Ahoy-hoy, ModBloggers! Here’s the latest offering from Marina Storme at Atomic Zombie, a glorious back-piece interpretation of a statue depicting The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, tattooed on none other than her own father. How great is that? Not to mention, I can’t think of a better way to fill the Marina-void while waiting for an update to this masterpiece.
It’s Tuesday, ModBlog—let’s melt all the ice in our heads.
Last week, this glorious bear backpiece helped us put an end to the minor drought of awe-inspiring animal tattoos here on the ol’ ModBlog, and now the St. Petersburg Tattoo Convention is coming through for us again! Except instead of animalia, this time around we have a…hmm, porcelain Jesus, maybe? (Great Depeche Mode song, by the way.) It’s a haunting piece of work, whatever the inspiration. (If you’re the wearer or the artist, let us know! The photos from this convention had very little info attached.)
See more in “Fantasy Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
Whoa hey, it’s been a minute since we’ve posted a truly gorgeous large-scale animal/nature tattoo, has it not been? Well, look no further, because this outstanding backpiece from the St. Petersburg Tattoo Convention will probably knock you right on your ass. Any ursinologists out there care to confirm the type of bear? It looks like a Kodiak to me, but ever since the American Zoological Society revoked my license, I’m legally prohibited from making such judgment calls in public.
See more in “Wildlife and Nature Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
Happy Saturday, ModBloggers! I hope you’ve all been productive or relaxing or whatever the hell it is you set out to do with your weekend. Me? I swear I had a ton of witty and insightful things to say, but then I caught a glimpse of this incredible backpiece of ol’ Aslan up there and now, unfortunately, I have to clean all this crap out of my pants. So it goes.
(Seriously though, isn’t this beautiful? This was done by Génia in Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, and took about 60 hours. Outstanding.)
See more in “Wildlife and Nature Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
Patrick, he of the most interesting and in-progress backpiece up top, writes in with the the story of how he donated his back to the good folks at Karma Tattoo Studio in Erie, Pennsylvania:
The artists at Karma Tattoo Studio wanted to do a collaboration piece. I’ve been getting tattooed at the shop since it opened a few years back. In fact, I was the first person to be tattooed at the shop once it did open. During the winter of ’07-08, the artists at Karma began speaking about their desire to do a collaboration piece together, and I was in. They wanted to do a large area, and my back was a clean slate, so we decided on that. I pitched them some concepts I had, and they ran with it. One artist began sketching, then would pass the design on to another artist, who would then pass it on to the remaining artist. The sketch would come full circle, and go around once again making any changes. Initially, the design was supposed to run to the bottom of my buttocks. However, my back was not wide enough, so it needed to be downsized a bit. After sitting through these sessions, I’m glad it wasn’t any bigger. I don’t know if I could have handled much more.
I’ve been getting tattooed since I was 18; I’m now 23. I’ve sat well with the pain over the years. I’ve tried to get a majority of the painful areas out first—chest, ribs, stomach, etc. However, this was the worst pain I’ve ever felt from being tattooed. Having three artists at once is a very intense and very real feeling. Just the sound from their machines alone was enough to get your mind running a million miles per minute. I still have one session left until the piece is complete.
This chilling image comes from local warlock Sean Karn of Fuzion Ink in Norfolk, Virginia, who astral-projected deep into the underworld to obtain and record this horrible view. Who knew the Cryptkeeper was such a WASP?
See more in “Sean Karn Tattoo Mini Portfolio“ (Tattoo Artist Portfolios)
It’s been a while since we’ve featured a piece from Swastika Freakshop here on the ol’ ModBlog (no, really, it has!), so here we have yet another epic backpiece by Marc, this one coming in under the title “Boom Shiva.” As always, holy hell is there a lot to like about Marc’s work, and this is no exception.
See more in “Religious and Mythological Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
And finally, this wild Alice in Wonderland backpiece comes to us from Victor, who designed it alongside his tattoo artist, the very talented Estella Cavalcanti from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What else came up through the rabbit-hole this week, folks?
– We posted a great interview with Rob Spence, the working-class cyborg.
– Peter finished his body-suit, 20 years in the making.
– All the creatures of the forest assembled for a lovely tea party!
– Guess what? Jenni has a wang in her ear.
– Nobody lounges harder than BME Boys.
So goes the week, friends. Go enjoy the weekend—we’ll be here every so often, and then it’s back to normal on Monday morning. Until then, stay safe, have fun and, as always, thank you for your continued support of BME.
This great backpiece was done by Matt Cunnington at Westside Tattoo in Brisbane, Australia. If you don’t know who old frowny-face in the center is, that’d be Raijin, the mythological Japanese god of lightning and thunder, who, later in life, took starring roles (sometimes under his stage name, Raiden) in video games such as Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy and several other things I just read on Wikipedia. A close-up of Raijin, after the jump.
See more in “Oriental-style Tattoos“ (Tattoos)
We’ve featured this beautiful Chris Dingwell backpiece before in a more unfinished state and hot holy damn, it is looking tremendous. The cloud effect, which was discussed at length in the previous post, is much clearer now, the classical-style nudes are a great touch, and the birds on her shoulder are a lovely addition as well. Hopefully we’re kept in the loop if this goes any further!
(Tattoo by Chris Dingwell at Sanctuary Tattoo in Portland, Maine.)
See more in “Wildlife and Nature Tattoos“ (Tattoos)