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.

Scarification Progression

This is going to go down as one of my top-picks I think when people ask me about my favorite scarification work of all 2012. One of the biggest signs that this really worked out right is that it looks dramatically better healed than it did fresh — although that’s not uncommon with scars over blackwork. But for example, the central logo in the fresh photo is a sort of Obama logo or something, but healed it’s obvious that it’s a beautifully executed captive bead ring (since it’s on a piercer). The small nuances in the shapes of the diamonds seem perfectly executed, and the tiny detailed horizontal linework around the ring healed without a single apparent flaw.

This superb scarification was performed by a man you know well, Brian Decker of Pure Body Arts (purebodyarts.com), and is on Jose Tallon of Adornment Piercing in Palm Springs, California, with the original blackwork tattoo being done by James Haun (of Private Tattoo, the other half of Jose’s shop). Again, great work, and thanks to Jose for putting together this set of progression photos.

jose-vs-brian

Posted with apologies to Rob for not leaving this for him to post for his “Friday Followup”, but it’s so superb I couldn’t stop myself from starting the day with it.

Comments

2 responses to “Scarification Progression”

  1. rissa Avatar
    rissa

    I’ve asked this before but never gotten an answer. When healing a piece like this, how does one keep the little ‘islands’ of skin from warping?

  2. rissa Avatar
    rissa

    I’ve asked this before but never gotten an answer. When healing a piece like this, how does one keep the little ‘islands’ of skin from warping?

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