Well the weekend is here, which means it time for the news of the week.  This week we’ll be seeing what is (hopefully) the last we’ll hear about a story that’s been covered a few times. In addition, Australian students are getting a new class added next year, some charity events, and what happens when you brag about a tattoo on the internet.

First up this week is the story of Ariana Iacono, the 14-year old student from North Carolina that was suspended for refusing to remove her nostril piercing on the grounds that her family are members of the Church of Body Modification.  A few days ago, a judge ruled that the school board couldn’t keep her suspended, and ordered them to allow her back to class.

A federal judge ordered a North Carolina school to admit a 14-year-old high school student suspended for wearing a nose piercing she says is part of her religion, and the teenager was headed to science class Friday afternoon.  ”We are thrilled that Ariana can return to her studies,” her mother, Nikki Iacono, said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union. “Ariana was an honor roll student in middle school, and she is eager to get back to her classes and continue with her education as soon as possible.”

The best news about this is that she’s allowed to return to the school with all of her friends, as opposed to the school the board wanted to send her to, a school for children with behavioural problems.

The rest of the news is just ahead, click the read more button to continue on.

DIY backyard studios are popping up all over Australia by teens wanting to tattoo and pierce their friends.  While it is great that students want to modify themselves, as well as take ownership of the process by going the DIY route, it seems that a lot of the safe materials, and safe practices aren’t getting to them.  In response to this, some school boards are setting up workshops to educate students on what is involved in procedures and make them aware of the risks they are taking by doing things without proper knowledge.

The program will cover the dangers of self tattooing and piercing and also emerging forms of body art such as dermal implants, where pieces of metal are attached under the skin to allow devil horns or other decorations to stick out, and scarification, where the skin is cut in a certain way to allow scars to form in patterns.

Of course, some people have a problem with this.

However, Father Mick MacAndrew from Bombala, also the Priest on Campus at Lumen Christi Catholic College, at Pambula, believes it is up to the industry to self-regulate and the Council workshops, may just end up making the industry look desirable to impressionable teenagers.

I hate to break it to the good Father, but teens already think it is desirable, and DIY kits are readily available to anyone.  This is the same argument that comes up for abstinence only education.  If the students aren’t taught about safe sex, or just sex in general, then they’ll never want to have sex.  Right.

Of course, this is all because tattoos are a new thing.  It’s not like they’ve been around for thousands of years.  I’m sure that the recently discovered tattoos on a 1000-year-old Andean woman were just some marker she put on her body for show.  In all seriousness, the discovery of this body gives researches some clues into some of the ancient techniques that were used to create tattoos, as well as revealing that they may have been used as a form of acupuncture.

According to Usatoday.com, 12 overlapping circles tattooed on the woman’s neck resemble “therapeutic” tattoo spots corresponding to acupuncture points used to relieve neck pain.  The team assumed local problems of the upper spine or headaches as possible reasons for treatment by the tattooing.  In contrast with the soot used in the decorative parts of the tattoos, partially pyrolyzed plant material, probably burned herbs, was used for the therapeutic neck tattoos.

In unrelated news, there are a couple of charity events coming up that you might be interested in participating in.

First, in Long Island, the Tattoo Lou’s chain of studios will be giving away free pink ribbon tattoos to support breast cancer awareness.

Also, in Worcester in the UK, body piercer Nicola Long has put together a calendar of local women to raise money for SANDS, a charity designed to help those affected by stillbirths and neonatal death.

Heading back to the US, the Boston Phoenix recently did a story on a book about the rise in popularity of the literary tattoo.

Kristina Grinovich dedicated her right arm as a tribute to the words of Kafka

The book’s participants skew heavily toward literary professionals. “There’s a lot of people in the book that are affiliated with publishing or books in some way,” says Taylor. “A handful of librarians, a lot of people who work for publishing houses, magazine journalists.” There are a few famous writers, too, like Jonathan Lethem and Rick Moody. There are also a number of independent bookstore employees, whom Taylor tried to shoot in their natural habitat. “I wanted to make it a thing about bookstores and about the places where literature is consumed,” he says. Still, Taylor estimates that literary laypeople comprise the majority of his subjects, proving that literary tattoos are far from the exclusive province of MFAs and those who work in publishing.

Now obviously when it comes to a literary tattoo, especially of a specific quote, you want to make sure the spelling is correct.  Which is why it’s always good to double check the stencil one last time before starting the tattoo.  Of course, if it is on your back, it might be a little tricky to read backwards.  In the case of a woman in Chicago, when she looked in the mirror her White Sox logo looked perfect.

Elmwood Park resident Eugenia Bebis claims that on June 5 Mystic Tattoo Art & Body Piercing Corp. employee Micah St. John improperly tattooed her a backward Chicago White Sox logo on her thigh, according to a suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.  The suit claims, among other things, Mystic Tattoo failed to notice the tattoo was being inked backward and didn’t adequately train and supervise employees.

Of course this could be a case of the artist screwing up, but you’d have to be pretty dumb not to realize you’re tattooing a logo of a local team backwards.

Speaking of dumb people, a little while ago a user on Reddit started a thread talking about how his girlfriend came home from school with a brand new tattoo from Dali’s Temptation of St. Anthony.  Well it turns out, he may have been lying.

But it wasn’t his girlfriend. According to one Reddit user who claims to be friends with her, the girl in the picture learned about the thread through her profile on the softcore porn site Suicide Girls. She posted a link to the thread to her Facebook, adding: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?”

So, that’s it for the real news, all there is left is the celebrity round-up, which is thankfully light this week.

First, one of the Jonas Brothers (the dreamy one) was seen showing off his newest tattoo, a wedding band with his wife’s name that he keeps hidden under his ring.

So while Mr. Jonas is adding to his collection, the stunning Kelly Osbourne is having some of hers removed.

And finally, one of the smartest political minds of this generation will be doing news reports on Good Morning America.  Elizabeth Hasselbeck‘s first report will be on the dangers of tattoos to teenagers in America.

That’s it for this week.  Remember, if you ever come across a story that you think should be included in the news of the week, just submit the link here.