Coelacanth Is Watching You…
The coelacanth is one ugly prehistoric fish. The cool thing about it is that it's post-historic, too! (Or at least, um, regular historic…)
From what I can tell, all of the collectors pictured below have three things in common: they like fish, they feel some connection to the concept of "survival", and they are nerdy enough to get a big tattoo of a living fossil.
This beauty adorns Mary McCarthy (no artist info available). Photo from The Love Lab, which seems to be a fish science website. How awesome is it that they have a "tattoos" section?
Arne Kuilman's piece (by Jan-Paul of Admiraal Tattoo in Amsterdam) is a nice balance of realistic and stylized. He's got some great shots in various stages of tattooage, as well as some cool source images in his flickr photostream. Lots of info about coelacanths in his captions, too. I didn't know, for instance, that the coelacanth's typical "headstand" is about 30 degrees.
Flickr member kittenhiccups says the real story behind her coelacanth (no artist info available) has to do with "evolution, beauty, horror, life, death, defying expectations, surviving
against all odds, my own phobias, and a bunch of symbolic stuff that
means more to me than I can say," but if you ask, the answer you're more likely to get
is, "I just think they're cool, I guess."
Hans Rueffert (contestant on the first season of The Next Food Network Star!) chronicles his tattoo experience on his blog. His coelacanth tells the story of his victorious battle with stomach cancer (extra nerd points because the numbers within the scales spell out "cancer" numerically). Tattoo by Deano, no shop or location info listed; based on original artwork by Richard Kirk.
I never pass up an opportunity to plug the geek-licious tattoos on Carl Zimmer's Sciece Tattoo Emporium, and this coelacanth tattoo (by Craig Cooley, currently tattooing at Stingray Body Art in Boston, MA) on Vicki Rosenswieg's abdomen is certainly plug-worthy. Here's an in-progress shot, as well.
Rusty Piton's "mysterious coelacanth", by Alex Higgens at the Tattoo Factory in Chicago, IL.
Flickr member pczoide gave me the idea for this post by adding his Japanese koi-inspired coelacanth to my Dinosaur Tattoos pool. More shots of this tattoo in progress and after later sessions in his "Finding Nemo" set. I can't wait to see this one completed; I think it will be my favorite one! Tattoo by Davi Duarte at Estúdio Muito Além de Tatuagem in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
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
So much for sanity…
Speaking of H.P. Lovecraft (weren’t we?), this torso piece by the incredible Jesse Smith (originally spotted on Rate My Ink) is astoundingly awesome:
.jpg "Necronomicon tattoo by Jesse Smith")
Necronomicon tattoo by Jesse Smith
So creepy how she smiles as her eyes bleed/melt, with Cthulhu looming in the background.
Although The Necronomicon is a fictional book created by Lovecraft, many authors since have referenced it in their work.
Lovecraft approved, believing such common allusions built up “a background of evil verisimilitude.” Many readers have believed it to be a real work, with booksellers and librarians receiving many requests for it; pranksters have listed it in rare book catalogues, and a student smuggled a card for it into the Yale University Library’s card catalog. (Wikipedia)
All I know is that this is one of the most impressive tattoos I’ve ever seen. More views here, here, and here.
This one’s for Dark Slope.
Trying On Tattoos
I’ve been trying to think about when I first started wanting tattoos. I knew about tattoos when I was little (Popeye, duh), but I don’t think I seriously considered what it would be like to have a tattoo until I knew someone who got one.
Ink Nerd rockin' fake tattoos at a Meat Sisters show in 1993. Scribbled by Ezra, photo by Maggie Robertson.
I’m not sure, but I think the first person who I knew who got a tattoo was a guy named Mike Fitzgerald. This was probably around 1990 or so (I would have been about 16). It was of a crescent man-in-the-moon face in a circle with squiggly black sun rays radiating from it (or did the circle and rays come later?). I remember talking to him about the pain, how the guy messed it up but was going to fix it later, how much it cost, etc. In retrospect, it sounds like he had a pretty typical first tattoo experience. I was fascinated by Mike’s tattoo, and really wanted one, too, but at the time I couldn’t imagine spending $50 or whatever on ANYTHING, let alone something that I was worried I would regret for the rest of my life.
Pretty soon I went to college and became thoroughly entrenched in the punk scene in St. Louis (and beyond), and it seemed like everyone was getting inked, whether it was at a “parlor”, at a party with a homemade “gun” made out of a Walkman motor, or scratched out in a dorm room with a needle dipped in ink from a Bic pen. Even in the middle of all of that, I still couldn’t decide on anything that would be worth committing to or spending money on. At least that’s what I told people; I think I was mostly just scared to do it.
Drawing fake tattoos, on the other hand, was much easier! They could be huge, scary, cool, and/or completely stupid, and even if you drew them with a Sharpie, they’d eventually be gone! You could have a new one every time you played a show!
I can think of half a dozen instances off the top of my head of my friends and I going out in public with crudely scrawled marker tattoos. Pictured here is me “singing” with my band at the time, The Meat Sisters, at a DIY punk show in Springfield, MO in some unused office space, in summer of 1993. The fake tattoo on my arm is a chunky circle-A anarchy symbol flanked by two skulls with mohawks, accompanied by the text “HARD CORE”. On my leg is the burning wheel logo of Krishnacore band Shelter, with the message “KRISHNA RULES”. Both were supposed to be ironic: the skulls, mohawks, anarchy symbols, etc., being total punk clichés, and “religious punk” being a bit of an oxymoron, at least as far as I was concerned.
I still think the “hard core” design, which I originally drew for the label of the B-side of the Meat Sisters 7″ EP “Undermining America’s Traditional Values” (Synergy Records), would make a kick-ass tattoo… But I’m still not hard core enough to get it.
Stegosaurus (Tattoo) Stampede!
I’m partial to Cretaceous beasties, myself, but the Jurassic classic Stegosaurus seems to be popular these days in my Dinosaur Tattoos group on Flickr! Additions in reverse chronological order:
MC Mikey Megatron's "Stegosaurus"
This is such a great start to MC Mikey Megatron‘s dinosaur “pantleg”. (“Stocking”? Either of those terms working for you?) I can’t wait to see the next installment! Tattoo by Evan Lovett at Bayside Ink Tattoo in Beachwood, NJ.
littlest foot's "little stego, pile of dinos"
Littlest foot shows off her cute stego tattoo by Ethan at Brass City Tattoo in Waterbury, CT. She also has a colorful (and also cute) half sleeve featuring a pair of “apatosauruseseseseses” done at Hartford County Tattoo in Bristol, CT!
Stego tattoo from Cossix's photostream
I like this little guy! Interesting how it is in the same position as MC Mikey Megatron’s; bonus ink nerd points to anyone who can find a link to the source artwork! I asked Cossix for info about tattooer or tattooee (this collector seems to be female… Tatooine, perhaps? Sorry, I couldn’t resist.), but got no response.
UPDATE: Briana has informed us that she is the Tatooine, and this stego was done by one of the artists at Marks of Art in San Jose, CA!
maurosourousrex's baby stego tattoo
We’ve been following the progress of maurosourousrex’s baby stego tattoo for a while now, and are looking forward to the “waterfall and possible tree still to come”. I love the the blue and green (and purple!) color scheme and the interesting markings; it reminds me of a tropical fish! No word yet on artist or locale.
Roulettedares00's stegosaurus skeleton tattoo
We first saw Roulettedares00‘s meticulously detailed stego skeleton on Carl Zimmer’s Science Tattoo Emporium, and we were very pleased when he saw fit to add it to the Dinosaur Tattoos group. In case you’re interested, it seems to be based on this illustration by pre-eminent paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh done in 1896.
This man, by the way, is a walking museum of nerd ink, representing a trifecta close to my own heart: Star Wars (Hoth, no less! The best part of all 6 movies!), dinosaurs, and comics. If he gets a Lego tattoo, I will found the Official Church of Roulettedares00 of Latter Day Ink Nerds, or, at the very least, swear eternal fealty to my true liege. A “Mutants in Asgard” tattoo would also qualify for this honor.
UPDATE: All of Roulettedares00’s tattoos were done by Myles Karr, currently working at Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn!
The Gnome's dinosaur tattoos
One of the very first members of the group was The Gnome, who gets bonus ink points for symmetry with these two excellent specimens. No artist info available.
Thanks to everybody who has submitted photos to the Dinosaur Tattoos group; keep ’em coming!
Tweet Much?
Those of you who actually visit InkNerd.com may have noticed a new feature: the twitter feed. If anyone who doesn’t bother to come to the site is interested in following me on twitter, you can find me here: http://twitter.com/inknerd (I promise to tweet about geek tattoos in addition to the standard personal mundanities).
- Ok, so it’s not exactly Tweetie Bird, but I gotta represent my hometown, right? (No artist information available.)
Mostly I’ve added this bit in an attempt to quickly put some new content on the site when I don’t have time to craft a real post (which is most of the time these days), but it’s also a learning experiment for me: I’m kinda trying to figure out what twitter is all about.
I know, I know, I’m way behind. When it first emerged, I thought “micro-blogging” was a collossal waste of time, but I have gotten used to following the brief snippets of my friends lives on Facebook via their status updates; it is entertaining, and makes me feel closer to those I follow.
And I do love the fact that I can text to twitter from my phone and the tweet will show up on this site, on twitter, in the feed reader of anyone who is following me, and on Facebook (well, it would, if Ink Nerd was on FB). Now, if I could combine all my accounts into one, that would be great!
If any of you are tweeting on a regular basis, holla back! I’m looking for friends to follow…
One More D20 Tattoo
Tattoo by Tim Victim
I can’t believe I forgot this one when I did my post about D&D dice tattoos. I discovered Tim Victim while looking for dinosaur tattoos, and I’m really impressed with his work. Also, his shop, Deep Six Laboratory, is in Philadelphia, which I have an irrational affinity for (and not just because of the show; maybe it’s the nice fossil lady at the museum?).
The following tattoo by Tim and Jeff Paetzold (of Topnotch Tattoos in Elgin, IL) is really awesome. Once I finish my dinosaurs-and-flowers sleeve (ha!), I’m thinking I would like to have my other arm tattooed with a dragon of some sort (maybe a twisty Midgard Serpent?), and I think the style of this collaboration would be perfect for such a piece (especially the alligator part).
Alligator and Shark Tattoo from BMENews
Now I just need to win the lottery and get those guys in the same room again…
Holy Tattoo Blogs, Batman!
I saw this delicious blog devoted to pin-up girl tattoos over on Needled this morning. Yowza! What Marisa failed to mention is that Raised by Puffins also maintains a blog about owl tattoos and one about, you guessed it, Batman tattoos!
I’ve been contemplating a Batman tattoo post for a while now, but there are so many out there that I didn’t know where to start (especially due to all the hype re: The Dark Knight)! Thanks RbP, for doing the hard work for me!
Here are a couple of highlights:
Tattoo by Matt Kolling (from Batman tattoos).
Tattoo by Bez on Batman Tattoos
Raised by Puffins, you should really check out the work of Electric Pick! Not only does he have a killer signature style of pin-up girl, he’s recently posted an update of his awesome Batman “pantleg” (is the term catching on yet?).
Batman pantleg by Electric Pick
I think RbP should combine two of his tattoo passions and do a blog about Harley Quinn tattoos! I’d subscribe!
Ink Nerds I Have Known: Ezra
High Roller by Heather O'Shaughnessey
My good pal Ezra’s awesomely nerdy flaming 8- and 12-sided dice (showing “7” and “11,” no less) were inked by Heather O’Shaughnessey at Trader Bob’s Tattoo Shop in St. Louis, MO (she’s also responsible for my Red Squares).
This tattoo inspired me to do a post with as many images of D&D dice as I could find, but it turns out I’m not the first in the blogosphere to have that idea. Here are a couple of really great collections, with surprisingly little overlap:
- “Aaawwwww YEAH! D20 Tattoos!” by Reis O’Brien on Geek Orthodox.
- “Roll a d20 for awesome tattoos” by Alice on Fun Vampires (nice favicon!).
So flaming D&D dice are not as uncommon as I would have thought. The tattoos with slogans (a la “High Roller”) are the best, however, including “Roll 4 Damage, Bitch,” “That’s How I Roll,” and “Leave No Die Behind.” (Evidently there’s a lot of love for 12-siders out in the tattooed gamer community… Who knew?)
Here are a couple more that Reis and Alice (both of whom sport D20 tattoos) somehow missed:
The first, found in BMEzine’s “Dice” keyword gallery, gets bonus tattoo points for working on two levels: nerdy gamer tattoo and cosmic art piece, but loses nerd points for disguising a nerdy gamer tattoo as a cosmic art piece. Cere‘s tattoo was done by John Clue at Super 88 Tattoo in Massapequa, NY.
The second (below), found in Devil Dinosaur’s Geek Tattoos flickr group, gets bonus nerd points for including the non-standard 30-sided die; double-TRIPLE bonus nerd points for including three 6-sided dice (for rolling ability scores the old-fashioned way) and two 10-siders (percentile dice, for generating numbers from 1 to 100)! No information about artist or collector, except that the latter attended Ohayocon ’08.
Extra-mondo nerd points to anyone who spots what’s wrong with this picture….
Frazetta!
The Ink Nerd and the Cat Girl (but which is which?)
My friend Matthew and I just made a special trip out to the Frank Frazetta Museum in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. It was awesome. After a quick (65-mile) drive from Brooklyn, we arrived on the beautiful 75-acre Frazetta estate, paid our admission, and wandered the one large room, ogling and marveling at the amazing paintings on the walls. I’d seen most of them in print many times, but nothing compares to seeing them in person, actual size. The brush strokes and the physical dimension and texture of the paint on the canvas are lost in most reproductions; did I mention it was awesome?
Frank wasn’t around at the time, but his wife Ellie chatted us up for quite sometime, and regaled us with stories of Frank, his family, his art, and his business:
- Frank taught himself to paint with his left hand after a stroke a couple of years ago (an impressive example is on display at the museum).
- At one point, he wasn’t happy with one of his paintings used for a pulp novel, and his publisher arranged to credit it to his rival, Boris Vallejo, instead.
- He used to regularly paint over his classic paintings, because he was never satisfied with the published versions—not paint them again, mind you, but paint ON TOP OF the original work!
- The US Army asked Frank if they could use his “Death Dealer” character in the insignia of a division, but they thought the name wouldn’t go over very well, so they referred to him as “The Phantom Warrior.”
Frazetta's Death Dealer, by Stacy Sharp
Although Frazetta is perhaps best known for his definitive vision of Conan the Barbarian, Death Dealer seems to be the character of Frazetta’s most often translated into skin art. Here’s a tattoo version of the painting, “Death Dealer II“, done by Stacy Sharp at Sharp Tattoo in Ronkonkoma, New York.
If you’re not familiar with Frazetta’s masterful, iconic art and illustrations, you’re missing out. Check out the Unofficial Frank Frazetta Gallery for relatively large images of many of Frazetta’s most famous works, including “Cat Girl,” above. Then, visit the Official Frazetta Art Gallery to buy posters of your favorites!
And go visit the museum, already!
“Do you guys mind if I steal the tattoo design…?”
David recently posted a comment asking if he could steal the design of my Triceratops tattoo, designed by Mike Bellamy of Red Rocket Tattoo. My response:
Hi, David,
I’m glad you like my custom Triceratops tattoo; I’m very fond of it, as well. Thanks for asking if Mike Bellamy and I would mind if you copy it, but the answer is: PLEASE DON’T STEAL THIS TATTOO DESIGN.
I spent many hours deliberating over the elements of this tattoo, and researching photos and other images of dinosaur fossils, flowers, other tattoos, etc. Mike built upon my ideas and research to create this awesome, original, unique tattoo design. Obviously, this isn’t a piece of flash that i picked off the wall at the tattoo shop.
I imagine that your tattoo artist would also much rather create his or her own custom design than copy someone else’s hard work. The tattoo community is more interconnected than you might think, and word gets around if an artist is stealing others’ custom artwork.
When I was planning this tattoo, one of the most helpful resources I found was a multi-part essay, “Get the Perfect Tattoo” from Off The Map Tattoo (also available in PDF format). I highly recommend reading all the sections. An excerpt from the “The Perfect Tattoo Design” section:
Many people first learning about tattoos try to find other tattoos upon which to base their own design or idea. They may spend hours looking through tattoos hoping to find the perfect design when they should be looking at the quality of the artist’s work rather than the designs themselves. Copying other people’s tattoos is disrespectful to the wearer of the tattoo, and to the artist who drew it, provided it was a custom, one-of-a-kind piece to begin with. … To get the best tattoo, it’s worth finding a lot of reference material, and bringing the images and your ideas to the tattoo artist who will be doing the tattoo, for them to look at and then incorporate into their own style.
Marisa DiMattia (former copyright lawyer and he voice of Needled.com) sums it up nicely in an article about the legal issues of copying tattoos entitled, “A Stolen Tattoo Could Get You Sued“:
To avoid law suits and even a laser, get your own original tattoo. The most important reason to do so is not legal, it’s ethical. Many custom tattoos tell people’s personal stories and mark unique events and experiences. Why have another person’s life written on your skin? Get a work of art that is all about you and leave out the lawyers.
Having said that, I think it would be GREAT if you got a tattoo of a dinosaur skull with flowers and vines and stuff, even a Triceratops! As I’ve pointed out on the blog, mine is certainly not the only one out there. Don’t you want yours to be original and unique, too? Work with your artist to come up with something even better than mine, and we’ll compare dinosaur tattoos. I’d even be happy to help come up with ideas. When you get your own one-of-a-kind piece done, send me a photo, and I’ll post it on the blog (and to the Flickr group)!
Thanks in advance for doing the right thing,
Josh
Long time, no post…
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while; I’ve been using my allotted blogging time to work on an Ink Nerd redesign. It’s actually in such an early stage that I shouldn’t even mention it yet, but what the the hell! Maybe I’ll post a couple of mockups and see what you guys think before I actually build out the CSS…
In the meantime, here’s flickr member djmark1972, a true ink nerd:
I first saw Mark’s tattooed digits on knuckletattoos.com, and decided to stalk him on flickr. Not only is he an ink nerd, he’s a punk rock coffee nerd! Truly a man after my own heart… Sorry, no information (yet) about the tattoo artist. Tattoo by JJ at Iron Cross Tattoo in Santa Barbara, CA.
Speaking of knuckletattoos.com, have you guys ever played around with their knuckle tattoo gun? It’s fun:
How do I not find out about these things sooner?
Flickr member g.rohs pointed out the similarities between my new(ish) tattoo and the cover of seminal drone-doom band Earth‘s new(ish) album, The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, featuring awesome artwork by Arik Roper.
Browsing Arik’s work led me to a movie poster for Tony Stone’s film, Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America:
OMG! Must… watch! As YouTube member jasonkollias comments,
This trailer makes me want to stand on top of a mountain and hurl thunderbolts at everything in sight. I want to rip the eyes from my own head and fight a bear. I want to burn a village while weeping and tear a giant wooden cross apart with my bare hands. I will name my son “severed ways” and he will kill me while I sleep.
Blogroll!
The most fun tattoo blog I’ve discovered lately is Electric Plog, from illustrator / comic book artist / tattoo artist / skateboard designer / photographer Electric Pick of Conspiracy Inc. Tattoo in Copenhagen, Denmark. I think I need to make a tattoo pilgrimage to northern Europe; they’ve got some great stuff goin’ on over there…
I first learned about Electric Pick from 96khz’s awesome Batman tattoo in Devil Dinosaur’s Geek Tattoos flickr group! Thanks 96khz! Thanks Devil Dinosaur!
Not only are ‘Pick’s original custom pieces beautiful to behold, he’s a prolific blogger and a funny guy! And he ends every sentence with some number of exclamation points!!!
It seems that most of his artwork involves sexy pin-ups in a variety of themes and settings, futuristic cityscapes, robots (the good kind and the evil kind), and international espionage (for some reason, the spies are always in cute little animal costume/disguises). He also has a strange obsession with trams!
I’m also kinda hooked on the blog of Electric Pick’s partner in crime at Conspiracy Inc., Uncle Allan, and that of Allan’s wife, Princess Inferno. I know it’s weirdly voyeuristic to follow the life and times of a group of Danish friends, but it’s fun! Like reality TV, but better, because there are no commercials and everyone involved isn’t awful. Besides, you have to be a little bit of an exhibitionist to blog about yourself in the first place, right?
Other recent (not-necessarily tattoo-related) blog subscriptions include:
- the soon after now: An art-nerd blog by my former French teacher, EastVillKit, who also happens to be a music nerd and a comix nerd. He is both insightful and unpretentious in his descriptions of art and life; a rare combination in my experience.
- Hooper’s Electric: Check out Thomas Hooper’s beautiful work; I especially like his big circular patterned blackwork pieces, of perfect radial symmetry and mesmerizing intricacy. Bonus points for working right here in Brooklyn (at least some of the time)! Double bonus points cuz I saw a guy with an impressive tattoo on the subway platform, and then recognized the piece (and the guy) on Hooper’s blog!
- Measure for Measure: Roseanne Cash, Suzanne Vega, Andrew Bird, and Darrell Brown describe their songwriting (and recording!) process, along with anecdotes from their careers, in this excellent New York Times blog.
What are you reading lately?
What’s New?
Let’s see…
Ink Nerd had a huge spike in unique visits last weekend, coinciding with opening weekend of The Incredible Hulk. Lots of people have Hulk tattoos on their minds, I guess… I found this one by Christiano at In the Shadows Tattoo (in Porto Alegre, Brasil) on flickr (there’s also another one in Devil Dinosaur’s Geek Tattoos group)! I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I really want to, despite the lackluster reviews. It’s such a great character; why is it so hard to make a good movie? Oh, well, maybe Ink Nerd will get another spike when it comes out on DVD!- I started a new job; it’s more of a corporate environment (not very punk rock, I’ve decided), so I haven’t felt comfortable baring my ink at work (also not punk rock). I haven’t seen ANY exposed tattoos on other employees, so I’m going to play it cool for now. Occasionally, my squares poke out from a rolled-up cuff, but I don’t think anyone has noticed. If they have, they probably think it’s a band-aid or something (I get that a lot… don’t ask me).
- I saw an excellent dinosaur tattoo on a fellow straphanger this morning, but he was chatting up a young lady the whole time, so I didn’t want to butt in and ask him to be Random Encounters Part Deux. It was a small, colorful (green with purple markings, or vice versa) theropod, maybe an Ornithomimus, or perhaps a Dromiceiomimus. Very cool, from what I saw, stretching from mid-bicep down past the elbow. I would have liked to get a photo (or at least a better view), but alas, it was not to be. I’ll just have to keep my eyes open around the neighborhood so I can stalk him. I love it when I see dinosaur tattoos out in the world (especially of interesting species); they’re surprisingly few and far between on the web!
- I’ve been trying to create a flattened out picture of my Triceratops tattoo using David Allen‘s Photoshop CS3 auto-align/blend trick, but I can’t get it to work right. I think I need to get someone else to take photos from different angles that don’t suck. If I ever figure it out, I’ll post the result here.
Young American Bodies get tattooed
WARNING: This video contains graphic scenes of *almost* attractive people having sex. Don’t watch it at work, or if your kids (or parents) are around, or if you have something better to do.
Today (yesterday?), in Young American Bodies Episode 30 (on IFC.com), Natalie (played by Nikita Word) gets a new tattoo! We’ve seen that she already has several, but it’s kinda neat (or gimmicky, see below) that they incorporated getting her latest piece into the show. Afterwards, we see her and Ben (played by creator/director Joe Swanberg) drawing silly tattoos on each other with markers as part of their foreplay. I hope some time has elapsed between the two scenes, because coloring in a freshly inked tattoo (with Sharpies, no less!) seems like a really bad idea.
The large floral rose tattoo was done by Brian Clutter of Insight Studios Metamorph Tattoo Studios in Chicago, who gets a few seconds of camera time as he works on Natalie/Nikita’s upper arm.
Do you guys watch this show? I can’t figure out if it’s genius or if it’s totally boring (or both). (more…)
New additions to the “Dinosaur Tattoos” flickr group!
So, as I mentioned earlier, I started a flickr group and began to invite people to join. While there hasn’t been a massive flood of unsolicited submissions, the group is slowly but surely becoming respectable. Here are a couple of highlights:
Some of you may recognize this tattoo (and this person!) from an earlier post (or from the source), and I gotta say, I am just tickled to have a photo of Cerah and her (now completed, I think) triceratops tattoo in my flickr group! There’s another shot in CurtisJoeWalker’s photostream, and several more in the bmeink galleries. Thanks for joining, CurtisJoeWalker!
(Tattoo by Mark Lankin at Funhouse Tattoo in Vancouver, BC.)
rekanize gets bonus ink-nerd points for ingenuity—he didn’t have a camera on hand, so he just scanned his dino ink! Double-TRIPLE ink-nerd bonus points because it’s not only a cool dinosaur tattoo, it’s a reference to an excellent webcomic called, appropriately, Dinosaur Comics. I’m totally hooked on qwantz.com; I wish its creator, Ryan North, would publish a Garfield-style book of these comics. It would be especially bizarre because the illustrations would be exactly the same on every page (well, almost)!!! More about qwantz.com here. More webcomic tattoos here (If anyone wants to buy me a present, I really want this t-shirt , size L). Thanks, rekanize! (Tattoo by CW, owner of Royal Street Tattoo in Mobile, AL.)
There are lots more really great dinosaur tattoos in the group, and hopefully there will be even more soon!
Creature from the Black Lagoon Tattoos!
Just in case you missed the link that Mia sent earlier, this totally sweet backpiece (as seen on checkoutmyink.com) was done by Alfie Lamberger at Mark of the Sparks Tattoos in Frederick, Maryland. Thanks, Mia!
This inspired me to seek out some other CFTBL tattoos on the web; I found quite a few, but here are some of my favorites:
This great shot (bonus points for complementary-colored t-shirt) from BMEzine’s Sci-Fi Gallery was inked by David Antonio at Good Clean Fun Tattoo Studio in Georgia. I love the circular composition, creepy lighting, and menacing claw.
The colors, placement, and technique of this lower half-sleeve are really excellent . Bonus points for the brushstroke-lookin’ daubs of color around the edges. Tattoo by Bez at Triple Six Studios in Sunderland, UK. Photo from TattooNOW.com.
The following Monster Mash sleeve (in progress in this photo) is from welovethedark‘s flickr photostream (self-described “corporate goths”). The process from source artwork (by awesome illustrator David Hartman) to finished piece (by Charles Cain at Mark of Cain Tattoo near Boone, North Carolina) is well-documented. Excellent artwork, Excellent tattoo, excellent photos and play-by-play description. Kudos to all!
BONUS VIDEO! This song by Dave Edmunds gets stuck in my head all the time!
Random Encounters
Me: Excuse me; is that a tattoo of a dinosaur?
Girl in bar: [lifts her sleeve] Yeah.
Me [rolling up my sleeve]: That’s really great; I just got a triceratops tattoo.
Girl: That’s cool; where did you get yours done?
Me: Red Rocket Tattoo, on 36th street in Midtown.
Girl: 36th street!?! [gives me a disapproving look, as if to say, “Silly rabbit, you don’t get tattooed in Midtown!”]
Me: [hemming and hawing somewhat]: Well, it’s close to my work…
Best of Both Worlds
Mario Jedi Tattoo, originally uploaded by Official Star Wars Blog.
You may have noticed this little gem in the Geek Tattoos group on flickr; it was also posted about on the official Star Wars blog.
Evidently the wife of former Star Wars fan club president Dustin Roberts got official Star Wars artist Randy Martinez to design it, and it was inked by Chu at Mothers Tattoo in Covington, KY.
Life imitating art?
I saw these pretty purple flowers outside of Slope Music in Brooklyn and they reminded me of something…
Sorry about the quality of the photos; the flowers were taken with my crappy camera phone, and the blurry tattoo is a self portrait.
Fun with flickr
Here’s what I’ve been playing with:
- I tried the “blog this” function in flickr with underwhelming results. I can’t figure out a way to add WordPress tags using this tool to post to this blog directly from flickr.
- I started a “Dinosaur Tattoos” group and invited some people to join (8 new members — whoo-hoo!). You may have to be logged into flickr to see all the photos.
- I submitted a photo of my Triceratops tattoo to many other dinosaur- and tattoo-related photo groups, and started a discussion topic in each, plugging my new group, of course.
- I added a thumbnail feed from Devil Dinosaur‘s “Geek Tattoos” group (at right; maybe I should be bringing in a feed from the group that I own, but DD’s covers more bases).
What do you think, am I doing it wrong? Any suggestions?
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.
Ink Nerd 
Chatter