March 23, 2011
Bunny Bits and Fish Faces
Megan came back to see me! Ahhhhh!! yay :)
So this girl has got to be my favorite person in the whole wide world. Why, you ask? Because she tipped me with a home made blueberry muffinand brought me a valentines day card with a pentagram on it.
Ah-may-zing.
Anywho, we sat for about 3 hours and got about.. hmm.. 40% done.
And here are some progress pictures for you! Observe, theatypical shading used here. I drew all the little goddamn fur lines in the bunny and that soaked up most of our time but hot damn it looks good, huh?I’m pretty pleased with how it’s coming out thus far and it’s pretty easy to tell on here which lines are new and which ones are old. The fish are about half done and have the cutest little fish faces. If you can’t tell, I love this design. I wish more people came to me with stuff like this.Nothing but fun.
Progress Update
Just an update on the tattoo I’ve been doing on my leg. I anticipate two or three more sessions since I never get to work quite as long as I want before I get kicked out of the stations I borrow and also because it’s a massive project.
She’s about half shaded and looking dullwith no color. To be remedied. This reflects another 3 hours of work.
also- a fun picture taken while I was working..An inadvertently metal accident.
Extreme Modification and Suspension
It’s estimated, nowadays, that one in every seven people in America have at least one tattoo and even more than that participate in some form of body modification. They might not refer to it as such, however, because society has predetermined what types of body modification are generally accepted and thus not looked down upon. In the body modification documentary, Flesh & Blood, Steve Haworth discusses this. He says “every artist has a medium, and mine is flesh” and he considers his work of extreme body modification “3d art”. Haworth is known for helping to modify people in a way that doctors will refuse because of ethical conflict. For example, he invented a sub-dermal silver plate that can be left under the skin for a life time and protrudes slightly so as to give the illusion of horns or whatever else to wearer chooses to screw into this newly available metal slot in their body.
Haworth goes on in his documentary to introduce the viewer to others who participate inextreme body modification and practice suspension. Suspension is when the individual has a series of large hooks (that look very similar to meat hooks used in slaughter houses) stuck through their skin which they are then suspended from. The hooks are commonly placed through the shoulders, back, or knees. The suspension is said to be a very meaningful and spiritual experience but can be visually intimidating which has made it a common performance art act in the body modification community. Native Americans are said to be the first to practice suspension and it was used in the Mandan tribe as part of their coming of age ritual. 
Flesh & Blood - A Body Modification Documentary by Larry Silverman. Web. 08 Mar. 2011. <http://www.fleshandbloodmovie.com/>.
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#body modification #history #piercing #tattoo #art
Appealing to Your Tattooist
My mothers cousin (what does that make her to me? my second cousin?) recently got a tattoo done by a female tattoo artist in Washington and she sent me a picture.
She sent this to me because she had looked through this artists work and knew she was capable of creating beautiful imagery but was somewhat dissapointed with how her tattoo came out. The lines are uneven in some places and my cousin was less than impressed with the shading. She sent me this email asking if it looked ok and if it was fixable. My response was yes, they’re just lines and they can absolutely be fixed. Do not fret!A few weeks go by and she e-mails me again about her tattoo. This time she says ” I have been a huge idiot asking her to do this crappy tiny gray-and-white map tattoo, so now she’s drawing up thisawesome scene to go on top of it that will have trees and waves and color and birds and fish, etc- and it might be twice as big and some of the trees might go up my arm”This was somewhat enlightening to me. She was right! Tattooists are artists who are contained to doing wahtever you ask of them. My cousin noticed this particular artist was very good with nature scenes and loved working with color and has now gone back and asked her to do something she enjoys. I am waiting on a picture to see how it went but I bet she will now be happy with her tattoo :)The lesson for today, you will be more pleased with the outcome if you find an artist who enjoys doing the work you want done. I relate this to my personal experience where I do not enjoy tattooing text or symmetrical/geometerical designs but love the more freeform pieces with organic detailing and shading.
Robots are Taking Over
My boyfriend sent me this link the other day http://www.geekologie.com/2011/03/robotic_tattoo_machine_even_pi.phpIt’s a robotic tattoo machine. I shared it with some of the tattoo artists I work with and apparentlythis isn’t the first time they’re heard of robots tattooing. He replies with saying that tattooing will always be done by humans because machines lack judgment. While I recognize this as somewhat true I do have to wonder…
IF tattoos were done robotically, there would be the removal of human error. Which is good to an extent, but human error seems to play a role in what makes art beautiful. Programming a robot to tattoo is like programming one to paint. It is possible, it would follow direct orders, it could certainly correctly plant down straight and even lines (because it doesn’t shake when it gets hungry or tired) but it would not be able to perform much past that. It will never decide the tattoo would look better with a different rim light color, or with a different shading technique. It wont pull away if the indivudal getting tattooed wiggles or twitches or asks you to stop for a moment because it hurts. So, although I wouldn’t mind if they could get machines to take over the stupid symmetrical/geometrical tattoos that people like to get done, an art form can never really be replaced by a machine.
March 25, 2011
Animal Awesomeness Completed
Here it is! Completed! In case you’ve 
not been paying attention, this tattoo took several sessions and is now finally done! I’m so thrilled I could cry. This was hands down (ahurr.. hands… get it? theres a bunch of hands up in the tattoo..) the most fun tattoo I’ve ever done. I don’t know if that’s really saying much since I’ve only been tattooing for about 6 months now, but still. Awesome experience.
Mostly done with a super tight 7 round liner with the occasional grey wash with a 9 mag. Finishing up this last stage only took an extra two hours from our last session so it was nice and quick. I intentionally kept the sketchy feeling, shading, and lines so as to match the style of the original piece. If you’re interested, the artist of the design can be found http://nonbunkjunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/matty-m-cipov/ PLEASE go have a look! His work is awesome.
Shortstop From Tokyo
Those who have read my previous posts will recognize the name Austin as he has let me do several tattoos on him which was a big deal when I was very first getting started. He sort of dropped off the radar for a while but he’s baaaaack and with some brand new ink. He let me do this on his calf, which I think is safe to say was zero fun for both of us. I have never had to deal with that much twitching from anyone ever. Not even exaggerating when I say he would kick and flex and twitch at least once every 20 seconds. It took probably four hours to get these lines down because I had to wrestle him the entire way. Poor guy claimed it was incredibly painful but sat it out anyway. This is the logo for his band Shortstop From Tokyo (I’m sure they have a website somewhere around here…. ah! yes! http://skaspot.ning.com/profile/ShortstopFromTokyo) go show them a little love.
A Fetish For Freedom
So being in the industry of body modification I see some pretty unique looking people and am exposed to some pretty interesting fetishes.. But I have to wonder. What the fuck?
Seriously. Think about it. In the documentary “Blood and Flesh” a man gets a gauge cut into his scrotum. I need to analyze this because although I am in love with body modification, and I can admit to being attracted to some ”weird” stuff. I am a very open minded individual and I have done things to my body I know not everyone understands or likes. But who is sticking their finger through the newly formed hole in that mans scrotum and thinking to themselves “Hot damn, this is awesome.”
Ok, maybe I’m being unfair. That is a pretty extreme example, and honestly I haven’t heard of that being any sort of fetish. I would assume people who are doing extreme things, like genital mutilation, are doing it for a reason all their own. In my previous journeys into the psyche and motivation behind body modification I have deduced that people engage in it for a mate. Everyone wants to feel a little less alone in this world and let’s not pretend like aesthetic doesn’t matter. But people who are cutting holes in their scrotum must have an alternative motivation.
What I can speculate is that this is about owning your body. Which I hope is the truth because I adore that reason and I can in every way relate to it. Every other (or mostly every other…) man on this planet was born with an intact and hole-less scrotum. Well why should that limit you? Why settle? You wanna finger your balls, by god, cut a hunk of flesh out and stick a finger in there! Who has the right to tell you you have to settle with what you were initially given!?
Personally, I don’t understand this particular body mod choice, but I can appreciate the pain he went through to make something happen and get the result he desired.
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#scrotum #gauge #piercing #body #body modification #art
March 26, 2011
Modernized Foot Modification
Have you ever noticed that the shape made by a high heel mimics the shape of the bound feet in early China? A less painful way of modifying our bodies to appeal to others or feel more confident about our bodies or change our image or whatever reason you want to put behind it.
I wont pretend like I don’t love to wear huge heels, but I also wont pretend that it’s not because I like feeling like a pretty princess and they make my legs and ass look awesome.
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#foot #foot binding #body modification #art #feet #shoe #heels
March 30, 2011
it took 5 sessions but my chest piece is finally finished. Props to Tim DeRose from Windy City Ink
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#insect #tattoo #filligree #flower #beetle #art #body #body modification
March 31, 2011
Boobs Or GTFO
Let’s talk about boob jobs, shall we? I was perusing Deviantart.com and i stumbled across this wonder.
There’s no dancing around it. Them tatties are fake as all hell. Now there are, of course, dozens of reasons why a woman would get a boob job. I’ve heard of women in stripping getting their boobs done to increase their income, I know some people are born deformed or go thru a trauma of some sort and need corrective surgery, I know that some people have serious self confidence issues and this is just the boost that can help them, and I also know that there are women who feeled pressured into modifying themselves in order to be seen as “pretty”. THIS is when I take issue with it. Boob jobs are awesome if you’re getting them for YOU but to allow others to make this decision for you and make you feel inadequate to this point is just sad. I am in no way against these big ol’ boobies, but I’m thinking this particular girl shouldn’t have bargain shopped. When you undergo plastic surgery you NEED TO KNOW you are trusting that other human (who makes mistakes, just like us all) with the form and health of your own body. Do not go cheap, you are not only putting your happiness at risk but also your health. I’m ending by saying that almost every single comment posted on this picture was something to the affect of “This is a gorgeous woman, too bad she ruined herself with those fake breasts”… Just something that caught my attention.
love yourself, if you want the tits then get the tits… but don’t let others tell you that you need them.
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#boobs #breasts #fake boobs #tits #art #plastic surgery #body #body modification #model #sexy
April 7, 2011
Practice Makes… Paintings
Recently one of the tattooists at my shop was asked to leave and we have since hiredsomeone new and he is quite the artist! His preferred medium is acrylic paint and I found this interesting.
I talked with him about what he uses andhow he does his paintings and he seemsto have inspired everyone at the shopto give it a try. Including me! He told me that if you can paint well, you can tattoo well. I figured this is a great way to practice my color theory so I went out and bought a tiny 6”x8” canvas to do my first practice piece on.
The first image is of the sketch I did on the canvas and that took about an hour to complete. I then proceeded to paint and it was a very frustrating experience. Turns out painting is actually kind of difficult. The painting took about 10 hours to complete (how embarrassing.) So as is obvious, the proportions got skewed, compromises were made, but I’ll chalk it up to a good first try. Hopefully my next attempt will be on a larger canvas but I already think it was very helpful because it made me REALLY think about my colors. It was fun to try a new medium and I hope it improves my tattooing.
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#skull #painting #art #practice #sketch #tentacle #squid
And Then You Die
My friend Jan has come seeking more ink! Hoorah! He brought me an amazing design idea, which unfortunately this picture doesn’t really do justice to because 1) it’s a skewed image he took himself 2) it’s a cell phone picture 3) it’s not finished!
The stenciling, the preparation, and the inking has thus far taken about 6 hours. We have one more session left and when that happens I will definitely remember to take a good picture! Still kicking myself for having forgotten to take one at the end of this first session…
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#teeth #pliers #blood #banner #tattoo #unfinished #art
Suicide Girls…. Mhm
So I want to be upset at Suicide Girls because I think they’ve set the bar too low for their little exclusive porn site.. whateverthefucknotimportant.
but when they bless the internet with things like this I just can’t stay mad.
I am so in love with the red head.
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#suicide girls #art #photography #model #fethish #tattoos #body modification
April 18, 2011
Sugar Skull Dagger
Today I spent a total of about 6 hours tattooing this on the side of my boyfriends leg. He designed it and I was really worried about this big long straight lines but I think it’s coming along really well and he seems to like it :) This is just at the end of our first session and hopefully we can get it all colored in about three weeks when it heals.
