After being laid up in bed last week with a nasty cold, I found out today that my inbox was flooded with two weeks of stories to get through for this week’s news round up.  There’s a lot to cover this week, so let’s get right to it.

To kick things off, LA based food stylist Adam Pearson was yanked off a flight last week, the reason:  his tattoos.

LA-based food stylist Adam C Pearson was on-board a Delta flight on Saturday morning when a flight attendant asked him to step off the plane, reported the Los Angeles Times.  He was told that he had been reported for “suspicious behaviour” because of the words Atom Bomb tattooed across his fingers.

Before the plane took off, he sent a tweet: “Just pulled off delta flight, passenger said I was suspicious looking due to my tattoos @DeltaAssist not happy at all #goldmedallion fail”  After answering more questions,  the frequent Delta passenger was allowed to return to his seat.

“A public apology would be nice,” Pearson said.  ”I’m not out for blood… but why didn’t they offer to book that other person on another flight if they didn’t like my tattoos? Why was that other person more important than me?”  Pearson said he had never before been questioned about his tattoos or behaviour while flying.  ”It really just made me kind of sad that you could just point at someone and say ‘That guy is acting suspicious,’ ” he said. “It was just a bummer.”

Of course airline travel has been all over the news the past couple of weeks with the implementation of those full-body x-ray scanners.  Well, it isn’t so much the scanners that are the issue, but rather the gate rape that you get when you refuse to go through the machine.  For those of you who are travelling and don’t mind going through the scanners, Fox News has a bit of information that may be relevant.

Byrne said this means TSA workers will see any foreign objects close to the skin, including piercings, catheters, and colostomy bags.  Breast implants and prosthetic testicles will also be easily recognizable on the scanner screen.  Still not embarrassed? The X-ray technology has the ability to tell if a man is circumcised or not, although Byrne said the scanners are supposed to be designed to avoid that.

If you do end up traveling soon and you happen to be heavily modified, drop me a line if anything of interest happens, either through the scanner or the pat down.  I’m sure there are a few ModBlog readers who are interested in hearing about it.

There’s lots more to cover so keep on reading…

You may remember from a few weeks back the story of a man who got a penis tattooed on his back by his “friend” when he thought he was getting a something else.  At the time I wasn’t able to find any photos of the tattoo, but this week, I’ve managed to find something better.  An interview with both the victim and the man responsible for the tattoo.

I guess the moral of the story is, don’t let someone tattoo you right after you get into a fight with them.  Especially if they’re not an actual tattoo artist.

Another follow up story from the southern hemisphere is about the police officer who was fired for opening a beer can at a work party.  With his PA.  This one has a happy ending as it seems the officer has been allowed to return to active duty.

Andrew Lawrance was dismissed last year from his role as a sergeant at Grafton after he attached a bottle opener to his piercing to remove the top from a bottle of beer while at dinner with colleagues in Yamba in December 2008.  He told the Industrial Relations Commission he was “egged on” to perform the trick but one man took offence.  Justice Michael Walton ruled that Mr Lawrance’s dismissal was “harsh” and ordered he be allowed back into the force, albeit at the rank of senior constable.  Mr Lawrance has since had the piercing removed and had told the hearing in July that he “regretted” his behaviour.

I really hope that the removal of the piercing wasn’t a condition of his being restored to the force.

Now back is the US a professor has undergone a procedure for an art exhibit that pushes his body to a new limit.  Previously Wafaa Bilal made ModBlog news when he was tattooed with a map of Iraq on his back, with one dot in black in for every US soldier killed, and another dot in blacklight ink for every civilian killed.  This time around Mr. Bilal is having a small camera implanted into the back of his head.

Bilal, who is teaching three courses this semester at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, will wear the camera for one year. It is 2 inches in diameter and less than an inch thick.  The project will raise “important social, aesthetic, political, technological and artistic questions,” he said.  He declined to say when the camera was implanted or other details of the art installation, saying it “will be revealed to the public as part of the museum preview on Dec. 15″ and on a website to be launched on the same day, http://www.3rdi.me.

He said he chose to have it put in the back of the head as an allegorical statement about the things we don’t see and leave behind.  How it all fits together is still a bit of a mystery.  The camera will capture his everyday activities at one-minute intervals 24-hours a day and then be transmitted to monitors at the museum, said curators Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath of Art Reoriented, who commissioned Bilal on behalf of the museum.  ”He doesn’t have to alter his lifestyle or what he does. In principal, he’s moving on with his life,” Bardaouil told The Associated Press from Doha. “It will be a three-dimensional, real space-and-time experience. Once the piece is revealed, you’ll realize that the camera is only one aspect of the work and there are aspects as important that will be experienced.”

As of right now his website is displaying a countdown to when the site is launched.  Hopefully by then we’ll be able to see some photos of the implant itself.

Heading up to the Great White North, Canada popped up in the news quite a few times in the past couple of weeks.

If you watched Ellen earlier in the month you may have seen Vancouver Island native Dustin Thut on the show.

Duncan resident Dustin Thut says he woke up Thursday to calls and text messages saying he had been featured on the show Ellen.  On the program, Ellen DeGeneres called Thut’s letter to her “the most ridiculous thing I have ever, ever seen in my entire life.”    He had asked his boss Mike Morgan for a raise, but was told he’d only get one if he tattooed Morgan’s face on his rear end.  Thut visited Bully Boy Tattoos in Duncan to request what artist Jory Helms called his “most unusual portrait to date.”  ”He came in the next day, and he had this silly look on his face, and he just turned around and dropped his pants,” Morgan said.  ”I pretty much dropped my heart right there and that was that. I gave him the raise.”

That $2 raise didn’t last long, though.  ”I quickly laid him off after that,” Morgan said.

I don’t know about you, but if I had an employee do that, especially after I suggested it, I’d find a way to keep him on staff.

While we’re still on the West coast, Performance Works on Granville Island is hosting an exhibit this weekend entitled “The Tattoo Project“.

The Tattoo Project brings together the work of 12 photographers shooting 100 tattooed models. Footage of creating the exhibit will also be edited together as the final scene in an upcoming documentary that will also be called The Tattoo Project.

The show runs Friday to Sunday, with more information available at thetattooproject.ca

Over in Ontario, tattoo artist Heather Myles from InkSmith Tattoos in Guelph made the news this week with her MedicAlert tattoos.

“It was a challenge,” said Heather Myles, the Guelph tattoo artist and owner of InkSmith Tattoos who made up the stencil and did the work for Bortolon-Vettor.  Myles used to be a nurse and understands the crucial role of the MedicAlert system. The engraved tag tells paramedics that someone is allergic to penicillin or peanuts, or has diabetes or a heart condition, for example.   “I really felt I had to make the symbol unmistakable or medical staff won’t take it seriously,” Myles said. “So it’s bold, plain and nothing fancy.”

Robert Ridge, president of MedicAlert Canada, doesn’t see anything wrong with a MedicAlert tattoo when used to supplement the existing program.  “The tattoo is very much a niche response,” Ridge said. “Most people would choose the bracelet or necklace. And emergency responders have been trained to look for the bracelet, not a tattoo.”  Still, “I saw a photo of the tattoo and this one is quite clear. There’s probably no harm as a complement to our program.”  Ridge said members pay an annual fee, which keeps their medical file current. Tattoo wearers would still have to pay the fee.

While we’re talking about medicine, a doctor in Germany recently refused to perform surgery on his patient because of the patient’s tattoo.

A 36-year-old man needing an operation was tattooed with the image of theReichsadler, or Imperial Eagle, perched upon a swastika, daily Bild reported on Friday.  The patient’s 46-year-old doctor said he could not reconcile proceeding with the surgery with his conscience, the paper reported.  “I will not operate on your husband,” the doctor told the man’s wife. “I’m Jewish.”  The doctor then had another physician finish the procedure.

The article doesn’t go into much depth, but I suppose this could bring up a number or moral and ethical problems.  On one hand you have the Doctor who has sworn an oath to take care of his patient, yet at the same time, if something were to happen during the procedure, a case could be made against the doctor that the error occurred on purpose because of the doctor’s personal views towards the patient.  Was the doctor in the right in this situation?

In other news, a woman was arrested last week for trying to perform a type of surgery herself, when she tried to remove her boyfriend’s tattoo with a knife, without his consent.

Miner said Amerson “grabbed a knife and attempted to cut the tattoo of her name off his neck.” A cop reported that Miner had the name “Tressa” inked on the left side of his neck, and that he “observed what appeared to be two scratch marks that ran across the tattoo.”   When questioned by police, Amerson denied assaulting Miner, saying that she had “been sleeping all day.” Cops recovered a small paring knife from the living room floor, reporting that “this was believed to be the knife used.”

In an interview, Miner told TSG that he got the 2” x 2” “Tressa” tattoo in late-July and has been dating Amerson for about a year. Asked if he considered Amerson his girlfriend, Miner replied, “kinda, sorta, not really,” before adding, “she’s pretty crazy.”

I’m not going to lie to you.  I burst out laughing when I read his response to TSG.

Now while we’re on the subject of dumb ideas, and you can’t tell me that trying to cut off your boyfriend’s tattoo with a knife isn’t a dumb idea, when going out to get a tattoo it’s best not to pay with stolen merchandise.  Especially when the stolen property is an accordion.

The instrument was then recovered from Skintone tattoo shop in Pershore, where it had been left as part payment for an unfinished tattoo.  Police are now trying to trace the man who left the instrument behind under a false name.  He is described as white, aged between 25 and 35, thin, taller than 6ft and with a local accent.  His incomplete tattoo features two wolves, a larger one on the upper arm and a smaller one going down the arm to below the elbow.

Another bad idea?  Wanting to get a massive Rolling Stones logo tattooed on your horse.  Thankfully the police intervened when the court ruled that it would be considered animal cruelty.

Finally, in the history of bad ideas, this may take the cake.  Now, I realize this may very well be a hoax or a clever photoshop, which I certainly hope it is, but so far nobody has stepped up to claim responsibility.  What you see pictured below is allegedly a 13 year old son of a Russian tattoo artist, with a full sleeve.

Now before I get into celebrity round-up there is one story this week that qualifies for the round-up, but I won’t be making fun of.   A few days ago Kat Von D‘s house burnt down, and while possessions can easily be replaced, she did lose her cat in the fire.  So Kat gets a free pass this week from my usual snark.

Actually this week was pretty light in terms of celebrity news.

Model Lily Cole dyed her hair black which instantly made her “gothic” in the eyes of the press, who made sure to take note of her “brooding tattoo in Latin” on her foot.

Some website called gigwise.com has published a story rating 12 musicians based on their piercings.  From what I can tell, nipple piercings on guys are bad, single lip rings are good, but multiple lip piercings are bad.  I’m fairly certain the author of the article just picked up the stack of photos and randomly decided what was considered good and bad without actually looking at them.

Finally, Former WCW World Champion (and technically WWE Champion because the title was merged — note: sorry Jen I couldn’t resist), David Arquette was spotted partying it up in Miami.  After hitting up some gay bars, and hanging out with Wee-man, David went and got himself a new tattoo to celebrate his newfound singledom.

Which brings us to the end of this week’s news.  I hope everyone has a great weekend, and remember, if you ever stumble upon a news story that you think should be included in the ModBlog news of the week, just click here to send in the link.

As the work day winds to a close (at least for us on the east coast), it’s time to take a look back at the news from all over, to if tattoos, piercings, or any other type of modification turned up.  This week we’ve got a follow-up from a story we reported over a year ago, debates about dress codes for adults, the newest winner in the “worst editorial on tattoos ever” contest, and of course, the celebrity round-up, where I actually read some of the stories this week!

To kick things off today we have a story that will surely be repeated by parents everywhere when their child asks to get something pierced.

As Grace Etherington, 15, lay in hospital, doctors didn’t know whether she would ever walk again.  She had been struck down with a rare disorder, after getting an infection in her ear after she’d had it pierced just days before. She couldn’t move a muscle or even speak, and she had to be lifted in a sling.  She was diagnosed with Guillan Barre syndrome, a rare disease of the nervous system that paralyses the body. The doctors told Miss Etherington that her daughter’s case was so severe that if she pulled through, she may only be able to blink her eyes for the rest of her life.

Grace ended up making a recovery and is able to move again.  Thankfully they don’t dwell too much on the pierced ear, but I’m sure other news outlets weren’t so generous.  Just to clarify something, isn’t Guillan Barre the disease that Foreman always thinks the patient is suffering from on House?

There’s still a lot more news to come, so put your feet up and click the read more button.

Back in June of last year, Jordan posted an article about a New Jersey tattoo artist who was charged with sexually assaulting his clients, as well as breaking into his old place of employment while on bail for the assault charges.  Well, it’s been over a year and he’s finally pleaded guilty to the charges.

Jeffrey N. Dekmar Sr., 37, who has lived in Hardyston and Flanders, admitted to state Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown to three counts of burglary and two counts of criminal sexual contact.  In exchange for his guilty pleas, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Alissa Hascup and defense lawyer Donald Fedderly negotiated a plea bargain that calls for Dekmar to be sentenced to 11 years in state prison, with no minimum period of time to be served before parole consideration.

Authorities previously have said that Dekmar on Feb. 21, 2009, sexually touched a 23-year-old woman who wanted a tattoo of a Hebrew prayer applied to her right upper thigh. The patron alleged she refused Dekmar’s request that she remove her underpants and that he pulled them down and touched her genitals. This woman hopped off the table and fled the premises.  The second tattoo parlor victim told Roxbury police that Dekmar rubbed his genitals against her own without her consent.

At what point in your life do you decide it’s ok to rip off a client’s underwear and finger them?  Clearly it was last year for this guy.  I wonder if he’ll try the same stunt when he’s tattooing guys in prison.

Heading over to Taiwan, it seems that kids in the US aren’t the only ones bullying other kids forcing them to get tattooed.  Luckily for the young man, a friend of his stumbled upon a police officer shortly after it happened.

The police officer, Fan Yu-yuan (范育源), said he was having a bowl of noodles at a stand in Taipei City’s Beitou District (北投) late on Wednesday night when he was approached by a teenager begging for food.  Fan said after he treated the boy to a bowl of noodles, and upon learning Fan is a -police -officer, the teen revealed to him that a friend of his, surnamed Lee (李), had been badly bullied by some other teens.  The boy told Fan that the teens had forcefully tattooed bad words and figures — such as a middle finger, a swastika and a cross with wings — on Lee’s back and arms against his will.

The story goes on to say that local coverage of the assault has prompted several people to come forth and donate money to have the tattoos removed.

Back in Canada, Toronto Public Health has issued a warning to people who were tattooed at “It’s Just Body Art” in North York.

Health officials say “It’s Just Body Art” on 1072 Wilson Ave., near Keele Street, did not follow infection control practices to prevent the spread of diseases such as Hepatitis B, C, and HIV.  There are no reports of infections, but authorities are advising anyone who got a tattoo between Sept. 29, 2009 and Sept. 30 of this year to see their doctor and get tested.

So if you’re in Toronto and have gotten work done there in the past year, make sure you go get tested.  According to the video in the link, it seems their autoclave wasn’t working properly so some of their equipment may not have been sterilized.

Now down in Utah, a new law has been passed that prevents the hiring of any new city employees with visible tattoos, brands or scarification.

The updated policy says employees hired on or after Sept. 1 cannot display any tattoos, brands, scarification, body art or decals on their body during work hours or while in city uniform.  Employees hired before that date can display certain tattoos that they already have between the wrists and the fingertips; between the toes and the ankles; and from the neck to the top of the head. These workers had until Sept. 10 to make their department head aware of their existing tattoos; all new ones have to be covered.

It seems that nobody really minds the new policy as applications haven’t diminished and those affect by the ban have already reported their modifications.

Elsewhere, not everyone agrees with this sort of policy.  A school teacher in South Carolina is having a problem with the school board’s policy towards staff members and visible tattoos and piercings.  (Bonus:  The teacher has an epic beard!)

Some Horry County School employees don’t like the current dress code they have to follow. That includes no visible tattoos or facial piercings.  Jack Ebright a psychology teacher at Socastee high school said Tuesday that he can’t understand why the district requires teachers and other county school employees to have a business like appearance at all times during working hours.

Ebright said he isn’t looking to create controversy but that he just wants district leaders to be on the same page as him when it comes to attire that creates trust rather than distance within the classroom.  ”Put me in anything, move my beard from here to there,” he said pointing to his long white beard, “It wont change how effective I am but I’ll be honest with ya, looking a little bit like Santa clause, doesn’t hurt in creating a good rapport in the classroom, good relationships are always part of our business.”

I don’t know about you, but if a guy shows up with a viking hat and an epic beard, I’d probably do whatever he demands.

Something for the “Well that’s just dumb” file, the city council of Painesville, Ohio has denied a tattoo supply company from opening up downtown.

During the Painesville Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday night, Tattoo & Piercing Supply Shop was denied a conditional use permit.  Prospective shop owner David Nofziger attended the meeting and said the commission voted against the permit based on concerns that the shop was not comparable to other businesses in the district.  The commission also noted that neighboring businesses were against opening the new shop.  No tattoos or piercings would be done at the shop. It would strictly be used as a supply shop, Nofziger said.  City Planner Russ Schaedlich thought the East Main Street location might have been suitable for the business because it has plenty of storage space, which is essential to the shop.  Nofziger said the business would deliver supplies for tattoo artists in the event of an emergency. Though artists can order supplies online, supplies can take up to five days to get to the store.

Now we’ve all seen stories about cities trying to ban tattoo shops from opening up in certain parts of town, in fact that’s what led to the court decision making tattoos protected under the first amendment.  But to prevent a supply store from opening up seems pretty silly in my book.

Speaking of things that are dumb, an Australian writer has written an editorial for the The Courier-Mail.  Of all the tattoo bashing editorials I’ve read, this probably tops the list of the all time worst ones.

As one wit observed, a tattoo is a lot like marriage – it’s a lifelong commitment, hurts like hell, and the colour fades over time. And I’d like to add pointless and expensive.  In my book, if you want to announce to the world that you’ve served time in the services or perhaps a correctional centre, live in a caravan, have severe bogan tendencies, are having a midlife crisis, or all of the above – go get a tattoo.

Newly divorced women in their 40s once just got an ankle chain – a far less permanent nod to their new independent status than a tattoo. Less painful too.  Now they’re likely to front up for a piece of body art (and I use the term loosely). Maybe an ancient tribal or celtic symbol called “wheel of balance” or “mystical equine” – or, even more nauseating on a grown woman, a butterfly.

She then goes off on a tirade against pretty much everyone who has gotten a tattoo ever.  My Aussie slang is a bit rusty, so I’ll let our ModBlog readers from down under come up with some good words to describe her.  The only thing redeeming in the article is the photo of the eye-candy she chose to go along with her rant.

Recently we’ve seen a string of charity events set up to raise money for cancer charities, this week a woman in the UK is doing a charity tattoo drive to help out her local animal shelter.

Ms Oram, who runs Cherubs Tattoo Parlour in Sheep Street, is offering to tattoo a paw print for £35 to animal lovers, donating all proceeds to the home at Claverton Down.  She hopes to raise £2,000 over the weekend of December 4 and 5.  She said: “I’m gonna be knackered. There will be tea and cake and a raffle and if anyone would like to donate for this, then that would be wicked.

“It’s booking up quickly. I’m already halfway there, so call the shop on 07795 474219 or email [email protected] cherubtattoo.co.uk for bookings.”  Ms Oram, a volunteer dog walker at the home, said: “I wanted to do a bit more. It costs £3,000 a day to run the home and they are completely self funded, so every bit helps.  “Hopefully, this will remind people that a dog is for life… just like a tattoo.”

So if you have the chance, stop by to help out some of our four legged friends.  Plus, you can have tea and cake!  More shops in North America need to offer that.

Now last week I caught a lot of flack because I didn’t read all of the articles for the celebrity section.  This week you’ll be happy to know I forced myself to read them all and I can honestly say I’m now dumber for having read them.  Thanks everyone!

While you gloat over my pain, here is what’s been happening in the world of celebrity tattoos and piercings.

First up, infamous talk-radio show host Dr. Laura, known mostly for her nude pictures online, has gotten herself a tattoo of a skull and rose, possibly to commemorate the ending of her radio program.

In an effort to dispel the myth that all tattooed rock stars are tough, Dougie Poynter from the band McFly has admitted to fainting while getting work done on his sleeve.

And finally, to celebrate her final days as jail bait, Miley Cyrus flashed some sideboob and tattoo ink to paparazzi while on the runway for an MTV Europe awards show.

Well, that’s it for the news this week.  As always, if you find a news story that you think should be included in the weekly news, just send it to me.

In case you didn’t know, this week is World Kindness Week, with tomorrow being World Kindness Day, so go out and hug someone this weekend.

The week is coming to a close for most people, which means that it is time for the weekly news.  Overall there wasn’t much going on in the world when it comes to mainstream news reporting on modifications, but there were still a few interesting stories.

First up is news out of Dubai, where temporary tattoos are getting a lavish upgrade.

The UAE’s first real gold and platinum tattoo business will set up shop in the iconic five-star Burj Al Arab hotel next week, Arabian Business can reveal.  Starting at AED200 for a small gold tattoo and AED400 for an equivalent platinum one, the temporary tattoos have been available in the emirates for just two months.  Originating from Japan, the tattoos are created from 99 percent gold or platinum foil that is applied directly to the skin. Application takes around 10 minutes.

I guess when you live in a city known for it’s expensive tastes, getting gold or platinum painted onto you just seems like a normal accessory.  I would be a little curious at seeing some of the designs.  Can you imagine a massive platinum “blackwork” piece?  Or maybe a gold zombie portrait?  The possibilities are limitless.

You’ll have to keep reading to find out what world record is being attempted on new year’s eve, how dumb some criminals can be, as well as some positive stories about scarification and a couple of tattoo studios.  Oh, and of course, the celebrity round-up.  I know how much everyone looks forward to it each week.

A few years back an Arizona tattoo artist set the world record for most tattoos performed in a 24 hour period.  This year Denver tattoo artist Kaos is going to attempt to break the record, and make some money for charity while he’s at it.

Under the watchful eye of officials from the Guinness Book of World Records, Denver tattoo artist Kaos will try ink 900 tattoos during a 24-hour period beginning this New Year’s Eve at the P66 Tattoo and Art Galleria, located at 800 Kalamath St.  But this isn’t just tattooing for the sake of tattooing. Kaos will apply pink ribbons on breast cancer survivors, their family and friends and anyone else who pays a $10 minimum donation. Proceeds from the record-setting attempt will go to breast cancer research.  Kaos says that ringing in 2011 isn’t a publicity stunt despite the record-setting aspect. “This is a cause that is close to all of us,” he said. “Every day we hear of someone that has been affected by breast cancer and this is my way to contribute and make a difference.

It seems this year is the year of the pink ribbon when it comes to charity tattoos as this is probably the 4th or 5th story I’ve reported on it.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing as I too have been affected by breast cancer.  It just would be nice to see other charities supported in the same manner, as this seems to be an excellent way to raise money and awareness.

Sure enough, there is another drive going on.  All day tomorrow Guy Daniels, the owner of Expressions Ink in Wausau, WI will be tattooing puzzle pieces to raise money for autism awareness and treatment.

Daniels says many of his customers at Expressions Ink expressed their struggles raising children with autism. Saturday Daniels gave a family with an autistic four-year-old a permanent reminder of their battle, and a gift to the entire autistic community: profits from Saturday’s sessions will go towards autism treatment.  ”There isn’t a lot of support groups around and I want to be able to help out any way I can,” said Amanda Mrozek, who bought an autism puzzle piece tattoo Saturday. She says it’s been a struggle getting her autistic child to be social and share what’s on his mind.

If you’re in the area, stop on by and make a donation, or get a tattoo, as the proceeds will be donated as well.

Of course the flip side to these charity drives is that it also provides excellent press coverage for the studios.  Clearly it’s working.  Yet there are other ways to get the word out about your studio, and Toronto’s own Speakeasy Tattoo has been working tirelessly to redefine advertising in the digital age.

When a colleague told me about Toronto-based Speakeasy Tattoo, I was intrigued. She said Lizzie Renaud, the shop’s owner, was doing some really cool things online – Ms. Renaud and her team fill last-minute cancellations through Twitter and share their stories and artwork on WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and other tattooing websites. You name the social network, Speakeasy is there.

…

So Ms. Renaud and her team did something innovative to set Speakeasy apart: they reached out to five well-known tattoo artists and asked them to work as guests in the summer of 2010. Despite her commitment to blogging and social media, when it came time to promote the roster of guests, she deployed a completely integrated campaign that used a combination of online and offline tactics.  “We decided to go old school,” says Ms. Renaud, speaking about her offline strategy. She worked with a designer to produce glossy, postcard-shaped handbills, which included art by the guest artists, the dates they were coming, and the shop contact information.

The rest of the article goes on to examine how Speakeasy is showing that it requires a mix of both old and new media in order to have a successful ad campaign.  It’s an excellent read for any shop owner looking to expand business.

From Toronto we head west to Saskatoon, where the U of S newspaper, The Sheaf, has written an in-depth article about scarification and branding.

Scars often draw powerful and visceral reactions from their observers, whether sympathy, concern or machismo respect and admiration. That’s because most people view them as violations of an unwilling body.  Others, however, choose to have patterns, symbols and words carved into their skin in order to be meaningfully and permanently marked. This is scarification, a form of body modification that originated in equatorial cultures but is now attracting adherents in Western culture.

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, self-harm — also known as self-injury or self-mutilation — is the causing of mental, spiritual and physical injury to oneself without suicidal intent. Those who self-harm usually don’t know how to effectively express and deal with emotional issues such as loneliness, depression, anger, psychological pain, numbness or stress. Injuring themselves through practices like cutting or burning flesh is a coping mechanism that leads to immediate release of, and temporary relief from, negative emotions. The pain distracts from other problems, or, if the issue is numbness, allows them to feel something, or anything, again.

Body modification, on the other hand, is done for positive emotional reasons — perhaps simply to make one’s body more aesthetically pleasing. Another person, usually a professional artist, also does scarification. However, even those who cut or brand themselves just to see what will happen, what it feels like and how it scars, aren’t self-injurious, says Kenny. As long as there is no negative emotion involved, they’re just curious.

This week was a banner week for people to do dumb mod related things.

First, a prison inmate stole medical supplies just so she could keep her lip piercing from closing up while she was in jail.

Sheriff’s Department Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt said told the Decatur Daily that Word had used broken pieces of a plastic comb to stick in her lip piercings and stole the blood kit from a jail nurse’s station to push the plastic out.

Then, in Lexington KY, an attempted robbery at a tattoo studio was foiled by a customer who fought with the man and chased him away.  Oh, did I also mention he wasn’t there to steal money?

According to Lexington Police, a man went into the Purple Haze Tattoo Parlor and demanded something called ‘White Lightning’, which police say is a powdery insect repellent.

Now, if you’re planning on a life of crime, it’s probably not a good idea to have a distinctive tattoo visible that can easily identify you.  It’s also probably not a good idea to get a dollar sign tattooed on your forehead when your crime of choice is money laundering and forgery.

Newport News police said they received a Crime Line tip leading to the Monday arrest of Elias Sedale Jones on eight felony charges, the Newport News Daily Press reported Wednesday.  Investigators said Jones has a dollar sign tattooed in a prominent position on his forehead.

Finally, you may recall a certain online casino that offers people money to get the website address tattooed on their bodies.  Well it seems they’re at it again, this time a woman got the site address tattooed across her chest.  Her payment?  A NASCAR helmet, oh and some money to charity.

In the last story today before the celebrity section, we have what appears to be the worst possible advice columnist, “helping” a woman who doesn’t like her husband’s new tattoo.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS:

My husband went out and got a tattoo which I just hate. It’s of a sexy naked woman and it’s not me. He says it’s not anybody else he knows, either. Call me suspicious but I think he knows her from before. She looks vaguely familiar, like somebody from the bar he worked at in the evenings — not the present one — but the one before. How do I find out if he’s messing around with her?  I lie awake all night, looking at that tattoo on his back. By the way, we’ve been married two years, and have no children yet. — Jealous Over Tat

Dear Jealous:

It seems unlikely a guy would be so bold, or think his wife so stupid, he’d get a tattoo of another woman he’s seeing inked on his body. It’s more likely he picked a type of woman whose look he likes, and he’s disrespectful enough to have it tattooed on his back where you can stare at it in bed. Frankly, it sounds like this guy is not in love with you anymore and is trying to get YOU to break up with him. When it gets to that point, do you really need to go out and get proof?

It’s better not to stay and have kids with a guy who doesn’t love and respect you enough to keep another woman off his body. But since you can’t sleep, you need to find out what’s up. Stop in at his old workplace with a best friend and see if the lady you suspect still works there. If, as you suspect, one of the staff looks exactly like the tattoo, you might have your husband followed by a private investigator to see if he’s cheating with her, and then actually listen to what the detective has to say. Lots of people won’t accept the evidence they’re given and totally waste their money. Best of luck.

She also goes on to give advice to a young woman who is lusting after her high school teacher.  Her advice?  Date guys your age to make him jealous so he’ll become interested in you.

And now, today’s abbreviated celebrity section.  Sadly there are only two stories this week.  Hopefully next week there will be more action.

That Harry Potter actor, the one who got naked with a horse on stage (Note: Equus is a great play), is talking about getting a HP tattoo when the films are finally finished.  Maybe he’ll get a wand tattoo.  That way he’ll have an excuse as to why the girls run away from him.  He can just grab his wand and shout “Expelliarmus!” and maintain his dignity.

Lastly, in an effort to stay relevant, one of the spice girls, Old Spice, is going around telling anyone who will listed that when she got her tongue pierced she made out with all the other girls.  Not surprisingly she admits the other girls were “grossed out”.

Well that’s it for this week’s news.  If you happen to stumble across a story you think should be included in the news of the week, just click here to submit the link.

Have a great weekend everyone, see you back here next week when you’ll get another edition of Movember Monday!

October is just about over, but there’s still time for one last edition of the ModBlog News of the Week for the month.  Before we get started, I just wanted to thank everyone who sent in stories this week, Taylor, Christian, Lauranomaly, Botexty, and Nexizydrate to name a few.  Submitting an article is easy, all you have to do is click here and fill out the boxes.

The first story today was submitted about 10 times, so there way no way it wouldn’t kick off the news of the week.

I’m sure most tattooed people, as well as artists, have joked around about getting tattooed with a penis instead of the intended design.  It’s that running gag that nobody ever acts on.  Until now.

Police allege the man, who was not a professional tattooist, talked his friend into having the tattoo while the friend was visiting him at home.  After the 25-year-old victim got home, he was horrified to discover the tattoo was far from what he expected.  Instead of a Yin and Yang symbol with some dragons, the tattoo featured a 40cm-long image of a penis and a slogan implying he was gay. He contacted police and they charged the 21-year-old Bundamba man with assault occasioning bodily harm.

I looked everywhere for an image of the tattoo, but it seems that most mainstream news sources have some policy against posting pictures of dicks.  How lame is that?  But wait, the story gets better.

Police allege the tattooing followed a disagreement between the pair that culminated with the Bundamba man taking offence at something the victim said.  Ipswich CIB Detective Constable Paul Malcolm said the victim was extremely upset.  “Apparently he went round to the other bloke’s house and somehow in the course of the conversation the subject of tattoos came up,” Const Malcolm said.  ”The victim wasn’t interested at first but he was talked into it and he said he wanted a Yin and Yang symbol with some dragons.  He rolled him on to his stomach and the bloke started doing the tattoo and there was another bloke standing there watching saying, ‘Mate, it’s looking really good’.  He was told not to go out into the sun and not to show anyone for a few weeks.  When he got home he showed it to the person he lives with and she said: ‘I don’t think it’s the tattoo you were after’.”

To add insult to injury, he was allegedly punched and thrown out of the Bundamba man’s house after he was tattooed.

So, to get this straight, after getting into a fight with someone, this man was then talked into getting tattooed by the same guy.  I’m willing to put money that alcohol was somehow involved in this situation.

Next up, and in a completely unrelated story, PerthNow.com.au has an excellent photo gallery of the recent Phuket Vegetarian Festival.  It’s absolutely worth checking out.

A devotee of the Chinese shrine of Sapam, pierces his cheeks with swords during the Phuket Vegetarian Festival on October 10, 2010 in Phuket, Thailand. (Getty Images)

We’re just getting started, so kick back and relax, and keep on reading.

Heading back to Australia, it seems that the Australian Red Cross is blaming tattoos for the current blood shortage they’re undergoing.

The Australian Red Cross turned away more than 2100 people in NSW when they went to give blood because of a little-known rule that excludes donors who have recently had a tattoo.  The news comes as NSW battles with a low supply of blood products, especially types O and A, with the State’s stockpile only two-thirds full. Australian Red Cross Blood Service spokeswoman Lisa Borges said the knock-backs were because of the service’s strict rules around preventing potentially contaminated blood entering the stockpile.  She said that with more people getting themselves tattooed, especially younger people, the Red Cross was being forced to turn away blood products it could desperately use, as each of those 2100 deferred donations could save three lives.

So while it is understandable that the Red Cross needs to have a grace period between getting tattooed and donating blood, to imply that the only reason there is a shortage is because young people are getting tattooed is a bit on the unreasonable side.  I’m sure there are more people not tattooed than are that aren’t lining up to donate.  Then again I could make some obligatory joke about Aussies and prison tattoos, but that would also be in poor taste.

It seems this week was a banner week for artists who like to sexually assault their customers.  First in the UK, an artist has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two girls (15 and 16) after he finished tattooing them.

Tattooist Andrew Simpson has been told to expect a prison sentence for two assaults on girls.

Simpson, of Kissingate, Burton Pidsea, targeted a 16-year-old girl on November 6 last year when he decorated her leg with a tattoo.  At the end of the session he sexually assaulted her.  On January 23, he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl following a 45-minute session in which he inked a tattoo on her back.

Back stateside, an artist in Tampa Bay has also been accused of fondling his female clients.

Charles Lyndon Harper Jr. 41, was placing mineral oil and plastic wrap on one woman’s newly inked, upper leg tattoo when he slipped his hand inside her bikini and touched her without permission, a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office report said.  The woman left the business at 11632 U.S. 19 and called authorities. Harper admitted touching the woman but said he thought he had permission because she was “flirty,” the sheriff’s report said.

He went on to admit he does this often.  So for the time being, it may be best to avoid getting tattooed by him, unless you’re into that sort of thing.

In much more positive news, the San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting story about corset piercings, and surprisingly isn’t biased against them.

Photo: Mark Krauss. Monique Millier, 22, is a two-time corset piercer.

Familiar to body manipulation enthusiasts, corset piercing is now becoming more mainstream as young women, inspired by photos circulating on Facebook and other social media sites, are starting to wear them to prom, as Halloween or Burning Man costumes, or for weddings and gay pride parades.

This week also brings two looks into the history of tattoos around the world.

First, at the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes, DE people can stop by this weekend to check out an exhibit entitled “Tall Tales and Tattoos“.

The program will feature Andrew “Spider” Miller who will spin tall tales and share his collection of “gaffs” — bizarre make-believe creatures that have been hand-crafted by skilled artisans. They are similar in style to the 19th century oddities known as “Fiji Mermen” which often featured animal heads crafted onto the bodies of fish. Such creations were conceived as pranks or side show curiosities at a time when sea captains were returning from the newly opened ports of East Asia with tall tales of exotic, never-before-seen creatures. An example is the Zwaanendael Merman, which can be seen at the museum in conjunction with Miller’s presentation.

The program will also feature tattoo artist Peggi Hurley of Ancient Art Tattoo studio in Lewes who will discuss the art and history of tattoos. Hurley, a native of Rehoboth Beach, was named the 1986 National Tattoo Association’s “Best Tattooed Woman.” She studied the art of tattooing with Don Nolan, Gill Montie and Bill Hannong and has operated a tattoo studio in Delaware since 1994.

If you have time in November and you live in or near London, you should head on over to the Russian Criminal Tattoo Archive, as they’re holding their first gallery showing of the works of Danzig Baldaev.

Danzig Baldaev grew up in a Russian children’s home, his father having been denounced as an enemy of the people. He was later ordered to take a job as a warden in Kresty, an infamous Leningrad prison, where he worked from 1948 to 1981. It was a job that allowed Baldaev to continue his father’s work as an ethnographer – by documenting the tattoos of criminals. Heavy with symbolism and hidden meanings, the tattoos depicted a complex world of hierarchies, disgraces and achievements. Mostly anti-Soviet and frequently obscene, they are a portal into a violent world that ran alongside the worst excesses of the Communist era.

The KGB found out about Baldaev’s tattoo project but, incredibly, they sanctioned it. “They realised the value of being able to establish the facts about a convict or criminal: his date and place of birth, the crimes he had committed, the camps where he had served time, and even his psychological profile,” Baldaev wrote, shortly before his death in 2005.

The Guardian has an excellent story detailing Danzig’s work, and how they became public.

Now, what would this week be if we didn’t have people screwing up royally with their modifications?

Everyone by now has heard of cosmetic tattooing.  The practice has been going on for years now in beauty salons.  But what happens if your brown eyebrow tattoos suddenly turn purple?

Question: I had my eyebrows tattooed in 2003. A few years later, they turned purple. I have ash-blond hair and wanted a medium-brown eyebrow color. I am looking for eyebrow makeup to cover the purplish color, which is especially noticeable when I go outside into bright sunlight. It’s embarrassing. Even my 5-year-old granddaughter said she likes my eyebrows because they are purple!

Of course it’s not just cosmetic tattoos that can go wrong.  Take Manchester City fan Simon Hart.  He’s a huge fan of his team, and will do anything to support them.  The day he found out Wayne Rooney was to be traded to Man City, he did what any true fan would do: go out and get “Rooney City Legend” tattooed on his back.  Nothing could possibly go wrong with this right?

Hart’s absurd body art depicts Rooney celebrating in a Man City uniform with the words ‘Rooney, City Legend’ emblazoned underneath.

Unfortunately, his crazy homage turned stupid real quick after Rooney signed a five-year contract extension with United last Friday.

But hey, it only covers his entire upper back.  I’m sure nobody will notice.  Heck, him and the penis guy can go out for beers.

Now when it comes to DIY piercings, knowledge is key.  Knowing how to pierce yourself safely is the single most important thing.  Of course, there will always be people who don’t care if they’re safe or not, or even if they’re doing it right.  Unfortunately it’s people like them that end up in the news after being rushed into emergency surgery.

A month ago, without consulting his parents or a professional, he made the hole in his tongue and attached a metal ring, causing almost immediate pain. As he thought it would pass in a few days, he left the ring in.  A few days later, an infection made it difficult for him to speak or eat, so he removed the ring; but when the pain receded a bit, he put it back in place. But this time, the tongue was so swollen and inflamed that the ring disappeared deep inside the tongue.

When he finally told his mother, she rushed him to the hospital, where doctors were able to observe the ring only in a CT scan. As his tongue was so large, it threatened to choke him, and he was sent to intensive care in serious condition.   Dr. Miki Pecker said that when he was admitted, it was clear his life was in danger. Not only was the ring not sterile, but it was inserted into a part of the tongue not suited to piercing. It will take a while until the pain fades, he added.

And that’s it for the real news, now onto the celebrity round-up!

Hillary Duff was shocked to discover that a fan whose arm she had signed went out and got the signature tattooed on himself.  The rest of the world was shocked to discover that Hillary Duff has a fan.

David Beckham is starting to rub off on his kids, and of course the media blew it completely out of proportion.  According to The Sun, that bastion of journalistic integrity, Beckham allowed his 11-year-old son to get tattooed.  Of course rational heads seemed to have prevailed as someone pointed out that it was probably just drawn on.

Finally, everyone’s favorite singer, Miley Cyrus, has shocked the world by ditching her “clean image” and getting a “sleeve tattoo”.  Of course, by sleeve tattoo they really meant some small script on her forearm that matches the one her mother has.  I’m also pretty sure she ditched her “clean image” a few years back when she was pole dancing on some kids awards show.  Then again, to some that’s just healthy behavior for a kid, while getting tattooed is a sign of moral decay.

That’s it for this week’s news.  Everyone have a safe and fun Halloween, and we’ll see you back here Monday morning when we kick off Movember (aka No Shave November).

It’s time again for the news of the week.  This week’s edition brings us a modified church, a charity event that became too popular, an actress willing to completely change herself for a role, and much more.

First off is what is probably the coolest implant related news ModBlog has seen in a long time.  Implant grade LED lights.

The LED arrays were developed by John Rogers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and they can twist and stretch by as much as 75%. Coated in thin silicon rubber, they’re also waterproof and safe to implant under the skin.

Now the article goes on to describe them as “LED Tattoos”, but they seem more in line with the silicone implants currently being used by practitioners.  There aren’t too many details given about the power source, but if they’re able to safely embed a battery and/or an activation button into the array, I can think of several people who could put these to some creative uses.

These lights are just the tip of the iceberg of today’s news, so keep on reading to see what else has been going on around the world.

It seems eyeball tattoos have popped up in the news again, this time Portland, Or. where Matthew Gone has colored the whites of his eyes blue and green.

Mr Gone has now gone where few other tattoo lovers have dared by getting his eyes coloured permanently.  He conducted the risky operation by himself at his home, colouring one eye blue and the other green.  ”I patch-tested it and was successful. I had to take the risk. I’ve done that a lot of times before,” Mr Gone said.  ”I’m not crazy. I’m trained. I have a lot of experience.  ”I picked different colours because I like mutations because I have birth defects,” he said, offering no further explanation.

Unfortunately the story doesn’t go into too much detail, although there is a brief video interview with Matt.  I’m positive ModBlog readers will be able to identify Matt, as he’s got a pretty distinctive look, and can hopefully give us a little more information than the article did.

Speaking of distinctive looks, if you’ve got a facial tattoo that can be identified easily, it’s probably not a good idea to go around stealing phones from people; especially if the tattoo you have is lettering on your forehead that says “I’m me”.

What better way to identify yourself to police when you’re wanted for a crime than to get the phrase “I’m Me” tattooed across your forehead?  Well, that’s how easy it was for South Florida police to spot Joseph Williams, 19, who was wanted for a string of iPhone phone robberies.  Williams was wanted in connection with the theft of nearly two dozen iPhones throughout South Florida. Investigators said Williams began his mini-crime spree Aug. 20 and struck at least 19 times, according to WFOR.  Police reports indicate that Williams would casually walk into an AT&T store, find the iPhone display and then snatch one or two phones from the security cables before scurrying out of the store.

Thankfully not all tattoo related ideas are bad.  In Heckler, IL. Eternal Ink Tattoo Studio recently offered free pink ribbon tattoos to anyone who wanted one.  The idea was to raise awareness in the community.

Eric Catalano thought he was making a small gesture to support people affected by breast cancer. He thought his quiet offer of free pink ribbon tattoos might bring 50 people to his studio in tiny Hecker, Illinois.

So on October 14, he and his crew started waiving the normal $30 charge for the tiny ribbons, and the response has been enormous. By the end of the day on Thursday, October 21, they had given out 418 tattoos, Catalano says, and were still working Friday morning. So many people have shown up, that the studio has turned away regular customers to focus on the pink ribbons.

Heading down under, the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne is hosting a new photography exhibit about Holocaust survivors and their tattoos.

A highlight of a visit to the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) is the opportunity to interact with Holocaust survivors, eyewitnesses to history. Most poignant is when the survivors who were tattooed roll up their sleeves and show visitors their permanent marker – the tattoo from Auschwitz.  Not all survivors have tattoos. Tattooing was done at Auschwitz but only to prisoners who were ‘selected’ to be slaves rather than gassed. As the late survivor Lou Sokolow, who was a tattooist in Auschwitz, reports in his video testimony,  ‘A guy who got a number was lucky. Why? Because he didn’t go straight away to the crematoria.’  Most survivors who were branded by the Nazis like cattle do not see it as a badge of shame. On the contrary, they feel that it demonstrates the inhumanity of the Nazi perpetrators.

I highly encourage anyone who is in or can get to Melbourn, to go and check out this exhibit.

Another article from Australia, this time Sydney, takes a look at tattoos and piercings in the workplace.  It actually is a somewhat fair and balanced article, which runs counter to a lot of other articles that come up about modifications all over the world.

Piercings and tattoos are more common than ever and this is proving to be a challenge for some employers. Body art might be acceptable out of the workplace, but for many companies, it creates issues when the person is out meeting clients.  The Pew Research Centre in the United States has found that about a third of Generation Next, the generation that grew up with mobile phones, the internet and personal computers, will have a tattoo. Some more research, again out of the US, found that 23 per cent of university students had one to three tattoos, and 51 per cent had one or more piercings (other than earlobes) and yet another one showed that 32 per cent of Gen Xers have tattoos.

The article goes on to discuss that while a lot of people are accepting of tattoos/piercings, when it comes to customer service, having “FUCK YOU” tattooed on your forehead might make it difficult to get a job.

Of course, for every positive (or even neutral) article, there are several negative ones.  According to the Guardian in the UK, women claiming that their “tatts” are spiritual in any way, especially if they do yoga, are basically telling the world that they’re not classy in any way.

While my feelings for Katona have never gone further than the “meh” mark on the emotional dial, few things highlight blatant class snobbery about certain issues as the conjunction of the mockery of Katona’s tattoos in the tabloids and the cod-spiritual smugness surrounding tattoos one sees in one’s yoga class. Yet where one kind is indicative of one’s higher devotion, the other is laughable, when some of the more democratic among us might think that latter description applies to all equally. Similarly, one could argue that if these be-tattooed yogic folk were really so spiritual, they wouldn’t feel the need to inform everyone else of this or remind themselves of it, via the medium of the tattoo. Moreover, some innocently untattooed people in the yoga class – who would otherwise be totally ace at balancing – find the light of self-satisfaction that radiates off their classmates’ tattoos is so blinding they topple over. Were it not for the tattoos, honestly, they’d be able to stand on one foot for hours and truly focus and not think once about how they forgot to set the Sky+ for The Daily Show a-bloody-gain.

It seems this back and forth in the news will probably never end, although we can hope right?

Now, in the past few ModBlog news posts, there has been a lot of discussion about the young woman who was suspended from high school for having her nostril pierced.  There definitely was a mixed reaction to the case as some felt that her belonging to the Church of Body Modification should be recognized by the school board.  Some felt the school shouldn’t even care that much, as it’s just a nostril piercing and isn’t doing anybody any harm.  Then there were those who felt that because she was a minor, and in public school, she should follow the dress code laid out by the school.  The question I post is this; if you think that she should obey the dress code of the school because she’s in high school, would you feel the same way if your college suddenly applied similar rules?  That’s the question students at Fayetteville Technical Community College in North Carolina may be facing as the board of trustees is looking into revising the school’s policies with regards to tattoos and piercings.

Under existing policies, the school has a general, non-specific dress code. A more specific dress code could help the students said trustee Susie S. Pugh, chairwoman of the school’s curriculum committee. That committee is considering the dress code.

“Right now, with the styles and the piercings and everything that’s going on with them, right now, we’re concerned that when you go to look for a job, with all of these, you aren’t going to be successful,” she said.

While the board is examining the possibly outcomes they are recognizing that trying to impose these rules on adults may be met with some form of legal action.

In the final news story of the day, a tattoo studio in Victoria, TX. has taken up the role of a ministry as well as a studio.  The owners of Timeless Tattoo Studio are a couple of born again christians, who have chosen to spread their beliefs through their work.

As the only Christian tattoo studio in Victoria, Mallette, 38, and Martin, 20, said their clients can expect much more than a professional and all-custom tattoo experience in their store. In addition to Timeless Tattoo’s spa-like ambience, the studio provides a Bible study and prayer room on-site, and adheres to a company policy against performing tattoos that reflect demonic, satanic, or occult messages. They also will not tattoo on private areas of the body.

Regardless of whether Christians see tattooing as right or wrong, Mallette said Christians of every stripe participate in body modification.  ”Prior to being saved, people would ask me whether I thought tattooing was wrong, and I would tell them there are a lot of forms of body modification that people do without even thinking about it: They pierce their ears, cut their hair, have breast implants and face lifts, they get their nails done, and some women even tattoo eye liner and lip liner on their face,” Mallette said. “Society sees those as normal, so where’s the line?”  For now, Mallette and Martin see their body art and piercings as a way to reach people who wouldn’t traditionally be excited about God.  ”I think people of all walks can be used to minister now, and God may be using us to reach people who would never step foot in a church otherwise,” she said.

Now while I said that was the final “news” story of the day, don’t think I haven’t forgotten about everyone’s favorite section, the celebrity news!

A few weeks back Kelly Osbourne announced that she was getting some of her tattoos removed.  Well it probably came at a good time for her, as when she tried to enter a gym in Tokyo she was refused admission based on her tattoos.

Now when it comes to celebrity tattoos, most of the time the media just posts a story along the lines of “LOOK AT ______’s NEW TATTOO!  HE/SHE’s A REBEL”, or something to that effect.  Well color me shocked when I found this story about Emma Stone’s new tattoo.

Emma Stone has just revealed that Paul McCartney helped design her new tattoo, which she is getting for her family.  The 21-year-old actress says that she approached the former Beatle and asked him for the favor after her mother had recovered from a tough battle with cancer.   ”Two years ago . . . . she got diagnosed with breast cancer,” Stone explained on The Late Show With David Letterman. “And she’s out of the woods now, which is amazing. We’ve never gotten tattoos before, and probably never will again.”  She went on to say: “My mom’s favorite song is ‘Blackbird’, and it’s my favorite song as well. I wrote a letter to Paul McCartney asking him if he would draw two little bird feet, because he wrote the song. And yesterday, he sent them to me.”

Finally, when it comes to getting ready for a part, actors have been known to take some drastic measures.  DeNiro gained a ton of weight for Raging Bull, Christian Bale lost a near unhealthy amount of weight for his role in the Machinist, only to bulk up in a few short months to play the role of Batman, and Noomi Rapace went out and got several piercings for her role in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Well it seems that Mara Rooney, the actress chosen to portray the same role that Noomi portrayed, has also undergone some changes that puts her in the same league with the others.

The actress was actually chosen over Scarlet Johansson for the leading role. All thanks to the director, David Fincher. For the upcoming film, Mara Rooney had to bleach her eyebrows and dye her hair as dark black is it could get. She also had to go get her nipples pierced for a topless scene in the flick.

What is actually sad for this young actress is she has spent most of her time in her hotel room in beautiful Sweden. The reason being the director wants to keep her hidden from the public eye in order to make sure her look isn’t seen yet. However, a photo has been leaked out of her wearing a pierced lip.

So that’s it for the news this week.  As always, if you find a news story that you think would fit in with the News of the Week, just click here to submit the link.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and I’ll see you all back here again on Monday.

Well the weekend is here, which means it time for the news of the week.  This week we’ll be seeing what is (hopefully) the last we’ll hear about a story that’s been covered a few times. In addition, Australian students are getting a new class added next year, some charity events, and what happens when you brag about a tattoo on the internet.

First up this week is the story of Ariana Iacono, the 14-year old student from North Carolina that was suspended for refusing to remove her nostril piercing on the grounds that her family are members of the Church of Body Modification.  A few days ago, a judge ruled that the school board couldn’t keep her suspended, and ordered them to allow her back to class.

A federal judge ordered a North Carolina school to admit a 14-year-old high school student suspended for wearing a nose piercing she says is part of her religion, and the teenager was headed to science class Friday afternoon.  ”We are thrilled that Ariana can return to her studies,” her mother, Nikki Iacono, said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union. “Ariana was an honor roll student in middle school, and she is eager to get back to her classes and continue with her education as soon as possible.”

The best news about this is that she’s allowed to return to the school with all of her friends, as opposed to the school the board wanted to send her to, a school for children with behavioural problems.

The rest of the news is just ahead, click the read more button to continue on.

DIY backyard studios are popping up all over Australia by teens wanting to tattoo and pierce their friends.  While it is great that students want to modify themselves, as well as take ownership of the process by going the DIY route, it seems that a lot of the safe materials, and safe practices aren’t getting to them.  In response to this, some school boards are setting up workshops to educate students on what is involved in procedures and make them aware of the risks they are taking by doing things without proper knowledge.

The program will cover the dangers of self tattooing and piercing and also emerging forms of body art such as dermal implants, where pieces of metal are attached under the skin to allow devil horns or other decorations to stick out, and scarification, where the skin is cut in a certain way to allow scars to form in patterns.

Of course, some people have a problem with this.

However, Father Mick MacAndrew from Bombala, also the Priest on Campus at Lumen Christi Catholic College, at Pambula, believes it is up to the industry to self-regulate and the Council workshops, may just end up making the industry look desirable to impressionable teenagers.

I hate to break it to the good Father, but teens already think it is desirable, and DIY kits are readily available to anyone.  This is the same argument that comes up for abstinence only education.  If the students aren’t taught about safe sex, or just sex in general, then they’ll never want to have sex.  Right.

Of course, this is all because tattoos are a new thing.  It’s not like they’ve been around for thousands of years.  I’m sure that the recently discovered tattoos on a 1000-year-old Andean woman were just some marker she put on her body for show.  In all seriousness, the discovery of this body gives researches some clues into some of the ancient techniques that were used to create tattoos, as well as revealing that they may have been used as a form of acupuncture.

According to Usatoday.com, 12 overlapping circles tattooed on the woman’s neck resemble “therapeutic” tattoo spots corresponding to acupuncture points used to relieve neck pain.  The team assumed local problems of the upper spine or headaches as possible reasons for treatment by the tattooing.  In contrast with the soot used in the decorative parts of the tattoos, partially pyrolyzed plant material, probably burned herbs, was used for the therapeutic neck tattoos.

In unrelated news, there are a couple of charity events coming up that you might be interested in participating in.

First, in Long Island, the Tattoo Lou’s chain of studios will be giving away free pink ribbon tattoos to support breast cancer awareness.

Also, in Worcester in the UK, body piercer Nicola Long has put together a calendar of local women to raise money for SANDS, a charity designed to help those affected by stillbirths and neonatal death.

Heading back to the US, the Boston Phoenix recently did a story on a book about the rise in popularity of the literary tattoo.

Kristina Grinovich dedicated her right arm as a tribute to the words of Kafka

The book’s participants skew heavily toward literary professionals. “There’s a lot of people in the book that are affiliated with publishing or books in some way,” says Taylor. “A handful of librarians, a lot of people who work for publishing houses, magazine journalists.” There are a few famous writers, too, like Jonathan Lethem and Rick Moody. There are also a number of independent bookstore employees, whom Taylor tried to shoot in their natural habitat. “I wanted to make it a thing about bookstores and about the places where literature is consumed,” he says. Still, Taylor estimates that literary laypeople comprise the majority of his subjects, proving that literary tattoos are far from the exclusive province of MFAs and those who work in publishing.

Now obviously when it comes to a literary tattoo, especially of a specific quote, you want to make sure the spelling is correct.  Which is why it’s always good to double check the stencil one last time before starting the tattoo.  Of course, if it is on your back, it might be a little tricky to read backwards.  In the case of a woman in Chicago, when she looked in the mirror her White Sox logo looked perfect.

Elmwood Park resident Eugenia Bebis claims that on June 5 Mystic Tattoo Art & Body Piercing Corp. employee Micah St. John improperly tattooed her a backward Chicago White Sox logo on her thigh, according to a suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.  The suit claims, among other things, Mystic Tattoo failed to notice the tattoo was being inked backward and didn’t adequately train and supervise employees.

Of course this could be a case of the artist screwing up, but you’d have to be pretty dumb not to realize you’re tattooing a logo of a local team backwards.

Speaking of dumb people, a little while ago a user on Reddit started a thread talking about how his girlfriend came home from school with a brand new tattoo from Dali’s Temptation of St. Anthony.  Well it turns out, he may have been lying.

But it wasn’t his girlfriend. According to one Reddit user who claims to be friends with her, the girl in the picture learned about the thread through her profile on the softcore porn site Suicide Girls. She posted a link to the thread to her Facebook, adding: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?”

So, that’s it for the real news, all there is left is the celebrity round-up, which is thankfully light this week.

First, one of the Jonas Brothers (the dreamy one) was seen showing off his newest tattoo, a wedding band with his wife’s name that he keeps hidden under his ring.

So while Mr. Jonas is adding to his collection, the stunning Kelly Osbourne is having some of hers removed.

And finally, one of the smartest political minds of this generation will be doing news reports on Good Morning America.  Elizabeth Hasselbeck‘s first report will be on the dangers of tattoos to teenagers in America.

That’s it for this week.  Remember, if you ever come across a story that you think should be included in the news of the week, just submit the link here.

Happy October everyone!  This week’s news round up features not one, but TWO videos!  We also have some of the “new trends” that are taking place across North America, as well as a follow-up to the a federal court ruling about tattoos being protected under the first amendment.

But before we get to all that, allow me to introduce you to David Jonathan Winkelman.

Winkelman became a human billboard for the radio station KORB in late-2000 after a disc jockey offered listeners a six-figure payout if they tattooed the FM station’s call letters and logo on their forehead. Winkelman and his stepson, Richard Goddard, went to a local tattoo parlor and each emerged with forehead ink promoting “93 Rock,” the “Quad City Rocker.”  Of course, when the men came calling for the cash, station brass explained that the offer was a practical joke, just a wacky radio stunt. Winkelman and his relative sued, claiming that the station sought to have listeners permanently marked so that they “could be publicly scorned and ridiculed for their greed and lack of common good sense.”  Within months of the lawsuit’s filing, Winkelman dismissed his complaint against the DJ and Cumulus Broadcasting, KORB’s owner. Goddard’s case was later dismissed by a judge when he failed to appear for court proceedings.

I think this is the first time I’ve heard of someone suing based on their admitted “lack of common good sense”.  The sad thing is he probably could have won his case if he hadn’t dropped it, or in the case of his step-son, actually showed up to court.

Now I was going to save this first video for later, but I’m pretty certain most people have seen it, but if you haven’t, it does have some swearing in it so if you’re at work, you may want to turn down your speakers.

Well, that was somewhat disturbing and entertaining all at the same time.

The rest of the news is just behind the read more button, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the week’s news.

You may remember a few weeks ago that a federal court determined that tattoos were protected under the first amendment.  The reason this was brought to the courts was because the city of Hermosa Beach in California was attempting to prevent a tattoo studio from opening within city limits.  Well, now that the courts have told the city they can’t ban them, everything should be fine for the studio to finally open up right?  Wrong.

What do you do when a federal court strikes down a law aimed at keeping tattoo studios away from your city?  If you’re the Hermosa Beach City Council, you ban them.  For now, at least.  A temporary ordinance prohibiting any tattoo parlor from opening in Hermosa Beach for 45 days was unanimously approved this week by the City Council. The move comes less than a month after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the city’s outright ban on tattoo studios was unconstitutional and that tattooing was protected under First Amendment free speech rights.  In the decision, a first by a federal appellate court, the three-judge panel ruled the city’s ban was an illegal overreaction to health concerns that can be addressed through regulations to ensure sanitation.  City Council members quickly passed the measure Tuesday without discussion.

The reasoning behind the ordinance is so that the city can put safety regulations into place before any studio opens up.  The problem is that because the city is within LA County, the regulations are already created.  The county health board is responsible for health and safety checks, and has had their policies in place for years.  Essentially this is a stall tactic by the city in order to put in place a regulation that will limit the location of the studio.

Now this isn’t the first case of a city trying to prevent the opening of a studio, and it certainly won’t be the last.  Three years ago, this same problem arose in Tempe, AZ.  The end result?  The studio was able to open after a three year long court battle.  To celebrate the victory, the lawyer defending the tattoo studio got his first tattoo.

Clint Bolick, attorney and the director of the Goldwater Institute’s legal arm, just got a bit tougher.  A one-finger typist, Bolick got a tattoo of a blazing-red scorpion on the index finger he uses to type legal briefs.  Bolick made good on a personal vow to get the ink when Tom and Elizabeth Preston opened their tattoo studio in Tempe.  The couple opened Body Accents Tattoo this month, and Tom Preston got to tattoo Bolick.  Bolick successfully defended the Prestons in a three-year long legal battle to force Tempe to allow the Prestons to open their business.

Now in a story that unfortunately isn’t as positive as the last, a group of soldiers in Afghanistan are facing charges of murdering civilians, and staging the bodies as if they were enemy soldiers.  The ringleader of the group prided himself on coming up with clever ways to cover up the murders, cut fingers off corpses with the intention of making a necklace, and when initially questioned about the charges, he declined to speak, but instead showed off his tattoos commemorating his kills.

When Army investigators tried to interrogate Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs in May about the suspected murders of three Afghan civilians, he declined to answer questions. But as he was being fingerprinted, Gibbs lifted up his pant leg to reveal a tattoo.

Engraved on his left calf was a picture of a crossed pair of pistols, framed by six skulls. The tattoo was “his way of keeping count of the kills he had,” according to a report filed by a special agent for the Army’s Criminal Investigations Command. Three of the skulls, colored in red, represented kills in Iraq, Gibbs told the agent; the others, in blue, were from Afghanistan.

There is of course much more to this story than his tattoos, and the article has an excellent summary of the events.  It should be noted that this squad acted independently and in no way represents the rest of the armed forces serving worldwide.

An example of a member of the military not going crazy and killing people is this Marine Corps veteran.  Kyle Reed, who after being honorably discharged, following an injury that left him disabled, sought work in his home town.  Unfortunately things didn’t go quite as he was expecting it would.

Two weeks ago, he was hired for the first time at the Regency Red Lobster as a server. “After four months of being unemployed, to have an offer like this from Red Lobster, I was very excited, very motivated,” said Reed.  That motivation was dealt a surprising blow Tuesday.  ”I rolled up my sleeves like they asked me to, which is part of their server dress code, and they stopped me and said I don’t know if you can work today,” said Reed.  Reed was sent home after managers saw a Devil Dog and tag tattoo that stretches partly down his right arm symbolizing his years of service in the Marine Corps.  ”It’s something that we kind of did together for our Marines that we lost,” said Reed.

The next day Reed was fired, even though the policy of visible tattoos isn’t written down in the employee manual, nor was told to him before he started work.  After hearing about what happened, someone at Red Lobster headquarters made some phone calls and Reed was re-hired as a host, a job that he doesn’t have to roll his sleeves up for.

Now Reed’s tattoo commemorating the fallen marines is just one example of people using modifications to get through a traumatic event.  Another example is Nicola Privett, a grandmother from Cheltenham in the UK.  When Nicola was a child she was left scarred after being burnt by scalding hot water.  After living with the feeling of being ashamed of her scars for most of her life, Nicola recently went out and had them covered with tattoos.

“Having one has changed me a lot. Before, I was very self-conscious about my burns, but now I know that if people are looking at me it’s because they have seen the tattoo.” Nicola went under the needle for 10 hours over three sessions to have the £600 work done at Mantra Tattoo Studio, in St George’s Place, Cheltenham.  A colourful design of ponies and cherry blossoms covers part of her chest, shoulder and upper arm, which was previously scarred.

Every so often a story will surface about some form of body modification become the new trend with teenagers.   I can remember back to high school where the news had reports of girls getting their navels pierced.  Nowadays nobody even bats an eye at a navel piercing.  Granted some of the times these news stories are right on the mark when it comes to trends, but sometimes they might be a little bit off.  For example, this website is predicting that the next major trend for teenagers is to have their ears pointed “to look like an elf”.

The latest shocking trend? Ear sculpting! Why is this bizarre practice getting so popular? According to Dr.Lajos Nagy, a New York plastic surgeon, “Sculpted ears not only enhance the attractiveness of the face, but also improve the experience of listening to music.”

Whatever the reason kids are getting their ears doctored, the surgical procedure has been slowly catching on with the young and daring. Body modification artist Russ Foxx has been sculpting ears for years. According to Shaughnessy Keely, a rep from Foxx’s piercing shop, The Fall, Foxx will only perform the operation on those 18 or older. “He’ll do a few sessions and he’ll sculpt your ear and make it pointy,” says Keely.  Put more graphically, elf ears are created by slicing the top of the cartilage on the ear and then sewing it back together. Hmm … suddenly “tramp stamps” aren’t looking that bad.

Don’t worry.  I rolled my eyes at the tramp stamp line too.

In other eye rolling news, it’s time for the celebrity round-up.  There actually isn’t a lot to report on this week.

Beyonce is getting into the tattoo business, well, temporarily at least.

The singer is teaming up with airbrush makeup firm Temptu to create a limited edition collection of temporary tattoos under the Deréon label.  Tina Knowles, Deréon’s founder, creative director and designer, and Beyonce’s mum, said,”With a Sixties-pinup-girl meets-futuristic-biker-chick theme, Beyoncé and I really wanted to give our Deréon fall 2010 campaign a tough edginess.”  ”We decided to invite Temptu to help us create custom body art for her to model with our fashions. The resulting images were so strong that we realized consumers might want to re-create the tattoos themselves.”

Ok, I’ll admit, that was a bit of a stretch, but this next story does include real tattoos, so it should make up for it.

If you haven’t watched Glee before, you’re missing out.  Yes, I watch it.  The show is funny and there is nice eye candy, that fits the very definition of guilty pleasure TV perfectly.  Well, for those of you who haven’t seen it, one of the stars of the show, Lea Michele, recently discussed her nine tattoos.

This is what a Glee actress might look like

But she does have one vice – a passion for tattoos, although she played down her nine inkings, which she said are ‘so, so little’. She has nine, each chronicling a significant milestone in her life. The first was a butterfly, on her back, at 16. There’s one for Spring Awakening, another, Imagine, after the John Lennon song, a gold star for Rachel Berry.  But she added: ‘I don’t have like a kiss on my butt or anything! They’re all tiny. All so, so, so little.’

And to end this week’s news we have one more video featuring TV’s favorite tattoo artist, Kat Von D.  (Special thanks to Phil for bringing this to my attention).

So that’s the news for this week.  As always, if you see a news story that involves any type of modification, just click here to submit to the newsfeed.

Other than that, have a great first weekend of October everyone.

It’s been a busy week in the world of modified news, with a lot of old stories getting followed up on, as well as people losing jobs the believe it or not, are tied to tattoos and piercings, but not in the ways you may think.  Of course, the week wouldn’t be complete with some celebrity-type news, however, most of it isn’t just gossip about some celebutant’s new tattoo.

Well, lets get things started off with a little good clean fun.

You may have heard in the news that a police officer was fired for posting a picture on his facebook account of his patrol car being washed at a bikini car wash.  Well it turns out, it wasn’t just any ordinary bikini car wash.  The event was being put on by a South Carolina tattoo studio, which called the car wash, “Tits for Tats”.  Classy, I know.  The money was going to charity, so we can let the name slide.  As the story goes, the male officer took a picture of four of the ladies washing the cruiser.  When it was discovered online, the officer lost his job as it was against policy to allow a scantily clad woman to pose next to an official vehicle (even if the officer was off-duty).  Now here’s where the story gets interesting.

A female Berkeley County, S.C., sheriff’s deputy was not disciplined, despite the fact that she was actually in a bikini participating in the scrubbing of cars.  Apparently, police departments don’t have similar policies concerning their female employees moonlighting as the center of attention in bikini events.

So with that in mind, which of these young ladies do you think is the off-duty officer?  If it helps, the event was co-hosted by a strip club, but only one of the dancers were participating.  The rest were management and friends of the tattoo studio.

Keep on reading to find out who else had job problems, as well as some follow ups to past stories, and a picture that may make you think twice about ever having plastic surgery.

So while the officer in South Carolina was fired not as a direct result from anything modification related, a woman in England found out that people who are supposed to help others find jobs, can be exceedingly biased towards someone with piercings and tattoos.

Hayley O’Neil, 23, – who also has 20 body piercings – says was also advised to ”stand behind a wall” when she asked a job centre official what post she could apply for.  She eventually left the Job centre plus centre in Blackburn Lancs in tear without any interviewers lined up after the advisor concluded: ”Who would hire you looking like that?”.  Miss O’Neil, who got her first tattoo from her mother as an 18th birthday present said: ”I just felt so humiliated. I couldn’t believe what this guy was saying.  ”I said I could take the the piercings out but they look a lot worse when they are out.”

“The guy said: ‘on first impressions do you think anyone would hire you?’ He said: ‘look at it this way if you were to stand behind a wall – or put a paper bag over your face do you think you would have a better chance?’

Well that’s a good piece of advice to follow.  If there is the possibility that you may not get a job based on your personal appearance, it’s best to put a bag over your head.  Seriously though, while some places of employment may not exactly be accepting of facial piercings, to tell someone to stick a bag on their head to get a job is a little harsh.  Especially considering there are a lot of people out there who are much more heavily modified than her that are holding down jobs without issue.

Of course, not everyone has this difficulty when it comes to their workplace.  In fact, in the case of Billy Gibby (now known as Hostgator Dotcom), he makes his living by getting tattooed.

Gibby’s face now features color tattoos for adult websites PornHub, Cam4, HotMovies, plus HipHopBling and several others. Three Anchorage companies have ponied up cash to advertise on Gibby—Liberty Tax Service, Chilkoot Charlie’s, and Gunrunners. And he’s been featured in magazines like Rebel Ink and Bizarre. (Gibby uses a sort of tattoo-covering makeup when he has to go to, say, parent-teacher conferences at his kids’ school.)

It didn’t end there though: About a month ago Billy Gibby legally changed his name to Hostgator Dotcom, for a fee of course. “The judge asked me if I was changing my name to avoid debts,” Hostgator says. “I said, no judge, I’m doing this to pay off my debts.”

To be fair Hostgator is also an amateur boxer, so he has that to fall back on when he runs out of room.

In other news, you might recall the story that circulated this summer about the group of boys that bullied a 14-year-old to get tattooed.  Since this past summer the boys have been placed on trial, and the jury has rendered a verdict in the case of the ringleader of the group.

The ringleader of teens who bullied a 14-year-old boy into being tattooed on his butt was sentenced this morning to six months in jail.

Blake Vannest, 18, of 233 Garvins Falls Road, apologized to the victim’s family prior to being sentenced in Merrimack County Superior Court. The boy, who must undergo five laser treatments to remove the lewd tattoo, did not attend the sentencing.  Vannest, dressed in orange jail wear and his brushed blond hair in need of a cut, pleaded guilty to simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child. A felony charge of criminal restraint was dropped.

The boy who got tattooed will still have to undergo a few more sessions of laser treatment to remove the tattoo, but it’s good to know that this type of thing didn’t go unpunished.

As a quick follow-up to last week’s story about the young girl being suspended for having her nostril pierced, it seems that the Church of Body Modification is still not being recognized by the principal.  An offer was put forward to the girl, and I think you’ll probably understand why she refused it.

School policy says the rule can be waived for a student’s “sincerely held religious belief.” The compromise offered by school leaders this week said Ariana could return to Clayton High School if she covers the piercing with a bandage until she graduates four years from now, said Katy Parker, an attorney for the ACLU, which has taken on the case.  ”We don’t think she has an obligation to do it,” Parker said. “We think it’s unreasonable to ask a student to wear a Band-Aid on her face for the next four years.”

I tend to agree with the ACLU on this one.  Its interesting to think what would have happened if the girl belonged to another religion where nostril piercings are standard practice.  But because the principal doesn’t believe she holds her religious beliefs seriously, the girl is now facing expulsion.

A similar story also popped up this week from Florida, where a girl was suspended from school and forced to change to an alternative learning center because an administrator thought that her tattoo was gang related, even though the girl claims the smiling/crying drama masks are representative of her twin sisters.  The girl previously attended the school without hassle even while sporting tattoos dedicated to her parents.

In convention news, the International London Tattoo Convention started up today and will continue all weekend long.  Taking place at The Tattoo Dock, ticket prices range from £20-25, and the convention is open from noon until 2am on Saturday, and noon to 7:30pm Sunday.

Before we get to the celebrity news, I found this interesting article from Helium.com that discusses the usage of tattoos and piercings in the bible, and how many people have taken some of the quotes out of context in order to discourage others from getting modified.  It’s definitely worth a quick read, especially if you’ve ever been faced with someone who believes your choices will make you “spend an eternity in hell”.  My favorite part was where the author points out that if you trim your beard, you’ll suffer worse than if you got a tattoo.

So, it’s finally time for the celebrity “news”.  This week, we’ll start off with singer Lily Allen.  It seems that after listening to the radio one day, she got infuriated with what she heard, and decided to tweet about it.

Lily, 25, tweeted: ‘Listening to lots of small minded people on radio 2 slagging off people with tattoos.

‘Get a life you silly curtain twitching snobs.’

Can someone please explain the proper usage of “silly curtain twitching snobs” as I’d love to be able to use it in an argument one day.

If you went out to see the new Ben Affleck directed film “The Town” you may notice that one of the tough guys in the film is sporting a distinct tattoo.

McLaughlin, a 6-foot-2, 300-pound, fourth-generation longshoreman from the square mile, plays Rusty, henchman to actor Pete Postlethwaite’s (“In the Name of the Father”) villain Fergus Colm.  Intimidating stature aside, McLaughlin said it was his unique tattoo that caught Affleck’s eye.

An outline of the commonwealth of Massachusetts – filled in with the colors of the Irish flag and Charlestown’s zip code – covers McLaughlin’s right forearm.  According to McLaughlin, Affleck loved the tat so much, the studio flew the Townie out to Los Angeles for a close-up of the ink job.

Well, this should give some hope to the woman from the earlier story.  Mr.McLaughlin was able to get a good job because of his tattoo, so I’m sure she’ll be able to get a job without having to put a paper bag over her head.

I mentioned earlier about a story that will make you reconsider plastic surgery, well this is it.  You may remember Pete Burns from the 80s band Dead or Alive, famous for the song You Spin Me Round (YouTube link here for the earworm).  Well Pete recently won a settlement in a case against his plastic surgeon for a horribly botched procedure.  Last week, Pete was out on the town showing off his newest modifications, a series of microdermals along his eyebrows and cheekbones.  If you don’t remember what Pete looked like before, the article has a nice side-by-side comparison for you.

A year ago Pete won £450,000 in damages from his cosmetic surgeon Dr Maurizio Viel who the singer claimed left him ‘suicidal’ after several botched lip implants between 2000 and 2004.  ‘As I looked in the mirror it felt like everything I had worked for was ruined due to the disabling injuries I suffered caused by Dr Maurizio Viel,’ Burns said in September last year.  ’I am just glad the case is now over.’  ’It is a terrible experience living with the trauma and worry of injury and disability and to have to re-live and recount the details and circumstances of how your injuries happened for the purposes of evidence for the court.’  He added: ‘It has taken away my life and my career. I saw doctors in London who said the only option was to amputate my lips. I was suicidal.’

Thankfully Pete is still with us, and has a single coming out sometime soon.  And it’s good to see that he’s moved forward with his life and is continuing to get modified (albeit in a much less drastic manner).

So that’s it for this week.  I hope you all have a great weekend, and I’ll see everyone back here Monday.

Oh, and if you come across a news story you think should be in next week’s news round-up, just click here to submit the link.