Like many things enjoyed in America, stars come from Mexico, build by the blood, sweat, tears, and yes, even flesh, of the Hispanic proletariat. These photos were smuggled out by my friend Abel at the star production factory Evolution here in Mexico.
“The more you know…”
I was doing some codec testing earlier today to decide what I should be using, and I thought that I ought to share the test video publicly. This is a 1:45 long clip of Lukas Zpira doing a giant Tibettan cutting and skin removal on IAM:Whitespace (featured here before).
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Oh, and I should say that this isn’t edited nicely or anything like that. It’s just a few randomly chosen segments from three hours of DV. When I have time I’ll post a proper version. And finally, since I’m always asked, the music playing in the background is a cover of Science Fiction Double Feature (from RHPS) by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
I’ve showed work by the brilliant scarification artist Dave Gillstrap here before, but he just got back from an art tour in Vancouver and I’d like to post this shot to show how he builds up a cutting. Dave has a unique form of textural cutting that allows him to both create bold outlines that hold the piece together, but also “shading” using a series of lighter cuts.
Here’s a fresh example of his work on IAM:taryn:
I’ll try and remember to post a healed picture of this in six months, but do check out some of his other work on ModBlog like the geisha scar or this bodysuit… and he also has a mini-portfolio on BME.
Here’s a quick pair of scarification videos for you. The image quality isn’t the greatest on either of them, which is unfortunate because in each case it’s a very nice example of cutting art.
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Whitespace getting his nipple cut by Dave Gillstrap. You can check out our previous post on his Buddhism-themed scarification bodysuit project (which also contains cutting work by other artists).
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Warren gets his geometric arm cutting extended by Tom Brazda in Toronto… While a very qualified and experienced piercer, Tom’s only recently been getting seriously into cutting and I really like this piece a lot — you shoudl take the time to visit Warren’s page to see the photos.
So, if you have surface piercings on your forearms, and, like many surface piercings, they reject and leave you with scars that you’re no fan of, what do you do? They say fight fire with fire, so why not fight scars with scars? After all, tattoo cover-ups almost always turn out better than attempts at removal. Anyway, Ariel had a few piercing scars she didn’t like, so she had Brian at PURE/NYC convert them into hearts via skin removal. Click to zoom in.
I showed a nice Hello Kitty tattoo a few entries back. Hello Kitty tattoos are quite popular (I’ll do an entry on them some time soon perhaps), but cuttings not so much, so I thought I’d post this nice example by Brenno at Body Factory in Italy. On the off chance that any Italians are reading this, please support the efforts of the Italian Association of Professional Piercers and Tattooists.
They say once you go black you never go back, right? I can’t vouch for genital size, but I can tell you that when it comes to scarification I’ve seen some of the most stunning work on dark skin — this example, fresh and healed, is by John Durante of Laughing Buddha in Seattle, Washington.
It’s not uncommon to see pale skin actually heal indented rather than with a raised keloid. Here’s an example (four weeks old) by Rox in Kennewick, Washington.
On the off chance that’s a white power logo (which I don’t have any reason to believe), let me preemptively balance out my karma with a peace sign… And I’m sure you’ve wondered what an electrocautery brand on the palm of the hand looks like, right? Here’s a before and after from Shawn O’Hare at The Pain Parlor in Oxnard, California.
Speaking of unusual locations for scarification, here’s an ear brand by Matt Bruce:
Let’s see what else is in my scar folder to tell you about… here’s a big full back cross branding (healed) being play pierced. Photo c/o Kent Fazekas at Outer Limits in Long Beach.
Finally, we can’t forget scarification by body piercing! Here’s the result of a couple tries at a nape piercing (rejection)… as you can see they’ve moved on to new territory and haven’t given up yet!
Here in Mexico, today is Día de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead — I suppose the end result of Aztec and other indigenous beliefs mixing with the imported Roman Catholic traditions. Click here for some more info if you want — all I have for you is a gallery of Day of the Dead tattoos (and a couple scarification pieces as well):
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L-R: by Brian (NYC), Tom Brazda (Toronto), and Bart (Dakotah Tattoo, Ossendrecht).
The work that’s being done by top scarification artists these days has now reached the level where it’s competitive with tattooing in terms of the aesthetic result. This amazing example on DejaMoon is a collaboration piece between Dave Gilstrap and Brian, and is three and a half months old in this photo. This is definitely one of the best examples of cutting work I’ve ever seen.
