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INKEDblog takes you beneath the skin of today's tattoo culture. Our mission is to celebrate tattooing as a modern art form which incorporates art, fashion, style, and pop culture. While paying homage and respect to the past, we look to present a contemporary take on the present and future of skin art.
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Thursday Feb 23, 2006
The Taz…
What is it about Tasmanian Devil tattoos? While Taz is not even one of the most popular characters in the Bugs Bunny cartoons, he is at the top of the list when it comes to subject matter for tattoos. There is something undeniably charming about this befuddled whirlwind that speaks to many people who wear him with… if not pride, self-knowledge and a sense of humor.
Though now extinct, the Tasmanian Devil was a real animal in Australia. With its ferocious growl, carnivorous appetite and tremendous teeth, it’s no wonder the creature ended up with ‘Devil’ as its surname. The cartoon version of the Tasmanian devil is a whirling dervish, his extreme energy and animal instincts belaying his innocence and lack of guile. Bugs Bunny always tricks him in the end, but the Taz never loses his enthusiasm.
A Tasmanian Devil is a tattoo that says “Carpe Diem!!” or “Seize the Day!!” and really means it.
| Comments
The tasmanian devil isn't extinct. Why don't you try doing some research before posting riduclious information. Here I'll help you out.
http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5358KH?open
Posted by: justin at February 23, 2006 3:53 PM
The thylacine (aka Tasmanian Tiger) is extinct... maybe that's what the original poster is thinking of? The Tasmanian devil is indeed a living, thriving species, although they look nothing like that hideous Warner Bros. creation.
Posted by: -e- at February 23, 2006 8:03 PM
who cares? he's cute! he always has been always will be. if you guys had half of the charetcher that taz has maybe you would not have to worry about it, huh? think about for a while!!!
Posted by: mitno at February 24, 2006 12:48 AM
Actually the Tasmanian Devil is alive and surviving quite well. You are half right in the fact that at one point a ancestor of the Tasmanian Devil lived on the Australian continent, now however they only live on the island of Tasmania. Hence the reason they are called Tasmanian Devils and not Australian Devils. I agree with the first posting in that before you go ahead and claim that something is extinct maybe you should look it up on the internet, google it perhaps.
Posted by: georgeous at February 24, 2006 10:18 AM
Tasmanian devils are definitely alive, though maybe not for long, because they're dying off from mouth cancer pretty quickly. They look very little like the cartoon Taz... I've never understood the appeal of those tattoos. I guess it's the male equivalent of a Pooh or Tinkerbell tattoo?
Posted by: Kelsey at February 24, 2006 4:59 PM
Tazmanian Devil tattoos don't say "Carpe Diem", they say "White Trash".
Posted by: CJ at February 24, 2006 6:29 PM
The Tasmanian Devil is the current tattoo symbol of the month on www.tattoosymbol.com. In fact, the exact same image that is shown here.
Posted by: Lara at February 25, 2006 5:28 PM
Yeah it's the same image and there are some uncanny simmilarities in the write up, too...
Posted by: LNVL at February 25, 2006 7:14 PM
There should be an international ban on Taz tattoos. Nothing says "I lacked any semblance of creativity when it came to choosing my tattoo" like a cheesey Taz tat.
Posted by: Matt at February 25, 2006 11:15 PM
There is another heady link to the Taz reference, Hakim Bey's seminal 1985 book, "TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone," a metaphysical musing on "free zones" like pirate utopias, certain house parties, and other places where the laws and rules of polite society are temporarily suspended. Bey's book was quite influential in the SF cyberpunk and psychedelic underground, which overlapped heavily with the modern primitive movement in the late Eighties and into the Nineties. Indeed, the very concept of a "temporary autonomous zone" overlaps nicely with tattoo culture. The full text of "TAZ" is online here: http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont.html. I don't know how many people make the association between the Taz cartoon character and the TAZ; I know there was a bar in Prague in the mid-nineties called "Taz" that used the character as its logo but felt like a TAZ, too!
Posted by: PeaceLove at February 27, 2006 7:36 PM
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