This is a bit of a silly entry, but I couldn’t resist posting these two faces of BME..
I’m not sure who the screamer on the left is (speak up or forever hold your peace) but on the right is Gord “Turn that frown upside down” Bouchard the owner of Golden Horseshoe Tattoo here in Ontario.
Click on his “I’m a really tough piercer from the wrong side of the tracks” face to see the gentler side he’s kept out of the public eye all these years.
See more in “Septum piercing“ (Nose Piercing)
This wonderful portrait (on Adam Burdine) is of the legendary George Carlin..
By Mark Von Diehl, Classic Tattoo, San Marcos, TX.
See more in “Portrait Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
You know the drill!
Apparently iam:knightowl36‘s already filed a patent for this beer can holder, he might have to consult the pubic before he markets it though.
(By the way, his watch says 18:20)
Click through for side views of this piece by Greg James of Sunset Strip Tattoo, Hollywood, CA.
See more in “Wildlife and Nature Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
We poked some fun at Levi Johnston and his “Bristol” tattoo, but, unsurprisingly, the “bad luck” meme associated with getting a lover’s name tattooed on you is hardly known across the board. Donald G. McNeil, Jr., a New York Times reporter, just learned about his doomed, damned fate upon getting a ring-finger tattoo in lieu of wearing a wedding band:
Three years ago, I had a long argument with my intended. Having seen in Africa the effects of the world diamond cartel, I said I would buy her a ring with any stone she liked, as long as it was not a diamond. That was fine by her.
I also said I wouldn’t wear a wedding band. That was not fine. […]
“It’s an important physical symbol of commitment,” she said.
I retorted, “If you want that, why don’t you just tattoo your name on.” I suggested a gluteal autograph.
She responded, “Because by the time any other woman saw it, you would already have betrayed me. But if you want to tattoo it on your finger, fine.”
Isn’t it always the case? Calling her bluff, though, McNeil ended up going to a tattoo shop in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan and, after having been talked out of getting his wife’s full name (in eight-point font, no less), he was convinced that getting her initials in a stylized script would do the trick. During the sitting, he was filled in on the mistake he’d just made:
The artist in the next booth came over to kibbitz and burst out laughing. “A wedding ring? Tattoos are permanent, you know.”
Cynic, I thought. I was 52, I said, and didn’t plan a third marriage. And if it happened, and laser removal failed, I could cover it with a gang tat. The Pathetic Old Gits or something.
As luck would have it though, his wife, though shocked, loved it. (Some of his children, not so much.) What he didn’t realize until later on, however, was that this gesture was by no means unique, and that, in fact, he now shared a trait with some of the most vapid and irritating celebrities Hollywood has to offer.
Pamela Anderson had Tommy Lee’s name tattooed on her ring finger after their 1995 wedding. Until he betrayed her, after which she altered it to “Mommy.” He’d had hers tattooed on his penis. Classy.
Since then I’ve been painfully alert to this microtrend. An article on about.com described it as “an option for doctors and mechanics.”
And squinting at a cover of People magazine, I was pretty sure I read “Linda” on Hulk Hogan’s finger. The article, which didn’t mention it, was about his divorce.
Last year, Téa Leoni and David Duchovny had theirs done for their 10th anniversary. I admire their acting. He just entered rehab for sex addiction.
And recently, I blundered onto a Web site, AmIAnnoying.com. It lists permanently wedding-banded celebrities: Kathy Griffin, Ashlee Simpson, Jenna Jameson, Howard Stern.
Yikes. But hey, look on the bright side, Don: The Pathetic Old Gits will always love you.
With This Tattoo, I Thee Wed [New York Times]
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| Photo credit: Robert Bykowski / THE CHRONICLE |
Maybe it’s elitism or maybe it’s a certain sort of understandable (and indeed forgivable) obstinacy that comes along with having been part of a particular culture for a long time (or having been immersed in a long-standing culture to the extent that one feels as if they had been there all along), but the fairly recent and widespread commodification of body modification (though mostly tattoos) sits incredibly poorly with most members of the community who were present before Miami Ink ever aired, or who joined afterward but felt retroactively slighted by that sort of supposedly crass and exploitative commercialism. And that’s fine, to an extent. Tattooing has always been a markedly different phenomenon than, say, fitness or cooking shows, but it’s a phenomenon nonetheless, and with acceptance comes a geometric level of growth. Not even a few years ago, what are the chances that the opening of a tattoo shop would have warranted a rather large newspaper feature?
The shop, Windy City Ink, 166 W. Division St., opened on Aug. 13. Owner Gary Parisi said he could not comment on which network would be airing the show but expects to start filming in the next few months. Windy City also has flat-screen digital catalogs and plans to open up a laser tattoo removal shop next door-expensive endeavors most tattoo shops won’t invest in. […]
The shop is open until 2 a.m., and Parisi said customers can bring in iPods or MP3 players to play. Though many shops have a private room or two, it’s rare to have curtains hanging around every station, like Windy City does.
But what may be unique to this Chicago shop are the flat-screen catalogues which should be installed by Sept. 20. While other Chicago shops have “flashracks” to look through designs, Parisi said, the flat-screens are clean, efficient, fast and categorized.
Jerrett Querubin, 24, who was flown in by Parisi from Albuquerque, N.M. to finish his apprenticeship, said Windy City’s goal is to be a high-class tattoo shop, almost like a salon. But Parisi decided to open early because he could still do business while doing construction, he said. The staff is still working toward their goal of making the shop immaculate and professional.
That tattoo shop owners are embracing the role of tattoo removal as a means of enhancing work rather than running counter to their profession is impressive enough, but to acknowledge the practice as good business as well speaks to a sort of sea change, and the argument could be made this kind of forward momentum is due partially to the aforementioned commodification. Though Venus and others have been ahead of the curve when it comes to envisioning body modification as a service worthy of the “spa treatment,” this Windy City Ink shop seems like it could be indicative of the next great step toward mainstream acceptance, and really, what does the average tattooed person have to lose by visiting a shop that is also a tightly run organization with top of the line equipment and a grown-up business model? The shop will, after all, offer its employees health benefits and all the dressings that come along with a real career.
But then maybe this isn’t indicative of anything at all, it is an anomaly and all it proves is that a shop like Windy City Ink is a good place to film a television show.
In one advertisement for the shop they have been doing every weekend since opening, girls wearing body paint promote the shop with fliers at bars.
“The girls are completely naked,” Parisi said. “It’s the first thing you’re going to remember when you wake up in the morning. Even if you were drunk, you’ll pull out the card and think, ‘Where did I get this from? Oh yeah, there was this girl naked as hell with big t—–s flappin’ around.’”
The truth is probably somewhere in between — that tattooing and body modification being thought of as fields in which a person could realistically work without fear for the future, and stamping out the idea of becoming a piercer as a fall-back plan when society at large isn’t ready for your full facial tattoo, these are undeniably good things. And maybe for these to become proper mandates, maybe that does require a small amount of soul-selling, but it’s worth it, isn’t it?
What do you think?
Chicago Gets Inked by New Tattoo Shop [Columbia Chronicle]
Cain appears to be healing fairly well. We all know what he looked like during the procedure and a couple days out. Emilio sent us some photos which were taken about four weeks later. I suppose it’s obvious but I’ll mention he’s clearly had his forehead implants replaced with a larger generation.
This cute little tattoo (no, it wasn’t done with the pen to the right of the little toe. Damn my suspicious mind) belongs to Nurse Kim, let’s hope her colleagues at work don’t take it literally!
See more in “Hand Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
