A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

Honour and Pride

This is what happens when you let Brian Decker take a scalpel to skin with heavy blackwork.

Here’s what Brian has to say about the pieces.

To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

Comments

32 responses to “Honour and Pride”

  1. Brian Decker Avatar
    Brian Decker

    To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  2. Brian Decker Avatar
    Brian Decker

    To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  3. Brian Decker Avatar
    Brian Decker

    To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  4. Brian Decker Avatar
    Brian Decker

    To clarify, these pieces were a bit of an experiment with scarification over tattooing in two sessions. The “MY” on both sides was lined and filled with the ESU. The “PRIDE” and “HONOR” were lined with a scalpel and filled with a hyfrecator. You can see the hyfrecator work will need a touch-up session, and yielded no raised effect. The ESU removed the tattoo fully in one shot and keloided upward.

  5. HJP Avatar
    HJP

    Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  6. HJP Avatar
    HJP

    Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  7. HJP Avatar
    HJP

    Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  8. HJP Avatar
    HJP

    Interesting work. Also glad to have a detailed explanation for the slight differences in results. I was scalpeling some of my blackwork out and I don’t think I got deep enough, it’s been healed for 6 months now and still has a slight bruise look to it from the some of the black that didn’t get completely pulled out.

  9. Tex Avatar
    Tex

    To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  10. Tex Avatar
    Tex

    To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  11. Tex Avatar
    Tex

    To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  12. Tex Avatar
    Tex

    To clarify. “So gay”.
    Hey hipsters. A good display of pride and honor is through actions. Not words.

    Like anything in life. Your actions will prove it.
    Ironic or pithy sayings printed on T-shirts do not “prove” anything.
    Nor does scrawling text or other images on your skin to “represent” or “symbolize” an idea or thought prove anything. Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame.

    It is a free country. If you like it. Be happy with it.

  13. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  14. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  15. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  16. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    Truth, I was thinking “Pride is for queers” *and I suppose other minorities and I’d meant it with a lot of sincerity. I’m also Canadian so I was like “NUHHHH SPELLED HONOUR WRONG..oh wait” I’ve seen worse. If I am understanding correctly, the whole area was black, now its got negative space letters through skin removal? It looks pretty flat I guess. Probably some trial and error but this is probably a good place to start, yeah.

  17. Rob Avatar

    @Rainbowdash: Note the headline.

  18. Rob Avatar

    @Rainbowdash: Note the headline.

  19. Rob Avatar

    @Rainbowdash: Note the headline.

  20. Rob Avatar

    @Rainbowdash: Note the headline.

  21. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    I did see that! I just happened to read the tattoo first.

  22. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    I did see that! I just happened to read the tattoo first.

  23. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    I did see that! I just happened to read the tattoo first.

  24. rainbowdash Avatar
    rainbowdash

    I did see that! I just happened to read the tattoo first.

  25. Jon P Avatar
    Jon P

    Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  26. Jon P Avatar
    Jon P

    Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  27. Jon P Avatar
    Jon P

    Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  28. Jon P Avatar
    Jon P

    Re: #3 – Tattoos are fashion statements. Sometimes. Sometimes, they’re more than that. I bet if you went back thousands of years, you would’ve found tattooing done for adornment as much as for religious or political reasons. Here in NZ, Maori undertook ta moko, whether kanohi, kauae, or tinana, for aesthetic reasons. But the deeper, and more important, reasoning behind ta moko is a display of whakapapa.

    A statement such as “Tattoos are fashion statements. Nothing more nothing less. And fashion is fucking lame” is ignorant. Unnecessarily reductionist, it falsely claims a homogeneity of significance in a phenomenon which is far too culturally widespread to have any SINGLE meaning.

    Nice way to look wanky, Tex.

  29. Kayla Avatar
    Kayla

    @#3 — I smell a troll at large. DON’T FEED THE TROLLS, Y’ALL. 😀

  30. Kayla Avatar
    Kayla

    @#3 — I smell a troll at large. DON’T FEED THE TROLLS, Y’ALL. 😀

  31. Kayla Avatar
    Kayla

    @#3 — I smell a troll at large. DON’T FEED THE TROLLS, Y’ALL. 😀

  32. Kayla Avatar
    Kayla

    @#3 — I smell a troll at large. DON’T FEED THE TROLLS, Y’ALL. 😀

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