I have such a soft spot for pictures like this (in this case you surely recognize Pineapple Tangaroa of Shaman in Austin, Texas). Anyway, I’m done for tonight since it was a very long day (and while I do love my readers dearly, I’m afraid my family must come first) and I’m really not up to speed on this format… I have a daunting pile of things I want to show you but I’m still learning how to make my fingers move fast enough to make it happen at a reasonable pace.
Following up on some of the great work from Peter Madsen at Meatshop (meatshoptattoo.com) has done that Rob’s posted here in the past, I wanted to point out this gem recently added to his portfolio. It is based on the Ragnarok saga, so the two ships are Naglfar and Skibladner, and of course that’s Yggdrasil (the tree of life) in the centre, with the whole thing being done in a Bronze-age style (even though, as Peter points out, the myth is not from the Bronze age, but it’s what the client wanted). This is one of those tattoos that makes a person look like the university professor you wish you had, or otherwise hip-academic when they disrobe at the beach.
Here’s a recent hand-poked (and I tend to agree that on difficult parts of hands like fingers and palms, this is the way to go) double palm tattoo by Boff Konkerz (click here for my interview with him) that he did much earlier today in Prague. I always like tattoos that spread across multiple body parts (or even multiple bodies), so that increases my like of this piece.
I’ve seen a lot of nice work coming out of Ace’s Piercing and Modification by Ronnie and Gage in San Diego, and this double industrial is no exception. If it’s not obvious, the one is very traditional, but the vertical one comes down, does a little hop, the pulls in over the “rook ridge”, does a spin/coil, and then exits out the back of the inner conch. Olympic dive or what? But what gets me is that there’s a CBR trapped in it. That would drive me NUTS with all the jingling and jangling right inside my ear!!! But I showed it to Caitlin and she laughed at me and said I was the most irritable person in the world that goes crazy at the slightest little noise, and that no normal person would be bothered.
Ah, the fun the little girl is having, sitting on her little platform floating in the air held up by ropes attached to flesh hooks. What a world she’s growing up in. And the amazing thing is, with this being the 12th annual South California BBQ (which just took place on August 4th), these BBQs have being held significantly longer than she has existed!!! Whenever you’re feeling down about not being accepted or feeling like an outsider, remember this little girl and all those growing up in her generation. All we have to do is wait long enough, and the majority of the population won’t be able to imagine a world where body rituals and body modification aren’t the norm.
But seriously, my hat’s off with congratulations to the BME family down in So Cal that’s pulled together for a dozen years to make these little family reunions, sometimes with new relatives, sometimes old, some coming every year, some coming only one… but all family. It makes me very happy that this sort of grass roots enthusiasm is still adding their blood to parks around the world.
Oh here is an implant that I must remember to show my daughter in the morning… What can I say about this implant? It’s real, and dangerous, and a lure for fools. And Francesca was such a fool when she went to Brian Decker (purebodyarts.com) to have him install this wonderful Deathly Hallows implant on top of her hand. For those of you who are either not Harry Potter fans, or who are and can’t get enough, I’ll repeat Xenophillius Lovegood’s explanation of the symbol,
“The Elder Wand,” he said, and he drew a straight vertical line on the parchment. “The Resurrection Stone,” he said, and he added a circle on top of the line. “The Cloak of Invisibility,” he finished, enclosing both line and circle in a triangle, to make the symbol that so intrigued Hermione. “Together,” he said, “the Deathly Hallows.”
I’ll always have a special place in my heart for this book, because it’s the first major piece of literature I read to my daughter, spending a huge amount of hours reading all seven books. Anyway, the implant is looking very nice at a year old.
You may think that Kevin looks quite nonchalant and unthrilled at the fact that his soul is most likely about to be eaten. Apparently The Engima has not yet noticed his hair though, which gives him solid protection against soul-devouring, for obvious reasons. But seriously, I just love the black eyes that Enigma has had tattooed — they are unbelievably solid and really suit him. Anyway, I’m going out to the museum for the afternoon but I will return later to make some more posts.
PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!
This joy-filled photograph of Muffe Vulnuz and Crow Rising gives me opportunity again to congratulate them on their wedding. Would that they carry this bliss with them forever. And I have high hopes for them, because of this little fact — for some reason I can’t explain, of all the heavily modified folks that my daughter met when she was very young, Muffe somehow stuck in her memory. He has a special charm about him, and is not just a talented body artist, but a wonderful person. I wish them them many happy adventures together.
Of all the artists out there mimicking the flow of paint, perhaps the greatest is Czech artist Ondrash, who can be found at http://www.facebook.com/ondrashtattoo or http://www.ondrash.com/ (which appears to be a work-in-progress so the FB galleries are your better bet for now).
I would go so far as to say that there is no one working today as capable at making tattoo ink appear like the subtle movement of watercolor pigment as Ondrash is. It’s quite remarkable, really. Whether the skin will allow these subtle nuances to hold up in the long term is of course still to be proven, but that is worry is true of a great many modern color artists, and only time will tell whether modern tattoo techniques and inks will allow for new expression in the art form that was not previously possible. Here is a small gallery of Ondrash’s remarkable work:
Finally, I want to emphasize how hard this is to achieve. The tattoo on the left is an original by Ondrash. The tattoo on the right is a rather callously and uncreatively stolen copy, and while the artist is obviously not incapable at his craft, it falls leagues short. If the wearer has any sort of eye, I am sure that every time they are congratulated on their tattoo by friends, that they not only feel a sting of shame, but also disappointment at how inferior their copy turned out.
I hate seeing garbage like this flying around on Facebook and Tumblr and so on. There are various variations on it, posting some plainskin trainwreck, and a gorgeous tattooed person, and making a similar comment implying that the tattooed supermodel is an outcast while the orange duckfaced troll is Ms. Popular. I don’t know what crazy country the original poster lives in, but I think if you asked people, 95% would tell you that the person on the left looks horrible and make fun of them. Whereas the tattooed woman is obviously traditionally beautiful, and 95% of people would not “consider them dirt”. Tattoos are ubiquitous, and widely considered attractive when done well, especially on an already conventionally attractive person.
Pictures like this make us look like whiners. Do we really want people to think we have a victim complex? I don’t know about you, but I’m not a victim! If you see things like this, please, do not “like” it. Do not “share” it. Do not perpetuate the myth that tattoos are great way to wreck your life.
And of course that completely ignores the other issue, that of making fun of someone else’s aesthetic decisions now they we are in a position of social power and they are the ones that everyone is pointing at and laughing at…