Weird stuff happens.  That’s just life, I guess.  Writing this blog, by this point I’ve just come to accept the day to day weirdness and not really question it that much.  It’s not so much that weird stuff in general happens, but rather that there’s an unbelievable amount of weird stuff that often happens in the zany world of tattoo.

Prove it, you say?  Okay, then.  How about this: 36-year-old tattooist David Howard King of Panacea, Florida was arrested this week after he shot, killed and ate his neighbour’s 12-year old potbellied pig, who was lovingly named Spam.  The pig’s remains were found in the freezer at King’s Apocalyptic Tattoo Studio this Monday after police arrived with a warrant to search the premises as part of a prescription drug investivation.  When questioned about the pig parts, King admitted to killing the animal when it wandered on to his property.

‘King, 36, said the 12-year-old pot-bellied pig named Spam had wandered into his property last week. Deputies said they recovered six plastic bags of pork parts from a freezer at the tattoo studio. They say they also found the gun used to shoot Spam. The pig was valued at $350.

King is charged with grand theft of livestock and cruelty to animals. He also faces charges of possession of prescription pills with intent to sell, distribution of Schedule III prescription pills and trafficking in more than four grams.’

Very odd.  I don’t know, is this normal in Florida?  Do people regularly keep pot-bellied pigs as pets and open fire on animals that wander into their yards?  Or hey, maybe King is just a poor tattooist trying to make ends meet and dude wasn’t really tattooing enough to put food on his table.  Or, maybe King just plain likes him some BBQ’d hog.  Whatever the reasoning for this, it’s weird.

I might be biased or otherwise deluding myself, but I typically think that the Tattoo Blog does a good job of staying away from controversy within its posts.  Sometimes there’s the odd hiccup in this ongoing effort, but for the most part, I’d say that tattoo blog doesn’t touch on any of the big controversies of our day that no one ever seems to completely agree on.

Well, until now.  I don’t want to necessarily start a debate on here about religion, but when religion tries to somehow interfere with tattoo, then I think that we’ve got a problem and it needs to be addressed.  In a recent interview,  Ghanaian actress Martha Ankomah was asked why she doesn’t have any tattoos.  Ankomah responded that she doesn’t have any tattoos because the Bible warns against it and that anyone with tattoos or who tattoos is a sinner.

Ahhh yes…that old chestnut.  We must all do everything that the Bible tells us to do because it is after all, filled with such sage and relevant tips for life in the 21st century.  Unfortunately, Ankomah tried and failed to recall the exact quote in the Bible which prohibits tattoo, but the good people at Ghana Web were able to find it “somewhere in Revelations”.  They then found a different quote in Leviticus that reads:

“‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.”’

I’m not superstitious, which means that I don’t ever take what the Bible says into consideration in my daily life.  I know right from wrong, I’m a good person and that’s enough for me.  Furthermore, if the lord wants a say over what people do and don’t do to their bodies, well then maybe he can start winning people over by actually coming down here to earth and giving us a hand with the general chaos and agony that 95% of the frigging inhabitants of the world go through on a daily basis.  Maybe then his suggestions as to what human beings can and can’t do to their bodies would be valid, instead of just sitting up in the clouds somewhere, hogging all his magic to himself.

My point here is that it is absolutely absurd to believe that getting tattooed is a sin or wrong or somehow against god.  If you believe in god, then that’s your prerogative, but please don’t cast aspersions on others who choose to get tattooed.  We are not sinners, we are people who enjoy art and that is all.  I find it to be at the height of arrogance to tell people that what they are doing is morally wrong because of some little passage in a book that was written and rewritten thousands of years ago.  If you don’t like tattoos, that’s fine, but they are not and will never be a “sin”.

Beyond anything else, Singapore probably has more of a reputation as being a place that you don’t want to step out of line in. Strict laws and even stricter penalties for ignoring those laws have often resulted in the belief that Singapore is a Big Brother type state with little to no room for anything outside of the status quo.  With that belief in mind, there’s probably not a lot of general knowledge about the tattoo scene within Singapore to the average outsider. 

The truth of the matter however, is that Singapore is really beginning to establish itself as a hotspot for tattoo within South East Asia.  In 2009, the city held its first ever tattoo show, which brought in more than 120 different artists from around the world and was a rousing success.  Amongst Singapore’s growing list of quality tattooists, you’ll find Joe Wang bringing the ruckus with heaps of colour and precision.

Wang runs a studio on Singapore’s Orchard Road called 8 Volts Tattoo and from the look of things, he’s doing his part to really get Singaporeans inked up and inked up well.  As I said earlier, this is a guy who likes a lot of colour and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  I love a tattooist who can control their colour levels and ride that line between not enough and too much.  The end results are tattoos that are nice to look at and very well done.

At the moment there isn’t a lot of information about Wang and his work online, but that will change in due time.  If artists like Wang continue to populate Singapore and if the tattoo scene continues to grow as it has been, it won’t be much longer before minds are being changed about what Singapore has on offer for fans of tattoo art.

If there are any regular readers of Tattoo Blog out there, then you’ll be familiar with the ongoing situation in Hermosa Beach, California.  I’ve blogged about this numerous times, ever since tattooist Johnny Anderson won a lawsuit against the city for not allowing him to open his tattoo studio there.  Unfortunately, once Anderson cleared the way for tattoo studios to open in Hermosa Beach, a group of anal retentive citizens called Citizens United have clogged up the court systems by attempting to limit what tattooists can and can’t do with their studios in Hermosa Beach, as well as where tattooists can and can’t open their studios.  Basically, it’s the same fight that Anderson fought last year, except more pointless and more annoying. 

The entire thing is really convoluted at this point, so I don’t think that I’ll even bother trying to explain the current state of this issue here on the blog.  Instead, here’s the latest news on the issue.  I will say that it looks like the Citizens United don’t really stand a chance in getting what they want, mainly because the group missed the 90 day statute of limitations for filing its initial complaint.  They filed their complain five months after the 90 day ordinance.

‘On July 25, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant sustained Hermosa Beach’s demurrer, or argument, that Citizens United’s claims be dismissed, according to City Attorney Michael Jenkins. Chalfant dismissed the claims without prejudice and gave Citizens United the chance to return with additional arguments.

A key winning argument was Hermosa Beach’s claim that Citizens United missed the 90-day statute of limitations window, which began in November when the ordinance was adopted. The group filed its lawsuit five months later.’

I will continue to follow this story as it progresses, as well as offering links to any information that I can find.  Hopefully this will end soon and that there won’t be any further wasting of tax-payer money on an issue that needs to be dropped.  Give it up United Citizens, the only thing that you’re United against is logic.
 

In the past three days, I’ve come across two different news articles about artists wanting regulation in their state.  Yesterday I found one about Arizona and today I found the second one about demands for regulation in Utah.

Now, the problem with regulation is that some feel it doesn’t benefit artists at all and that more regulation means more government interference by clueless bureaucrats who have nothing better to do than bitch and whine about specifics that are entirely irrelevant.  Fair enough, that’s one way of looking at it.

But from yet another perspective, we have incidents like this one occurring in which idiots like Chastity Bendele are tattooing themselves and getting mutant infections that the media doesn’t really bother to differentiate from regular, professional tattoo.  If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: regulation helps us all and it doesn’t have to be a completely intrusive and ridiculous mess of red tape.  Artists themselves can push for the changes that they want to see in the way that tattoo is regulated.  Tattooist Vinny Sky is a perfect example of that. 

‘Sky pushed Coconino County to pass regulations on tattooing and even helped to write them a decade ago. Coconino is currently the only county in the state that regulates tattoo shops and artists. He is pushing Maricopa County to become the second.’

This issue in many ways is still in its infancy, but one thing that remains certain is that some sort of change has to be made.  If this change is left up to the governments to handle, it will be a long, drawn out process that will most likely become far more confusing than necessary.  Maybe it’s time that more artists who are in favour of regulation got involved in the way that Vinny Sky and others like him are doing?

Today I was rummaging around on the good ol’ internet and I discovered a blog post by someone named Megan Willis at the Times Union blog.  Megan was asking the question, or rather stating her opinion that perhaps tattoo is finally “over”.  I wasn’t really sure exactly what she meant by that, so I read her blog post and kind of still ended up just being confused.  Here’s an excerpt:

‘…in the last couple of years, it seems you can’t shake a rusty safety pin without running into a new “high end” tattoo parlor, reality show, airbrush stand, henna job, or ad for tattoo makeup (scare me to death). I can appreciate a proper tattooing just as much as the next person be it temp, henna or till death do us part. But there occurs at some point, too much of a good thing. And I suspect we may have arrived there.’

Okay, so tattoos are popular.  I get it and I think pretty much everyone knows that at this point, but something being popular does not equate it with also being irrelevant or redundant.  Most likely everyone has some sort of piece of art in their home, does that make it accurate to form the blanket opinion that all art is “over” because everyone enjoys it/owns some?

Not only that, but tattoo has been around for thousands and thousands of years.  Simply because those who seek out trends may be getting tired of tattoo definitely does not mean that tattoo is a trend.  Tattoo never has been, nor will it ever be a trend.  Some people who get tattooed may be trendy, but that fault does not lay with the art form itself.

People spend their entire lives studying and learning the art of tattoo.  Perhaps it’s to their benefit that tattoo actually is considered over by the hordes of trend seekers for whom the commercialisation of this art is aimed at.  I say this in all sincerity because once they are out of the way, tattoo can and will continue on without the impedements that didn’t do it any good in the first place.

In that sense, I guess I do hope that tattoo is indeed, over.

Are we taking too many liberties with the word tattoo?  I mean, tattoo traditionally means ink meeting skin and art occurring as a result.  But the popularity of tattoo has brought about an ongoing flow of different art endeavours that also use the word tattoo to describe exactly what they are.  At present time I can only remember the street tattoo artist from a few months back that I blogged about, but that was pretty cool.  Today however, I stumbled upon this article that details the specifics on what is being called “hair tattoo”.

Hey, I’m not going to tell anyone that they can’t call what they are doing a form of tattoo, but to be fair, tattoo implies a permanent work of art.  There’s pain involved.  It isn’t as fleeting as a haircut. Still, I take my hat off to 24-year-old Ardy Shafiq Arshad for his skilled use of the razor at his Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia hair salon Hot Hot Cut.  So what exactly does a hair tattoo consist of?

‘Explaining hair tattooing, Ardy, also known as Damis in the graffiti arena, said it involves colouring the hair in different shades and forming designs and words from the strands.

“It’s just like drawing except that the pencil and eraser is my razor.”‘

Okay, so it’s not the sort of tattoo that we here at Tattoo Blog are truly interested in, and giving it the name ‘hair tattoo’ is kind of just cashing in on the popularity of tattoo.  But if Arshad can rustle up a passable portrait of Bill Cosby on to the back of my head, then I won’t complain about him calling this whatever the hell he wants.

I’ll be in KL by November, Ardy – see you then.

There are not that many times that I can recall of when I’ve been looking for a tattooist to profile and stumbled across one that just blows my mind right from the first glimpse at their portfolio.  Guys like Grime and Nick Baxter are some of the artists who have done that to me, but between the artists who really stand out and the ones who just impress me, there is typically a long wait.  I know that it may be blasphemous to say it, but I’ve only just discovered Carlos Torres and holy smokes, dude is fucking killing it.

It’s not simply a matter of Torres working in black and grey, it’s a matter of Torres taking black and grey to another level – I’m not joking or exaggerating, either – Carlos Torres has taken black and grey to a level that is going to be insanely difficult for other artists to follow.  This is black and grey portrait and realistic work that is to be admired for its form and presentation and just plain KABOOM! factor.  This stuff leaps off the skin and is a genuine treat to look at.  I envy each and every person who has ever had the good fortune to be tattooed by this man.

Torres tattoos from Los Angeles, California.  Aside from his tattoo work, he also paints and believe me when I say that his paintings are impressive as well.  I love seeing good art and when I see a tattooist who can elevate his or her work to the level that Torres has, I have nothing but admiration for them.  This is a rare talent and I sincerely wish Carlos Torres all the best in his future.  Unbelievable stuff, man.  Thank you.

Oh yeah, one last thing: Torres probably has the best tattooist website that I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot.  Tattooists take note, Chris Torres can inspire on more levels than one.

I like to read about tattoo in other countries.  It’s not that things are always so different when you find out about the tattoo scene in a country other than your own, but you often can discover things that you didn’t know and well, gee, that’s just fun!

I came across this article about tattoo in Sweden thinking that it was probably just yet another one of those articles floating around out there that tells us how far advanced mainstream tattoo is.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  Not true.  While the article does go on a bit about tattoos once being for ruffians and the like, it provided this little nugget of intrigue: Sweden hosts more tattoo studios per capita than almost any other country in the world.  That was certainly a surprise to me.

Then again, it might not be all that surprising.  I mean, there is no shortage of skilled artists in Sweden – Emil Edge, Henrik Gallon, Calle, Carl Löfqvist, to name but a few of the amazing tattooists that those lucky Swedes have access to.

‘It is East Street tattoo studio in Stockholm’s Södermalm neighborhood, where heavily inked and highly skilled artists deliver a delightful mix of pain and pleasure to their clients through a long session with needles and ink.

Tattoo studios like East Street are a regular feature of all major towns across Sweden. In fact Sweden hosts more studios per capita than almost any other country in the world.

What’s more, Sweden is recognised as being home to some of the world’s best artists, international conventions are commonly held here, and hundreds of artists from across the world come to work in the country.’

Uh…can someone spare a few bucks to send me to Sweden so that I can get tattooed?  I promise to blog all about it.  No?

It might sound strange, but a time in which tattoos can help people with their health is actually very close to happening.  We’ve already seen medical alert tattoos, which serve the same purpose as a bracelet, but something bigger is being developed along with the help of Mac, one of the world’s most beloved computer companies.

A team of scientists from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University has developed a tattoo that actually goes beneath the skin.  How that happens is that a solution is injected into the patient.  The nanoparticles will fluoresce when they come in contact with a target molecule and then with the help of a modified iPhone, the levels of the target molecules can be read.  The tattoo that is injected beneath the skin is invisible to the naked eye.

If all of this sounds more than a little confusing to you, well, that’s because it is.  But this sort of technology is capable of tracking a host of molecules that can be very helpful to doctors and particularly, patients.

The tattoos were originally as a way around the finger-prick bloodletting that is the standard technique for measuring glucose levels in those with diabetes. But Clark says they could be used to track many things besides glucose and sodium, offering a simpler, less painful, and more accurate way for many people to track many important biomarkers.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that this sort of technology will catch on,” says Jim Burns, head of drug and biomedical research and development at Genzyme.

This story has definitely changed since I first found out about it last year.  Back then, there was only talk of an injected tattoo that could help Diabetes sufferers.  The entire thing didn’t have the scope that it does now, nor was an iPhone involved.

‘Here’s how it works: a case that slips over the iPhone contains a nine-volt battery, a filter that fits over the iPhone’s camera, and an array of three LEDs that produce light in the visible part of the spectrum. This light causes the tattoos to fluoresce. A light-filtering lens is then placed over the iPhone’s camera. This filters out the light released by the LEDs, but not the light emitted by the tattoo. The device is pressed to the skin to prevent outside light from interfering.

Dubach and Clark hope to create an iPhone app that would easily measure and record sodium levels. At the moment, the iPhone simply takes images of the fluorescence, which the researchers then export to a computer for analysis. They also hope to get the reader to draw power from the iPhone itself, rather than from a battery.

Clark is working to expand her technology from glucose and sodium to include a wide range of potential targets. “Let’s say you have medication with a very narrow therapeutic range,” she says. Today, “you have to try it [a dosage] and see what happens.” She says her nanosensors, in contrast, could let people monitor the level of a given drug in their blood in real time, allowing for much more accurate dosing.’

Ah tattoos…is there anything that they can’t do?