Swiss tattoo enthusiast Tim Steiner has literally sold the tattoo off his back to a wealthy German collector. The deal, which has been made for Steiner’s Virgin Mary tattoo, designed by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, fetched €150,000 ($219,000) and will see Steiner sharing the cash with Delvoye as well as a Zurich gallery. 

Steiner is now contractually obligated to showcase his back tattoo three times a year at various galleries around the world.  The first showings were back in September in Shanghai and Singapore.  The kicker is that when Steiner dies, the skin on which the tattoo is inked will be removed from his body and either continue to be exhibited or put into the private collection of one weird-ass German. 

I guess it’s an interesting concept, to know that your tattoo is indeed a piece of art that will go on being exhibited long after you’re dead and gone…but the whole thing still manages to give me the heebie-jeebies.

In Indonesia, two men identified as Bampang, 40 and Nanang, 30, were told by their village chief Sawiyono that he’d received a text message from a Jakarta government official informing him of job openings. The only apparent stipulation to this job was that Bampang and Nanang needed to have dragon tattoos done on their faces.

Only after the men had undergone the tattoo work did chief Sawiyono check in with the real government organization about the somewhat odd job requirements.  What did he find out?  Surprise!  Of course government agents don’t need full-face dragon tattoos, because that is insane.

Here’s a little tip for chief Sawiyono: the next time you get a text message telling you to encourage life altering body work, maybe check the legitimacy of the request before dudes go out and get this done:

Damn.

Lastly, Belgian artist Wim Delvoye (same chap whose art adorns the aforementioned Tim Steiner’s back) was refused the right to showcase his tattooed pigs at this past September’s Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair.

Delvoye had tattooed pigs with the Louis Vuitton logo, but was banned from showcasing them after organizers found tattooed pigs to be in poor taste. 

While the potential statement that Delvoye is making by tattooing an overpriced, over rated fashion icon’s logo on some pigs is arguably a decent one, the fact remains that no living person or thing should be tattooed against their will or under false pretences.

Am I right, Bampang and Nanang?  Damn.

Do you remember not so long ago when the act of dating involved putting on real clothes, going outside and meeting real live people? I do. Hell, I even remember when the only dating site around was Tattooedsingles.com which has a clever definition of the word free. On further investigation, this is an online dating specific site and they do charge a membership fee. You can register for free and “browse” to your hearts content, but if you plan to do anything on the site it will cost you a non-refundable $19.95 per month subscription fee.

The second site, Tattoolovers.com is also an online dating only site. They’re a little more liberal with their member profiles though and dozens of people pop up on the main page. This site also gives you about 250 billion ways to search for members on their site but nothing about the price. One can discern from the well hidden FAQ that there is a free three day trial after which you will be billed a mystery amount. I tried to contact them but they declined to respond. So enter at your own risk.

The third site, Tattopassions.com is more of a social networking/date if you want to kind of site. They’re part of the passions network which includes as many www.insertyourhobbyherepassions.com as you could possibly imagine. This site is amazingly free. To test the theory I joined on and spent a week talking to the members. No one has tried to charge me yet. (All though I fear I’m paying in some sort of other spy ware sort of way.)  Everyone I talked to seems to like the site and were generally friendly. To me, it was more of a my space for tattooed people only.  They have chat rooms and forums discussing tattoos, and tons of member taken tattoo pictures to peruse.

Overall, it’s an interesting take on the online dating mega boom that’s happened the last few years. I figure if you’re into online dating you might as well be spending the $20 or so a month on a site guaranteed to at least deliver people with one common interest. What do you think? Join or no?

I am an alcoholic.  It took me quite a few years to accept that, but I finally grew to understand I had an addiction to alcohol; wine, in particular, for those interested.  And so followed two in-patient rehabs, counseling, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, medication, and everything else that modern treatment for alcoholism recommended.  In the end, none of it worked.  Needless to say, I grew despondent and hopeless.  If what had seemed to work for millions of others didn’t work for me, what hope did I have?

I had always toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo, but each time I went into a shop, the books filled with thousands of designs never really reached me.  And I was never about to get a tat for tat’s sake.  And so I never did.  At least, until one day when, reading a book on Roman history, I came across the tale of Hannibal, the general who led his army over the Alps of northern Italy to launch a surprise attack against Rome.

When Hannibal approached the all-too formidable Alps, instead of throwing his hands up and turning around, was reportedly quoted as saying, “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam.”  The translation of this Latin quote is roughly: “I will find a way, or I will make one.”  Hannibal did just that, and thus followed a string of uninterrupted military victories against mighty Rome.

When I read that for the first time, it immediately struck me.  All the tried and true methods, AA, medication, etc., simply did not work for me.  I had to find my own way, find what worked for me, not anybody else.  Following the herd was safe, but ultimately self-defeating.  Like a group of pack animals, the weak are safe as long as they stay in the middle of the herd.  Once sick or injured, they are inevitably left behind and resigned to whatever fate befalls them.

I felt exactly the same way.  The cures and fixes that worked for others simply did not work for me.  I had to find my own way.  And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since I had that realization: finding my own path.

Thus, I went in search of a good photo of the Alps, an image that I could look at and say “crap, I’d never make it over that.”  I envisioned what Hannibal must have been looking at when he reached the valley below and looked up at those imposing peaks.  Thus was born the first of the two tattoos.

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Heath Wolfson, CEO of Tattoo Nation LLC, opened the first ever U.S. mall-based tattoo shop in a New Jersey mall in 2006 (they love their malls there, man), reports an article that ran in the Small Business section of The Wall Street Journal. “Our goal is to have 400 stores—to be as common as Victoria’s Secret,” says Wolfson, 31. Wolfson’s N.J. mall shop has been profitable so far and plans to open two more in New York malls in early ’09, but the reporter pointed out that this could be hard to pull off in an uncertain economy.

The article also brings up how traditionally artists work as independent contractors within a shop and split their proceeds 50-50 and that it’s been hard to persuade “temperamental, independent-minded tattoo artists that they wouldn’t be selling out to join mall–based shops.” Wolfson lured the artists with benefits like medical insurance, paid vacation and supplies but did away with the 50-50 pay split for salary plus commissions and bonuses. This caused 2 out of 3 artists to bail out but he reports no staff turnover in the last 18 months. Maybe the new ones heard about the mall-employee discount at Cinnabon.
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Steven Canady’s tattoo shop, Dreamcatcher Soundside Tattoo Studio, is finally legal. Until yesterday the shop was violating the city’s zoning ordinances, which dubbed Dreamcatcher to be an “adult business” and therefore not appropriate for general business areas (re: tattoo shops were deemed equivalent to strip clubs and should therefore should stick to the city’s heavy industrial areas and seedy red light districts if such a thing even exists in Harbinger, NC).

Harbinger’s city board defines adult businesses as “any business activity, club or other establishment which permits its employees, members, patrons or guests on its premises to exhibit any specified anatomical areas before any other person or persons” The board denied Canady a business permit, believing that naked body parts would be out on full display on the shop.

Canady kept Dreamcatcher open anyway, regardless of his lack of permit, and decided to appeal the Board of Commissioners’ classification of the shop in Superior Court. The Court determined that Canady couldn’t legally be denied a permit and last week the Board of Commissioners reflected this ruling by decreeing that tattoo shops not be relegated to industrial manufacturing areas and porno alley.

Thinking about getting that first Tat? Bet you’ve asked yourself and the local artists all the same pertinent questions every first timer does. The one I and most any other tattoo artist has heard the most, “How bad does it hurt?”, is the one that comes into play here. The answer is fairly simple. Yes, it is a bit painful and anyone who says they do painless tattooing must have an anesthetist on the payroll, or their doing temp tats. Not the painted on ones, the ones that are so shallow they all but fall off in a few weeks.

Depending on where you want to get the tattoo dictates the degree of discomfort. Generally speaking, the more sensitive an area of the body is to touch, the greater the discomfort. In addition, the closer the skeletal structure is to the surface of the skin, the greater the discomfort. To be honest with you, I have never had a tattoo that didn’t cause a bit of pain, but I’ve also never had one that hurt as bad as some people seem to think it does. It’s just not that bad to me and I’ve had some work done in some pretty tender places.

This brings me to the point, which is what some people will do to lessen a pain that is greater in their minds than it is on their body. The biggest one is quite possibly the biggest pet peeve of any artist I have been lucky enough to know, or work with. Getting shit faced before going in to get the tattoo done. It’s bad enough to try and turn out a good tat on a sober squirmer, it’s a hundred times worse when the panty waist is drunk and uninhibited. No, getting stoned on painkillers, or weed doesn’t help either. You’ll still jump around like a live frog on a hot skillet and there are other draw backs to consider as well.
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Christmas is right around the corner. Have you done any good for humankind yet? Ryan Adams of Inspired by Ink in Columbus, Ohio has. He’s working on a tattoo inspired coloring book for Toys for Tots- the organization that helps deliver toys to children in need around the holidays.

Ryan said the idea to create the coloring book “just sort of fell into (my) lap” one day while thinking of ways he and the other artists at Inspired by Ink could help out this holiday. He feels he’s truly blessed to be able to support his family by doing something he loves, and helping out others who don’t have as much means a lot to him. The coloring book isn’t the only thing Ryan’s involved with this season; his shop is also planning a food drive and working with Coats for Columbus- A local organization that to provide coats to needy people during the winter season.

So far the idea has mostly been spread by word of mouth until it reached the ears of Karen L. Hudson-About.com’s guide to all things tattoo- who placed an advert on her tattoo page for help from tattoo artists around the globe. The response has been overwhelming and Ryan’s had tattoo artists from as far as India and Australia submitting their tattoo related artwork for the book.

Want to help out?

Ryan’s hard at work finalizing the book for this holiday, but you can still help out. If you’re an artist and would like to submit a drawing, you can email them over to Ryan through the middle of next week. Not an artist? Ryan could use your help with printing too. If you know of a printer company in the Ohio area willing to donate some time, get them in contact with Ryan. Donations for paper and ink are also welcome.

Get in touch with Ryan:
Ryan Adams- Inspired by Ink . Columbus, OH
Email: staytruetat2@yahoo.com
Myspace: myspace.com/staytruetat2
Or leave him a message here and we’ll make sure he gets it.

So roll up your sleeves and get crackin’, there’s not a lot of time left until Christmas is here. Maybe if we show Ryan enough love he’ll make this an annual thing. (We did hear a rumor that might happen!)

Anyone interested in a good laugh should check out this is apparently a website for assholes.  I’ve noticed an alarming trend, stay with me on this:  How many times have you witnessed someone who became so enthusiastic about a given cause that they decided they must persecute another, completely unrelated belief/lifestyle choice/whatever?  Likely to come to mind is the ‘guilt by no association’ war in Iraq, where our fearless leader sought to flex some muscle and kill a lot of people who had nothing to do with 9/11, in response to 9/11.  So wrapped up in a collective need for revenge, congress went along and we find our nation in its present, rather embarrassing debacle.  Once again, blind belief+repressive indoctrination process=ignorant assholes.  It doesn’t stop at religion and politics either, I’ve seen Ford guys who would never admit how cool the 09′ Camaro is, Vandy fans who refuse to wear orange, ever.  I’ve witnessed traditional Japanese and American style tattooers nitpick the very best of the color portrait genre, so bad you’d think it was the work of a first-year apprentice.  So where am I going with this?

Just because you like something doesn’t mean you have to look for something else to hate in order to make what you like seem better.  Penn and Teller had a show about just this sort of thing, I think it was called Bullshit.  If you need to bitch about what someone else is doing, when what they’re doing has no impact on you, you’re being an asshole, stop it.  I don’t call your religion stupid so don’t pick a fight with me about my tattoos.  My tattoos will stand up to scrutiny, your religion won’t.  This is a not my opinion, this is a fact.  I can prove I have tattoos, you can’t prove your god exists, which god it is, or even what that god expects from us.
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Many of you might recognize the name Mike Giant, who hails from San Francisco, CA. He has been in the tattoo and graffiti game for quite some time now and every now and then he gets around to dropping some dope, limited edition art prints on his website, Mikegiant.com.

Gang Girls is among the latest batch of prints to be released this past week and features strong MS13 (Mara Salvatrucha) imagery. The gang, which is strong in some parts of Central America and here is the U.S., is notorious for rather heinous and violent crimes but Mike Giant conveys the artwork through his unique artistic filter that makes the print fit for any wall in your pad.

Mike Giant also heads his own clothing line, Rebel8 – threads that are heavily tattoo influenced. Give Mikegiant.com and Rebel8.com at peek to find killer clothing, crazy art prints, and even cooler original tattoo flash books.

CLICK HERE to visit Mike Giant’s store and HERE to check out the Rebel8 clothing and art selection.

In my last blog I mentioned that the art of tattooing could very well be as old, or even the oldest human art form. While there is no scientific proof of this you could make an educated guess as to wether or not that is true from a knowledge of human nature, and the oldest proof of primitive tattooing known. Otzi the iceman.

Two German tourists, Helmut and Erika Simon, found Otzi on September 19, 1991. His body remarkably preserved in a glacier proved to be the best example of primitive man found to date. It was estimated that the mummy was from around 3300 BC, approximately 53 centuries ago. He also had over 57 tattoos. Many Egyptian mummies have been found with tattoos as well. Not all of them decorative.

It has often been speculated that most, if not all of the cave paintings are actually a form of sympathetic magic. Drawings made to bring about a certain outcome, such as a successful hunt. I’m not sure why they couldn’t have been just a picture record of events that went on in daily primitive life, but who am I to argue with archeologists? Such is not the case with some of the oldest tattoos on earth. Otzi’s.

Because the tattooing that the iceman had was strategically placed in areas of his body that had some form of affliction. Because of the placement it could be safely speculated that tattooing was used as a form of magic to help, or heal the areas. Read the rest of this entry »