For me, often the simplest tattoos are the most powerful… It’s been my observation that when people imagine themselves, their internal self-image often doesn’t include complex or pictorial tattoos, but heavy, simple blackwork like this almost always integrates on a low level with how the person perceives themselves (and how others perceive them as well). This great example of a simple but unique tattoo was done by Stefan Halbwachs of Austria’s Happy Needles (happyneedles.at).
Kevin (who you last saw on ModBlog with Enigma) had this Tlingit (Pacific Northwest) art-inspired scarification done by Matt Vermillion of Artistic Skin Design in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is now quite well healed. The cutting looks nice and even — although there is intended variability in the line strength — but as you can see, parts of it keloided much, much more than others. Some of it, like the outside circle, is likely due to the initial cutting, but the majority of the variability appears to be from natural body motion and anatomy, and rubbing from clothes. His aftercare was mildly abrasive with sugar and vaseline.
Click on either half to see the scar in full, or click here for an animation that blends between the two (it’s not easy to line up a fresh scar with a healed one because of how much the skin distorts from the keloids, even with photos this similar), or if you’ve been missing NSFW posts, click here to check out the scar, completely overshadowed by Kevin’s transcrotal piercing and meatotomy.
I’ll also mention what I said to Kevin — who is considering adding more Tlingit scars to the sides of this piece — that I think this is a perfect canvas for tattooing over scarification… With the right application of black and red, and maybe white, it would really bring out the design and also give a nice nod to Tlingit art at the same time.
Pauly Unstoppable has been at the forefront of the “four nostril movement” since it’s very beginning. Wait… do we really live in a world so awesomely weird that we can really say there is such a thing? I think so! But the first thing I thought when I saw the latest picture of his ever-changing facial anatomy now featuring a 10g septril (using a 3/8″ Anatometal barbell with 10g 7/32 M&M beads anodized to a copper tone) is “can you imagine if he stretched that up to 1/2″ or larger!?” Can you imagine if he managed to create some bizarrely amazing pentanostril nose? I wouldn’t have to watch Star Trek any more to get my fill of aliens any more.
I think when it comes to Pauly, the words “constantly evolving” describe him very aptly… For well over a decade now he’s had a far-out-at-the-edges appearance, and more impressively, practically every six months he morphs to the next stage in his evolution, taking another step on this amazing journey. Here are a few pictures showing his most recent facial work.
There’s an oft-retold story about the early day of Star Trek that Samppa got me thinking about (as has watching four or five Star Trek movies in the last couple days as I’ve been feeling especially ill). When Leonard Nimoy played Spock on the original Star Trek he had to come an hour earlier than everyone else and stay later as well to get his pointy prosthetic ears applied. To make matters worse, he had extremely sensitive skin, so this process was quite painful — to say nothing of his ears looking quite different from period to period as different makeup artists created them. Producer Robert H. Justman actually suggested to him that he get plastic surgery to create the ears permanently (and revert them in the future if needed), and Nimoy actually jumped at the opportunity, only to find out that Justman was pulling his leg and the procedure was not possible at the time.
We’re still some way from really being able to create a true lengthened Vulcan ear (since all of those procedures are “subtractive” in nature, unlike prosthetics, which are fundamentally “additive”), I was thinking that Samppa Von Cyborg’s (voncyb.org) current style of ear rebuilding is the first procedure that could actually almost do what they were talking about. Unlike the first generation of ear pointing, done by folding the corner of the ear into a point, Samppa’s procedure fully reshapes the ear rather than trying to squeeze it into a new form and hoping it adapts. While some last beautifully longterm, with first generation ear pointing, it’s not unusual for the ear to open up over time (not into a wound, but stretching the “point” into more of a flat curve), to slowly lose their point as the ear’s elasticity forces its way back to its original form. But because Samppa’s procedure relieves that pressure with much more radical re-sectioning of the tissue, the procedure is far more predictable and stable. That said, it’s unlikely that it could be reversed — at least not in a way that restored the same ear that was started with.
Here is the latest very impressive ear that Samppa has done.
You may have seen this multi-level power icon implant before (designed and fabricated by Max Yampolskiy), but I wanted to post an updated picture of it as it’s now well over a year old and looking just gorgeous — the stepped height of the design is incredibly effective. In the bottom photo, which is actually an older picture, you can also see the implant design and the complex base that Max creates, intended to maximize both the detail level and the adhesion of the implant.
And I must confess a mini-crush on the model as well, who has a plethora of intense modifications and rare, advanced piercings including subclavicals and vertical lowbrets. Although I don’t know of anyone ever having serious complications from them, I can’t tell you that subclavicals are safe or recommended on any level, but wow, I just love them… One of the most hardcore piercings that exist.
While I’m mentioning Max’s implant designs (he both performs them and retails them to other artists), another one that I like quite a lot and is similar on a design level is this “Iron Man” chest implant, four months old in this photo. There’s a good chance that in time the centre indent may pull down and become defined and that the middle circle (of the three) will start to show, but you can already see nice definition in the rest of it.
PS. You may also remember the space invaders implants that Max did.
An absolutely beautiful owl scarification design well into its healing, done by Brendan Russell (facebook.com/brendan.russell.35) of Tribal Urge in Newcastle, NSW. I like the design because it’s quite complex, but at the same time, its simple shapes and repeating patterns keep it visually clean and strong from a graphic design point of view, which should give it a long life even as the scar fades over time.
Not that there aren’t lots of smart tattooists, but let’s be honest — tattooing has never been a field that demands high intellectual standards as a basis for entry. And I get that it’s not always easy to visualize a three dimensional object and represent it in a simplified stylized form in two dimensions… but come on… is it really asking that much that people have some basic understanding of how a diamond is shaped before tattooing it? Unless I’m missing out on the caption and this is some kind of new Rubik’s cube half way through a twist or something.
I was looking at this backpiece — still in progress I should mention — by Cameron Sterwart (facebook.com/cammystewart) and the way that a lot of artists adept in geometric work are starting to explore mixing different fields of geometry, often but not always in identifiable shapes like these butterflies and got to thinking that there’s a lot of kinship between the art of tattooing and the art of quiltmaking. Not just on a surface level either — you can also see it even more profoundly when you look at the history of quiltmaking and the way that artform evolved and changed over time. Although perhaps that is true for all artforms — it’s just more obvious in these cases because some of the technical restrictions make it more visually obvious. In anycase, more amazing work by Cammy.
Another characteristically precise scarification by Brian Decker (purebodyarts.com) — an image that I’ve seen tattooed regularly but never scarred — a Decapitated Monroe, done on KC Jones at Inkaholics Anonymous. I should mention that Brian will be one of many brilliant artists at the International Scarification Convention in London, England in May if you want to make an appointment, and below the scar are a few of Brian’s US tour dates — Perkasie, Des Moines, and Dallas — showing a collection of his implant work, many of which you’ve seen here in the past. Contact PBA by email at [email protected] to make an appointment.
