Wow.  Long time no see.  My apologies about the lack of news posts so far this year, but as of today they’re back and are sticking around.

Well, since it’s been so long there may be a couple of stories that are a few weeks old, so I’ll be covering them as well as catching up on this past week in modification news the world over.

To get things started I’d like you to meet Lisa Khoury.  Lisa is an assistant news editor for the University of Buffalo’s newspaper, The Spectrum.

Earlier this month Lisa caused a bit of a fuss with her article entitled “Why put a bumper sticker on a Ferrari?”  Here’s a couple of choice samples from her piece.

I get it. It’s the 21st century. You’re cool, you’re rebellious, you’re cutting edge, you have a point to prove, and you’re a woman. Awesome.  Ladies, I know you’re at least at the legal age of making your own decisions, but before you decide to get a tattoo, allow me to let you in on a little secret. A secret you may have not fully realized yet thus far in your life. What you must understand is, as women, we are – naturally – beautiful creatures.  Seriously, though. Your body literally has the ability to turn heads. Guys drool over us. We hold some serious power in our hands, because – as corny as this sounds – we hold the world’s beauty.

But something girls seem to forget nowadays, or maybe have not been taught, is that women hold the world’s class and elegance in their hands, as well. So what’s more attractive than a girl with a nice body? I’ll tell you what: a girl with class. Looks may not last, but class does. And so do tattoos.  An elegant woman does not vandalize the temple she has been blessed with as her body. She appreciates it. She flaunts it. She’s not happy with it? She goes to the gym. She dresses it up in lavish, fun, trendy clothes, enjoying trips to the mall with her girlfriends. She accentuates her legs with high heels. She gets her nails done. She enjoys the finer things in life, all with the body she was blessed with.  But marking it up with ink? That’s just not necessary.

But at the end of the day, are you really a happier person? Has this tattoo, for instance, caused you to learn something new about yourself? Has it challenged you? Has it led you to self-growth? Nothing comes out of getting a tattoo. You get a tattoo, and that’s it. You do something productive, though, and you see results. That’s a genuine, satisfying change in life. Not ink.  Invest your time, money, and effort into a gym membership, or yoga classes, or new clothes, or experimenting with different hairstyles if you’re craving something new with your body, not a tattoo.  I promise, it will be a much more rewarding experience, and you won’t find yourself in a rut when your future grandkids ask you what’s up with the angel wings on your upper back as you’re in the middle of giving them a life lesson on the importance of values and morals.

God knows the last thing this world needs is another generation of kids questioning their basic values and morals.

Oh Lisa.  Poor innocent Lisa.  It seems that Lisa didn’t realize that not only do modified people read the paper, but they’re also capable of sharing it with their friends online.  Needless to say the article went viral shortly after it was published.  Now, to be fair this is an opinion piece, however instead of just giving her opinions based off any kinds of facts, she played the moral highroad and claimed that women who get tattoos are, essentially, immoral trash.  The feedback she received online was staggering and forced her to write this “apology“.

I’m a 19-year-old college sophomore, I help run my family’s restaurant, I’m a writer and editor at my school’s newspaper, and a woman from Australia says I’m “sexist.” A professor from the University of Illinois wonders about my mental stability. A man double my age is calling me “ugly.” In the past 48 hours, authors, war veterans, mothers of small children have told me I’m ignorant, worthless, brainwashed, classless, disgusting, hypocritical, and judgmental.  A man from New Zealand called me bigoted, self-righteous, conservative rubbish.

Alright, so the reaction was pretty harsh, however stating your her means she’s implying that because she’s young she shouldn’t be criticized for her opinion.  But I digress, let’s see how she handled the rest of the apology. (Emphasis mine)

I wrote an opinion piece about tattoos for Monday’s Spectrum. As a female, I took the woman’s stance and said I’m beautiful without a tattoo.

I never meant to be vindictive toward an entire subculture. That’s why its response was so unexpected to me. Its words were different; it wanted to eviscerate me.  I am sorry to anyone who took my words as a personal attack. I am sorry to anyone who felt disrespected in any way. This column was meant to express my opinion and explain how I live, not to tell you that my way of life is in any way superior to yours.  I was misinterpreted. These strangers have slowly and in the most painful way possible ripped me to shreds within the past 48 hours.  Their hate will be tattooed in me for a long time, but only as a learning lesson.

Many points, especially about feminism, were taken out of context and turned into something demeaning. My point about my body having “the ability to turn heads” stemmed from the fact that I wasn’t the healthiest teenager, so when I learned more about health and fitness after high school, I found meaning in that. Not because I was becoming skinnier (for the record, I in no way find myself slim), but I found that I was setting goals for myself, and, for once, achieving them. I felt happier because I felt healthier. Each day I felt like I would live a longer life, and my future kids wouldn’t have to worry about their mom dying from smoking cigarettes or not exercising regularly, the way I worry about my parents.  The whole clothes thing? Well, when I lost weight, yeah, I was actually interested in dressing myself for once. Do I wear tight fitted clothes every day to school for the aesthetic, sexual pleasure of the men around me? Eww. I wore the same jeans for about 17 years and recently discovered there are other styles out there for me to try out, I guess what I was getting at was perceived as something much more shallow to my readers.

But no one was conversing about my points. Instead, they were taking certain lines out of context, and it was no longer a conversation, but an appalling backlash.

Dear Lisa.  This half-hearted apology only tells us one thing.  It tells us that you really don’t feel bad about what you said, and that the people who were understandably offended should apologize to you for being so mean.  You say you were misinterpreted, and that you never meant to be vindictive, yet you state in your apology that you “took the woman’s stance”.  So your opinion should be taken as you speaking up for all women?  Or does it mean that all men have the opposite stance and believe women are only beautiful with a tattoo?  You then go on the explain why you feel you’re beautiful without a tattoo, without actually giving any reasons that having a tattoo would make you feel otherwise.  But if we go back to the original article, at no time do you mention that your opinions are just about yourself.  In fact, you state multiple times that elegant women, women with class, etc. all have no need of a tattoo to make themselves feel beautiful.  No mention of your own experiences at all.  I hate to break it to you but you ARE being vindictive to a subculture, and there was no misinterpretation of your words.

I want to bring something up that ModBlog readers will know, and Lisa probably doesn’t.  Tattoos aren’t always about aesthetic value or beauty.  There are many different reasons for women and men to get tattooed.  Lisa’s belief that tattoos are only for beauty reveal her willful ignorance, as well as her inability to see why she offended as many people as she did.  To her a classy woman is one who works out, gets her hair and nails done, wears outfits that may be slightly uncomfortable, and put on make-up.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news to Lisa, but all of those “classy” things are actually forms of body modification.  Dying your hair, altering your appearance, changing your body through working out, wearing high heels, etc. all change how you look from your “normal” appearance.  They’re the ones hiding who they are by putting their bodies through sometimes torturous rituals just to make themselves more appealing to others.  At the end of the day, with all your make-up gone, heels off, and clothing on the floor, you’re only as beautiful as you see yourself.  That beauty comes from confidence, and the feeling that when you look in the mirror you’re seeing the person who you want to see.  Just because you see yourself without any tattoos doesn’t mean you’re better than those who do.  We modify our bodies not because it’s cool or trendy, we modify ourselves to show the world, and that person in the mirror, that we can be exactly the way we want to be.  The bottom line is that we respect ourselves and others not by how they look, but by how they act, and people like Lisa Khoury should do the same.

Alright, so with that mess behind us, we’ve got lots more news to catch up on.  So keep on reading.

To lighten the mood a little, here’s a commercial that IAM:Bubble_Toes sent me.  They also added a translation for us non-francophone types.

Mom sees the tattoo at the bottom of her daughter’s back, and says : “What is this tattoo?! it’s bullsh*t!” Mom raises her top, shows off her tattoo to her daughter and says “Now HERE’s a work of artist”.
Ad motto : “times change. So does twingo”

Now that’s an ad I can approve.

Moving on to the “stupid crime” section of the news we’ve got a couple of people who really don’t understand the impact of tattooing another person is.  First up is Chuntera Napier who thought it would be a good idea to let her son get a tattoo.

Chuntera Napier said her son, Gaquan Napier, wanted to honor his older brother who died after being hit by a car, and she had no idea it was illegal for him to get a tattoo.“  It made me feel good to know that he wanted his brother on him,” Napier said.

Napier said. “It’s not like he was asking me, ‘Can I get Sponge Bob? Like people getting all kinds of things on them. He asked me something that’s in remembrance of his brother. How can I say no?”  When asked why he wanted to get the tattoo, Gaquan said, “Because it represents my brother.”  Napier took her son to a tattoo artist in Smyrna where he got a tattoo featuring his brother’s old jersey number.  Someone at Gaquan’s school noticed the tattoo and contacted authorities.

I see where the problem is, she didn’t know how to say “no”.  So moms out there, when your 10 year old child comes to you and asks for a tattoo, it’s OK to say “no”.  This concludes today’s public service announcement.

Now, allowing your son to get a tattoo is pretty bad and can easily lead to your arrest.  An even easier way to get arrested?  Become a drug dealer that will only sell to people that have your name tattooed on them.

Mario Sergio Freudenthal from Itapetinga, Brazil, has been arrested after police found his name inked on a number of clients’ bodies, which is thought to include more than 70 people.  As a result of the officials finding his surname on robbery suspects and deceased people, police tracked him down.  The task was made easier because he was the only man in Itapetinga with that surname.

He probably could have gotten away with it if he’d only have changed his name to “Smith”.

Now, while it isn’t a crime to modify your body (at least in most places), it’s not a good idea to allow someone claiming to be a doctor to inject tire sealant into your ass.

The number of victims of a fake Miami doctor who allegedly pumped dangerous chemicals into their bodies and sealed their wounds with Super Glue has jumped to as many as 30, reports say.  Oneal Ron Morris, 31, who is transgendered and known as “The Duchess,” preyed largely on other transgendered women who hoped to enhance their curves and gain more feminine features, authorities said. But after Morris allegedly injected them with harmful chemicals, including Fix-a-Flat tire sealant, many ended up in the emergency room.

Police suspect the duo may be part of a network of scam doctors who have been offering black market surgical enhancements at home “pumping parties” for years.  Morris’ case first came to national attention when an unidentified patient was rushed to the hospital after a mixture of tire sealant, cement, glue and mineral oil was injected into her buttocks, authorities said. Another Florida transgendered woman, Rajee Narinesingh, was traumatized after The Duchess’s alleged injections to her face left her disfigured. Nearly a year after receiving the shots, Narinesingh’s face began to swell and develop large lumps that burst. A doctor had to fix the botched job by literally pulling cement out of her face, reports said.

Cement.  She injected cement into their bodies.  Being a transgendered individual is tough enough, but to have someone target the transgendered community with this type of scam is unforgivable.

Speaking of cosmetic surgery, actors in China are now being forced to undergo screenings for tattoos and facelifts in order to gain admittance to the Beijing Film Academy.

The country’s future movie stars hoping to enter the renowned Beijing Film Academy will be disqualified if they have had a facelift or tattoo, Beijing News reports.  “We will conduct a physical exam to eliminate candidates with tattoos or facelifts,” said Vice-President Wang Jinsong.  Candidates wearing heavy make-up will also be required to wash it off for the interview.  Some 6,185 candidates have applied for the 85 places at the performing school of the college from, the report said.

In legal news Bettendorf County in Iowa is looking to place a ban on tattoos and piercings in public places.

The Bettendorf Park Board is considering a policy that would address the tattoos, piercings and attire that a guest is allowed to display at their city facilities.  Last summer at Splash Landing water park, a patron complained about another patron’s tattoo – stating it was inappropriate.  The staff member asked the guest to cover their tattoo but the guest decided to leave instead.  Bettendorf Parks and Recreation Director, Steve Grimes says he understands every situation may not end like this.  The new policy would help the staff members know how to handle the situation in the future.  Grimes says the policy would address issues of “decency” of tattoos that are allowed to be displayed.

With the 9th circuit court ruling last year, I can’t see this policy ever seeing the light of day.  It’s probably just some posturing to appease local voters in an election year.

In much sillier news a British man has found a way to always make sure he has his passport on him.  By putting his passport on him.

Richard, 27, who had the tat of his old passport done while backpacking in Australia in March 2006, said: “I wanted something to remember my holiday by, but also wanted something patriotic. “My girlfriend at the time thought I was a bit daft, but eventually she found it hilarious. That seems to be the general reaction.”  Richard, a personal trainer from Wandsworth, South West London, ran out of cash on his Oz trip. So he whipped his top off in a bank branch and used the tattoo as ID.  He said: “The cashier gave me a strange look. She typed in my name and details after reading my tattoo and allowed me $50.”  But in London, Richard — who was born in Sydney and has dual British—Oz nationality — keeps his tattoo covered up. He said: “I don’t walk around with my top off.”

Passport officials said he couldn’t use his tattoo to go abroad or enter the UK.

We’re just about done, but before I go I wanted to leave you with some reading for the weekend.  This week I’ve got three articles that are worth sitting down to peruse.

Publisher’s Weekly has put together a collection of literary tattoos, focusing on which books have inspired the most tattoos.

The Queen’s Chronicle has an interview with Dr. Norman Goldstein about his medical studies into tattoos and tattoo inks.

And finally, Energy Publisher has a great write-up on a Vatican conference that was entitled “Into the Skin: Identity, Symbols, and History of Permanent Body Marks”.  Essentially religious scholars got together at the Vatican to discuss the church’s views on tattooing.

So that’s it for this week.  We’ll be back again next week with more news from around the world.  Remember, if you see an article that you think should be included in the round-up, just send me an e-mail with the link.

Have a great weekend everyone.

So the day is almost done, which means it’s time for the first news post of November.  First off, a big thanks to everyone who sent in articles this week.  Quite a few of the stories below were sent to me through e-mail, so if you happen to come across one in your travels around the web, please send me the links so I can include it in next week’s news.

We all know sports fans can get a little overzealous when it comes to supporting their favorite team.  Well this week in Texas a few fans got a little preemptive in their celebrations.

Says our tipster:

My friend had this done before Game 7.  Maybe you can show the world how big of an idiot he is, or just a die hard fan.

Oh, so many thoughts here. Did he have a deposit down on the session before Game 7 and just decided to go ahead with the tattoo in an attempt to reverse the bad juju from Game 6? Did he originally get that NBA Finals tattoo after the Dallas Mavericks took a 2-0 lead in 2006? Does he know that one angry Yahoo! commenter would have quibbled with the “world champs” line even if the Rangers had won because they did not beat a team from Japan? Is he now hoping he can one day change that last “1″ to a “4″?

But it wasn’t just Texas baseball fans…

There’s NFL fandom and then there’s getting a huge tattoo on your left forearm to honor your favorite team. There’s NFL optimism and then there’s getting a huge tattoo on your left forearm to honor the Super Bowl championship that your favorite team has yet to (and almost certainly won’t) win.

Meet the left forearm of Chris Brown. The Midland, Texas, resident tattooed it recently to commemorate the Super Bowl title he hopes his favorite team, the Houston Texans, will soon win. For his sake it better be soon. Brown’s tattoo also includes the specific Super Bowl he expects the Texans to win: Super Bowl XLVI, to be played this February in Indianapolis.

So confident is Brown in the Texans that he had the tattoo artist include shading behind the roman numerals so that he couldn’t go back and change it. Forget that Houston has never made it to the NFL playoffs, let alone won a postseason game. Brown is a man with confidence … and hopefully a lot of long-sleeved shirts in his dresser.

Well, at least with the football one he’s got a few months before he knows if it was a bad idea or not.

There’s more news to come, so keep on reading..

Alright, so as many of you know, Hermosa Beach was ground zero for a court battle that eventually proclaimed tattoo parlours protected under the first amendment.  That means cities can no longer outlaw studios (well, in the US anyway).  However that didn’t stop a group of citizens from trying to get the city to kick them out.  Well this week a judge has issued what will probably the the final ruling in this case, and the tattoo studios have won.

The legal fight over tattoo regulations in Hermosa Beach has virtually come to an end.  This week, Hermosa Beach claimed victory in its battle against Citizens United, which was suing the city over zoning changes made to accommodate tattoo businesses in town. Citizens United was hoping to get the city’s tattoo regulations overturned. But on Nov. 1, Superior Court Judge James Chalfant ruled in favor of Hermosa Beach stating that it is not liable for claims made by Citizens United because the case was filed outside the statue of limitations.  City Attorney Michael Jenkins said he is very pleased with the judge’s ruling.  “We are pleased with the court’s decision because now the city enjoys certainty,” Jenkins said. “Tattoo studios are limited to those that comply with the standards adopted by the City Council.”

Citizens United was trying to force the city to create a more restrictive tattoo studio ordinance. Last fall, in the wake of a Ninth Circuit Court ruling that tattoo businesses are protected by the First Amendment, the City Council adopted a new law dictating that tattoo parlors can be located only along Hermosa Avenue, Pacific Coast Highway, Aviation Boulevard and at Pier Plaza.

However, when Hermosa Ink opened at 802 Hermosa Ave., adjacent to a residential zone, nearby homeowners formed Citizens United and launched a lawsuit in hopes of overturning the current ordinance. The group was hoping to restrict tattoo shops even more by insisting they be 100 feet from residences, 200 feet from schools and parks and close by 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. and not offer body piercing. Citizens United argued that the city did not properly publish notification about public hearings on tattoo zoning and regulations before making them official. Fangary also said the council should have first gone through its Planning Commission for suggestions instead of solely dealing with new regulations and zoning changes.  But Chalfant stood behind Hermosa Beach’s argument that the claims should be dismissed because they were filed past the 90-day statue of limitations window.

So hopefully this will be the last we hear about this story.  However there are still cities out there that continually push against tattoo studios opening up, and each time the Hermosa Beach ruling steps up to protect the artists.

Tattoo parlors are entitled to the same First Amendment protections as the artwork they produce, meaning government is limited in restricting where they can go, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.  In a precedent-setting decision, the three-judge panel rejected arguments by the city of Mesa that it was entitled to reject an application to open a tattoo shop because nearby residents considered it “incompatible’’ with the neighborhood.  Judge Ann Scott Timmer, writing for the unanimous court, said cities can consider citizen viewpoints in deciding whether a particular business is appropriate to a neighborhood. But she said a city cannot deny a permit to a tattoo parlor “based solely on neighborhood hostility born from perceptions about tattoo parlors that may or may not be accurate.’’

A Mesa ordinance requires certain kinds of businesses, including tattoo parlors, to obtain special use permits before operating in commercial areas. Among the requirements is being at least 1,200 feet from an existing tattoo shop or school and be “compatible with surrounding uses.’’

While recommendations are made by a planning officer or board, the Council has the final say.  In this case, the planning board recommended approval, with conditions, including taking steps to limit loitering, restricting the days and hours of operation, cooperating with police to identify known gang tattoos and refusing to apply racist or gang tattoos. Ryan and Laetitia Coleman, the owners of Angel Tattoo, agreed to those restrictions.  But the Council voted 6-1 to deny the permit after hearing concerns from neighbors about the shop possibly drawing crime and reducing property values. Only Mayor Scott Smith was in support.

A trial judge rejected their claim of First Amendment violations, concluding the Council’s decision “was a reasonable and rational decision based on community concerns.’’  Timmer said some courts have concluded that administering a tattoo is not communication entitled to constitutional protections. But she said that defies logic.  “The sole purpose of a tattoo is to communicate thoughts, emotions or ideas as rendered by the tattoo artist,’’ the judge wrote. She said providing less protection to tattoos would require courts to differentiate between Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory’’ and a tattoo of melting clocks “merely because the former is painted on canvas while the latter is inked on a bicep.’’  What all that means, Timmer wrote, is that any restrictions by a city on tattoo parlors must be examined closely to see if they improperly infringe on First Amendment rights.

It seems that all around the world people are beginning to recognize that modified people aren’t just sailors or bikers.  Over in China the People’s Liberation Army is now allowing recruits that are tattooed on the face and neck to enlist.

Seeking to broaden its appeal to China’s better-educated and perhaps more hip youth, the People’s Liberation Army has dropped a longtime bar to enlisting in the service: now, recruits can sport tattoos on their faces and necks.  Recruits with facial or neck tattoos will now qualify for service if the decorations are no larger than two centimeters wide, or about 0.8 inches. The new weight rules permit a recruit to weigh as much as 25 percent more or 15 percent less than the army’s standard, as opposed to 20 and 10 percent in the past.

The ministry also began an effort to lure more university students to the military, offering them a 6,000 renminbi discount on annual tuition — around $944 — if they take a break from their studies to enlist.  Although military service is technically compulsory, the draft is seldom needed because there are more than enough volunteers to fill the ranks of the 2.3-million member force. The newly relaxed rules seek to attract better-educated recruits for a military that increasingly relies on technically sophisticated weaponry.  Tattoos, in particular, were once scorned, but they have become faddish among the savvier urban youth that the People’s Liberation Army hopes to attract.

There is a precedent: China’s most famous tattoo belonged to a Southern Song dynasty general, Yue Fei, who served in the 12th century. Folklore states that he once quit the army and returned home after his field marshal deserted, only to be berated by his mother for turning his back on his country.  On that back, she then tattooed the words, “loyalty to the nation.” Yue Fei returned to battle and became one of the nation’s most celebrated warriors before being framed by a rival and executed.

With Halloween happening last week, its understandable that some emergency room nurses may get confused when a person walks in covered in blood and missing an arm.  However in Washington when a man walked in on the 28th, he really was missing an arm.

Washington man loses his arm from a homemade guillotine.  The guillotine unexpectedly dropped on his shoulder Thursday morning at a camp he was living at, severing his arm.  He left the arm behind after the accident and rushed to Bellingham Urology Specialists.  Evelyn Leuther, who works at the clinic, told CBS Seattle a woman passing by said, “I hope that’s a Halloween costume,” referring to the man missing his arm at the shoulder.  But the gore was real. Seconds later, another woman ran by screaming for someone to call 9-1-1.

Doctors and nurses from the office rushed to help.  “It was a sight,” she said. The scene lasted for 10 minutes before an ambulance took him to the hospital two blocks away.  Officers checked a wooded area near the clinic and discovered a camp believed to be the temporary home of the individual. At the camp, officers located the severed arm and a homemade guillotine, which the police then dismantled.

The condition of the victim is not known at this time, but Bellingham police said in a release he was being transferred to Harborview in Seattle for further treatment.

Now it could just be the fact that I work for BME, but something about this story just feels like it was a DIY amputation.  Now I could be wrong, so I’ll leave it up to you.  Do you think this was intentional?

We all know that tattooing the sclera, while extremely dangerous, can be done.  However changing the color of the eye itself has been pretty much impossible to do without contact lenses, or blinding the person.  Well that is all going to change soon with a new procedure that a doctor claims can turn brown eyes blue.

If you’ve always wanted blue eyes, but have brown instead, there might be something you can do to change that. A doctor in Laguna Beach called Stroma Medical says it can use laser technology to change brown eyes to blue — permanently — without damaging vision. Dr. Gregg Homer has been working on the technology for 10 years. Homer says it is possible because even brown-eyed people have blue eyes underneath the brown layer of pigment.

“We use a laser, and it’s tuned to a specific frequency to remove the pigment from the surface of the iris,” Homer tells KTLA. The procedure takes about 20 seconds.  When laser energy is absorbed by the eye’s brown pigment, Homer says the pigment tissue changes and then the body sheds the altered tissue, changing brown eyes to blue within two to three weeks.  The brown tissue never regenerates.

Homer says tests have shown no signs of tissue damage.  He still has another year of research to complete on the procedure.  Researchers believe the procedure will be available outside the United States in 18 months, and in the U.S. in three years.  It will cost about $5,000.

Someone should write a song about this.

Today’s last story is a story of redemption and recovery.  It’s been floating around for a week or so now, so some of you may have seen small snippets, but it was SeattlePI that first brought this story to light.  It’s the tale of Bryon Widner, a former bonehead skinhead who turned his back on the white supremacist movement, and in the process removed all of his former neo-nazi markings.  I’m not going to copy it all out, but I will provide some snippets.  I encourage you to read both parts of this story which you can find at these links:  Part one.  Part two.

People grabbed their children when Bryon Widner swaggered into a store, lowered their voices when he entered a restaurant, sidled away when he strode up to a bar.  He reveled in it — the fear he inspired, the power. It made him feel like Superman.  He had symbols of racist violence carved into his face and the letters HATE stamped across the knuckles of his right hand — the hand that knocked out countless victims, sometimes leaving their teeth embedded in his skin. “Blood & Honour” was tattooed across his neck, “Thug Reich” across his belly, swastikas adorned his shaved scalp. On his forehead, a thick, black, upward-pointing arrow symbolized his willingness to die for his race.

By the time he was 30, Widner had spent a total of four years in jail, accused of murder and other charges, though he was never convicted of a major crime. Victim intimidation, he says, took care of that.  And then he met Julie Larsen.  Like Widner, Larsen’s arms and legs were covered with neo-Nazi symbols — iron crosses, a Totenkopf skull, axes crossed into a swastika, the Nazi salute “sieg heil.” She posted regularly on the Internet forum, Stormfront. Its motto: “White Pride, World Wide.”

And she was active in The National Alliance, a once-powerful white supremacist organization founded by William Pierce, whose writings called for the extermination of Jews and the violent overthrow of the Federal government — and had inspired the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that left 168 people dead.  But by her 30s, the single mother of four was questioning her racist beliefs. She grew tired of telling her children they couldn’t watch certain Walt Disney movies because Hollywood was controlled by Jews, or listen to rap music, or eat Chinese or Mexican food. After struggling to put an abusive marriage to a skinhead behind her, she yearned for something simpler.  “I just wanted a normal family life,” she said.  And to his great surprise, Widner discovered that was what he wanted, too.

But leaving a life of hate would not be easy when it was all that he had known. And when his past was tattooed all over his face.

Like I said, it’s something that you need to read from start to finish to truly get an understanding of what he went though both physically and emotionally.

And that’s it for this week.  Have a great weekend everyone and I’ll see you back here Monday.

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.