Girls love Hello Kitty & Girls seem to love Hello Kitty Tattoos… whether it’s the plain Hello Kitty symbol or the more creative Darth Vader Hello Kitty, or the many pirate Hello Kitty tattoos, or even the zombie or ninja versions it’s clear there is a strong niche for the kitty from Japan (don’t forget the Hello Kitty Jesus tattoo).

The Lovely Lili D.
Age: 35

About 6 months after getting my GoldenPalace.com tattoo advertisement, and donating my kidney to a friend, I had my first tough man fight since the surgery. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about the fight. After all I hadn’t really been training like I should. I think what helped me to relax was when the announcer of the fight said to the crowd,” that sure looks like a real tattoo advertisement, “and then he said, “I have just been informed that is a real tattoo advertisement.” I ended up winning the fight to stay unbeaten.

GoldenPalace.com would be the first company to advertise on me, but it would not be the last. There would be many, many more. Quite some time had passed since I got my first tattoo advertisement. Everything was going well financially and then it happened. I was laid off at the Post Office. What could I do to come up with some cash to help pay the bills?

Could I become a prostitute like the man on the HBO show Hung? No, my Fiancé wouldn’t be happy about that. Plus, I am pretty sure it’s illegal. There had to be a way to come up with some cash. Then it hit me. Why don’t I auction my body on eBay for tattoo advertising? So that’s what I did. The only problem was I didn’t have a lot of feedback on eBay at the time, so I couldn’t do a featured auction. My auction didn’t get many hits. Because of that the end auction price was very low. Any little bit helps when you’re struggling. The winning bidder wanted to advertise 2 websites on me; Viioleteyes.com, and nutriadvice.com. I said sure. They chose to advertise on my arms. My left arm now says nutriadvice.com , and my right arm viioleteyes.com.Viioleteyes.com sells sexy women’s lingerie and club wear. And Nutriadvice.com is a nutritional website.

While doing the EBay auction, and prostituting my body for advertising space, I thought about it and decided it wouldn’t be about the money. If I made some money doing tattoo advertising then cool, if not then that was cool to, but the main thing would be to have fun and hopefully get attention. And with the attention that I get, I wanted to raise awareness for the need of people to sign up to become organ donors when they pass away, to help save lives. And to try and get people to become blood donors as well. Those are 2 passions of mine from having donated a kidney to a friend myself, and having donated 22 gallons of blood platlets.

When doing the auction on eBay , I also noticed there were other people doing similar auctions . That’s when I decided I wanted to be the best at what I do. Anything I do I always want to be the best at it. I decided them I would be the best human billboard out there. I want to get my whole body ,and face, covered in tattoo advertisements from head to toe. Stay tuned for my next post about my adventures in tattoo advertising.

Send me comments and let me know if you think I am an idiot, a genius, or a male prostitute. I love reading comments. You can also follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/BillyBillboard

A short while back, last week as a matter of fact, I made the suggestion that if one wanted to keep their visible tattoos then it would be possible to conceal them by using a concealing makeup. Makeups that are designed for concealing scars seemed a logical choice, yet imagine my surprise when I discovered that the first lady of tattooing, Kat Von D has designed a concealer for just that purpose.

Kat, who is just as famous for her tattoos as she is for her tattooing, already has a makeup contract with megabrand Sephora, so I guess it wasn’t such a stretch for her to introduce a concealer for just such a purpose.

There are times when having visible tattoos can be a problem, usually when

job hunting, and instead of having the expense of laser removal, or putting your trust in one of those “miracle cures”, why not just do the logical thing and hide the ink? It beats the Hell out of trying to find sympathetic employers, or limiting your ink to areas of the body that can be covered with clothing.

Kat assures that her product is non staining, won’t rub off on your clothes, and waterproof. All I can say is it’s about time. A concealer made expressly for tattoos was a long time coming. Thanks Kat!

Miss Tattoo’s very own Betty Ann Peed…

Age: 25

Occupation: Body Piercer, Aesthetician, and Fun person

Newest Tattoo: Sacred tube of lipstick on right forearm.

Favorite Tattoo:  My newest one is my favoritest, I was reading an interview in a magazine when I was first starting to really get tattooed and the interviewee said if your newest isn’t your most favorite, then your coming up with bad ideas… I liked that statement and I keep that in mind each time I’m asked that question and every time I am about to get a new tattoo.

Tattoo Story: Instead of a funny story I’ll just say… My favorite tattoo memory is either my newest tattoo, which I’m not allowed to talk about especially on the interwebs because TLC made me sign a disclaimer… Or getting tattooed by Shawn from The Hive at the last Rock the Ink last year. He did my neck tattoo, which is the Miss Tattoo logo and def. one of my fav tattoos. I think it was my first experiences actually getting tattooed at a convention, so it makes it super memorable, plus it’s on the side of my NECK and HUGE and it’s the Miss Tattoo logo so I very much love it.

From time to time we have featured many off beat and unusual tattoos here at Tattoo Blog. Between Matt, Mike, and yours truly we have put up everything from the ridiculous to the sublime. Well, just when I think we’ve seen it all, leave it to another collector to prove once again that the Ol’ Doc ain’t seen nothing’ yet.

Case in point: Glitch-Vixen recently posted a picture of her amazing back piece on Flickr. Now I had thought that over the years I had seen, and done, some pretty wonderful pieces on all sorts of body parts, but this tattoo is one of a kind in all the areas that make for a killer custom tattoo.

Lets go down the list, shall we?

Original tattoo idea? Check!

Serious sentimental value? Check! (I’ll explain later.)

Unusual design? Check!

Bigger than a quarter? Check!

All kidding aside, Glitch-Vixen had her terrific back piece done from an embroidery design that was created by her grandmother. A true tribute of love if there ever was one. With the exception that some of the colors are brighter than the original work of art, it is obviously a faithful re-creation and I envy the artist who got the job.

Well done, Vixen. You’ve pushed the envelope with both taste and style.

When researching artists to interview for Tattoo Blog, every once in a while I get the pleasure to meet some really talented and down to earth people. Julio Rodriguez is one of those special people.

His talent is self evident from the few examples of his work here. You have to check out his on-line gallery to appreciate just how versatile he really is. The man himself is just as caring in his character as he is in his art.

“I started tattooing in 1992 before the explosion of the internet and the friendly atmosphere tattooing has become. I think it was way harder to land an apprenticeship. It was a different time. Its crazy to see how much this industry is changing on a daily basis due to all the media and shows and the internet. I think its made tattooing better in the sense that there isn’t any reason to be a bad tattooer anymore.”

Julio learned his art from the heart by taking art classes throughout his years in High school, and taking advanced courses in art during the summer. This, of course, shows in his understanding of art, but he sights his biggest influences in the art of tattooing as being all of the fine artists he has had the privilege of working with through out his career.

“Over the years I’ve worked with some great artists and they have all had an impact on how I tattoo. I worked at Turnpike Tattoo, Darkside Tattoo, and now Hope Gallery is my home were I work with Joe Capobianco, Eric Merrill, Tim Harris, and Phil Young. These guys are top shelf and keep me on my toes everyday.”

By the time Julio was seventeen he knew he wanted to be a tattoo artist. He collected every thing he could find that had anything to do with tattoos. Not only the trade magazines, but Easyrider, and even National Geographic. As long as the magazine, or book had people with tattoos in their pages, Julio would make it his. Now, I’d be willing to bet that is one impressive collection.

Julio down plays his achievements. It’s part of his humble nature and I hope I don’t embarrass him too much by singing his praises, but, damn it I like his work!

“I’ve had a few features in magazines, and its cool, but I think anyone who has the ability to send some nice clear photos and is willing to tell their story can be featured too, so I don’t put too much stock in it. Same thing with awards, its cool that my clients have won awards, but its more satisfying to know that they’re happy with what I’ve done on them.”

Check out Julio, as well as Joe, Eric, Tim, and Phil at their website, hopegallerytattoo.com. I’m certain you won’t be disappointed.

I should also mention that Hope Gallery will be moving to better quarters soon. The new address and phone number are:

Hope Gallery
835 Woodward Ave.
New Haven ,CT

(203) 467-1622

Julio books appointments a couple of months at a time, and can also be reached for appointment at his e-mail; jrodshope@aim.com.

If you happen to be in the Connecticut area, or are just looking for some killer ink, shoot Julio an e-mail. You won’t regret it.

All images ©by Julio Rodriguez, All Rights Reserved.

Ahhh hobbies.  Everyone loves a good hobby and some people it seems, take their love for hobbies into the full blown obsession arena.

Such is the case with 67-year-old India native, Guinness Rishi.  Incase you can’t tell by his first name (I’m guessing that he’s not only legally changed his name to Guinness, but also that it wasn’t done in honor of the tasty, tasty Irish ale), Guinness likes to set world records.  Among these world records are his sugar cube stacking achievement, his ketchup drinking and his adopting of a 61-year-old man (his brother-in-law).

Times change however, and upping the ante always seems to be part of the game whenever record breaking is concerned.  Rishi’s latest strike at glory?  The plan apparently, is to tattoo 220 of the world’s flags in one inch tattoos all over his body.  He’s already commenced this quest with six flag tattoos, on his forehead.  Naturally.  Those flags are: India, The United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Cyprus and the Indian Congress Party.  While Rishi asserts that he is an extraordinary person, the cost of getting the tattoos done is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of $21,000 US.

After looking at the work that Rishi has had done thus far, several thoughts immediately spring to mind, the most glaringly obvious of which being that he’d better seek out a much, much, better tattoo artist than the one he is currently using, because his current tattoos suck.  Sad but true.  Some serious detail is going to be needed on some of the flags he is planning to adorn himself with and unless he’s planning on hiring one of the best tattoo artists in the world for this task, the end results are not going to be pretty, to say the least.

Check out the article on Guinness Rishi here, as well as a small list of some of the tattoos that are going to be incredibly detailed and pretty much impossible to design in the space of one inch.  Missing from this list are others such as Guatemala, Tibet, Mexico and Peru, to name but a few more.

Last week in one of my posts, I wrote about a new book that is currently searching for people with literary tattoos.  It was the second time that I had posted something about literary tattoos on this blog.  Well, once again, here I am posting about literary tattoos.  Sort of.

I guess I have a soft spot for these sorts of tattoos because I myself have some.  One of my tattoos almost completely encircles my calf.  Anyway, the other day I was walking down the street and this woman was walking behind me.  Don’t ask me to explain it, but whenever people are trying to read my tattoo I can always tell right away, even without turning around.  It’s just this weird sort of feeling I get.  I kept walking, but within minutes, this woman asked me if I could stop walking so that she could read my tattoo.  Fine.  If I’m being honest here, I have to say that I don’t like people reading my tattoo.  I got it for myself, not for the general public.  Still, I can understand people’s curiosity and every time people have asked to read my tattoo, their responses have been positive.  So I let her read it, even though I was running late for a meeting at the time.

After she read it, I was about to hurry off, but she wasn’t satisfied.  She wanted to know what the tattoo meant.  Not wanting to be a dick, I rambling off some easy answer which seemed to satisfy her.  Then I was off.  I have to say, that I was a little irritated by the entire encounter.  It all made me wonder why it was that I should have to explain anything to anyone about my choice of tattoo.  Yet as I walked on, I couldn’t help but feel that maybe my irritation wasn’t justified.  Is this just the side effect of getting a literary tattoo in plain sight for all to read?

My point is this: does the owner of a tattoo automatically relinquish their own personal right to privacy once they get a tattoo that everyone can read?  Or am I justified in feeling that I don’t owe anyone anything when it comes to what’s tattooed on my body?  For a long time I lived in countries where English wasn’t the first language.  That was cool because no one ever asked me what my tattoo said.  Now that I’m back living in English speaking countries, maybe I’m just not used to what having a written word tattoo means.

Personally I believe that some people get tattoos that they want others to see.  Me, I could go my entire life without anyone ever seeing my tattoos.  That would actually make me happy.  But what do you say to someone who doesn’t know this and is just curious about what your tattoo says?  I’m wondering about this, seeing as I would never approach a stranger and just start firing off questions about their tattoos.

Am I just being too sensitive?  Has anyone else out there had this sort of experience before?  Let me know.