With all the bad weather Australia has been getting recently, it’s no wonder some Aussies have a connection to a turbulent sea. In this beautiful chest piece, Olivia Brummen from Vic Market Tattoo in Melbourne combines timeless images with a modern color scheme.
Well with last week’s unexpected downtime I wasn’t able to get a BMEGirl post out on Friday. This week everything is back up and running smoothly so that means it’s the return of the BMEGirl!
This week’s girl is Luckytcha from Japan who’s photos I discovered in the old school tattoo gallery.
There’s another photo of her, but you’ll have to keep reading to check it out.
This second photo comes from the microdermal and corset piercing galleries. The piercer for the second photo is Samppa Von Cyborg.
Welcome back friends! A huge thank you to Rachel and Mike who worked long hours to get BME, ModBlog, IAM and the rest up and running again. It’s good to be back! I thought this tattoo was fitting. No artist was credited but it was submitted by xsabx. The lettering looks like it might be a bit shaky but sometimes it’s just the photo, especially on fresh and healing tattoos and once they’re healed it looks just fine.
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend (or long weekend for those of you in the US). I’m always curious about why people choose old school motifs for tattoos. Well, I guess I’m curious about all of them but I always wonder what draws people to the old school stuff. So ModBloggers, if it’s not too personal, what motivated you to get the style of ink you’ve got?
Here’s a couple of lovely ladies that should help keep you warm on those long cold winter nights.
First we have gypsyqueen with a floral chestpiece by Shane Barlow from Oni in Salt Lake City.
Next is an in-progress sleeve by Roland Paabo from Auriga Tattoo in Tallinn, Estonia.
Don’t worry, there’s going to be some boys coming up in about an hour for you.
Intheyearmmmmlv sent in this photo of a bearded lady tattoo sporting an excellently twirled Mo. The artist is Dave Kruseman from Forever Yours Tattoo Gallery in Douglasville, GA.
There’s been so many really good Movember submissions so far this month, but there’s still lots of time left. Remember to send in your mustache (and beard) related photos.
Well, Movember us upon us. What does that mean? Simple, every Monday in Movember ModBlog will be featuring mustaches. Those glorious bands of facial hair that can be sculpted into majestic beasts. As for those amongst you that prefer the full beard, fret not, as it is No Shave November, so expect to see the occasional beard pop up this month. And guys, remember, get those beards started because Bearduary is only a couple months away!
For the first Mo of Movember we have thebearuk sporting a tattoo by Steve from Skunx in London, which I found in the oldschool tattoo gallery.
So get those Mo pics sent in! If you don’t have a Mo, or can’t grow one of your own, don’t worry, I’m sure you can come up with a way to show your love of the Mo.
Space, the final frontier. At some point in time in our lives we dream of the stars. Whether it is to find meaning in their patters, or to look for life beyond this world, or simply out of a childhood love of wanting to soar through space. Of course, the reality is, not too many of us will be able to fly in outer space, our children maybe, but not us. Around the world private firms are racing to create commercial space flight vehicles, to cater to the insanely rich who get to live out their dreams. Yet from every design I’ve seen, not a single one is as cool as this rocket.
The rocketeer responsible for this retro-inspired rocket is none other than Alie K (IAM: Alouicious). Alie recently submitted a number of her works to the galleries, so if you get a chance, head on over and check them out. This rocket in particular came from the old school tattoo gallery.
Many people credit Walt Disney as the man behind bringing animation to the masses. Sure Walt did a lot to create an empire based on a whistling mouse, and has brought smiles to the faces of countless people all over the world, but there was always something lacking with his cartoons, they were missing a little bite.
Thankfully Tex Avery stepped up to the plate, and brought the world Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the Looney Toons characters. The cartoons Tex created weren’t just for kids, in fact quite a few of his works were “banned” for a while because they were deemed too risqué for some audiences. It was these cartoons that really paved the way for many animators to see that animated movies and shorts could be targeted to a larger audience. So while the big mouse was carving out his slice of the pie, Tex and those who came after him skipped the pie and went right for the devil’s food cake.
Cartoons didn’t need to be all flowers and rainbows, they could raunchy, violent, and sarcastic. Is it any wonder so many people love his cartoons?
So while browsing the old school tattoo galleries I came across this take on Tex’s “Wolf” character uploaded by Thakkrad. The leering, catcalling, oversexed cartoon character that was created as part of a re-telling of the Red Riding Hood story, appropriately named “Red Hot Riding Hood”. The one thing I noticed though was in some of the details. I really like how the artist took the classic Tex wolf, and infused some aspects from the works of Ed Roth (of Rat Fink fame). The exaggerated tongue and the bold colors in the hair really work well with the iconic image of Avery’s wolf.
Were you a Looney Toons fan, or was Mickey and company more your tastes?
The answer is simple, a zombie pin-up girl!!
Alright, so I realize the whole “zombies are cool” thing is getting a little overplayed in the media lately. It seems every week there are at least 3 zombie walks across North America, a new zombie movie is released every other week, and everywhere you go someone is talking about the walking dead.
I honestly think a bit of overexposure may be good for the genre. And I’m not saying that because I think everyone should be prepared for the upcoming zombie apocalypse, but more that when something hits the point of over-saturation in the public eye, it has no choice but to fade away into obscurity for a time. It is during this time that those who are really devoted to the idea get a chance to re-evaluate the subject matter, and work on it without scrutiny. Think about the whole zombie phenomenon. While the zombie movie has been around for decades, it really didn’t hit it’s first major peak until the late 70s and early 80s. By the mid-80s zombie movies were everywhere and people were just sick of them, which led to the not being popular in the mainstream media. Between the mid-80s and the early 00s, the zombie devotees were basically on the back-burner, never going away, but also never becoming popular. During this time a new wave of creative minds got behind the zombie genre, which lead to it’s recent resurgence. So yes, there may be a lot of crappy zombie movies/books out there, that lapse has also given us books like World War Z, and The Walking Dead, as well as films such as Zombieland. I’m sure in the next few years interest will wane again, and it will fade into obscurity, and be replaced by some other popular fad, but until then we’re riding the wave of the undead which it hitting it’s crescendo this fall with AMC and Frank Darabont adapting The Walking Dead into a television series, which looks like it will probably out-do every zombie film/show that came before it.
The same of course can apply to all popular trends. They will reach a point where the public tolerance will hit it’s limit, and then be replaced with something new. While in obscurity, the artists, writers, whatever, have an opportunity to take what they love and refine it without restriction until it eventually becomes popular again.
So, all that said, let’s take a look at this tattoo by Gonzofreelancer from the Pinup Tattoo gallery. This tattoo is actually a perfect example of how something old has become fresh and new, while still holding true to its roots. The pinup girl is a classic tattoo image, that for a time was exceedingly popular. It never went away of course, but other trends emerged and pinups weren’t the first choice for people for a time. So while the pinup girls themselves also faded away from the public eye, so did the tattoos of them. During the time that they weren’t on the forefront of popular culture, those dedicated to them kept their images alive and worked to keep them modern, while maintaining their classical beauty. Sure enough, as things changed, eventually what was now old, became new again, and the pinup girl (and the subsequent tattoos) became popular again. Only this time it wasn’t just a simple picture of a girl in a swimsuit painted on a plane, now we have strong beautiful tattooed and pierced women, posing in all sorts of outfits, making the idea of a pinup girl fresh again. The tattoos followed suit, with modern interpretations of old-school tattoos.
So when looking at this great tattoo of the zombie pinup girl, you’re not only looking at a tattoo, but also the long legacies of tattoos, pinup girls, and zombies, merged together into a single image.
The last few times we’ve had Braes on here, it was in the context of his excellent Dave Pozo tattoos. This time, though? That’s all about to change…because he had this one done by Jordi Del Ray at Kie 13 in Barcelona, Spain. Hey, the bell’s ringing, and you know what time it is? Time for sweet-ass old school tattoos.
See more in “Old School (and Old) Tattoos“ (Tattoos)