You know, given that for at least the last decade there’s been lots of easy to find information on suitable jewelry and the appropriate placement of that jewelry, it always surprises — and offends — me that it’s still a daily event to see poorly placed and generally irresponsible body art (such as the terrible nostril and industrial I recently posted). For example, why do I still see shallow navels like this all the time?
The only thing that could make it worse is this jewelry, which my friend Anders actually removed from a customer’s body! It was bought at a flea market in Australia…
And don’t get me started on tattoos. Every day I see tattoos — from long-surviving studios no less — where my first thought is that the average ten year old kid could probably draw something better. I don’t know if I’m more shocked that the artists are wholly unaware of their shortcomings, or that the clients are. I mean, it’s not like you can’t get tattoo magazines at every store, showing you what a tattoo is “supposed” to looked like… Can people really not tell the difference?
Comments
58 responses to “No excuse for it”
wow… that “bigdogz” place should win an award for crap-ness! i guess they have no idea that an eyebrow piercing can be done with a CURVED barbell… and all the tattoos look like they have been done during an earthquake!
#44 HOLY FUCK!! ARE YOU SERIOUS??!! I HAD NO IDEA ARTIST THAT SHITTY EXISTED!! IVE SEEN JAILHOUSE ART WAY BETTER!
(Bigdogz)Ummm you would think if you’re going to put up pictures of your work they would one, be in focus, two, be atleast bigger then a thumbnail, but then again that has to be some of the worst work I have ever seen in my life…
(bigdogz) the tattoos look like the lines were drawn with a fine point pen and colored in with crayons…
you would think this person would see other belly piercings and think “why isn’t mine going through my belly button too”….
Or perhaps her navel ran away from the piercing. It was scared too.
Bad piercings and bad tattoos don’t surprise me at all. There are a lot of people in the world who are stupid or ignorant, or who don’t give a damn about proper jewelry or procedures. As long as they’re around, there will be piercers and tattoo “artists” to provide them services. ‘Twas ever thus.
Shannon: True but are you seriously stating that the people who do these risky procedures are highly skilled expert piercers that have reached some zen/jedi level of body piercing that they’re able to do things that go against say the past 10-15 years (even 20 years or more) of knowledge that the piercing professional(s) of obtained?
I’m not saying that these things CAN’T be healed, as we all know there’s certainly people out there who can heal almost anything. But when you start factoring in the law of averages and percentages of people who piercers could attempt this stuff on and fail…Can anyone really chalk it up to “experimenting” as the experiments were already done LONG LONG ago and proven not to work…So why attempt something others have failed before and can prove WHY they failed? The scientific merit of experimentation just goes completely out the window…It’d be like trying to prove that the world is flat, after its been proven that its a sphere.
Fact is we all know plenty of poorly qualified/trained “piercers” doing these kind of things for the cool factor, for the money factor, “because that’s what the client wanted” factor….and the reality is that they care nothing about this art-form they’re just in it so they can live the lifestyle and earn a wage doing so,etc.
Not saying ALL piercers who attempt this stuff is that way, but the majority are…Call it the joy of networking with more piercers daily then I interact/network with non-piercers. And I’m sure you can agree Shannon, some piercers views and ethics are quite skewed heck this entry wouldn’t exist if you didn’t acknowledge artists ethics,etc.
I’m not saying for piercers to not be risky, push the envelop or anything, quite the opposite really…But what they need to do is research and reflect on the past (I ain’t just talking about finding photos in Savage Magazine,etc either) and realize that if it failed 10 years ago, chances are the human body isn’t going to have drastically changed enough to make that failed attempt succeed in a current day and age.
Warren – I remember in the mid 90s, PFIQ and the APP claimed that hand webs were dangerous because you could “strike the small bones in the hand”. They also claimed that nape piercings were going to paralyze people.
Establishment consensus is really not particularly convincing.
I’ve seen a lot more failed navels, percentage-wise, than I have seen failed achilles piercings. The majority of navels and eyebrows eventually fail. Almost all surface piercings eventually fail. Etc.
That “navel” piercing looks absolutely horrible!!! It looks like it is rejecting, and too shallow. Wrong type of jewelry too. I’m proud to say that my inverse navel will be 30 years old in Nov. of 2008. I got it from Gauntlet in L.A. I have a friend whose jewelry oxidized like the second pic. She had a bad case of septicemia from it. Another comment about the so-called navel- don’t sunbathe with a new piercing.