It’s amazing how many Michael Jackson tattoos there are out there this is just the latest and as people keep sending them I’ll keep adding them to our post Michael Jackson Tattoos

I LOVE MY MJ TAT ITS NOT ALL FINSHED YET BUT IT IS THE MOST ORIGINAL. AT THE TOP IT WILL SAY BEAT IT, AS A SEXUAL MESSAGE, BUT I LOVE AND RESPECT MJ SO MUCH. NO 1 HAS AN MJ TAT LIKE MINE AND ANYONE WHO IS A FAN AND GOES UNDER THE NEEDLES DESERVES RESPECT 4 THERE TATS TOO!!!!

So here are a few group shots from the actual pageants…lovely ladies… and Tod Almighty above…

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I’ve managed a tattoo shop in Manhattan for about nine years and I’ve worked with many artist. Some I consider to be the best I’ve ever seen. I have come across a lot of people and have seen the changing trends in tattooing. The good and the bad. Working in the business can give you a thick skin. You come to certain realizations about how tattoo artist and customers interact. The differences between the tattoo culture and the people outside the culture looking in. People outside the culture who like tattoos but don’t understand the steps needed to have a good tattoo. It can be fustrating for both tattoo artist and tattoo customer.

Most people know the saying ” The customer is always right”. To bad that’s incredibly wrong.
Its wrong especially if you work at most tattoo shops in America. The countless number
of stupid tattoo ideas are enough to convince anyone. “No sir we can’t cover a Chinese character
with another Chinese character”. I mean really. My intention isn’t to be mean. The ones who get offended are usually the perpetrators. They are the ones who some how know more then there artist. I wonder if they tell there doctor how to operate. The thing that really boils my blood is what I call the price heckler. “Wait! How much is it?! That’s crazy. I paid twenty dollars for this.” Now that leads me to a quote I can agree with. “You get what you paid for.”How true it is.

But a generally new problem has emerged. What I like to call the Miami Ink syndrome or the reality tattoo syndrome. Miami Ink syndrome is when the customer thinks a custom tattoo can be drawn in the time it takes for a commercial break. Sorry people but that not reality. That’s reality TV. Now not all customers are like this. On the other side of the spectrum is the educated consumer. The educated consumer knows what good art looks like. They know that good work takes time. The educated consumer knows that good tattooing cost more money. They understand the process and truly work with the artist to create something both artist and customer can be proud of. If you’re an educated consumer then you are welcomed. If your the opposite … well then I hope you don’t walk into my place of business.

My name is Billy Gibby but I go by the name Billy The Billboard. My adventures into tattoo advertising all started in 2003. I have always had a passion for helping people in need, but in 03 people might say I took helping people in need to an extreme. At the time I was donating blood and volunteering at the American Heart Association as much as I could but wanted to do more. I had heard about living organ donation and found a website where people in need of organs can search for donors. That’s when I found someone who after talking on the phone, and via email for quite some time, became my friend. I decided that I wanted to donate my kidney to her. After a long process of tests and more tests a date was scheduled for surgery. The only problem for me was I hadn’t had any money saved up for the time I would have to miss from work to pay my bills while I recovered from the surgery. Read the rest of this entry »

Miss Tattoo pageants were created by me, Jennifer Blanchard… Hi there.  

In 2006 I was on the way home from a tattoo convention in Vegas, and I was thinking how to get all the women that I saw at the show together during an event like that, on the road I came up with the idea of a pageant for Tattoo’d Ladies… it never stopped.

In 2007 I started the official quest for Miss Tattoo USA, after receiving a C & D from the owners of Miss USA, and Miss Universe Pageants LLC, (Donald Trump & Co.) I had to change the name of the contest to just “Miss Tattoo”, which also opened the show up to non US residents. Miss Tattoo is seaking just as it’s name states a true tattooed lady.

The search continues to find the next Miss Tattoo, and I will be blogging the experience here at TattooBlog for the upcoming 2009 pageant season, as well as providing eye candy for those interested in Beautiful Tattooed Women.  And with thousands of images, it would be rude not to share…

http://www.misstattoousa.com

So stick around, and let me know what you think.

xoxo,

Jennifer

In a previous post, I had provided links to and a sound opinion on (as far as I’m concerned anyway), literary tattoos.  In case you missed that post and have zero inclination whatsoever to click on the that link I just offered you, here’s the gist of it all:  I like literary tattoos.

Cool.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I was just zipping around on the internet today, when I discovered that not only do tattoo enthusiasts love literary tattoos, but so do people who write books (I think they’re called writers).  Actually in this case, the writers happen to be editors and independent ones at that.  Go indie.  Hell yeah.  Justin Taylor and Eva Talmadge are putting together a photo book of literary tattoos and they want your help.

An open call for submissions has begun:

“All images must include the name (or pseudonym) of the tattoo bearer, city and state or country, and a transcription of the text itself, along with its source. For portraits or illustrations, please include the name of the author or book on which it’s based. We’d also like to read a few words about the tattoo’s meaning to you — why you chose it, when you first read that poem or book, or how its meaning has evolved over time. How much (or how little) you choose to say about your tattoo is up to you, but a paragraph or two should do the trick.”

If you have some sort of tattoo that could be classified as “literary”, then I suggest reading the entire article here. This is your chance to have your tattoo immortalized for a second time in your life.  Do it!

Recently while surfing the web for my favorite subject, (tattoos of course), I came across several articles about the sudden crackdown on unlicensed tattoo studios and unlawful practices in licensed studios.

As you may, or may not, recall I recently blogged about East Side Ink in New York allowing singer and tattoo collector Rihanna to tattoo some of her artists there. A big no-no, but I’ll get back to this kind of foolishness in a moment.

The one thing that struck me about these recent articles was that the writers didn’t seem to know the difference between a legitimate tattoo artist and a scratcher. They were even complaining that the law was cracking down on people who were tattooing out of their homes. That is not a tattoo artist, that is a scratcher.

So let’s get our definitions straight. If the person is running an unlicensed shop where a license is required, that’s a scratcher. If they are tattooing out of their home, that’s a scratcher. No, I won’t take that back. Any tattoo artist worth his machine will set up a proper tattoo studio that is separate from his home, even if it is in the same building. If they are tattooing out of their living room, or kitchen, I don’t care what they call themselves….if it acts like a scratcher, it’s a scratcher.

As for violating the health laws in a legit tattoo studio, well that’s a horse of another color. Personally, when I was working there were some things I would never allow in my shop. No, you could not “borrow” my machines to tattoo your boyfriend/girlfriend. No, you could not handle the sterilized tubes, or needles after they were opened. No, you can not smoke while getting a tattoo, (If I couldn’t do it, neither can you.). No, you can not get a tattoo right after I just finished someone in front of you, the station has to be properly cleaned and sanitized first.

Honestly, there are good and bad in any profession and I do tend to get a bit of a harass when it comes to tattooing. Quite simply it’s because I love this art and the people who make it work. Scratchers are, to me, the scum of the Earth, and so called artists who allow filthy conditions, don’t change their needles, or clean their work stations between customers are just as bad. Actually, they are worse. They are supposed to know better, but do it anyway. If you ask me these types deserve to be cracked down on.

Please, gang, always check out your artist. Have him show you the autoclave, show you the spore test, ask to see his license and operating permit. Look at the work area and make certain it is clean and properly maintained. No legitimate artist who gives a half a shit about tattooing is going to care. If anything they will be proud to show off for you.

Peace out! 😉

To be honest, I have never given much thought to what goes into the actual products that are used for tattooing.  And I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in that, as in, no one thinks about that.  Unless you work for a government laboratory, there’s no way you’ve ever considered the microbiological purity or the chemical composition or the general safety of the ink used for tattoos.

Well, given the Swiss inclination toward being neat and tidy (seriously, have you ever been to Switzerland? You could eat off the streets, it’s so clean), it’s not really that surprising that Switzerland is the first country that I have ever heard of pulling tattoo products for their lack of safety.

A recent study done by Swiss government laboratories on 152 different tattoo products has found 40% of the products to be in violation of Swiss public safety standards, and subsequently banned from use.

“…the lab tests also showed that 62 of the products contained banned substances, mostly either colouring or conservation agents, although 10 were found to contain cancerogenic scents or nitrosamines. Bern notes that there is a risk the products will cause cancer in the longer term or may provoke allergies.”

Switzerland issued safety standards for tattoo related products in January of 2008.

This is all very interesting and I am now tempted to wonder if anyone is testing tattoo products for their safety levels over in North America.  Surely they must be, but are they as strict as the Swiss?  Or do the Swiss just get crappy tattoo products?  Somehow I really doubt that.  Or…is this a method to indirectly control the number of tattooed citizens in a country that has always loved things to be neat and orderly?

Naw, I don’t think it’s any of those things.  In a time where tattoos are just as common and popular as buying a new T-shirt, beneath all the hullaballoo and hype, the Swiss are quietly progressing with the times and ensuring that health and safety aren’t ignored in the things that average Joes like you and I never even think about.

Bless ’em for it.

According to laser removal specialists Approximately 85% of their patients are women between the ages of 18 and 44. I’m not sure what that says about women and tattoos, but I do find it interesting, and a partial basis for today’s blog.

As the popularity of tattoos became vogue among celebrities, rock stars, pro wrestlers, and fashion models, (most of that last group I tend to believe were temps), the herd instinct kicked in and sent the wanna be’s rushing into the studios. A good thing for artists and it would seem an even better thing for the burgeoning business of tattoo removal.

It has also brought out a ton of magic creams and methods promising to remove a tattoo cheaply and painlessly for a fraction of the cost. All of them leading to disappointment, rip off, and in some cases more pain and scarring than a belt sander would have left. Anyone who will tell you differently is selling something, or selling something for somebody else.

Look, gang, I have no affiliation with anyone, or thing, in the tattoo removal trade. I don’t stand to gain a single thing when I say this. The safest, least scarring method of tattoo removal simply is quality-switched, or Q-switched, lasers. Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive, costing anywhere from five to 10 times the amount of the tattoo.

Human beings make mistakes, and even with the sacred art of tattooing having gained an unprecedented level of acceptance, some employers will not hire anyone with visible tattoos. Still, letting one mistake lead to another is just plain foolish. A tattoo is a commitment and should be viewed as such. Don’t get a tattoo just because you think it’s cool, or the newest way to be cool. Worse yet, don’t get a tattoo to impress someone else.

If you have visible tattoos that you think are holding you back, see a reputable laser surgeon. Even better, if you want to keep your tattoos, cover them up. There are a host of waterproof makeup’s that are used to hide scars which can be used to hide the tattoo from sight for around $30.00. Smart Cover is one of the best. It doesn’t smudge, clog pores, and is waterproof. What the interviewer can’t see won’t hurt you.

Think before you ink, and you’ll have no regrets. But, if like me you love your tattoos and want to keep them camouflage works for more than just the Army and hunting. 😉

When it comes to range of tattoo experience, Kian (pronounced like “Ian” with a K) has soaked up an entire planet’s worth.  Tattooing professionally since 1993, Forreal was first exposed to the tattoo artist lifestyle in Toronto, Canada, back in 1986.

Since that time he’s tattooed everywhere from his native Canada, to Spain, to the USA, to Denmark, to Holland, to…man oh man, let’s just say he’s tattooed at a lot of different places in a lot of different countries over the course of his 16-year career, okay?  As of 2008, he tattoos at Sydney, Australia’s Inner Vision Tattoo.

Style-wise, Forreal creates complete universes of Japanese style tattoo in the form of, but not limited to, sleeves and back pieces.  He’s also created an extensive portfolio of various script tattoos.  Forreal’s Japanese work in particular and his attitude toward it, carries with it a certain level of respect and understanding of the style – a quality that is extremely important for tattoos and tattoo artists of this stripe.  Says Forreal:

“Like a fine wine or single malt scotch that only gets better with age and never goes out of style, modern Japanese tattooing is the culmination of hundreds of years of tradition, art, mythology, mystery, and technique. It is the very pinnacle of what great tattooing should be and it is! It is by far the most complicated and involved of all the tattooing styles and even after decades of practice in this style one is still learning something new everyday.”

Amen to that, Kian.

Forreal has also recently announced that he will be doing a guest spot at Royal Tattoo in Helsingor, Denmark, from September 1st-5th, 2009.  According to Forreal’s website, those spots are quickly filling up and are very limited.  Unfortunately, that news comes from June 25th, so most likely Kian’s time is totally booked up by now.