Posh Spice AKA Victoria Beckham has reportedly lent her keen sense of style into the design of her soccer ball-kicking hubby, David Beckham’s latest tattoo. Mr. Beckham’s new ink reads “My son, do not forget my teaching but keep my commands in your heart”,  but don’t expect to recognize the spiritually uplifting/sticky phrase unless you’re fluent in Hebrew. This, however, is not Beckham’s sole non-English tat. He also has another Semitic marking on his arm that reads “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.”

Beckham also has his wifey’s name inked in Hindi.

What’s wrong with good ‘ol fashioned English tattoos? Is there not enough mystique or appeal in our language’s 26-character alphabet? Guess not.

If you’ve ever been to India, you’ll know how insanely hectic of a place that it can be.  It’s difficult to imagine what it’s like when India’s unrelenting chaos finds its way directly into your home.  That was exactly what happened to Bangalore resident Sarah Varghese, after a poster for the Indian film “Ghajini” was made public.

The film follows a man who has a condition which causes his short term memory to fail.  In order to remember enough to pursue the killer of his girl Kalpana, he has words, phrases, numbers, etc, tattooed across his body.  If that sounds like a straight rip-off of Christopher Nolan’s 2000 film, “Memento”, that’s because it is.  Apparently plagiarism isn’t a big deal in India.        

Anyway, the point is that billboards showed the film’s star shirtless, flaunting all his seriously fake looking tattoos.  One of the tattoos happened to be a made up phone number.  Except that the phone number wasn’t fake.  It belonged to Sarah Varghese.  Gee, what a surprise that in a country of over A BILLION people someone would actually have the phone number that appeared on the movie poster.  Sarah began receiving phone calls almost immediately from fans looking for the film’s star, Aamir Khan.  At times she received up to fifty calls a day.

Varghese says that she hasn’t filed a complaint yet with the film’s studio and that the calls are actually starting to slow down now.  However if the calls don’t quit, she’ll think about making a complaint.  At any rate, the publicity alone from this incident seems to be whipping up quite a frenzy.  Ghajini raked in 1 billion Indian Rupees ($20 million) in less than a week at the Indian box-office.  I guess people really do pay attention to other people’s tattoos – even when the tattoos in question look like they were done by a toddler with sharpie.

Read the complete article here:

Myth and Urban legends abound. Quite a few in the world of tattooing. One of my favorites was one that apparently originated during the 30’s with the story of an early debate about the reusing of needles and sterilization, or lack there of as the case may be. The story goes that a man little more than a hobo settled the argument by showing a tattoo on his arm and proclaiming that he was once a tattoo artist. His claim was that the parlor he worked in was below a house of prostitution and the needles used for the tattoo were put in the gutter where the ladies would dump their bath water night after night. After a week or so they retrieved the needles and did the tattoo with no ill effects.

Now anyone in their right mind would know that the story is a load of pure bull. At the very least had such a thing been done the rusty needles would have given him a good case of lockjaw, gangrene, and possibly more STD’s than any person on record.

One of the worse urban legends floating around is the one used to sell a product that anyone with more than three functioning brain cells would know better than to use. The home tattoo removal cream.

I’m not a big fan of tattoo removal in the first place, but people are people after all, and we do make mistakes. Mostly do to fad thinking. While I can appreciate the upswing in business for tattoo artists, if your thinking about getting a tattoo because it’s the “in” thing to do….don’t! It will save you tons of money and heartache in the long run. On the other hand, if you have made a mistake in choice, well let’s just say I prefer cover up to removal any day of the week. At least then you have a better tattoo.

The last thing you want to do is try out one of these home tattoo removal creams. The FDA banned one of the biggest suppliers of this crap, Tatex, in 1992. Basically the crap was nothing short of a mild acid that ate away your skin. Duh! After several complaints about skin irritation and infections the FDA got involved and put an end to the garbage, or so they thought.

Enter the next generation of snake oil salesmen, eager to make a quick buck with the same old song and dance. (Drum roll, please.) Wrecking Balm®!

Hell, even the web site looks like one of those old west medicine show presentations, and if you pay attention to the pure bull shit they have listed on it, you should be able to spot the con almost immediately.

First, they claim that it fades the tattoo, just like Tatex use to, then go on to describe it as “the breakdown of ink injected skin cells”. That’s a polite way of saying it eats away the skin, kiddies. Even worse, it is a supposed 3 step process where you “sand” the skin before applying the balm. Even if the balm were nothing more than Neosporin®, any fool should know that if you continually “sand” the tattoo it will “fade” over time. It’s called Dermabrasion, and for the longest time was the only way to remove a tattoo in the first place.

The testimonials are an even bigger joke. Ever notice how these things always seem to be just the person’s first name and last initial, nothing else? People who really use a product, and find it satisfactory enough to crow about, have no problem letting you know their full name, as well as where they are from. This is the same dodge used in the old mail order scams and you can bet your bottom dollar the testimonials are most likely made up. Even if they are not, these are some of the most gullible people on earth, as it is most likely the ongoing Dermabrasion that is actually “fading” the tattoo.

How long? according to their propaganda, “It takes 4 to 6 weeks for cells to naturally regenerate and complete one cycle.” Trust me, if you were stupid enough to sand your tattoo at home, and put a antibiotic cream on it for that length of time, I will guarantee the tattoo will start to fade. Please don’t, though…..it’s about as dumb a thing as you will ever do.

If you have a tattoo you want to get rid of, try a cover up with something you can be proud to own. If you are still determined to remove the tat all together, do the same thing you should have done to get it. Go to a licensed professional. Trying one of these stupid “at home” tattoo removal things is about as smart as performing your own kidney transplant.

Most of us meat eaters love bacon. There is just something about the greasiness and that right from the frying pan smell that pulls on the heart strings of every carinvore. Which is probably why we started putting bacon where bacon may not necessarily belong; on our salads, on top of veggies, in chocolate bars, and even tattooed on our bodies. That is, at least in the case of hte contest being held by the Royal Bacon Society.

In cause you aren’t in the bacon loop, the Royal Bacon Society is a group of bacon-minded individuals with one of the most detailed bacon websites ever created. This site has everything you could ever need to know about bacon including receipies and a store. They’re also running a contest to see who has the best bacon related tattoo.

The Royal Bacon Society’s resident blogger, Marianne, is enlisting all of those with a love of bacon to submit their favorite bacon pictures via e-mail to the society by January 31st. The finalists will then be submitted on the website and everyone can choose a winner. The winning photo will end up being a bacon tattoo featured on Marianne’s husband.

I can honestly say I’ve never thought of getting a bacon tattoo, even though I do love the occasional BLT, but the idea sounds interesting enough. If you have any photos to share, be sure to send them over.

Check out the full contest information at; http://www.royalbaconsociety.com/blog/bacon-art/calling-all-bacon-tattoos/.

I know that every last one of you reading this blog out there in cyberland has been waiting all year for this information. It’s huge – that one chunk of indispensible tattoo news for the year. That’s right, it’s time to show off what The Huffington Post is calling The Eight Biggest Celebrity Tattoos of 2008”. Are you still there? Still breathing? I sure hope so.

Actually, the tattoos in the slide show are for the most part not that bad. Except for Scarlett Johansson’s blurry mess. What the hell is that? That thing has basement tattoo written all over it. Just say no to scratchers, Scarjo. I also think that it was more than a little generous of the Huffington Post to classify Sarah Palin’s daughter’s fiancé Levi Johnston as a “celebrity”. That’s kind of like calling Ronald McDonald a chef.

Oddly enough, Mena Suvari’s back piece also made it on to Asylum.com’s list of The Worst Celebrity Tattoos Ever. I personally like Suvari’s tattoo. Hell, I like most of the tattoos that Asylum rips on. Tom Arnold’s tattoo of Roseanne’s head over his heart? Classic. I guess it just goes to prove that one man’s (or woman’s) trash is another man (or woman’s) treasure.

Happy 2009 to everyone regardless of how crappy or cool your tattoos are.

Is fashion the next logical step for tattoo artists in the limelight? Tattoo artists designing their own clothing is certainly nothing new. Costa Mesa clothing company To Die For, has been doing their thing with a growing roster of artists since 1997. Black Market Art Company – another California based business – has been creating and selling their T-shirts with the help of artists like Tim Hendricks and Robert Atkinson since 2005. Most recently, LA Ink star Kim Saigh designed a line for Vans, set for a summer 2009 release.

Perhaps one of the most famous tattoo artist designed clothing labels is Yellowman, owned and operated by Peter Mui, aka Yellowman. According to the official Yellowman website, Mui’s time is spent scouring the ends of the earth for the greatest tattoo artists willing to design clothing. The result is a line in which T-shirts can cost anywhere from $100 to upwards of $800, depending on the shirt and artist. The clothes have a definite “pro-wrestler” vibe about them, if you know what I mean. Still, the Yellowman website offers photos/proof of various celebrities who wear the clothes: musicians Tim McGraw and Sean Paul, some American Gladiators and pro baseballer Jose Canseco.

It is, in my humble opinion, inevitable that tattoo artist designed clothing will take off in a big way. With tattoo art increasingly viewed as the art form that it is, demand for specific tattoo artists will only increase. Let’s face it: if Kat Von D put out a clothing line in which she personally designed every item, that stuff would sellout faster than bananas at a monkey convention.

For the artists, clothing offers a secondary method for covering flesh with their work. Clothing also opens up the option for people who may love a particular tattoo artist’s work, but who may not be able to or even want to undergo the commitment of getting the real thing done.

Hopefully, the future of tattoo artist designed clothing brings a variety of stylish and highly original things to wear. I also hope that the prices stay reasonable because $800 for a long sleeved t-shirt is whack.

Check some clothes out:

Black Market Art Company
Yellowman
To Die For

The planned nationwide tour of MusInk Tattoo and Music Festival was cancelled last month, citing the “current economic climate” as the reason.

“I’m sad that this year’s festival will not go on as planned, but I’d rather the fans not be disappointed, as there were key elements that did not come together as originally designed,” Kat Von D – L.A. Ink diva and the festival’s creator – said publicly.

Although there are no plans to rekindle the tour, the festival – which combines hundreds of the world’s most famous and skilled tattoo artists alongside art exhibits, lifestyle vendors, skateboarding/BMX demos and hot musical acts – will still take place February 20 to 22, 2009, at the Orange County Fair and Exhibition Centre in Costa Mesa, California.

MusInk debuted last year in Orange County and was successful with over fifteen thousand people attending the three-day affair. Social Distortion and MOTÖRHEAD were originally headliners for this year’s festival but pulled out when MusInk announced it no longer had plans to tour. Instead look for Danzig, Reverend Horton Heat and Atreyu to rock the festival’s stage.

Contemplating your next tattoo design? Consider bacon. That’s right. I said bacon.

Apparently there is such a thing called the “Royal Bacon Society” and they’re having a contest. Here’s how to “pork-ticipate” (come on. Yuk it up, people!): Submit your most beloved bacon images to the Bacon Society (I’m honestly laughing as I type this). The Society will choose its favourite images and then members will vote for their favourite one. The husband of bacon-of-the-month-club owner and avid bacon blogger Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock will get it somewhere on his body in tattoo form.

Click here to submit your bacon photos. Genius. Freakin’ genius.

Ok, I thought I had heard just about every stupid negative reaction to tattoos, and tattooing in general that there was. Some were absolutely hilarious, some were enough to make certain that you didn’t get to enjoy that burrito you ate thirty minutes ago for very long. Still I think I would be hard pressed to find a more idiotic piece of pure crap than this one.

Did you know that tattoos are responsible for the current economic slump??!! I didn’t know that we held up so much of the world’s economy!! But according to this jerk off we do.

What’s even funnier is through his entire anemographic rant, he doesn’t give a single shred of evidence to back up his moronic claim, just a lot of religious finger pointing that reminds one of the game where you try to link Kevin Bacon to every successful movie of Hollywood. You would have thought that he would at the least try to back up his title with a little bit of some kind of statistic……but nooooooo!

The first laugh, or barf as the case may be, comes with the goof’s handle, Objective Scrutator. Trust me there is nothing objective, nor much in the way of scrutiny about this rabid accuser. At least no more so than there was for the Spanish Inquisition, and we all know how objective those boys were.

He then goes on to nothing short of a name calling rant the like of which a three year old would be proud of. Such as claiming in a round about way that tattoo artists can’t even spell. Funny because he can’t spell amusement, iniquity, or hallucination to name just a few. Maybe it’s the small words we have trouble with?

He even goes on to say that the money spent on tattoo’s, and laser removal would be better spent on “well-meaning enterprises like Regnery or Enron”??? What the Fuck??? Was I asleep or wasn’t Enron one of the biggest den of rip off artists ever to stick it to it’s investors??!! Yeah, that’s a well meaning enterprise all right. At least tattoo artists have never taken someone’s money without giving them something of lasting value in it’s place. More enjoyable than the royal screwing Enron gave it’s customers.

Then to add to his obvious lack of knowledge he goes on to accuse a college professor, who didn’t give him the answer he wanted, of subscribing to “a rigid set of values, refusing to teach anything other than the same old blather story”. To steal a quote of my own from his source……”Thou hypocrite!”

Then there is this memorable quote, which if nothing else proves just how delusional this idiot really is. “If the Democrats have their way, this Social Security money will be obligated to be sent to tattoo parlors so that our elderly can dress up their decaying skin pores.”

By the Gods I hope so. If the government were to pump half the bailout money they are pumping into the greed driven corporations, that are the real culprits in the current economic slump, maybe I could get a cataract operation tomorrow and open my shop again!

Check out the whole article and you will understand why some people should never be let near a word processor……or better yet, Why their parents should never have been allowed to breed in the first place.

Hey, notice that I did spell all my words correctly? I must be a mutant tattoo artist, or at least smart enough to use spell check.

Something that use to piss me off was having some joker come into the shop looking for a temporary tattoo. I didn’t do temps and never would. I did tattoos and if you didn’t have the balls to commit to the real deal I didn’t have the time of day for your wussie ass, still don’t.

It takes a special kind of person to get a tattoo, someone willing to commit to life, not some geek who wants to play dress up for a day or two. If all you want to do is play dress up to show how cool you are, wait for Halloween, or better yet, go back to putting on your parents clothing so you can pretend to be grown up.

Temptoos are only good for three things, Hollywood, Halloween, and painting up the kiddies who are too young to make a decision like tattoos for themselves. Having a temp doesn’t make you a member of the tattoo community. It just proves you are a poser, and yes I have heard all the arguments for having some makeup artist apply a fake tattoo to your hide.

“They make me feel a bit wilder.” They are a great way to test drive a design, (only if you already have the real deal, Bub.)” “They do wonders for one’s self-image, teasing out the biker, rapper or gridiron star that lurks inside the suit.”

Bullshit!

If you truly had any of that crap going on you would have a real tattoo. All you are doing is trying to be something you are not, and your about as believable as a duck pretending your a lion. The truth is you are little more than a geek trying to be cool. That’s it, nothing more, and your psychobabble doesn’t verify your pathetic existence in the least to me. Your still a poser.

My tattoos don’t come off with a cotton ball and a little rubbing alcohol. Neither do I want them to. I am what you are pretending to be with your movie picture make up job. To be blunt, I don’t give two cents and a good spit for you inner biker, rapper, or anything else you think you are on the inside. All you really are is a fake.

I, and thousands out there just like me, will still be around when fad wears off. We will still be the people you only dream of being. People with courage, strength, and the balls to say that this is who we are. You will still be hiding in your pathetic life, wishing you could be us.

The true, the proud, the tattooed.