Um, Wow.
I look at a lot of photos of tattoos online, and have become somewhat jaded, but every once in a while I see something that gives me chills…
From ModBlog’s coverage of Tattoo Hollywood (No artist attribution).
Sci-Fi Surrealism
Dali-inspired AT-AT by Paul at Old School Tattoo in Bellingham, Washington.
Really, this excellent piece by Paul at Old School Tattoo in Bellingham, Washington had me at “AT-AT,” but this collector’s idea to make it unique by incorporating elements of Salvador Dali’s recurring spindly-legged elephants is pretty awesome.
The Elephants, by Salvador Dali, c. 1948
Quoth Dali, “I am painting pictures which make me die for joy, I am creating with an absolute naturalness, without the slightest aesthetic concern, I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly.”
If you say so…
via ModBlog
Hulk Tattoo Smash!
David Spencer’s awesome Hulk tattoo (from The Incredible Hulk #224) was done by Alfie Lamberger at Marks of the Spark Tattoos, in Frederick, Maryland. More views and in-progress shots can be seen in David’s “tattoos” flickr set.
This beautiful Hulk transformation tattoo was done by Monte Agee at Artistic Skin Designs in Indianapolis. More info about Monte is available on his MySpace profile; more of his amazing portfolio on his website.
This bitchin’ Hulk vs. Wolverine tattoo (from The Incredible Hulk #181) is by Shawn Thompson at Strange City in Edmonton, Alberta. This photo from Shawn’s gallery on the Strange city site; you may have seen an earlier version of this on Horrible Tattoos or Modblog.
It’s contagious!
Triceratops and Columbines, originally uploaded by ragz1138.
This pretty great tattoo with an increasingly familiar theme was posted recently on flickr. I did a double-take when I first saw it!
I wonder if this has anything to do with all the hits I’ve been getting from people searching for “triceratops tattoo”…
(FYI, I’m trying out the “Blog this” feature on flickr; we’ll see how it turns out–I may have to go back and edit this post in WordPress anyway.)
Update: My WordPress theme overrides all the CSS styles in the flickr blog template, and the default flickr size is about 25 pixels too wide for my theme’s content column. I’ll keep futzing with the flickr template; if I can get it to work, it’ll be a real time-saver. I guess I could also look into a different WordPress theme…
Ink Buddies
Ashton is working on a book called Tattoos for Two about tattoos with a shared meaning for two or more people. In her (his?) flickr group, there are lots of great photos of photos commemorating love, friendship, family, and departed loved ones. Thanks to Carl Zimmer for the heads-up.
These cute Brontosaurus buddies from eggandtoast‘s flickr photostream aren’t part of Ashton’s project (yet), but they should be!
I was well into reading some of the stories Ashton has collected before I remembered that my first tattoo is shared by 3 of my closest friends (one of these days I’ll post pictures and the whole story). In addition to the “shared experience” thing, it seems like “buddy tattoos” are a common way people get up the nerve to get a tattoo in the first place.
Shannon has posted lots of buddy tattoos on BMEzine’s ModBlog, as well (WARNING: some of these images may not be suitable for work!).
Ink Nerd 
Chatter