|
||
|
|
||
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.
Friday Mar 31, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Gummy Bear
"About two years ago, or it will be two years in June, I got this tattoo. I got the tat a month after my girlfriend left to go into the military. She was my first real girlfriend, and our relationship grew fast and was really intense. We had been seeing each other for about four months when she discovered she was pregnant.
I would have supported her whichever way she chose to go, I kind of thought adoption would have been a good option, but it wasn’t my say. She was supposed to go into boot camp a week or so later, and we had the operation to terminate her pregnancy.
The whole time we were discussing what to do about the situation, I don’t why, but we kept talking about how the Zygote was the size of a gummy bear. It became a sort of sad joke between us. The tattoo is really a kid image in some ways. I guess it was my way of expressing what it would be like for me as a kid to think about my own kid.
When my girlfriend originally decided to join the military, they had told her that she would do linguistic work in Germany. As soon as she reached boot camp, they told her she would be learning Arabic and heading straight for an infantry unit in Iraq. After getting a fracture in her heel from the training in boot camp and a lot of stress, she got a psychological discharge about a month later.
When she returned, we got back together again, but it was too intense. When I told a friend of mine about the tattoo he said it was like I lost all of my innocence in one go.
Yeah, I think that’s what happened."
| Friday Mar 31, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Bar Code
"After my nineteenth birthday, I decided to get a tattoo. I knew this girl from high school named Mariya who was a wonderful artist and had become a tattoo artist since finishing high school.
We had hung out in the same crowd in Modesto, California in school, and we had known each other for a long time. Mariya did the art for about 90% of all the publications our school put out, so I was totally familiar with her work. She had always done art all of the time I knew her.
Mariya was sort of against the bar code. She is a devout Christian, and the idea of it bothered her. It’s been funny seeing how her ideas about this have changed as she continues her business, but that’s how she felt then.
As for me, I wanted to get the bar code because I felt like another number. At the time I was working for an inventory company, scanning products day in, day out. It occurred to me that if I had a bar code, my employer could just scan me too, and save a little more time.
I think it was sort of a socioeconomic thing for me too. I worked since I was about sixteen, and in Modesto, it was really hard to get a good job. I had waited a month or more to get a job at McDonalds. I realized that it took half of my income to pay for my apartment, and I was still getting a ton of taxes taken out. So the bar code was kind of ironic: I’m already the property of my employer and the government, why pretend otherwise?
The actual code used in the tattoo was from a CD in the shop. I actually don’t even remember which one now. I guess it’s not what your code is that’s important, it’s that you have one."
Thursday Mar 30, 2006
EveryBODY has a Story: Playin’ Pool
"About two years ago, I got really into pool. After I got the bug, I played all the time. I was about nineteen at the time, so even though I played constantly, I couldn’t join the bar league until I was twenty-one.
I spent all the time before I turned twenty-one practicing at an all ages billiards club. When I finally turned twenty-one, I joined a bar league right away. I met Adam Jelinski, (the guy who is tattooing this one here) in the league but he’s on a different team than me.
I first thought of this tat when it was Halloween. One of the women on the league was dressed exactly like the woman on my tat. I looked at different tattoo flash pin-ups, and added the clothes and the pool cue.
I wanted the tattoo to have a kind of 30’s gangster feel. It is going to go all around my arm. Today I’m getting a section done with a girl playing Video Poker. "
Thursday Mar 30, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: A Crest My Own
"I think that maybe I’m having a mid-life crisis. I was going to get a motorcycle, but decided instead on tattoo. This tattoo shows where I come from, where I’ve been, and where I am now. Is a motorcycle going to do that for you?
I was born in Holland in a little town called Millingen a/d Vijn. I still consider myself Dutch, and am still a Dutch citizen. I lived there until my parents decided to immigrate to Canada. They did this after visiting relatives who lived there. At the time, I was thirteen and not happy to leave my friends and town.
I think I stayed pretty unhappy to have left Holland until I was about twenty-one. At that time, I joined the Canadian Navy. When I joined the Navy, I felt like a Canadian citizen for the first time when I was serving my country.
Eighteen years ago, all the Navy boats were on display at the Rose Festival, in Portland, Oregon. Our ship was right there with them. While there, I met my future wife. It was really love at first sight. We spent the next three years getting through the rest of my Navy requirement, and when I was done, I came to the United States with her to live.
It’s been eighteen years since we were married, and though I still feel roots in Holland and in Canada, my wife is an American and so are my children. This is my home now. One reason I got this tattoo is to show my crest to my kids- they are first generation Americans; they need to know their heritage."
Monday Mar 27, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Day Lilly
"This flower on my back is a Day Lilly. I chose it especially for its name: Strawberry Candy. I intend to have a series of strawberry themed tattoos that move down my side in that area. I guess when I was little; I had a birthmark called a strawberry. I had it removed, but I always thought it would be cool to keep the idea of it there.
Over the Day Lilly, is a small ant. This ant represents my actual aunt. She has been a huge influence on my life. Though things in my family were often rocky, she was the one constant. I guess you could say she raised me.
I put this flower on my shoulder because I wanted to have her looking over my shoulder, guiding me and whispering in my ear.
My aunt is only ten years older then me, so she is almost like a big sister. She is a bit more conservative than I am, but actually, the tattoo was her idea. She decided to get a tattoo with my name on her ankle. She was pregnant at the time, so she waited a while to get it. In the mean time, I got this one.
I am happy to have her stay with me."
Monday Mar 27, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Huge Dragon Tattoo
"I used to work with Matt Reed from Tiger Lilly Tattoo. He and I were friends and he wanted me to finish up a piece for him. I didn’t really feel like finishing it, and kept putting it off. In the meantime, we got this book on traditional Japanese tattoos. Not Kanji, but full body pieces, huge stuff.
I saw these two dragons that were really amazing. I told Matt offhandedly that a combination of these two dragons would be a really cool tattoo. When I saw him the next day, I couldn’t believe it. He staggered through the door, his eyes blood-shot and wild, and his hair standing on end. I think he was actually wearing the same clothes as the day before, too.
In his hand, he had a gigantic sheet of butcher paper all rolled up. “I got it”, he croaked, “I got your dragon”.
He had spent most of the night before drawing out this dragon. When he unrolled the paper, the damn thing was enormous! It would have covered more than fifty percent of my body! I don’t think Matt had ever done anything that big before, and he was really enthusiastic.
He told me to relax. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I can finish the whole outline in six hours”.
Six hours? That seemed crazy, but who knew? Matt was a seasoned tattoo artist. I figured it might take seven or eight, but at the eleventh hour, Matt sighed and said the outline would probably be done in another three hours. I lost it.
Well I lost it, but then I came back. And back. And back. It’s been about six years now, and I still have one session left…"
Thursday Mar 23, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Crucifix
"I got this crucifix on my arm nine years ago. I had gotten a tattoo about two years before that and I knew that I wanted this image on my forearm. I’m a welder, you see, and I want to be able to look at it when I worked. It took me a long time to find the perfect image.
In most of the crucifixes you see around, Jesus has his head down. For me, I wanted the image of Jesus on the cross, but I didn’t want him to look dead. He’s always alive to me. Past, present and future. Though the Bible says he rose again after he died, I like to think of him as both on the cross and risen at the same time.
I looked all kinds of places for the image I wanted. The library is a great source for tattoo inspiration, but they didn’t have exactly what I wanted. Than I went to The Grotto, the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother.
The Grotto is a sixty-two acre Catholic shrine and botanical garden run by the Friars of the Order of Servants of Mary. While I was there, I felt inspired by some of the images I saw. Though my mother was Catholic, I was raised Lutheran and I did not spend any time as a kid in the Catholic Church. But the question of which church you go to has never been my big concern with religion. You take beauty where you find it, you know?
The crucifix was on a prayer card in the gift shop– exactly what I wanted, with Jesus’ head looking straight ahead. I worked with the tattoo artist to get as much detail into the background as I could, too. I chose a different cherub for each of my children and the black and gray section at the bottom is from an illustration I liked in a King James Bible.
The images and symbolism I used was adapted from a lot of different sources because for me, that is more spiritual. I went to a lot of churches in my life, and what bothered me about most of them was that they all seemed more into the doctrine of their branch of the church more than they were into Jesus.
I like to wear my Technicolor religion where it shows!"
Thursday Mar 23, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Jesus Part II
"This back piece represents the Second Coming of Christ. I had just gotten the angel on my right shoulder a year or so before, but I didn’t know when I started I was going to do my whole back.
Actually, I had always really wanted a full back piece, but I didn’t think I could afford it. My wife told me that if I quit smoking, I could spend my money on my tattoo instead and so I did. The tattoo cost three thousand dollars and took twenty-two hours and fifteen minutes to complete.
This tattoo is more than just a chapter in the bible for me. It’s both my faith and my greatest wish rolled into one. I do believe there will be a rapture, though I surely hope it won’t be when my children or me are alive on earth.
In the tattoo, I have the four cardinal beasts that are referred to in the bible in each corner. The beasts are the lion, the ox, the eagle, and man. For the part representing man, I used the angel on my shoulder. The angel isn’t representing an unearthly angel though, she represents my daughter.
At the time I started this tattoo, my daughter had recently died. Things were so hard, everything in my life was hard. A lot of people spent that time trying to test my faith, saying Jesus’ miracles weren’t true, and how could God let this happen to my daughter.
For me, I need religion to be true. If the bible isn’t true, if my daughter isn’t there in heaven waiting for me, I might as well die myself. I believe that my daughter is with Jesus, and she was the best part of my life. If I am a good man, someday I will be with her again. "
Tuesday Mar 21, 2006
Every BODY has a Story: Dream Catcher
"I got this tattoo after a friend of mine recommended the shop, 21st Century Tattoo to me, last July. This tattoo is a Dream Catcher, which is a Native American tradition. This Dream Catcher is constructed of my dreams and my family memories, which is what keeps me together in my life. I’ve had a lot of trouble with the law and such, and this Dream Catcher is what I need to keep going forward.
In the center of the tattoo, it says ‘Pain’. No one ever notices it, but I’ll just let you know it’s there for the hell of it. The spokes of the Dream Catcher are constructed of piercing needles. This is what I want to do with my life- I want to be a professional piercer.
The blood running down the tattoo stands for the family blood that holds us together. I’m Native American, Blackfoot actually, and though my family didn’t really participate in a lot of Native American traditions, my grandmother did make Dream Catchers. She made them all the time!
I don’t see my family nearly as much as I’d like too. They’re all spread all over and people move, you know? But the weekend before I got this tattoo I had gone to see my granddad and my mom. My granddad’s had a lot of trouble since my grandma passed away. He had an accident at work that broke his neck and ribs, and he had cancer.
It was so good to see him, but it reminded me so much of my grandmother. When I got back home, I know I needed to wear the Dream Catcher forever."
Tuesday Mar 21, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Madonna and Devil Chil
I got this tattoo from a friend of mine named Joe Boo, in Massachusetts. It’s not done yet, but I’m going to have it spiral down the rest of my arm. I got this first section done this past January, but I live on the West Coast so it’s kinda hard to get to the East Coast for more work.
So, I planned this tattoo for a year or two before I got it. It’s the Madonna, holding the baby Satan. The tree in the background is twisted into the image of a crucifix.
I sketched out the general image, and Joe drew out the final for me. He’s an Art Major and he specializes in black and white at Light Wave Tattoo, so this was his kind of piece.
For me, the tattoo symbolizes the downward spiral of society and organized religion. That’s the broad version but I guess it has a personal meaning, too.
I grew up Catholic and from the time I was a little kid, my mom would take me to church all the time, and we were pretty religious. When I was about nine or ten some bad things happened to me. One of my friends killed himself among other things. I decided right then that any God that was evil enough to let such terrible things happen in the world was not worth worshiping. In fact, I hated Him.
As the years went on, my hatred of God subsided somewhat and I started think that it was the church that was so bad. People think they can buy a ticket to heaven if they follow these arbitrary rules.
Seeing the brutality of the world we live in makes me think we are in hell and the organization of people in roles of authority creates this situation. I hope that the genuine love people have for each other can turn the tide."
Tuesday Mar 21, 2006
Every BODY has a Story: Irish Pimp
"When I was in high school, my teachers used to call me the Irish Pimp cuz well, I’m Irish and I used to wear a lot of green and stuff. This tattoo is a four-leaf clover playing a guitar, with Graffiti splashes in the background.
It’s pretty much an illustration of me. I come from an Irish family and it’s something everyone sort of knows about me. I think I musta come up with this design idea when I was about twelve or thirteen, but it’s the one I always wanted but never really had enough cash to get.
I’ve been into graffiti art since about seventh grade. It is a serious pastime for me. The guitar? I’ve been playing it since I was four years old. I’m twenty now, so it’s been with me a while. It’s almost as much a part of me as the Irish!
After I started working, I got an opportunity to get this tattoo done and I did it the first chance I had. I told my mom and she laughed. I guess she wasn’t surprised…"
Monday Mar 20, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More From Mark Here.
Friday Mar 17, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Art Nouveau Rose
This tattoo means a lot to me in a several different ways. First of all, it is the first tattoo I did on myself. If I did it today, it might not look the same, but it is an example of what my work was like at that particular time.
I did it at a time at my life when I first started tattooing full time as my day job. I had been apprenticing with a man named Dustin, who runs Icon Tattoo, and in some ways, this tattoo is a tribute to him. It’s done in my style, but with his influence.
The actual design was inspired by an Art Nouveau image from T. Merry’s Friezes and Panels. I love T. Merry’s abstracted image of a rose, and Art Nouveau in general. I was first exposed to this style of art during a study abroad program in Prague. The architecture made a huge impression on me. I think one of the things I like best about Art Nouveau is the way it fits into its space. The way a tattoo fits onto the skin is very important to me.
The image of a rose is such an iconic image in tattooing, I wanted to make it my own. I like in particular to do gray shading. Most people have a harder time doing gray shading and an easier time with color. Not so for me. When you work with gray, it is a slow and meticulous process. This is the way I like to work most. You simply stroke on the pigment without any hurry to get the perfect result. After all, tattoos are permanent and I am very pleased that I still love the way my rose looks.
Thursday Mar 16, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Three and a Half Cockroaches
"I hate Connecticut, I mean I really do! I was born there, lived there most of my life until I was about 28, and still go back to visit my family from time to time. But I absolutely hate it.
I grew up in Hartford, which has got to be the most boring city in the world unless you’re narrowly avoiding a drive-by shooting then I guess you wish it was boring.
It’s overcrowded without any charm and dangerous without any culture. If you’ve got tattoos and you’re in Hartford, people cross to the other side of the street, like you’re going to mug them or something. Unbelievable.
So, even though I avoid Hartford like the plague, I still go there to visit my family. A couple of years ago I went and visited them, and when I got back to Portland I realized how much I despised Connecticut. You hear kids in Portland talking about how they want to get out, and I think “You have no idea how much better it is here!”
After I got back to Portland, I decided to get this tattoo. Each cockroach represents seven years of my life that I spent in that hellhole of Hartford."
Thursday Mar 16, 2006
In the News: Helping Hands
The Auburn Journal reports that a tattoo studio called Wild Bill’s Tattoo, in Roseville CA, raised $17,000 for a children’s hospital in a unique way– a Tattoo-a-Thon.
For the fifth straight year, employees have donated all the proceeds and tips from their work during a fifteen hour day, to UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
Owner, William Hill has continued the Tattoo-a-Thon tradition with sponsorship from 98 Rock, KWOD 106.5, The Eagle and other radio stations. The tradition started when Hill’s wife, Kim Forrest heard a story about a child being treated in the hospital on the radio. The story touched her so much; she called into the radio station and said she would donate all the money she made that day to the hospital.
The idea spread through the shop, and now all the employees are happily donating their time once a year. This last Tattoo-a-Thon, nearly 150 people received tattoos from Wild Bill’s Tattoo.
Good idea, Wild Bill’s! Let’s see more tat studios following your example
Wednesday Mar 15, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Carnage
"Since I was around four years old, I’ve always loved comic books. Spiderman was my first favorite, but even before I could read, I was drawn to the images and the colors. I’ve always done art– sketching, drawing you name it, but I think that comics were the first thing that I ever drew where I felt successful.
I got this tattoo about four years ago from an artist who was sort of a traveler. He had come and worked in this shop, and than left a year or so later. I loved his art, and knew he was the one I wanted to do this tattoo.
I had thought about getting a cartoon tattoo for a long time before I actually got it. The character is from the cartoon Maximum Carnage, and Carnage is the guy’s name. I describe him as my favorite villain.
One of the things I like the most about cartoons is the use of color. I am intrigued by the way colors work together and create different effects. Some combinations produce a three-dimensional effect and the boldness of the cartoon palette is unmistakable.
I decided to get him inked on my stomach because first of all it was one of the only places big enough for what I wanted, but also I like the way the image wraps around me. It looks like he’s holding my belly and I laugh, Carnage laughs along with me. "
Wednesday Mar 15, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Shark and Anchor
"Boy, does this tat have a story… I gotta start by saying that I hate nautical tattoos. I really do! I have a bunch of gorgeous tats, and they are all Japanese style and they all work together really well. Except this one.
About seven years ago there was this movie being produced in town. A pretty low budget movie, but enough cash to hire people at least… At the time, my brother and I were doing some stunt stuff, you know, riding a unicycle, juggling guns, falling off roofs, that kind of thing.
I got hired to do a few stunts in this flick during the last day or so of filming. I did a couple of stunts and they went all right, but then I messed myself up a little, rolling over a car hood with a briefcase. It didn’t hurt that much, but I think the director felt a little bad for me.
Since it was the last day of filming, and they still had a little money left in the budget, they decided to fly the actors down to Vegas, and party. ‘Cuz of the little briefcase incident, they asked me if I wanted to go too. ‘Course I was up for it.
Most of the crew had already left on earlier flights, but I didn’t get o the plane ‘till around 10 PM that night. When I got on, I saw that one of the actresses was on board with me. We proceeded to get completely wasted. So wasted in fact, that we couldn’t figure out where we supposed to meet people that night.
Naturally, we ended up together (what else do wasted people in Vegas do?), but not before I got the biggest most awfully huge heart with her name, Jennifer, inside of it. It was a bad choice on a colossal sphere. But it got worse. We woke up, drove straight to the Church of Elvis and got married.
We hung out together for about a week until I figured out she and I didn’t really like each other that much and I went home. I didn’t actually think the wedding was real! I thought it was some sort of Vegas sideshow or something until I got served with papers a few months later.
Damn.
Well, obviously I had to get rid of that tattoo, so I showed it to my buddy and asked him if he could cover it up. He took a couple of days, checking to see what might work and then he called me.
“I have some good news and some bad news,” he said, laughing so loud I knew I was in trouble. “The good is that I can cover that tat, the bad is that it’s gotta be a shark biting an anchor…”
Damn. No more movie stunts for me."
Monday Mar 13, 2006
Inkedblog Is Getting A Facelift
Over the last few days we begun to give Inkedblog a facelift - new servers, new programming, and soon, some new artwork. We should be done tomorrow, so check back then as we resume daily content updates.
Wednesday Mar 08, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Creepy Sock Monkey
"When I was a baby, I had this sock monkey. I couldn’t have been more than two or three at the time because I remember being in my crib. I think the sock monkey is my first real childhood memory. Which is sort of screwed up, really, because the sock monkey was Not cute or cuddly. It was disgusting. I remember waking up in the middle of the night with its dumb bland eyes on me, its cherry red mouth lolling wide, and I’d hurl it out of the crib in horror.
But the next night would be the same. My mother would pick up the sock monkey, brush it off affectionately, and tuck it in next to me securely when I went to sleep. Finally, I started shrieking and screaming every time I saw the nasty thing. I developed a total phobia of all things sock monkey- I have Paul Frank nightmares…
Why did my mom subject me to the creepy monkey? Because it was her monkey when she was a baby, her mother (my grandmother) made it for her. She couldn’t imagine how anything so loveable (to her) could have possibly caused me so much distress.
The damn sock monkey Still bugs me.
When things bug me, I like to have them out in the open. The tattoos that say the most about me are the ones I have on my neck and hands. The sock monkey is like that. So yeah, I hated my sock monkey as a kid, but now I have a picture of the monkey in fetal position with its head on fire.
You talkin’ to Me, monkey? So yeah, I have a sense of humor about the whole thing, but you should see the earwig tat on my leg. I HATE earwigs."
Wednesday Mar 08, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
Wednesday Mar 08, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Lil’ Moth Boy and the Rose
"I met my wife while I was working as a tat artist at Painless Steel in Portland. She came in to get a tattoo, then she came back, and then she came back again… I was the one who was hooked, though.
If you tattoo the same person all the time, you tend to get to know them pretty well. She and I talked about everything. Our lives, our families, our dreams, our hopes and fears, nothing was off limits.
She told me a lot about her father who was a rose gardener. My wife’s descriptions of her dad’s beautiful roses inspired me. “Let me do a rose on you!” I begged her. She agreed, and I designed a rose tattoo that extends the length of her arm.
Shortly after that, we realized that we were in love. We got married a couple of years ago, but we actually had two weddings: one just for us, the other a year later for our friends and family.
Seven months ago, we had our first child together. He is a little boy, and I knew from the time he was a couple of years old that I wanted to get a tattoo that represented him. I spent a long time trying to come up with the right image.
My wife noticed that our son is enthralled by light. Since he was born, his eyes always move towards the light and she began to call him Moth, or Moth boy. This was the image I had been waiting for!
Two weekends ago I went to a tattoo convention in Vancouver and got this tattoo. The moth is my son, flying around the rose who is his mother and my wife."
Monday Mar 06, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: An Answered Prayer
"I’m forty-six years old. I have three kids that live with me who are twelve, fourteen and seventeen. I live outside of the city and because of some troubles, I can’t drive. I’ve been separated from my ex-wife for the last year or so, and I got so lonely living out here, I didn’t think I could stand it. Don’t get me wrong- I love my children, and if that was all I got out of life I wouldn’t complain at the end. But man, I really wanted another adult in my life.
I tried a lot of different ways of connecting with people, but nothing seemed to work. After a long, hard day of loneliness, I decided to pray. I got down on my knees and asked Him to please send me a good woman. I swear to God, I asked on my knees! A woman who would bring me closer to God, a woman who would love me the way I am. A woman who would accept my children and love them too.
Two days later, I kid you not, I met Amy. She was everything I asked for and more. We met in mid-January of this year, and we were engaged on Valentines Day when I got this tattoo.
Amy is a holy woman, a good woman. She told me that both of our names mean the same thing: beloved. My name is David, which means beloved in Hebrew. Hers is Amy, which means beloved in Latin.
I know I’m blessed to be able to love her, and to finally live up to my name.
Friday Mar 03, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Garden
"Because my mother was very ill her whole life, she was constantly kept indoors. The only thing she ever complained about missing was the chance to be outside. She loved to walk in the garden, to smell the flowers and to see the change of the seasons. Because she was bedridden, it was impossible for her to be outside for any period of time, and gardening was impossible. My mother had a gift however, she was an artist. I really think this was the thing that keep her spirit alive. She painted picture after picture of what she imagined lay outside her window. Tangles of vines and blossoms, butterflies sipping at nectar, forest paths that lead away into the horizon- this was my mother’s best medicine.
She died about thirty years ago, and the week after she died I started my tattoo of a garden. Little by little it grew over my body in memory of my mother. I ending up leaving the tattoo unfinished for many years but about five years ago I decided to complete it. At the time, I was working for Precision Cast Parts running machines and working on the assembly line cleaning parts. I was nearing retirement when I went in to have the tattoo finished. I had a woman I did not know start the tattoo and as she was working, I realized that I couldn’t stand the way she was making the tattoo look. In a flash I thought- I could do a better job than that!
Though I hadn’t done art professionally before this time, I felt my mom behind me and I left my factory job and started apprenticing as a tattoo artist. I had the tattoo finished by an artist that I thought did the image justice, and opened my own shop, Tattoos By Lori soon after that.
I feel like I have made it into the garden."
Friday Mar 03, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photo by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
Friday Mar 03, 2006
EveryBODY has a Story: Acorns on My Knees
“It was kinda a Cinderella story, you know? Except the part at the end where she moves into the castle and gets rich…
A few years before I got the acorns on my knees, my mom died. Things got really tough. Tough in every way- no place to live, no cash, no mom. But I had my brother. He and I stayed in this little house all winter trying to figure out what to do. We didn’t have heat, and we didn’t have much food, so there was a lot of time for hanging around thinking.
Coincidentally, it happened to be one of the coldest winters on record. My brother and I spent a lot of time looking out the window. I don’t even know why- maybe we thought something good would fly out of the sky if we were fast enough. Nothing flew out of the sky, but we did see this gang (and I mean gang) of squirrels. They were always out there- chattering, climbing, digging and always either eating an acorn or on the hunt for an acorn.
“The acorns are like the crap in life we have to go do” my brother said one day. “These squirrels are showing us- we gotta figure out what we want, and move on it”.
I think we had probably gotten a little squirrelly watching those damn rodents eat so much but my brother suggested we get the acorns inked on our knees so that when we looked down at them we could remember to get up and figure our stuff out.
It sounded like a great idea to me. Course we didn’t have the money to get them done for another year, but stuff started moving after that. My brother got into the Rhode Island School of design, and I got a job where I made some cash, finally.
He came back to visit me a year ago and he drew out the acorns for the tat. Since then he paints, mostly, but he also designs other tattoos for people who want them. He gets a lotta requests but I bet no one will think of that one again.”
Thursday Mar 02, 2006
Tattoo Stats
Everyone knows that more people are getting tattoos than they used to, but how many more? Moreover, who are the people getting them? Who’s still happy with their tats, who’s not?
Vanishing Tattoo compiled information from a tattoo survey conducted by Harris Interactive of 2,215 adults in the US. The tattoo survey was given between July 14th and July 20th, 2003. They found some interesting info…
Did you know that 16% of all Americans adults have tattoos? If you just look at American adults between the ages of 30 and 39, the figure jumps to 28%. If you look at people 25- 29, more than a third of that population has one or more tattoos (36%). People in the gay, lesbian and bisexual population (regardless of age) were also close to the one in three mark at 31%.
If you live on the West Coast, you are more likely to have a tattoo and the same if you are a Democrat. Republicans are 4 percentage points behind Democrats when it comes to getting tattoos, but are statistically more likely to regret them. Republicans have the highest percentage of tattoo regret at 24%, mostly related to having a tattoo of a person’s name.
Careful of that!
The Harris Study found that most people did not regret getting that tat. 83% of tattooed Americans are satisfied with their ink, thank you very much. After the name problem, the second most common reason people end up regretting their tattoos is that they do not like the way it turned out.
Choose you artists and designs with care!
Lastly, tattoos appear to make a lot of people feel sexier, a full 34% of tattooed people report feeling sexier after getting their tat. Now there’s some useful information!
Thursday Mar 02, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Family Totem
I’m from Canada, though I’ve lived in the US for many years now. When I was a kid, the West Coast Native American culture heavily influenced the area where I grew up. We admired the way the Native Americans treated the land, the fish and the rivers. Though I am not Native American myself, I identify my values about family with the ideas of balance and respect that I learned from this culture as a child.
Traditionally, the tribes who lived in that area made totems, which I always thought were interesting and beautiful.
I have a book with a spiritual wheel that tells you what your Native American spirit animal might be, and I found the symbols for my three children and me.
The top of the totem stands for me. Though the Thunderbird is not my spirit sign, I used it to represent myself here because a Thunderbird is a traditional top image on totems. Another reason I wanted the Thunderbird is that the wings of the bird hang low and protect the rest of the totem.
This tattoo is for my family. I am at the top, and my children below in order of age. Their names are above the totem: Grant, Parker and Sheridan. Their symbols are the salmon, the frog and the bear. There is no wife or girlfriend in this totem because you can’t count on a relationship staying together forever. Your kids though? Yes. They are here for good.
Thursday Mar 02, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Wounded Heart
"My mom and I got into a big fight a few years ago, a really big fight. We ended up not speaking to each other for about nine months. During the time we weren’t speaking, she found out that she had contracted pancreatic cancer. It broke my heart that I didn’t find out sooner. My siblings called me and told me I had to come quick if I wanted to see her again. I was lost.
I got this tattoo the hour I heard the news, and got on the next plane. My mom was in hospice care at her home when I got there. She saw the tattoo and knew that though things were difficult at times that I always loved her and was proud to have her on my arm.
An hour and a half after I arrived, she died. The hospice people said they thought she was waiting for me. I think so too. She and I both had problems with substance abuse, but had been clean and sober for a while when this happened. The doctors tried to give her Morphine for her pain, but she was determined to die clean and sober. She is the toughest woman I have ever met.
The tattoo is a little different from an ordinary heart symbol with the “Mom” banner. This tattoo is an actual heart. The feeling of pain in my heart is not just a metaphor for me, it is real."
Wednesday Mar 01, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
Wednesday Mar 01, 2006
EveryBODY has a Story: Three Friends
"When I was around eighteen, almost nineteen, I was in college for a while in Texas. I got this tattoo when I was about to leave school for good. I knew I wanted to leave, school just wasn’t for me. I had a good shot at working for a company I had always wanted to work for, out of state. It was a great opportunity, but part of me was sad.
I had three good buddies that I hung out with all the time while I was there. We were inseparable. Since I was moving away to the West Coast, I knew I would never see my crew as much I did then, maybe even never again.
They had made a commitment to stay where they were and finish up school; I made a commitment to follow my career path. Though it makes sense now and made sense then, it was still a sad parting.
I had drawn some tattoos already, but I drew this tattoo out slowly and carefully, thinking of my friends and what I was leaving behind.
It means a lot being able to have them there on my arm. Drawing the tattoo myself, made it personal."
Wednesday Mar 01, 2006
Every BODY has a Story: Twiztid Tats
"I’m really into the Insane Clown Posse, and all that crazy over the top mayhem. They’re dark, but they’re funny at the same time. The scary carnival thing is almost an icon of freakiness at this point and I’m into that. Horror movies, clown suits, you name it, they make everything weirder.
I think about the ICP lyrics from “What is a Juggalo?” and it brings to mind what I’m trying to do with this tattoo. Juggalos are crazy, they’re ballsy, they’re edgy, and they don’t give a sh-t about freaking people out.
These two tattoos on my forearms are of two guys on the same record label as Insane Clown Posse, Monoxide Child and Jamie Madrox. They’re in a band called Twiztid. They’re as nuts as ICP if not more so.
Jamie’s bio says that he’s a “manic compulsive-depressant who suffers from a fixation of reality mind states where in fact he breaks down reality with levels of multiple personalities to control his own personal reality.” Monoxide’s is the same or worse. And that’s on the record label fan site!
The symmetry makes the craziness even more funny- the fact that these two guys balance me makes me feel like a shadow show at the dark carnival"
© Electric Artists Inc. All rights reserved.
