It’s time again for the Modblog weekly news roundup.  Before we started I just wanted to thank those who have been submitting news stories.  While I can normally get a good chunk of the national and international stories, I’m always on the lookout for local stories.  So if something mod-related is going on in your neck of the woods, feel free to send it in.

To start things off this week, we’ve finally reached the end of a story we’ve probably all heard about by now.  Lee Dietrick was finally awarded his “Babysitter of the Year” award.  His prize?  Three years in prison.

“Deitrick tattooed the outline of the letter ‘A’ on the child’s buttock. The mark covers about one-half inch.  Deitrick pleaded guilty in Stark County Common Pleas Court to two felony child endangering charges as part of a plea deal with county prosecutors.

Ideally this will be the last we hear about this guy, but who knows, in three years he may still be just as stupid.

To save some space on the main page, you’ll find the rest of the news after the break.

Continuing on with tattoos and law enforcement, the long arm of the law in Scotland is about to get a lot less colorful.  It seems that while visible tattoos have been acceptable for a while on officers, as of now, that is no longer the case.

“Although ‘body’ art is acceptable for footballers and pop stars, police chiefs have ordered officers to hide their tattoos under full-length sleeves after reports of crime victims being alarmed by ‘thuggish-looking cops.’ … ‘they would also no longer recruit anyone with markings on their face or neck.’”

While I’m certain rules like this exist all over, this is the first case I’ve heard of where the officers were previously allowed to have visible ink, and subsequently losing the privilege.  So for all our Scottish Modblog readers, if you were ever planning on joining the police force, make sure you don’t have anything visible.

On the plus side, if you do end up losing your job as a Scottish police officer, you can take a trip down to Weston-super-Mare outside of Bristol where a cosmetic surgeon is giving out free tattoo removal to out of work Westonians.

“Barry Crake wants to give treatment at his clinic in Sunderland to people whose job hunt is being thwarted by unsightly ink designs.  Barry has carried out the 10-minute procedure on 57 unemployed people so far, nine of whom have found work post-treatment.”

Now I know tattoo removal isn’t for everyone, but it is nice to know there are people out there willing to help those in need.

So while Barry is in the business of removing tattoos, Ian Watson is in the business of giving them out.  Now I know that you’re thinking, “Rob, why the hell are you about to give us a story about some random tattoo artist”, the answer is simple.  He isn’t actually a tattoo artist.  Ian runs a company called HIS Hair Loss Clinic, which specializes in using tattoos to “cure” baldness.

“HIS has created a new cure for male baldness with a scalp pigmentation technique that fills in fellas’ sparse spots with tattoos that look like locks.  Men have their heads inked in the same shading style used at tattoo parlors, providing a permanent fix that beats all other methods of hiding bald spots.”

I’m thankfully a few years away from needing this, but I’m going to guess there are probably a few guys out there contemplating it.  It’s about time us guys got our own cosmetic tattoos, it’s no fair the girls got to have their eye and lip liners and we had nothing.

Now here’s a story that actually makes me mad.  Now I know Modblog writer Lexci is going to get mad at me for talking about this, but my family breeds dogs.  Part of a standard practice with registered litters is that the dogs are tattooed in their inner thigh as a means of identification.  Keeping that in mind, it seems the news just loves to blame the evils of the world on tattoos:

“The pit bull-type dog, which was tattooed on its inner thigh, was found unleashed, posing a serious risk to the public.”

Yep, you read that right.  The headline of the story itself even focuses on the tattoo, and not the dog (or the owners who made it violent).  The dog is tattooed, which makes it bad.  Sigh.

By now all the hangovers from APP should have cleared up, so I wanted to share with the piercing community this lovely story about “gauging”.  Yes, you read that right.  The article talks about “gauging”.

“One day when he was 19 years old, Colby Jennings stabbed his ear lobe with an ice pick.  That was the moment Jennings started gauging his ears. Gauging, also called stretching by some, is similar to a regular piercing, but the hole is made dramatically larger over time with rounded objects placed through the ear lobe.”

For all the good work that professional piercers do, along come stories like this.  All the education, training, information that is out there, and these kids go to Youtube to find out how to pierce.  Then, when things eventually go wrong, they run right for the doctors, which leads to sensationalized stories about kids getting their information off of Youtube, and the cycle continues.

Personally what upsets me most is studios like LA Body Art in Mobile, AB that has almost 1000 videos on Youtube all of which show some type of cross contamination, or horrible practice.  I spent some time looking through their videos this week and I watched people being pierced with no clean up between clients, bare-handed wiping of tattoos, and piercings done so quick the piercer didn’t even bother to look at the site, just clamp and stab.  So not only are kids looking at Youtube videos of other kids doing unsafe things, but there’s a “professional” filming her work to show how she thinks it should be done.  (A warning if you click the link, most of the videos have really loud music so turn your speakers down first).

Going through the links this week I stumbled across a couple of really interesting stories about traditional body modifications.  First up is a story about Tricia Allen and her new book about Polynesian tattoo history and art.  Now the second story isn’t as much a story as it is a collection of excellent images from India showing a procession in praise of the goddess Maha Mariamman (Sheetla Mata).  There is a separate article here that describes the rituals that take place during the procession.  Finally researchers in the middle east have found a connection between henna tattoos and an increased chance to contract leukemia.

As always, we wrap things up with the latest news/gossip out of Hollywood.  It appears that this year’s tattoo trend (at least according to this article) is typographical tattoos.  So ladies and gents, the “tattoo experts” agree that if you want to be trendy, it’s best to go out and get some form of script work.  Now if you did have the stomach to click the link, you may have noticed Amanda Seyfried’s new tattoo.  It turns out the Mean Girls actress has tattooed “Minge” on her foot.  She explains why in this story (with video goodness).

So that’s it for this week.  Thanks again to Botexty for submitting one of the stories this week, and I’m looking forward to reading what everyone else sends in next week.  And a quick reminder that this Friday is Bike to Work Day, so dig your old ten-speed out of the garage and pedal your way into work.

Hi everyone, Rob here with this week’s round up of news from around the world.  This is my first entry as the new “news guy” so be gentle.

The first story of the week was sent in by Botexty.  Over in Sioux City, IA. Inkfliction Tattoo has thrown their support behind today’s “Mother’s Day Race for the Cure“.

“For the month of April, Inkfliction Tattoo is raising money for Susan G. Komen, by tattooing cancer ribbons for $25 and donating all of the proceeds.”

So far Scott and his team at Inkfliction have raised well over $1000 from the tattoos, as well as another $2500 from staff members participating in the race.  So if you happen to be passing through town in the near future, stop by and give these guys a pat on the back.  They deserve it.

It seems that getting tattooed for cancer isn’t just an American idea.  Over in the UK, a company is rallying together to raise money for cancer by having it’s employees get tattooed with cancer ribbons.

“ID Customs Tattoo Studios, owned by Derek Young and Jeff Grimet, came up with the idea after a few people wanted tattoos of the cancer ribbon.

Derek said: ‘Everybody has been touched by cancer at some point whether it was themselves or a member of their family so we thought that this was a good way to do something.’

‘Members of my family have been doing the Race for Life and I thought that this would be something nice to do.’”

So not only are both these shops raising money for a great cause, but they’re also showing people that tattoos aren’t just for sailors, hookers, and fetish models who sleep with the husband of a famous actress.

Speaking of Michelle McGee, according to this article, she’s breaking the “rules” of female tattoos.   I’ll let the author explain…

“My first concern about tattoos is whether or not they look feminine. I think ladies should opt for tattoos that mean something to them but tattoos should be done with femininity in mind. Don’t take suggestions from Michelle “Bombshell” McGee, because she looks like a prison inmate, especially with the odd tattoo she has written on her forehead. That’s just weird.”

So there you have it ladies.  If your tattoos aren’t “feminine” then you look like a prison inmate.

So while prison tattoos on women may be out of fashion, there are still some who think the look can work for them.  With Iron Man 2 debuting this weekend (go see it, and stay after the credits), MTV sat down with Mickey Rourke to talk about his role in the film.

“Rourke had in mind the villains from old Sergio Leone Westerns played by the likes of Eli Wallach or Henry Fonda. He also wanted Vanko to have a mouthful of metallic dental work, a body covered in tattoos and a white cockatoo of whom he is quite fond.”

Rourke also credits director Jon Favreau, for backing his decision, and pushing the studio to let it in the film.  And while the tattoos aren’t given as much focus as they are in other films (see: Eastern Promises), they definitely do help define the character.

Now not all news is good news.  This recent Huffington Post article taps right into the fear mongering side of people who have no knowledge of the modification industry.

“70 percent of people with tongue piercings report complications, ranging from local infections, eroded gums, chipped teeth, and more serious systemic infections including hepatitis B and C.”

This 70 percent also includes a woman in Connecticut who removed her tongue stud 2 days after getting it done, and subsequently developed a severe brain infection.  Unsurprisingly the author writes an entire article on all piercings without mentioning safe practices, or aftercare.  Going through my list of links to post for the week, I came across quite a few of these stories.  While I won’t be posting them all, it seems that as far as the industry has come along in terms of codes of conduct, there are still studios out there willing to make a quick buck regardless of safety.

Back on the international front, the BME world tour gang can look forward to some company while in New Zealand in the form of shrunken heads.

“French lawmakers decided Tuesday to return 16 tattooed and mummified Maori heads to New Zealand, ending years of debate on what to do with the human remains acquired long ago by French museums seeking exotic curiosities.”

Although there is still some legal red tape to go through, it looks like these heads are going to be returned.  Although, museums world-wide are now a little nervous due to the number of mummies floating around.

Over to Bollywood, actress Bipasha Basu has caused quite a stir:

“Sources reveal that Bipasha has right now put on small diamond studs in her new piercing, but later, as the pain lessens, she will go for diamond earings. The sexy siren has been a real trendsetter of sorts, and for all one knows, multiple piercing is soon going to be the order of the day, in the fashion circuit.”

While it’s safe to assume she isn’t the first person to have multiple ear piercings in India, by the sounds of the article I’m assuming that it isn’t something you see in celebrities.  Hopefully some of our readers can enlighten me further.
Finally to wrap the week up, a couple of stories involving tattoos that the owners will probably end up regretting.

Avril Lavigne and her boyfriend, after a night of drinking, decided to get another set of matching tattoos.

And a Manchester City football fan got a little too eager with his support for his team.

So that’s it for this week.  I just want to take a moment to recognize that today is mother’s day, so pick up the phone and call your mom or a mom you know.  To all the modified mommies that visit modblog, I wish you a very happy mother’s day.

If you come across something you think is newsworthy, feel free to submit a link.