By now, either from ModBlog or from viral media, you know the romantic story of Lesya and Rouslan Toumaniantz (click that link if you live under a rock) and all the fuss that her facial tattoo of his name across her face generated, a tattoo they did not long after their love-at-first-sight meeting. I wanted to share these recent photos of the healed tattoo — say what you want about the story behind the tattoo, but wow, Lesya really makes this tattoo work! It looks great on her — of course it helps that she’s beautiful and photogenic to start — and you can click any of these photos to see them at a large size.
Lesya Toumaniantz’s radical facial tattoo has recently gone viral, posted on thousands of Facebook pages with captions like “next level face tattoo” from Russia. So I thought it was time to tell the real story behind this remarkable tattoo.
About a month ago, Rouslan Toumaniantz, a well known and sometimes notorious Belgium-based tattoo artist (of Tattoo Box in Kortrijk), and Lesya, a designer living at the time in Saransk, a city in central Russia started talking via chat (Rouslan speaks fluent Russian) and realized they had a lot in common, and quickly began falling head over heels in love. About a week ago they met in person in Moscow and decided to get married — their plans for their life together include her learning to tattoo (Rouslan tells me she’s already a talented artist), apprenticing under her husband-to-be, while she also gets the full-body ink that she’s always dreamed of (biomech is the current plan) — and of course a family.
Her new facial tattoo that’s getting all the attention, a huge commitment for both a person with limited experience as a publicly modified person and for a new relationship screams out the intensity of their commitment to their new life, reads “RUSLAN”, the name of her betrothed. At first glance the tattoo echoes Latin American gang tattooing — MS-13 is the first thing that’s come to many people’s minds — and I worry that it could complicate future travel in the Americas, to say nothing of putting her in danger in some cities (of course, these are places where deaf people speaking sign language occasionally are stabbed when foolish gangmembers assume they’re throwing rival gang-signs). But to be clear, the tattoo has nothing about committing to a life in a gang — it’s a commitment to love.
I know that there are people who are terrified that Lesya has made a rash decision that she’ll regret horribly, but sometimes the best decisions are the ones you make in an instant with your heart rather than the ones long-debated in your mind. I know many people whose favorite mods are the ones they got “on a whim”, and who are still happily married to the person they fell for the instant they saw — “love at first sight” is an old truism — and proposed to within the week. I wish them the best of luck and hope that their life plays out as they dream it to be.
Edit/Update: People have asked why it says “RUSLAN” when I’m writing his name as “Rouslan”. It’s simply because one is the French spelling, and the other is the Russian/English spelling of the name — they chose the latter because it fit better on her face.
Continue after the break for a more explicit photo.
It’s Friday night. You’re either getting home from work or getting ready for a night on the town. And for us here at BME the end of Friday means it’s time for the weekly news roundup for you to read over the weekend until we’re back on Monday with more posts. Without any further ado, let’s begin.
A lot of ModBlog attention in the past year has been on a couple of Russian suspension teams that are constantly pushing the limits of suspensions. Well this week it was an American who made headlines by setting the record for highest suspension ever. Zane Whitmore, with the help of a team of professionals including Allen Falkner, took to the air, suspended from a hot air balloon.
Zane Whitmore’s weekend was probably more painful than yours. On Saturday, this Seattle man spent nearly 75 minutes hooked to a hot air balloon 2,800 feet above the ground — and those hooks went through pierced holes in his back. Whitmore, 34, practices the ritual of human suspension. Rather than focusing on being in pain, he said he spent most of the time thinking about how fortunate he was to be having the experience. “I was mentally prepared for it so I was really just concentrating on the sensation of flying,” Whitmore told AOL Weird News. “I was having a blast.”
The stunt was filmed for “Feet Off the Ground,” a documentary about practitioners of human suspension. But Whitmore said he would have done it whether or not the cameras were rolling. “The reward is largely mental,” he said. “When your mind’s state is altered I think the way you perceive the world around you changes a bit.” According to Cory Devine of Precarious Egg, the company producing the documentary, Whitmore reached a height of nearly 11,000 feet above sea level. He wore a harness attached to his waist in the event his skin were to tear. He added, “It was a unique way to view the wildlife, that’s for sure.” For sure.
Our friends over at Hooklife had the opportunity to hear from Allen about his part in the suspension.
“So how high are we?” “You see those mountain peaks? They are 11,000 feet.” “That’s sea level right? How high are we above the ground?” “3,800 feet” I leaned out of the basket with camera in hand. “Hey Zane, we just topped 3,800 feet. How are you feeling?” “Amazing!!!!!!” Personally I wish it was me hanging below the basket, but being asked to pierce and rig this suspension was still a pretty amazing experience.
Just so we’re clear, this wasn’t meant to be a challenge to anyone to top this feat. Allen and the rest of the crew are some of the top practitioners in the world, and even they had to differ to a stunt coordinator, as well as work with the hot air balloon company. So as groundbreaking as this is, please don’t even think about attempting to recreate this, as this was probably one of the most dangerous suspensions I’ve ever seen.
However, Zane’s suspension wasn’t the only one in the news this week. To see what other suspension made headlines, you’ll have to continue on with the rest of the news.
As I was saying, the hot air balloon suspension wasn’t the only headline making story in the news. Alice Newstead in partnership with Shark Savers and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society took to the streets of Hong Kong to protest the killing of sharks for profit, such as selling the fins for shark fin soup.
The dramatic demonstration was part of a campaign to urge the Hong Kong government to stamp out shark fin soup. Role-playing as a “live shark”, Artist Alice Newstead had her skin pierced with hooks, and hung suspended from scaffolding in an arts centre courtyard. The 20-minute body suspension was a dramatic illustration of how sharks are caught on longlines to be killed for their fins. “The ones that I used today are actually shark hooks that have had the barbs removed and have been sterilised. And I feel shark finning is a really barbaric practice. If it takes doing something a bit drastic to get people to notice it, then it’s absolutely worth it,” said Alice Newstead, a performance artist & Lush employee.
The campaign is a joint effort by British cosmetics company Lush and marine conservation group Shark Savers. They are asking the public to sign postcards to the Hong Kong government, urging it to ban shark fin consumption, trade and sales in the city.
While we’re on the subject of metal piercing flesh, there were a couple of piercing related stories this week as well.
You may recall from a few months back that a woman was arrested for piercing kittens and selling them as “Goth Kittens“. She appealed and this week her appeal was rejected.
‘Metal protruded from the kittens’ small bodies, pierced through their ears and necks, and at least one of these kittens also had an elastic band tied around its tail, an attempt at docking, which is a procedure to stem the blood flow so that the tail eventually falls off,’ Judge Kate Ford Elliott wrote in a 19-page opinion. Crawford, who had offered the kittens for US$100 (S$124), was exposed after an investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) posed as a customer and met her in 2008. She was reported to the authorities and the kittens were seized. In April last year, the groomer was sentenced to six months of home detention and electronic monitoring. Crawford, who was described as having ‘several facial piercings’ herself and being ‘enthusiastic about piercing’, admitted to performing the kitten piercings herself without anaesthetic, though she did treat the kittens with antiseptic after the procedure.
While I don’t think the ear piercing was too damaging as cats can live with a little nick in their ears, doing a surface piercing on a kitten or attempting to dock their tail with an elastic band is just cruel. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with doing it at all, but when it comes to impact, the neck and tail were definitely the worst aspects of this case.
Microdermals are back in the news this week with revelations that even more states are looking at putting together legislation on their use. A number of states have already banned the practice outright until some kind of ruling can be made, and Washington state is the next one looking to make that move.
They’re single-point, surface or microdermal anchors, tiny pieces of metal jewelry slipped under the skin. “A lot of people question how (the piercings) are done,” said Deshazer, who was taking a break from making lattes and other coffee drinks at 13 Buffalos, a drive-through espresso stand on Rucker Avenue in downtown Everett. It’s so new that state officials are still taking a look at the practice. And at least one state has banned it until new regulations can be written. For Deshazer, the piercings are a bit painful and mostly permanent. If she ever wants to have her anchors removed, she’ll have to go to a professional.
Officials with the Association of Professional Piercers, a national nonprofit educational group, agree that surface piercings pose less risk than other, more extreme kinds of body manipulation. The novelty of surface piercing has resulted in some confusion, especially among lawmakers, said James Weber, the group’s outgoing president. “A lot of legislators don’t know what to make of them,” he said. Washington last year began to regulate piercers and tattoo artists. Regulations require that no piercer “implant or embed foreign objects into the human body.” “We are continually working with the industry on new practices that come along, especially in relation to public safety,” said Christine Anthony, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Licensing. “As I understand it, the microdermal piercing is a relatively new practice and one we will be taking a look at.” Some states, including New Jersey, have banned the practice until further study can be completed, Weber said.
Moving on to the tattoo portion of this week’s news we have yet another story out of Hermosa Beach, CA. If you remember, Hermosa Beach was the town that tried to ban tattoo studios through the courts, and ended up having the 9th circuit court turnover their ban, and made a ruling that tattoos are now a form of protected speech under the first amendment and studios can not be ordered to close without legitimate health concerns/complaints. Fast forward to this week and a group of citizens are now trying to push the council to impose strict regulations on the studios which include where they can be located and what hours they can be open. Rather than lose another law suit, the council rejected the motion.
Despite what residents and the Planning Commission wanted, Hermosa Beach’s City Council refused to impose additional restrictions on tattoo businesses. The unpopular move was made in order to protect the city from possible future litigation. When the city lost a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to a tattoo artist allowing him to open a tattoo shop in Hermosa Beach, city officials were faced with creating zoning for the new businesses. Months later, residents began to react after shops started popping up in town.
At its June 14 meeting, the council heard from representatives for a group of residents called Citizens United, which had filed a lawsuit against the city in hopes of making it restart the zoning processes regarding tattoo shops in Hermosa Beach. Citizens United feels the city did not properly inform residents of zoning changes and said the city should have first consulted the Planning Commission before deciding what regulations to force on incoming tattoo businesses.
City Attorney Michael Jenkins was asked to inform the council of its options, and he said regardless of what the opposition says, any efforts to further restrict tattoo shops could entice legal action by the owners. He explained since tattooing is protected as a freedom of speech, there aren’t any options to impose further restrictions without risking litigation. He also said there is not any proof that real estate values decrease or that crime increases because of nearby tattoo studios. “If we had documentation … we could rely on it,” Jenkins said. “We don’t have a documented problem.” Mayor Pro Tem Howard Fishman said the city placed as many restrictions as it could last fall when zoning for the tattoo businesses and said a few more is not worth being sued over. “We’ve done the best we can. It could subject us to some further litigation,” Fishman said, before making a motion to simply receive and file the Planning Commission’s proposal.
Hopefully this is the last time we hear about Hermosa Beach and it’s hatred towards tattoos.
Ok Aussie readers, you might want to pay attention to this story. Researchers have discovered that people who get tattooed with Ned Kelly related images are more likely to die a violent death.
The life of outlaw Ned Kelly ended abruptly when he was sent to the gallows for his crimes – and now it appears he is still something of a curse more than 130 years after he went to his grave. An extraordinary study has found that people with tattoos of the Irish- Australian criminal, who is seen by some as a freedom-fighting folk hero, are more likely to be murdered or kill themselves.
The comparison between murder, suicide and Ned Kelly tattoos was made by Adelaide University Professor Roger Byard. He began looking into the phenomenon after seeing there were an unusually high number of Kelly tattoos on bodies in the Adelaide mortuary. Of the 20 men with Ned Kelly tattoos that the professor studied, only three had died from natural causes – the rest were murdered or killed themselves. He also found that 11 of the 20 Kelly enthusiasts also had signs of drug and alcohol abuse. Professor Byard wrote in a paper for the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine: ‘Although the population studied is highly selected, individuals with these tattoos had an above average incidence of traumatic deaths. ‘Individuals with Ned Kelly tattoos in this series certainly had an above-average incidence of traumatic deaths compared to other forensic cases.
Please note that engaging in criminal activities like Ned Kelly did can also be a cause of violent death.
Baraboo police are searching for a man with a “Die Pig Die” tattoo on his neck who they say held up a Wells Fargo Bank early Thursday evening with a handgun and drove away in a stolen pickup truck. Police are looking for Baraboo resident Richard B. Hindes, 31, in connection with the incident. Baraboo Police Department Lt. Rob Sinden said Hindes was identified by the tattoo described by tellers inside the bank. Sinden added that Baraboo police officers previously had contact with Hindes. He is described as a 31-year-old white man who stands 6-feet-tall and weighs about 190 pounds. The tattoo is on the right side of his neck.
This goes double if you already have a criminal record and the police have documented your tattoos.
Richard there isn’t the only idiot in the news this week. Who could forget Kimberley Vlaminck, the Belgian girl who got 56 stars tattooed on her face, and then tried to blame the tattoo artist. It seems she’s finally ready to get them removed, which gives me another chance to post her picture again. I can’t help but laugh every time I see it.
Belgian Kimberley Vlaminck, 20, told her furious dad tattooist Rouslan Toumaniantz had inked on the extra as she slept. She said she woke in horror to find the stars spread all across the left side of her face. Kimberley, then 18, blamed Flemish-speaking Rouslan for not being able to understand her French and English instructions. She vowed to sue the Romanian after complaining she could not go out on the street looking “like a freak”. She told reporters: “I explicitly said in my French native tongue, and also in English when he looked confused, that I wanted three little stars only near my left eye.” She finally confessed she did not fall asleep, that she wanted all the stars and was “fully aware” of what the tattooist was doing a week later.
She told a TV station: “I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. “So I said I fell asleep and that the tattooist made a mistake.” Shocked Rouslan maintained she had given him explicit instructions at his parlour in Courtrai, Belgium, in June 2009. He offered to pay for half the removal op when she complained, saying he did not “wish to have an unsatisfied client”. He later retracted the offer. She will now pay for the surgery herself.
The “I fell asleep” line cracks me up every time.
Finally in news that’s only slightly tattoo related, a new trend is emerging in nightclubs. It seems that if a guy wants women to know he’s available and looking, he gets a fake tattoo replica of Mike Tyson’s famous tribal.
Mike Tyson’s tattoo, is taking on a life of its own. This famous boxer’s facial tattoo is now considered a “hot new way to woo somebody,” according to the New York Post this morning. While most people, both men and women, are having the Tyson facial tattoo painted on temporarily, it is considered a real attention grabber for the single set.
“It is the No. 1 requested design I get from men of all ages . . . and men definitely use it as a way to attract the opposite sex,” says Prom. The temporary painted on version of the Tyson tattoo was seen Friday night at Coyote Ugly in the East Village, where there seemed to be no shortage of this newest trend. They were actually offering the boxer’s inspired tattoo as a face stamp, at this club. Both men and women were sporting the Tyson tat.
I fully expect everyone attending this year’s BMEFest in Virginia to arrive with a Mike Tyson tattoo.
And that’s it for this week’s news everyone. As always, be sure to send in those links you find, and have a great weekend.
It’s now time to send in a pair of clown tattoos from two different artists.
We’ve seen Xusha on ModBlog before, most recently with her fresh hand implant. This time however, she’s showing off her new portrait tattoo by Toumaniantz Rouslan, which has a bit of a “sad clown” feel to it.
Now while Xusha’s clown may be a little on the sad side, this familiar clown by Zoran from Tattoo Hard Core in Serbia is definitely a cheerful fellow. I’m certain he needs no introduction.
[Telegraph] Holy shit, you guys! It happened, it finally happened! Our long, national nightmare is finally over! After a solid week of mind-numbing idiocy and hilariously poorly thought out lies, one of the great dumb stories of our time has reached its logical conclusion. Are you ready for this, folks? Get a beverage, find a comfortable seat and let the warm sunshine wash over you as we collectively revel in what we can only imagine will be the last we hear of this foolishness, at least until Chuckles over there gets cast on Big Brother UK or something. Anyway, that whole canard about falling asleep in the chair at the tattoo shop? LIES, LIES, BALD-FACED LIES.
Kimberley Vlaminck had insisted she dozed off after asking the tattooist for just three small stars – then woke in horror to find her face was covered.
[…]
Amid a frenzy of media attention, she then pledged to sue the tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, for the £9,000 she needed for laser surgery to have them removed.
She said after the tattooing last week: “It is terrible for me. I cannot go out on to the street. I look like a freak.”
But the 18-year-old has finally confessed she did not fall asleep, that she wanted all the stars and was “fully aware” of what Mr Toumaniantz was doing.
Ms Vlaminck told a Dutch TV crew: “I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and the tattooist made a mistake.”
And so ends the ignominious tale of a common boob. As mentioned above, though, if history has taught us anything, she will be back, probably on a reality program, or getting punched in the face by a big foam fist on some Japanese-style game show. We can only hope.
[Edmonton Sun] Last week, we mentioned the story of Zipp’s Tattoo and Museum, the Edmonton, Alberta, tattoo shop that has been shuttered for, among other reasons, miserably failing to meet basic standards of cleanliness, evidenced by the fact that this goon was tattooing animals in the same place as humans. This is typically frowned upon. Luckily, it seems like some good might come out of this! Mike Francis, owner of Little Buddha Tattoo & Piercings, is now trying to mobilize artists and shop owners in the area to be as public and forthcoming as possible with regard to their commitment to meeting safety standards.
[Francis] started a Facebook group for local studios to post spore test results of sterilization machines, inspection dates and other sanitation information for potential clients to check out while researching studios.
Francis, who laments the lack of licensing in the industry, said he’s intended to create the group for awhile, but the recent scare at Zipp’s Tattoo & Museum was “the final straw.”
[…]
The closure has been an embarrassment to reputable studios in the city, Francis said.
“What I’m hoping (the Facebook group) is going to do is people are going to investigate their tattoo studios around the city,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s me or (another studio), at least you’ll be able to go through it and see we do a regular spore test.”
While his studio hasn’t felt any economic impact from the incident yet, clients are clearly unsettled.
“My first appointment today was at 12 p.m. and the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘You’re using clean needles, right?’” he recalled.
In the description of the group, Sterile Tattoo & Piercing Studios In and Around Edmonton, he wrote, “As a studio owner, let’s try to change what others have destroyed.”
Well hey, this is a solid idea! Now, some may feel it’s an invasion of sorts and that this sort of disclosure may lead to a situation where individuals and shops are put into a position to preemptively prove their innocence rather than defend themselves against accusations of guilt, but it’s still hard to not see these sorts of actions as promising steps toward further acceptance in the public eye. Jason McDonald, the environmental public health officer who pulled the plug on Zipp’s, has the money quote at the end of the article: “There are roughly 50 studios in the Edmonton area and they’re generally in compliance and doing a good thing. I would get a tattoo in any of the studios open today. That’s the key message: this is a safe industry.”
[His Hair Clinic] And finally, some more good news. (Though this may be old news and simply news to me. News, news. News.) Apparently, tattoos are no longer just something you wake up with on your face after falling asleep in sundry locales, but they can also do some good if used properly! Like, say, the folks at His Hair Clinic are doing—now, grown men needn’t any longer face the gross indignity of receding hairlines! As you can see, the cosmetic scientists at work here simply give you a close noggin shave, then tattoo a realistic-looking hairline, giving you the hirsute appearance you crave. On the downside, due to these facial/head tattoos, these gentlemen will never be able to get jobs again. Sad.
[Animal NY] Hoo boy, is this not just the most irritating story ever or what? OK, so, as we (and everybody) mentioned previously, 18-year-old Kimberley Vlaeminck allegedly went to Romanian tattoo artist Rouslan Toumaniantz and ended up with 56 stars tattooed all over her face. She claims she only asked for three and then fell asleep, which is just a preposterously stupid lie, while Toumaniantz says that she knew full well what was happening and only freaked out once her father or boyfriend or whoever lost their respective shit. Now she is suing the tattoo artist, because she wants the stars removed, of course. Is your brain leaking out of your ears yet? Mine is!
Anyway, my initial response to this mess of foolishness was that it was a hoax, because, come on: Nobody involved in this situation could be deranged/myopic enough for any of this to be real, right? Well, Toumaniantz is apparently a member over at BodyMod.org and posted this response, saying he did, in fact, tattoo this crazy person. Hooray.
Then, the girl said she felt asleep during the tattoo session. But :
1) Tattoo hurts,
2) Tattoo hurts more on face than on most other places,
3) Tattoo hurts even more on the nose than on the face,
4) Apart from the pain factor, the emotional impact of a first tattoo is huge, which makes it even less likely to sleep during such a session,
5) During this tattoo I had to ask Kimberley to change quite often her position, because the face isn’t flat and you need to always adjust the persons position and yours to be able to tattoo,
6) Kimberley did stand up many times during the session and did check up the work in a mirror,
7) We spoke during a part of the session,
8) The call log of her mobile phone and SMS activity could easily show that from the start of the session to its end she wasn’t sleeping,
9) And most importantly, a witness, being totally independent from both sides saw all the session from its start to the end, and confirms every word above. Kortrijk police made an inquiry, and both of us (me and the witness) were conducted shortly after Kimberley tattoo was finished to the police station, and both of us said exactly what did happen, and therefore gave exactly the same version of the events. Copies of minutes (in Flemish) we can provide.
So Kimberly was absolutely aware of what was happening during all the tattoo session and got what she asked, no more no less.
So that’s the end of it, right? Poor judgment on his part for tattooing an unstable teenager’s face, maybe, but she’s still a dirty rotten liar…right? Well, except for the fact that there is now some dumb Internet toy called The Kimberlizer, which allows people to decorate photos of themselves with the same star pattern as our young heroine, and…you see where this is going, don’t you? From Animal NY:
Among the few media outlets to interview the starlet is Belgian radio station MNM, who’s advertising agency, Famous, is behind the Kimberlizer. A French newspaper says the website, which allows visitors to digitally place 56 stars on their face via webcam, was opened in April, well before the story happened. Additionally, theorists point out that MNM’s logo is a star, just like the ones covering Kimberley Vlaeminck.
In conclusion, no matter what the truth ends up being, there will almost surely not be a more aggravating tattoo-related story all year. BME extends hearty congratulations to everybody involved. Let’s all take turns punching each other in the brains, forever.
[CBS 42] At last, our long national nightmare is over! Megan Fox, the most famous tattooed person since, I don’t know, the Memento guy, has decided to heed her mother’s advice and stop mucking up her body with the devil’s ink. Let us pray.
Fox recently announced plans to cover her entire right arm with ink – but she’s now backed out of the scheme insisting she won’t be heading to the tattoo parlor again any time soon.
She says, “They’re definitely addictive. I don’t have any that I truly regret yet, but I’m sure I will at some point.”
“I’m trying to refrain from going forward for that reason. I don’t want to be 40, looking at my arm in the mirror and going, ‘Oh my God – what did I do?’”
In exchange for this promise, Fox’s mom will now let her wear make-up to school and have sleepovers every Saturday night.
[Vancouver Sun] And finally, let’s finish this wretchedly awful news week with reports that yet another Canadian tattoo and piercing shop is giving all of its customers HIV and every type of hepatitis, except this time it’s not just a matter of lazy paperwork: The clown at the centre of this story is “Zipp,” the proprietor of Edmonton, Alberta’s Zipp’s Tattoo and Museum, who, well…
On a spur-of-the-moment whim and fuelled with a bit of liquid courage, Corinda got a tattoo of a Playboy bunny on her left hip two months ago.
Now, the 26-year-old is stepping forward to be tested for HIV and hepatitis B and C after the health authority closed Zipp’s Tattoo and Museum shop at Whyte Avenue and 100th Street because of unsanitary practices and sterilization concerns over reusable piercing and tattooing equipment.
The owner told health inspectors he had been recently tattooing animals in his studio, but denied tattooing people.
The health authority is now asking people to come forward for testing.
Hey, come on! The guy is just trying to run your average illegal animal-tattooing dungeon. What’s the big deal? Prudes.
Charges are being considered by the health authority since Zipp’s –in business at another Whyte Avenue location since 1978–was also closed in 2007 because of unsanitary conditions and infection control. At that time, the health inspector said the risk of contracting blood-borne pathogens was considered low because the proprietor used single-use, disposable needles.
[…]
Health inspectors closed the tattoo parlour June 5 after noting the owner didn’t wash his hands before performing procedures and didn’t wear gloves.
Dirty and unsterile instruments were being used on clients, and the ultrasonic cleaning device was not being operated in a sanitary way. Ink went unlabelled and instruments, including needles, were improperly stored and handled.
In all fairness, the child laborers Zipp had “hired” to oversee the cleanliness of the shop totally dropped the ball. “Wah, my fingers hurt, wah, I’m hungry,” they would cry, long into the night, while Zipp tattooed pig after pig, laughing his terrible laugh, the end.
[Toronto Star] Well, it was probably only a matter of time before the Moonshin Tattoo business found its way back into the news. To recap: Earlier this year, it was revealed that local health departments in Ontario, Canada, were neglecting their duties with regard to regularly inspecting tattoo shops and, as a result, some shops were found to have been neglecting their own record-keeping (and other) practices, throwing into question their sterility and safety. Mississauga’s Moonshin Tattoo in particular caught fire because of this, and both the shop and Peel Region found themselves the subjects of a $20 million class-action lawsuit by customers who may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis B and C. In light of this, the Toronto Star launched their own investigation, and the results are pretty hit-and-miss:
Every public health unit in the [Greater Toronto Area] has failed to enforce provincial standards that require tattoo and piercing studios to be inspected at least once a year, a Star investigation has found.
[…]
Peel, with the worst record of tattoo parlour inspections for both years in the Star study, checked on only seven of its 20 establishments in 2007 and only five in 2008.
[…]
Halton Region also fared poorly in the study, with only 47 per cent of its 15 establishments inspected both years. Toronto inspected only 65 per cent of its 23 parlours in ’07 but had a perfect year, in ’08, when there were 41 parlours.
The most diligent were Durham, which managed to inspect all tattoo parlours under its jurisdiction in one year and 95 per cent the next, and York, which inspected 84 per cent one year and 97 per cent the next.
A variety of reasons were offered for missed inspections, but most common was a lack of funding after the province made regional health authorities responsible for such inspections a decade ago.
Allison Stuart, Ontario’s assistant deputy minister of public health, doesn’t buy that excuse.
“We’re talking about guidelines that have been in place since 1997, so this is not something that’s been sprung upon the health units,” she said.
While it’s heartening to see a few regions taking their responsibilities seriously, there are some egregious stats mentioned there. The logical extension of this investigation, it seems, would be to determine if these inspectors are dropping the ball in all areas of their work—as the article mentions, at least as far as Peel is concerned, their inspectors are also responsible for “more than 5,000 food premises, 500 recreational water facilities and 150 child-care centres”—or if their neglect has been limited to premises offering body modification procedures? (It’s also addressed that inspectors failed to visit “ear-piercing establishments” with regularity.) It’s paranoid to assume there’s some insidious blueprint being followed here, but if these failures are largely occurring at the expense of body artists, that seems worthy of some attention, no?
(Of course, if Ontario artists want to keep on top of things without prompting from the government, they can always get their Health Educators certification when David Vidra comes to Toronto next week, here and here.)
[Daily Mail] Several thousand astute readers have sent in this article today, so, yeah, we figured it was worth some attention, as unbelievable as it is. Anyway, as the story goes, Kimberley Vlaminck, an 18-year-old living in lawless Courtrai, Belgium, went in to get three harmless stars tattooed on her face by Rouslan Toumaniantz at The Tattoo Box, but, uh, fell asleep? Or was drugged? And somehow woke up with 56 goddamned stars covering half her face? What?
She claims she fell asleep while he was doing his work… and awoke to ‘this nightmare’.
‘It is terrible for me,’ said Kimberley. ‘I cannot go out on to the street, I am so embarrassed. I just look horrible.’
‘I think he didn’t understand what I wanted. He spoke only fractured English and French.
‘But I explicitly said in my native tongue, French, and also in a little bit of English when he looked confused, that I wanted three little stars only near my left eye.’
Rouslan Toumaniantz, who runs the tattoo parlour called The Tattoo Box in Courtrai, denies her claim, saying she knew ‘exactly what she wanted’.
He added: ‘She was awake and looked into the mirror several times as the procedure was taking place. The trouble all started when she went home and her father and boyfriend threw a fit.
First things first: I have a hard time believing any of this is true. I don’t know what the game is, but I want to go on record as saying I won’t be surprised when and if this is exposed as a hoax. However, if any of it is true, I’ll gladly adjust my verdict to say that I think young Kimberley is full of it. Not to be too much of an armchair physician/psychologist/mind-reader/whatever, but falling asleep while someone drills 56 stars into your face? Come on now. I think we can all agree this is preposterous. The argument could potentially be made that the artists should have maybe not tattooed the hell out of an 18-year-old’s face, but her reaction seems downright pathological. If any of this is true. Which I don’t think it is.
[Craigslist] And finally, here is a HOT NEW TREND that will surely be hitting a city near you, soon! As the RECESSION continues and people can NO LONGER AFFORD TATTOOS, how will they manage to keep inking themselves into UNEMPLOYABILITY? The answer, of course, is PRESCRIPTION DRUGS:
