I am totally jonesing for the release of photographer and roaming explorer Lars Krutak’s new book “Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification” to come out on Edition Reuss this September. Here’s another image to tease you into the same anticipation as I feel, from his 2007 visit with the the Mentawai, whose beautification includes not just the “titi” (their word for tattoos), but also sharpened teeth… You’d think sharpened teeth would look monstrous and frightening, but with a big happy grin like she has, they actually look terrifically friendly!

You know, I’ve been seeing so much great scar work every single day that I’ve actually been censoring myself to avoid flooding my posts on other subjects away. It’s just amazing both how much talent there is — at this point you can find several competent scarmasters in nearly every major city (and then some) — but how quickly the portfolios of the top artists grow. It used to be you were lucky to get a big piece every couple months, but now it feels like there are a growing number of people who are considering scarification first, before entertaining getting a tattoo. Here’s what caught my eye today, a gorgeous floral scar done by Brian Decker (purebodyarts.com) two days ago.

Ferank (facebook.com/ferank.manseed), a handpoke tattooist who I’ve written about here before, points out that humanity has always had a close relationship with metal, not just as an object of wealth that never tarnishes or oxidizes, but also as a magical metal with healing properties — Ferank recalls his grandmother being given gold injections for her arthritis. Longterm readers may recall back in 2006 when I wrote about Islamic gold implants, and there are also Eastern monks who perform gold implants for a variety of spiritual reasons. Up until the early 1900s, Western doctors would sometimes implant a small piece of metal near an inflamed joint, and even today gold nanoparticles are being injected to fight prostate cancer!

Whether you believe this is placebo medicine, spiritual medicine, or hard science, it is undeniable that gold has an intimate and profound relationship with the human experience that few materials have, so he set out to tattoo himself with gold. This wasn’t easy because gold leaf is far thinner than paper and disintegrates easily — if he had tried to suspend it in a liquid solution like a traditional pigment solution, it would practically disappear, so he picked it up the gold leaf with a needle grouping and pushed it into the skin, which seemed to work.

He admits it sounds a little crazy, but he honestly feels that his consciousness has been altered through this ritual act. The first photo is fresh, and the second photo was taken about a week after the procedure, at which point you could still see a bit of sparkle. The last photo is well over a year old. Ferank plans on experimenting more with tattooing in gold.

Ayreen of Octopus Piercing Studio in Zagreb, Croatia… As dangerous as she is beautiful in this photoshoot by Marija Buljeta Photography. There is a second photo after the break that shows more of Ayreen’s blackwork tattoos. Click to zoom in the first photo.

First, I wanted to clarify a comment I made about light sensitivity and eyeball tattoos. While there is not any anatomical way for discolouration of the sclera to lead to light sensitivity, I think it is important to recognize that in a small percentage of people, increased intraoccular pressure (ie. squeezing the eyeball), which can occur when a layer of ink is added around the eye, especially if too much is injected, can lead to painful “eyeaches” which feel essentially like a really bad headache. If a person is sensitive to intraoccular pressure, and it takes time for the eye to adjust, it’s not unheard of for a person to have a bad headache that lasts a year or more — think about that before you have this done, because if this happens to you, there is effectively no treatment and you will just have to tolerate it. You can get eyedrops that reduce the pressure, which may or may not help. The reason that I mention it in relation to light sensitivity, is that in some people (think of your last bad hangover), a bad headache can induce light sensitivity, and you may find yourself forced to wear sunglasses outdoors for the next year just to be able to tolerate the pain. In some people this pain may never fully go away.

That said, Pinhead and John Villani in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida just shared with me four beautiful eye tattoos they’ve done. I am especially fond of the first one, a bright orange eye that really suits the wearer and looks amazing in this portrait. Most of the eye tattoos people have seen are the dark or black eyes, which are very different in appearance — and much less “friendly” — than eyes where the sclera is still lighter than the iris. While it’s still going to be a shock, I think the average person can cope with and even appreciate this look. The second eye, the blue one, as you can see, is also quite approachable (or maybe it’s just his big smile makes it seem safe?). The last two are of course black, and the difference in them is quite striking. I’m not sure which is my favorite because I love them all, but I think if I had to choose one in this set as my favorite, it would have to be the first.

(The first image can be zoomed, the others are already at full size)

PS. Don’t forget that BME has a gallery of other eyeball tattoos here.

Am I imagining things when I say that when Pauly Unstoppable takes out his piercings and makes this glum face (taken in utter boredom in his many hours of daily transit commuting) that he looks disturbingly similar to Pauly Shore? Seriously, do a Google Image Search and see if you agree with me. Either way, it’s always fun for me getting to see Pauly without his jewelry in those superbly large nostrils he has (as well as his cartilage monsters).

Sad that a PSA like this is still needed in 2012. It was already sad enough in 2002.

A lovely photo of Tanesha and her best friend pierced and chained together, with piercings by Mike Grant and photo by Jon Lake (contact Jon directly if you’re interested in prints).