Well Modblog readers, I am still alive.  After a brief scare in the Grand Canyon, this week’s news is coming to you from Sin City itself, Las Vegas.  With that in mind, I thought this week’s news round up should kick off with a tattoo dedicated to someone who is no stranger to corruption.

Jeremy Scheuch has got style. Chicago style. And Rod Blagojevich style.  The 31-year-old event planner spent three hours Tuesday night honoring the city and the on-trial-for-corruption former Illinois governor with a large tattoo on his upper right thigh.

I will admit, it does look a LOT better than the Sarah Palin tattoo I posted about a couple weeks back.

For the rest of this week’s news, including a number of tribute tattoos, as well as some great information about tribal modifications, click the little “read more” link.

Tribute tattoos are a mainstay of the culture.  Sometimes they’re dedicated to a lost loved one, or maybe to a favorite band.  What about a tribute to a road?  And what if that tribute tattoo was only one of many dedicated to the same stretch of highway?  Well to Ron Jones, Route 66 means a heck of a lot to him.

Ron “Tattoo Man” Jones has 85 tattoos in total and 84 tattoos dedicated to sites along the 2,448-mile highway. His body pays tribute to Waylon’s Kuku Burger in Miami, Okla.; a former zoo that once housed mountain lions in Two Guns, Ariz.; even the Santa Monica Pier arch in California, where Route 66 ends and the Pacific Ocean begins.

While Ron has dedicated his body to his favorite stretch of road, Brandon Perry from Perth has covered his arm in symbols of his beloved homeland.

Now it features a Vegemite jar, a Hills Hoist clothes line with Bonds Y-fronts, a pink lamington and a meat pie with tomato sauce spread into the Triple J insignia.

I’ll be the first to admit that beyond Vegemite, I have no clue whatsoever as to what the other images are of.  Any Aussie readers out there care to fill the rest of us in?

As readers of Modblog know, I do like to post stories that explore modifications from tribal cultures all over the world.  I’ve touched on how the Maori shrunken heads were finally returned from a museum in Paris, and now this week I was lucky enough to come across a pair of articles that delve into a little bit of detail describing the history behind both Moko tattoos, as well as Apatani modifications from northern India.

“Apatani women were often abducted by the neighbouring Nishi tribesmen for their beauty, so to make themselves look unattractive, they tattooed their faces and wore huge circular nose plugs,”

Sticking with news from the southern hemisphere;  The Red Cross in Australia has recently updated it’s rules with regards to when a person can give blood following a tattoo or piercing.  They re-evaluated their policy and decided to reduce the wait period from one year down to six months.  While this is a decent step forward with regards to the modified community, the organization has come under fire for not changing it’s rules regarding gay men.

The fact the Red Cross is willing to review its current donor guidelines for people who have piercings and acupuncture and tattoos, but not review guidelines when it comes to gay blood donation, really does suggest the Red Cross is, at best, engaged in some fairly arbitrary decision-making, or at worst, is just downright homophobic

According to the rules, if a male has engaged in same sex behavior, he must wait at least one year before donating blood.  Personally this pisses me off to no end, as the Canadian Red Cross has similar policies.  I have a good friend who has been in a committed relationship with his partner for over two years.  He is unable to donate blood as he has sex with his partner.  At the same time I have another friend who tends to sleep with as many women he can find in a given month can donate all he wants.  Tell me, which of my friends poses a greater health risk?

Speaking of dumb ideas, it seems that a tattoo artist in Edinburgh thought it wouldn’t be a problem to tattoo a 13-year-old.

Stewart also admitted tattooing five teenagers under the age of 18 – three were aged 15, one aged 16, and one aged 13 – between January and February of this year.  Defence agent Stephen Mannifield said: “He wasn’t completely familiar with the legislation.  “He has learned his lesson and will certainly know for next time.”

At what point does it seem alright to think tattooing a minor wouldn’t be illegal?

Then again, the dad in Fresno who tattooed his son with a gang sign was just acquitted.  Maybe the artist in Edinburgh should move to California if he wants to keep tattooing children.

A few weeks back I posted an article about the guinness record holder for the most tattooed woman.  Well this week there has been a new record set, the world’s most expensive tattoo.  To be fair, this isn’t actually a legitimate tattoo, but bedazzling yourself with over $900,000 worth of diamonds does warrant a little attention.

So we have the world’s most expensive tattoo, what about the world’s most “disgusting” tattoo?  One of the projectionists at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin has gotten a tattoo to commemorate the horror film, “The Human Centipede“.  Personally, I think it’s pretty awesome that he got that done, although I would have preferred if he put a bit more detail into it.

Talking about detail, the developers of the upcoming video game, Call of Duty-Black Ops, spent a lot of time trying to get the in-game tattoos the character sports as realistic as possible.  Unfortunately for them, someone was even more detail oriented, and wrote them a nice article explaining why the tattoos in the game are unrealistic.

Now before I get into the celebrity “news” portion of this week’s roundup, I wanted to share this story about modified mommies.  With Father’s day coming up I was hoping you, the loyal reader, would be so kind as to find some stories about modified daddies.  Sure the alliteration isn’t there, but the big dad for fathers is coming up, and it’d be nice to send some love their way.

Without futher ado, let’s see what foolishness the rich and pampered have been doing this week.

Gemma Arterton, star of the Prince of Persia, has gotten herself her first tattoo.  When asked about the pain, she said, “All the men warned me in advance it would hurt a lot. It wasn’t that bad, though. Try having your bikini zone waxed, guys. Then you will know what real pain feels like.”

Katy Perry and Russell Brand have taken a big step in their relationship, one that superstitious types would say is the kiss of death to a relationship.  They went and got matching tattoos.

I do have a question for our readers, especially those who believe in the matching tattoo superstition.  When getting a tattoo dedicated to the person you’re dating, is it bad luck if you’re not actually dating the person yet?  The reason I ask is because one of the contestants on The Bachelorette decided to get a tattoo dedicated to the bachelorette in question, while the show is still going on and she’s fooling around with several guys at once.

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

Oh, and this week’s final celeb story is probably my favorite.  Coolio, as you may remember from such hits and Gangster’s Paradise and umm..  that other song, has gotten himself a new tattoo to show how happy he is to be taken on tour with his new buddies, ICP.  Unfortunately for Coolio, he wasn’t informed fully about the Juggalo culture, and ended up getting Juggalo spelled wrong.

So that’s it for this week.  I should be near an internet connection again in a few days so the next update will be a bit sooner.  Thanks to Botexty and Valentine for the submissions this week.  And don’t forget everyone, Father’s day is this weekend, remember to pick the old man something special.