For those of you not familiar with the term “leaf rubbing”, it’s when you take a leaf from a tree (or other plant) and place it underneath piece of paper, then gently rub a crayon or charcoal across the paper, creating the impression of the leaf. For Christiano Aielli, he does things a little differently.
To start, he cuts out the shape of the leaf, then he follows that by rubbing ink into the wound. The result is a little different than the traditional method, as you can see below.
Things are back to normal this week, which means it’s time for this week’s scarification follow-up post. Before we get to it, I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who keeps sending in their healed scar photos. When I started this column last year there was no way I could predict how popular it would become, and there’s no way it could exist without the contributions of the many talented scarification artists.
That said, let’s get on to this week’s scar. Back in December of last year we saw this scarification that was done over ink. What was unique was that it wasn’t done over solid blackwork, but rather it was done over Shannan’s full color chestpiece.
It’s been almost six months now since we saw this scar by Anders, so keep on reading if you want to know how it looks today.
Now that the scar has had some time to heal you can see how well it fits in with the rest of her work. I really like how the scar tissue has healed to almost the exact same color as the ribbon on the corset. To see more of Anders’ work, check out his BME Portfolio Gallery.
People often ask me why I don’t tattoo. I have been around it enough, I know the technical stuff but I just lack the talent to really excel at tattooing. I explain that while I could likely make a few bucks doing it, I would forever be disheartened by my inability to put out pieces with the artistic quality I would expect of myself.
Go back a few years, to the “early days” of scarifications modern resurgence, a time when very few piercers/mod artist offered this service and it seemed like a bandwagon I could jump on. Bold simple designs, cut burned and peeled from the flesh…….that I could handle. Then along comes people like Ryan Oullette who did this piece. People like him, Ron Garza, Brian Decker, Efix Roy and several others have pushed this art form from it’s primitive roots into the fine art you see here.
To think that just 10 years ago scarification was so rare and “extreme” it could earn it’s wearers an invite to Modcon events, it is astonishing the quantity of amazing scarification we see each and every week here on Modblog. So while I occasionally will continue to take on a simple piece, I have to throw my hat in to these guys when it comes to this sort of amazingness.
So thanks, you overly talented a-holes, now I am “just a piercer” again 🙂
Anyhow, back to the photo at hand ……this recent piece, which I was just blown away by. It was actually drawn up for one client who never showed up for it, so he posted the drawing to facebook and a girl named Samantha, jumped on the chance and spent 7 hours under the blade to get it.
For proof that Ryan actually wears the title of “Lord of the Blade” with pride keep on keeping on.
Tattoo by Angry Al at Ryan’s shop, Precision Body Arts.
Since I was away last week, we didn’t get a chance to see a Friday Follow-up. Well to make it up to you, I’ve got a follow-up of a scar that I promised I would deliver.
Two weeks ago I posted a scar by Brian of a lion. Due to the nature of how the person scarred, I had a feeling the scar would turn out to be pretty impressive.
As I mentioned before, that circular scar is a remnant from a case of chicken pox, meaning the scar tissue of the lion may very will puff up as well. To see how the scar looks now, you know what to do.
Sure enough the scar turned out great. Brian used cuts of different depths to give the mane the layered look it has, with the deepest cuts being used for the outlines of the face and paws. Brian did a lot of work in Ohio over the weekend, so keep an eye on his gallery to see his latest creations.
Tibetan Monks, and most of the rest of the world for that matter. I mention the monks because they tie into my religious theme and this piece was merely described as “Tibetan”.
This extremely clean scar (especially for it’s location) was a collaboration between Christiano Aielli and Lewis Dodd.
PS: My apologies for the brief repost of the pistol scarification piece. Some how I missed that on modblog previously and when I searched to check that it hadn’t been posted, none of my key words triggered it. Thanks, Jon P for pointing it out.
..in a land far, far away a friend of mine, known as “lord of the blade” sent me this picture of an itty bitty flesh removal key. It was the tiniest flesh removal detail he has ever attempted to pull off. I held onto this picture in my chamber of secrets (my bme email box) for many, many moons (since last December) until it was just the right time to post. Now is that time.
The piece below it was also by Ryan, and was done five years prior. I can’t wait to see how the key looks in five years, and since I forgot about this picture in my email inbox for so long one of those years is almost over!
It seems that Brian Decker guy has been busy again. Here’s his latest scar/brand piece.
It’s mostly a scar piece, but Brian finishes his work up with some branding which gives the scar a different texture, making it appear to be shaded. You can see more of Brian’s work in his BME Portfolio Gallery.
Here’s a fresh/partially healed corset scar which was done by Azl from Tattooatouage in Montreal. I know that he did the bulk of the scarring, but the two large ones at the top look more surgical in nature. Of course that could always be the look that the owner wanted.
This week’s follow-up features one of BME’s newest members, Kcir.
This Gorgon cutting was done a couple of months ago down in Houston, TX. To see how it’s looking now, you know what to do.
Given that this is only a couple months old, it may end up lightening a little more. The details all held up, so it’ll be interesting to see if it fades to the skin tone while still being visible. You can check out more of Kcir’s scarification work in the galleries.
This little abstract scar was sent in by mzellekaktus. They’re crediting Skin of Steel as the artist from a shop called Angel Tattoo in Nice, France.
I’m sure this symbol is probably well known, but as I’ve shown time and time again, I’m not always in the know about everything. In any case, it looks pretty original to me, and I hope that we get a follow-up on this one.