No other reason whatsoever.

Kelly Rowland, who you may remember as the one who wasn’t Beyonce in Destiny’s Child, got her first tattoo.  There isn’t much else to say other than it’s a masterpiece.

When she’s not taking naked pictures of herself to be “accidentally” leaked on the internet in an effort to bring back 70s bush, Vanessa Hudgens got her first tattoo as well.

Vanessa Hudgen got her first tattoo, a butterfly on her neck, at Bang Bang Tattoos in NYC on Wednesday. Vanessa’s friend/MTV Australia VJ, Ruby Rose, tweeted, “Please don’t blame me… But i may have convincedVanessa hudgens to get a tattoo.. Now. Her first… ” Apparently, the choice was between her neck or her ribs

So while Vanessa had her friend tweeting about her new tattoo, some “celebrities” like to do their own tweeting.  Like this pearl of wisdom from Teen Mom 2 “star” Jenelle Evans.

“Getting tatted up 🙂 straight chillin. singleeeeee :P,”

And that’s a wrap.  For this week anyway.  Enjoy your weekend everyone, and to my fellow Canadians, enjoy the long weekend.

As always, if you find a story you think should be included in the weekly news, just send me the link through this handy webform.