Usually it seems that it’s pop-culture or some other popular aspect of the entertainment industry that influences people to get tattooed.  Especially now with the massive influx of interest in tattoos.  It certainly isn’t very often however, when we get to hear that a certain style of tattoo is influencing kids not to get tattooed themselves, but to study an ancient subject in school.

Sounds strange?  Yeah, I know it does.  Regardless of how strange it may sound though, this article from England is suggesting that the popularity of Latin in tattoos on celebrities such as David Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell and Danielle Lloyd is responsible for a resurgence amongst teenagers in wanting to study the ancient language at school.  Hey, I believe it.  After all, anything is possible.  Obviously such a trend hasn’t really caught on in North America, but that certainly doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen over in England.

The article also goes on to point out the errors in the translations of some of the celebrity Latin tattoos, which might be a good enough reason right there to want to get familiar with the language.  I guess if you’re one of those people who has a mistranslated Latin tattoo, it might be better for you if more people don’t start learning to recognize just how mistranslated your tattoo actually is.  So watch out bad Latin tattoo people: your Crapie Diem tattoo just might be attracting a few more snickers than ever before.

Throughout the years, the Walt Disney corporation has played all sorts of roles in people’s lives.  I can remember as a wee lad being mesmerized by every square inch of Disneyland every time that my parents took me.  For my family, winter trips to Anaheim became something of a tradition for many years.  In some ways, many people even raise their kids on Disney – I’ve known more than a few parents whose saving grace was sticking on a DVD of The Little Mermaid or Toy Story over and over again for their finicky kid(s).

All that being said, it makes sense that someone could grow up with Mickey Mouse and the rest of the Disney crew and feel a real sense of comfort and nostalgia from the mere sight of them.  And, if that comfort/nostalgia continues to exist into adulthood, well then I guess you can quite easily end up like George Reiger.

Reiger is most likely the biggest Disney fanatic that I have ever seen in my life.  I mean, I know this woman who collects Mickey Mouse figurines, but that doesn’t even come close to comparing with the more than 1,900 Disney related tattoos that cover George Reiger’s body.  In case you want to relate that number of tattoos into a percentage, here you go: about 85% of Reiger’s entire body is covered in his Disney love affair.  The only places on his body that aren’t tattooed are his face and hands because he works as a magician and wants to keep the tats covered while at work.  He’s got Dumbo on his ass, Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse with a wand “down there”, and the Epcot Centre on his upper thigh, which took 14 hours to complete.  Mickey Mouse appears on his body over 100 times.

Given Disney’s notorious drive to protect their images at practically any cost, it does seem inevitable that Reiger would have to face the animation juggernaut at some point.  He did, when he was 22 years-old.  By that point Reiger already had some 80 Disney tattoos and the Disney people told him that as long as he used the same tattoo artist and didn’t make any money off the tattoos, that they were fine with it.  So Reiger continued with his hobby, unmolested by the mighty Disney and its massive armies of lawyers.

I can’t say that I would ever devote my own body to any one corporation, but this is about one man’s delight over cartoons and images that have given him so much.  In the end, if he’s happy with what he’s done (and he is), then all the best to him.  A zippity-do-da* day to you, George Reiger.

*Zippity-do-da is a registered trademark of the Disney Corporation.  Please don’t sue me, Robert Iger.

According to Nate Banuelos’ bio, he describes his specialties as: “…clean, readable, solid tattooing.”  The first time that I read that I thought that Banuelos was selling himself short.  After all, there is so much more going on in his tattooing that goes beyond simply saying that he’s skilled at doing clean or readable or solid work.  However, the more I looked at Nate’s tattoos, the more I realized that Nate’s own summation of his specialities might be understated, but that such an understatement pairs perfectly well with his art.

What I mean by this is that Nate doesn’t rely on getting all up in your face, as it were, with his work.  There’s a deceptive simplicity to his tattoos that can almost make you take them for granted.  It’s the same with any artist who is at the top of their game: they always make what they’re doing look so easy when in reality, it’s anything but.  It’s like watching Marlon Brando act – it’s so easy to lose yourself in the performance because the performance itself seems effortless.

A-ha!  But therein lies the rub, my friend.  Nate Banuelos has been tattooing for 17 years, and you can bet your ass that every single one of those years was spent working and striving to get to the point where he is now, where his tattoos speak for themselves and lull you into believing that such smoothness and readability is just a simple aspect of his work.  I’m on to you, Banuelos!

Regardless, all that really matters here is that the tattoo work of Nate Banuelos is very much worth checking out and becoming a fan of.  Banuelos currently spends his days at Guru Tattoo in beautiful San Diego, California.  If you’re in the neighbourhood, you should stop on by.  How could you not, when someone as rad as Nate works there?

I love art.  Surely an obvious statement if ever there was one to be made on a tattoo blog, but it’s true.  Furthermore, not only do I love art, but I love the fact that tattoo artists are now being accepted into the art world more and more every day.  It’s so great to see artists as talented as tattooist getting recognition for the work that they do both in the tattoo medium and beyond, in things like sketching and painting and whatever else that their artistic tendencies guide them towards.

So today, I don’t have a lot to say about the fact that artists are artists whether they are tattooing or painting or designing a sculpture of some sort.  Instead, I just wanted to send out a little heads up for anyone who either lives in New York City or is planning a visit there between now and August 29th.

Metanoia is an art exhibit that is taking place in New York’s West Village at P.J.S. Exhibitions.  It involves various tattoo artists showing off their artistic skills beyond the tattoo studio.  There is a wide range of artistic mediums on display, including drawings, paintings and etched metals.  The artists themselves are a diverse bunch with three of them coming from the excellent New York Adorned and Brooklyn Adorned studios.

“The tactile properties of the pieces really speak out,” explains Bevin Robinson, co-curator of Metanoia. “Their surfaces tell as much of a story as their colors and content.” Through textured media such as etching, painted wood panels and charcoal, the artists’ works stand out physically, visually and psychologically.”

Featured artists are: Chris O’Donnell (New York Adorned), Jason June (Daredevil), Josh Egnew(Three Kings), Ryan Bonilla (Bellum Concepts),Stephanie Tamez (Brooklyn Adorned) and Thomas Hooper (that’s Hooper’s tattoo work above, incidentally) (New York Adorned)

Sounds very cool.  Good luck to everyone involved and to all those going to go and check it out this summer: enjoy!

New gimmicks are popping up daily and the world of tattoo certainly is no stranger to them.  Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  It’s hard to say.  One would think that tattoos are relatively safe from gimmicky gimmick type stuff (did I just say “gimmicky gimmick”?  I did.), given the very nature of tattoos being so permanent and all that stuff.  It would seem kind of difficult to throw gimmicks into something that basically is what it is in the way that a tattoo is what it is.  Still, it happens.

The latest gimmick to hit the tattoo scene are the augmented reality codes.  Augmented reality codes are the little black boxes that can be found on everything from baseball cards to magazines to clothing.  What happens is that you hold the image of the little black augmented reality box up to your webcam and this image then passes through all those tubes and chutes that make up the internet to bring you additional content.  It’s sort of like bonus features on a DVD.

Taking its cue from this sort of technology, Argentinian company ThinkAnApp is the first to create an Augmented Reality tattoo.  From what I can see it’s a very basic attempt, but basically the company recruited a volunteer to be tattooed with an AR design.  When this tattoo, which looks like a black picture frame is placed in front of a computer webcam on a computer that is running the ThinkAnApp software, an animated 3D dragon appears (on the monitor, of course) and floats around the perimeters of the tattoo.  If this sounds kind of cheesy to you, that’s probably because it is.  But if it also sounds kind of cool to you and that maybe this sort of technology will be refined in the not so distant future, well you could also be right.

Yes it’s gimmicky and it’s a little bit impractical, but hey, that doesn’t mean that if it becomes a perfected art form that it won’t totally take off.  Considering the revival that 3D is currently having in Hollywood and with companies like Sony selling 3D flatscreen TV’s, it certainly can’t be much longer before people are lining up to get their very own custom made augmented reality tattoo.

One thing that a lot of people often don’t take the time to realize is that tattoos are a lot like our personal actions.  When you take a particular action, the end results are often just as permanent as when you get a tattoo.  Sure, you can get a tattoo removed and you can potentially talk your way out of a crappy situation that your actions got you into, but in the end the fact remains that undoing what’s already been done is all too often a painful process.

When I was a kid I remember my teachers at school harping on me to think before I act.  It’s probably one of the better life lessons out there and it does make sense.  I mean, if we all just thought about things before we did them, the world would probably be a better place.  Easier said than done though, right?  Well, as I said before, there are similarities between the actions we take in life and getting a tattoo.  The one major difference however, is that I can often have sympathy for people who make the wrong decisions and want to change the end results.  When it comes to tattoos though, I just find it really hard to have sympathy for anyone when they decide that they don’t want their tattoo(s) anymore.  Add some truly psychopathic actions on top of a desire to have tattoos removed and surprise! – I completely lose all sympathy.

What am I talking about, you ask?  Well, 21-year-old Daniel Cowart of Bells, Tennessee recently pleaded guilty to eight federal charges, including planning to assassinate President Barack Obama.  Along with his friend Paul Schlesselman, the pair planned out a robbery and killing spree that would culminate with the assassination of then presidential candidate Obama.

Well now that Cowart has been arrested and had his trial and now that it is certain that he will go to prison, Mr Crazy Pants has decided that he wants to first have his tattoos removed.  One tattoo, on his left shoulder, is of a swastika and the other is an iron cross on his chest.

“The reason for Cowart’s request for the tattoo alteration was not clear, as his motion is still under seal. However, an unsealed response from U.S. Atty. Lawrence Laurenzi said that allowing Cowart to have the surgery would create a difficult precedent for the U.S. Marshals Service.

Cowart’s lawyer, Joe Byrd Jr., declined to talk to the newspaper about his motion, but said the government response should have been sealed as well.”

“Prosecutors also opposed the motion on the basis he would have to be moved from the Obion County Jail to the Madison County Jail for the surgery. “The Marshals Service is wary of setting a precedent whereby they are obligated to devote substantial resources to transporting and escorting inmates between facilities for the purposes of voluntary cosmetic surgery,” Laurenzi said.”‘

See what I mean about having to deal with the results of your actions?  This is a lesson in both life and tattoos!  It’s perfect and if this little cretin thinks he should be awarded any sort of special favours in terms of getting his tattoos removed, then he’s even crazier than I initially thought.  The bottom line here is that maybe Cowart is trying to turn his life around and doesn’t want to be associated with Nazi psychopaths any longer, but you know what?  Even if that’s the case I’m still having a really tough time feeling bad for him.  Maybe a nice long prison term will help him to learn that in the future, it’s better to think things over before acting.

Lately I’ve really been getting into the spirit of what the tattoo community can accomplish when they band together and work for a common goal.  Across the world, I can say with all honesty that tattooist so often seem to be some of the most sincere, hard working and charitable people around.  Don’t believe me?  Take a quick Google search on the topic of tattooists and charities and you’ll quickly have evidence of the vast groups of artists out there helping out to make changes.

One of the most recent charities that I’ve heard of involving tattoo artists is this coming October’s Tattoos For Tibet.  On October 7th, 2010, tattoo artists from around the world will be joining forces to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.  On this date, tattooists who take part will be asked to donate their wages from at least one tattoo that they do to Students For A Free Tibet.  They will also be asked to donate one piece of Tibetan-art inspired flash, which will be auctioned off and from which the proceeds will also go to Students For A Free Tibet.

So far there’s a decent sized list of tattoo artists who have signed up to lend their skills for a great cause this October.  This will be a event that takes place worldwide, which of course makes it even more interesting.  If you’re a tattoo artist who would like to be involved in Tattoos for Tibet this October, then you can get all the necessary information on how to do so by visiting their myspace page.

I hate to say it, but it really isn’t all that often that I come across a Polish tattoo artist.  That definitely is not to say that there are no Polish tattoo artists out there, busting their asses day in and day out for their art, it’s just that I’ve heard next to nothing about the Polish tattoo scene.  Most likely that’s my own fault, but hey, I’m trying and so today I wanted to shed a little light on a Polish tattoo artist who has recently been setting England on fire with his work.

Tommi’s interest in tattoo really took off when he was a teenager.  Up until that time he had been a daydreamer, the type of kid who was more interested in doodling or building things with clay than paying attention to what the teacher was talking about at school.  He grew up in a small, and very traditional town in Poland – a place where tattooing was really neither understood or considered any sort of art form.  He liked to draw things on his friends’ arms and legs and once his teenage years hit, Tommi’s curiosity in leaving art on people’s skin came to a head.

The problem was that at the time, Poland was not really undergoing any sort of tattoo revolution and that meant that there was no information coming in regarding tattooing that could help get Tommi on to his feet.  In the early stages of his growth as a tattoo artist, Tommi built his own tattoo machines from old toys that he owned.  Despite talking to the very few other people he knew who were interested in tattoo and trading tricks and tips amongst themselves, Tommi knew that if he truly wanted to make it in the tattoo world that he would need to go somewhere where the tattoo culture was much larger.  His dream had always been to go to England and in 2006, that dream became a reality.

Four years later and Tommi is part of the team at Cheltenham, England’s No Regrets Tattoo.  Not only that, but in these past four years, Tommi has managed to bag no less than 11 various awards for his tattoo work.  He talks about heading back to Poland one day and opening up his own shop, he talks about spending some time in Japan and of course, he’s also grateful for the friends he has made and the time that he has spent in England.  It’s hard to say where Tommi will end up in the coming years, but one thing is for certain: his tattoos will continue to stand out, making Tommi easy to spot no matter where in the world that he is.

This is the 80th day of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.  Crude oil continues to pour into the gulf, destroying the environment, the wildlife and the livelihood of far too many residents to mention or even comprehend.  I don’t want to keep on about this topic on the Tattoo Blog, but I feel so strongly about trying to organize or at the very least get information out there for people wanting to make a difference, that every time I see or hear something new, I have to get it up here.

Last week I wrote a post about Tantrix Tattoo in Saskatoon, Canada.  Today Leanne from Tantrix commented on that post, informing us that Tantrix raised $1,190 in five hours.  On November 20th, 2010, the folks at Tantrix will hold yet another tattoo fundraiser for the turtles and they have also added sea birds to their list of animals needing a share of the donations.  Awesome work you guys, it’s so damn nice to see people getting involved and inspiring others like this.

Today I also stumbled across an article about Bobby Pitre, a Louisiana tattoo artist and owner of Southern Sting Tattoo in the town of Larose.  Pitre has seen the community and environment that he grew up in devastated by the BP oil spill.  He’s understandably outraged and has since begun to transfer his rage into his art.  Aside from once in high school, Pitre had never actually painted a portrait until the BP oil spill occurred on April 20th.  But now Pitre has a renewed purpose to pain and this comes directly from his anger at BP management and the disaster that they’re responsible for.

“I was in a bad place. That’s why I started painting these,” he said recently. “This is my way of screaming to people.”        – Bobby Pitre

Aside from his paintings, Pitre has also done a mural with a fellow artist, expressing their anger at BP for the damage they’ve caused.

“…the mural incorporates a bloody torso and a wraith, cloaked in oily black and bearing a BP logo, extending its arms in a deadly embrace toward an outline of the Gulf Coast.

“You killed our Gulf … our way of life!” reads the message at the top.”

Obviously this is very important work that Bobby Pitre is doing.  No doubt it comes from a dark place, but it expresses so much more than just how Louisiana locals feel.  I think that anyone who harbors any sort of concern or anger over this catastrophe can relate to what Pitre is doing.  Now I think that the only logical next step is for Pitre to sell his artwork or at the very least organize a fundraiser of some sort where the paintings will be on display and the price of admission will go toward charities working to help with the oil spill clean up.  That might not be the best suggestion either, but when I see all these talented artists out there, it just strikes me hard that there is something that can be done if everyone bands together and works toward the one common goal of helping in the wake of this terrible oil spill tragedy.

If anyone has any suggestions how something large can be organized with the help of tattoo artists, I’m all for lending my help in the organization process.  Just let me know and I will do everything I can to help.

You can call me picky, but when it comes to tattoos, one of the last words that I want to hear is “trendy”.  The very concept of trendy – that is, cool today, completely lame tomorrow – is something that just shouldn’t be applied to anything as permanent of a decision as is a tattoo.

Unfortunately for me, trendy is absolutely a part of tattooing.  Many people go to get tattoos based on pop-culture references which they feel are stylish, hip, cool, you name it.  That hasn’t changed for decades and I certainly don’t foresee it changing anytime soon.  Even though I don’t like the idea, I still do find it interesting to learn exactly what is currently trendy when it comes to tattoos.  With that in mind, I headed over to UK website The List to check out a piece that they did on current trends in tattooing.  There weren’t many surprises, for example tattoos on the fingers and hands are, according to Scottish tattooist Fiona McKay, the new tramp stamp.

“‘The hand is definitely the new tramp stamp, whereas two years ago you never saw it. The inside of the finger is a big thing now too – Rihanna and Lily Allen both have “shhh” tattooed there, so that’s probably why.’”

What did surprise me however, is something that studio manager of Edinburgh, Scotland’s Edinburgh Tribe tattoo studio said:

“‘People seem to be thinking more about how they’ll feel about their tattoo when they’re 60. Because tattoos are more mainstream these days, people seem more aware of what they maybe should and shouldn’t get done.’”

That to me is a really great thing.  I don’t know whether or not I would consider it that as a trendy thing to do, but if more and more people are really taking the time to think their tattoos over before they get them done, then I don’t care what anyone calls it.  It’s something that we definitely need to see more of.  Still, despite the article’s insistence that bad ideas like celtic and tribal armbands have gone away to the tattoo graveyard, as long as what’s trendy is associated with tattoos, then it will always just be a matter of time before the next celtic or tribal armband cringe inducing replacement comes along.