A Mask of Diamond Lines

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What a knock-out piece this is, just boom, stamped on with such strong impact — interesting change from Freak Garcia’s (of Ink Karma Nation, inkarma.wordpress.com) normal undulating and flowing style that almost looks like the patterns on an oil slick turned into blackwork. Anyway, I especially like the treatment of the ear, both front and back — second time today I’m posting a facial tattoo that pulls onto the ears, to say nothing of how closely the linework style echoes Kike’s illusion skull from earlier today as well. I also like the way that it fades behind the preexisting tattoos, not just abruptly ending, but dithering to a lighter level. I’d love to see this piece extended in time, so that it wraps all the way around his head and is mirrored on the other side.

faciallines

Facial Linework Radiation

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I really like the new linework that George Karakioulafis of Dildo Studio (dildostudio.gr) in Greece (who just sent me a super-cool package of swag from his shop, including some obscene shirts that I can just barely get away with wearing in public) just had done on his cheek, radiating out from his ear, as well as the lines that mark out across the geography of his ear itself.

georgeface

PS. You may remember a while back there was a case of facial tattoo copying in which Morgan Dubois got his facial linework cloned almost exactly. I just wanted to point out that in George’s case, even though the tattoo is similar (and perhaps even inspired), it’s obviously a distinct design and sufficiently different that he can truly call it his own.

Tattooed Starfish Implant

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A while back (in February) Kayla VanFleet had Shawn O’Hare implant one of Steve Haworth’s starfish-shaped implants in the top of her hand. Now that it’s well healed, she had it tattooed by Kenny Morris last week, and wow, that really tops it off beautifully. Of course some implants stand nicely on their own, but in a great many cases implants — and hands are a good example — can look like out-of-place lumps. Interesting and unique, certainly, but not particularly connected to the person’s overall anatomy. Kayla’s tattooed implant is a great example of using tattoo augmentation to make an implant so much more of a contributing part of the whole — compare the difference between how it looks now to how it looked before getting tattooed and I think you’ll agree what a good decision this was.

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kayla1

Working Together

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We’ve seen quite a few collaborative scarification pieces on ModBlog in the past.  In fact we see quite a large number of collaborations when you take into account tattoos, and body piercing.  However, what we often neglect to focus on is the collaboration between the artist and the client.  With the exception of DIY modifications, pretty much everything we do is a collaboration of some kind.  Be it something as simple as discussing the subject matter of a tattoo, or something as complex as rigging up an elaborate multi-person suspension with a team, it all requires cooperation.

It’s part of what makes our community so close, as well as unique.  We share our stories with others, and when it comes time to change ourselves we put trust in another individual to have our visions come to fruition.  Take this scarification by Misty Forsberg from Southtown Tattoo and Body Piercing in Fort Smith, AR.  Now Misty was the person who did the cutting, but it was Justin (from Rise or Die Tattoo in Fayetteville, Arkansas) who designed the image, making this piece a collaboration between the two artists.

So remember, it’s the trust between the artist and the client that bonds this community together, and makes each and every piece a collaboration of some form or another.

A Good Deed Never Goes Unpunished

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Tam Mayer (of Bells Ink Tattooing & Body Piercing in Victoria, Australia) has managed to get herself in some hot water, all because she tried to do the right thing. As a part of a fundraiser for a local boy — in which they raised $3,000 to help him (the whole event raised $15,000) — she tattooed her friend Luke Coleman with this image of Buddha. At first everyone was happy, and thought they’d done something really special, and I’m sure they were even happier when some of the big tattoo rebloggers picked it up, featuring it because it’s unusual to see a tattoo like this on the sole of a foot (and I have to admit I have some doubts about how it will heal). Anyway, the problems began when Thai Buddhists saw the tattoo and took offense at the tattoo’s location — that someone was walking on the face of Buddha, which they thought was deeply disrespectful. Immediately the comments changed from congratulating Tam for a unique tattoo and more importantly, raising $3,000 for a child in need, to threatening to murder her if she ever showed her face in Thailand. Comment after comment insulted and berated her. Did Tam make a tactless mistake? Perhaps, by some interpretations of Buddhism. But by other interpretations of Buddhism, she did something wonderful. To my way of looking at it, this is just another example of extremist interpretation of religion poisoning everything. As far as I’m concerned, Tam’s got nothing to apologize for. If Buddha and Jesus existed, I’m sure they’d give her a high five for helping others, and then punch the religious radicals in the nuts for spreading hatred in their name.

buddhafoot

Edit: I wanted to add one other thing — as soon as Tam found out that what she’d done was potentially offensive, she apologized profusely to anyone she might have offended (as did Luke), and said they wished they’d known in advance so they could have avoided the situation. It was very clear that they’d acted only with the best of intentions — and I want to be clear that the above comments are mine, not hers.

Illusion Skull

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I’ve seen a few tattoos that hide a skull inside a field of flowers or architecture or shadows and figures, but this illusion skull for me is my favorite yet, and maybe even has what it takes to become one of the iconic tattoos of the dotwork/geometric genre… I have no doubt you’ll see this tattoo forwarded endlessly over the next decade, so if you see it, let the world know that it’s the work of Kike Bugni (facebook.com/tattoosbybugni. I see a lot of amazing geometric, dotwork, and blackwork tattooing these days, but after a while they start to blend into each other, so it’s nice seeing one that really stands out and will never get mixed up with anyone else — until of course the inevitable copies start!

illusion-skull

Suspension Glory

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Following up on the amazing static rigging I posted earlier today, I want to show some more of the amazing work that’s going on in the suspension world — some just stunning technical suspensions have been done at recent SusCons around the world. I want to show you a couple of Lotus suspension variants first. I’m not sure what I should call this — perhaps a “patriotic suspension” because the pose is reminiscent of a WWII bomber art pinup, which I think fits nicely not just with suspensions but with tattoos because it’s a motif that is often seen there. This was done at Suspension MECCA 2012, and the photo is by Rolf Buchholz.

the-patriot

This next lotus variant is more difficult, and also beautifully executed, a double lotus with the bottom one inverted, as if it’s a suspeded reflecting pool or something. The left photo, of the rigging being done, is by Rolf, and the right photo is by Steve Joyner. You can also see the esteemed Havve Fjell (Wings of Desire) doing the rigging in the photo — it’s amazing watching the best minds in suspension get together to create these moments. Now what’s next? Rigging the guy on the bottom traditional lotus style as well, and tossing both of them in a building sized rotisserie? Why the hell not?

lotus-to-inverted-lotus

All that fawning commentary said, I wonder if there is a point where we throw up our hands in a mix of humor and despair and walk out of the room? I mean, can suspensions ever jump the shark? If the asstronaut suspension couldn’t do it (and gosh there’s some fun stuff in that link), how about what Andrii Panchenko calls an “ass duet”, which is just what he’s doing here with his friend, photographed about two years ago.

ass-duet

Well, after 20,000 years or so people hanging from hooks, I figure it’s going to take a lot more than this to knock it out of our genome. I mean look, hang a guy from just one hook, and even the strength of two big guys won’t tear him down it’s so awesome (photo by Rolf Buchholz, Suspension MECCA 2012). Never coming down, never!!!

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