It’s now time to send in a pair of clown tattoos from two different artists.
We’ve seen Xusha on ModBlog before, most recently with her fresh hand implant. This time however, she’s showing off her new portrait tattoo by Toumaniantz Rouslan, which has a bit of a “sad clown” feel to it.
Now while Xusha’s clown may be a little on the sad side, this familiar clown by Zoran from Tattoo Hard Core in Serbia is definitely a cheerful fellow. I’m certain he needs no introduction.
If you don’t know who the portrait of the woman below is, then you need to stop everything you’re doing and go watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s. You see, this young woman portrayed here is none other than the eternally beautiful Audrey Hepburn, in her role as Holly Golightly.
Now, the question always seems to come up when talking about actresses like Audrey Hepburn. Is she the most beautiful actress ever? What about Liz Taylor, Anne Margaret, or Isabella Rossellini? At some point or another, they were all considered to be pinnacle of beauty. Do you have a favorite?
As for Audrey up there, the portrait was done by LiquriceTattoo, and can be found in the portrait tattoo gallery.
Sometimes, when I’m moderating photos for BME, I’ll happen upon something that makes me laugh, right out loud. This is one of those times.
This is a work in progress, sent in by Jamie Santos of Scarab Body Arts. In case you don’t know who the tattoo is (really?), it’s none other than Neil Patrick Harris. The red skin around the tattoo tells us this was taken fresh after a sitting. I’m looking forward to seeing the completed piece.
Well kids, have a happy, fun and safe weekend and when you’re out there living it up, don’t forget to ask yourself, “What Would Neil Patrick Harris Do?”
Today’s final Halloween inspired post is again brought to you by Jamie Henderson from Forsaken Ink in Bloomingburg, NY.
Of all the Universal monsters, I’d have to say the Wolfman is probably my favorite. Simply because before Lon Chaney Jr. donned the costume, there were only a handful of werewolf films made. Following the film The Wolfman, the genre exploded, and kids were given the idea for a Halloween costume that is still popular to this day.
Come Monday morning, Halloween will be over, but that doesn’t mean the pictures will stop. Remember to break out those cameras and send in your pictures. The only thing better than costumed people, is modified costumed people.
Well seeing as how Halloween is only a couple of days away, it only makes sense to check out some horror film inspired tattoos.
Picture in your mind a chainsaw. Hear the sound of it running, smell the fumes coming off of it. Now picture someone holding it. Who did you imagine was holding it? A lumberjack? Or was it this guy?
This Leatherface tattoo was sent in by the artist, Jamie Henderson from Forsaken Ink in Bloomingburg, NY. You can check out more of Jamie’s work in the portrait tattoo gallery.
This art-nouveau theme portrait was sent in by BME user 8qak-gracetaylo. I would love to be able to give proper credit to the artist, unfortunately the information wasn’t provided with the image. Please remember, when you submit your photos to BME to take a moment to fill in the all the boxes provided. That way if your photo is featured on ModBlog everyone involved can get credit.
But enough about that, lets take a look at the portrait.
From the description provided this is a portrait of the owner’s mother, with Art Nouveau elements surrounding it. If you head over to the portrait gallery, you can see the portrait from another angle. This side of the arm has the butterflies created using shading, the other side has them created from negative space.
UPDATE: The owner of the arm is Grace Taylor, and the artwork was done by Marcus Maguire from Custom Tattoo Inc. in Glasgow, Scotland.
It seems the the closer we get to Halloween the more we take notice of those things that go bump in the night. Horror films seem to be on TV in greater frequency, the decor in stores shifts towards ghosts and goblins, and the occasional image will stand out just a little more than it normally would.
This tattoo, from the portrait gallery, was one such image that stood out amongst the other submissions this week. It was sent in by BME user Alexenglish, and was done by Elson Yeo from thINK Tattoo Singapore.
I want to say it looks like an image of a Yurei, but i’m not 100% it is. Regardless, it really stands out an a fantastic hand portrait, that appears to be part of a sleeve. What really stands out most is how the blood and the shading carry down in between the knuckles. Often with hand portraits they’re capped above the knuckles, but in this case the design not only goes past that point, it works the shape of the knuckles into the design.
Well, Halloween is just over a month away, any big costume plans picked out yet? Or are you the type that decides last minute?
Well, at least that’s what the movies have told me to believe about the taste of human flesh. I suppose it also matters if it is cooked or not. Raw chicken meat is pretty much a no-go (with the exception of one breed that they’ve used on Iron Chef), so I think the same rules apply to human flesh as well.
Then there are those who like to laugh in the face of danger, go against the grain, and take some risks. Of course the vast majority of the people who are willing to dine on raw flesh also have the slight problem of being one of the walking dead.
As far as zombie portraits go, this may be my new favorite one. The fact that the portrait isn’t just a look at a zombie’s face, but it is one in motion, taking that first bite of flesh off of the screaming victim who obviously wasn’t adequately prepared. I also like that if you look close enough you can make out little details, like the veins visible through the skin on the face.
The artist IAM:Nick Friederich, from Shelton Tattoo in Shelton CT, was featured last week as well with his portrait of Eva Angelina.
It makes you wonder, if Shaun and his friends can walk through a group of zombies acting like them, and Rick Grimes can cover himself with fluids from a corpse to get through a horde, would getting a zombie tattoo allow you to make it to safety without worrying about being bitten?
But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eve. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man’s terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment! –do you mark me well I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me –the sound would be heard by a neighbour!
– Edgar Allan Poe – The Tell-Tale Heart
Normally I would hesitate to post two images that as so similar this close together, but given the material presented, I couldn’t help myself given the connection between the two images.
Below you’ll see a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe that Godsandmonsters uploaded. Now because I was a lit major in university, tattoos tied to works of literature tend to catch my eye. So when I saw Poe looking back at me, I knew I had to take a closer look. One of the great things about Poe (aside from his writing) is that he always has a sort of haunted look about him. Throughout his troubled life he was orphaned, served in the military, eventually started writing, married his 13 year old cousin who died still very young, became an alcoholic and eventually died in a bizarre manner. You see, the night that Poe died, he was found on the street rambling about someone named “Reynolds”. He was rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that he was wearing someone else’s clothes. The eventual cause of death was determined to be some sort of brain trauma, although all records have since been destroyed. In the years following his death, a jealous rival came into control over Poe’s literary holdings, and worked hard to destroy Poe’s reputation.
But let’s take a step back. While Poe was writing a good deal of his works dealt with death and loss. These of course intensified after the loss of his wife. Given his personal history, it was clear that his abandonment when he was a child, and the deaths of those around him contributed greatly to his works, but he also drew upon the works of others for inspiration. In one specific instance, Keats’ poem “The Lamia” played a significant role in the inspiration of one of Poe’s sonnets. ”To Science“, one of Poe’s earlier works, specifically refers to Keats’ poem (lines 229-238) in addition to using lines that echo lines from “The Lamia”. The argument behind Poe’s sonnet is that as science is expanding it is taking away the mysteries of the world, and in doing so is ruining the world for poets as they look to the mysteries of the world for inspiration.
So now look to yourself. Do you think Poe ended up being right? Did science and the modern age ruin the mysteries of the world? Or is it still there, waiting to be discovered again by poets and artists all over the world?
As for myself, I still think there is enough mystery out there, maybe not the same mysteries that Poe was searching for, but new ones for a new generation to discover.
While we’re on the subject of artists, do you happen to have any art on yourself that you want to share? BME is always looking for new submissions, and if you’re not a member yet, head on over to the main page and sign up. Those of you who are members can also check out Godsandmonsters‘ story of getting tattooed. While ModBlog shows of some of the great pieces submitted every day, there are hundreds more submitted all the time that are just as good, if not better.
Left to herself, the serpent now began
To change; her elfin blood in madness ran,
Her mouth foam’d, and the grass, therewith besprent,
Wither’d at dew so sweet and virulent;
Her eyes in torture fix’d, and anguish drear,
Hot, glaz’d, and wide, with lid-lashes all sear,
Flash’d phosphor and sharp sparks, without one cooling tear.
The colours all inflam’d throughout her train,
She writh’d about, convuls’d with scarlet pain:
A deep volcanian yellow took the place
Of all her milder-mooned body’s grace;
And, as the lava ravishes the mead,
Spoilt all her silver mail, and golden brede;
Made gloom of all her frecklings, streaks and bars,
Eclips’d her crescents, and lick’d up her stars:
So that, in moments few, she was undrest
Of all her sapphires, greens, and amethyst,
And rubious-argent: of all these bereft,
Nothing but pain and ugliness were left.
Still shone her crown; that vanish’d, also she
Melted and disappear’d as suddenly;
And in the air, her new voice luting soft,
Cried, “Lycius! gentle Lycius!”—-Borne aloft
With the bright mists about the mountains hoar
These words dissolv’d: Crete’s forests heard no more.–John Keats – Lamia
I really love it when a picture is submitted that has such a rich back story behind it. Tiffany George recently uploaded this image of a piece she had done. The tattoo is a recreation of John William Waterhouse’s Lamia (on her knees).
Now, the story of the Lamia stems from Greek mythology, but it has its roots buried deep in many other myths. The basics of the story is that Lamia was a beautiful woman, who had an affair with Zeus (I mean, who in Greek mythology hasn’t slept with Zeus?). Well, from their little tryst, Lamia gave birth to children. Hera, Zeus’ wife, wasn’t too pleased so she went and killed all of the children. Lamia, so torn up with grief began roaming around eating children.
From this point the myth diverges into many different stories, all depending on the time period that the story was told. The tale itself began to travel and was adopted by many other cultures as a way to warn children about being bad. Some of you may be familiar with the Baba Yaga story, or any other that involve a woman who lures children away to eat them.
You’ll note the poem that I quoted at the top of this post. Keats, one of the last romantic poets, told the story of the Lamia and Lycius. In it the Lamia is a serpent who helps the god Hermes find an invisible nymph. In return he restores her to human form, where she promptly falls in love with Lycius. The two are set to be married, but right before the ceremony Lycius’ mentor reveals the Lamia for her true self, and Lycius dies of grief. It is from this particular poem that the painter John William Waterhouse created a series of paintings depicting the Lamia, including the one that Tiffany tattooed. One key thing to note in the image is the band of green around her arm. In all of the paintings Waterhouse depicted the Lamia as a woman, yet had her draped in snake skins, which is what the green band is comprised of.
So while we’ve established the myth of the Lamia, and the later romanticism about it, it’s interesting to also note the ties it has beyond a warning to children to behave.
Now while you may not be familiar with the Lamia myth, you may recall the story of Lilith. Now the Lilith story pre-dates Christian mythology by a few centuries, going back as far as 27th century BC Mesopotamia in the Epic of Gilgamesh where Gilgamesh encounters an early version of Lilith as a serpent in a tree and slays it. In western civilization we commonly think of Lilith as being Adam’s first wife who refused to be submissive and ran away. After her departure a number of different things happen to her, all depending on what version of the tale is being told. In some she is pursued by the angels to return to the garden, and as punishment 100 children will die every day. In others she runs away to marry the archangel Samael. Regardless of the biblical related stories, the undercurrent is that Lilith was evil for leaving Adam, and at some point became serpent-like and was responsible for the deaths of children. Of course in historical terms this meant the story was a reminder that women who seek power are evil in some form.
These myths eventually led to the modern interpretation of Lilith, where she is as seen as a mother goddess, or as a being of natural power. Wiccans revere her, while those who hold true to the original myths see her as a pagan goddess of witchcraft, and a demon who will cause women to sin. No matter what your personal interpretation is, it’s safe to say that at some point in your life you may have encountered some form of either the Lamia or Lilith myths. Just take a look at movies and television, Lilith was a character on the TV show Supernatural, the Lamia was an evil spirit in Sam Raimi’s “Drag me to Hell”, the White Witch from the Narnia books is a descendant of Lilith (granted the Narnia books are all Christian allegories so this shouldn’t be a surprise), and in del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth”, the Pale Man both eats children and can remove his eyes (another staple of the Lamia myth).
And even if you can say you’ve never encountered any interpretation of the myths, now that you’ve seen the tattoo and read this post, you’re no longer able to claim innocence.