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.