Marc (Little Swastika, little-swastika.com) recently posted this old tattoo he did in Blackie’s Heavy Blackwork group, and emphasized that it was one of his older pieces, during a period where he used much heavier swaths of solid black than he does nowadays. Even though his style has evolved a great deal since then, I wanted to publicly acknowledge it because it’s a beautiful piece of graphic design. The interplay between the heavy “maze” on the left have versus the dance of spirals on the right with a background that’s been tattooed to mimic the splotchy image of block printing, and the two halves separated with a strong scribbled red boundary line, is incredible. For a big bold piece that it is in some ways “simple”, it’s also got some great little nuances — for example, look at the very bottom right how the fine stamp pattern goes over the heavy black bar as negative space.
And in relation to some of the volatile discussion lately about the way tattoos heal, I also love that Marc almost exclusively posts healed tattoos (not that he has much choice on account of the sheer scale). These tattoos will look good forever in my opinion, not just because Marc is technically proficient, but by the very nature of their design being resilient to the natural effects of aging.
Personally I prefer the beauty of a modified person, but in no way do I think that’s what’s right for everyone. Beyond a few basic rules of aesthetics (and even they are debatable), this is a matter that is very much in the eye of the beholder. But one of the objective things I love about modified beauty is that it is self-actualized. It seizes control away from the biological lottery and the luck of who your ancestors are, and makes the transformative statement, “I will be whoever I choose to be”. That alone I find incredibly attractive… the idea that the beauty can arise from an act of will, a conscious dominance over fate.
On the left is Mary Jose Cristerna, and on the right is Martyna Wojciechowska. I must add that Martyna is plenty modified herself, although it’s not obvious in this particular photo, so everything I said above is true of her as well, if perhaps to a different degree.
Pauly Unstoppable just posted a new picture of his eyeball tattoo. Along with me, he’s one of a tiny handful of people with a partial eyeball tattoo. On the frightening day when Pauly, Josh, and myself sat with Howie debating who would be the first person in almost a hundred years to offer. Pauly, who already had extensive work by Howie, stepped up to be sacrificed to the mod gods first. This also meant that his eye was done with a traditional tattoo needle, rather than injection. Not long after doing it, we could see that most of the ink was coming right back out of the pinprick holes, and Pauly wasn’t going to be walking away with much of an eyeball tattoo that day. First to go under the needle definitely, but he would have to wait for a later encounter to add some more ink via the now-verified injection method. Unlike mine, which looks like a strange diseased lump, Pauly ended up with something that’s more like a flower or a purple cloud of troll fart gas depending on your point of view. Deceptively beautiful either way, and I think it is about five years old in this photo.
Click for an uncropped version.
I wanted to add some trivia as well while I’m talking about Pauly. A while back one of Pauly Unstoppable’s fans had some well-meaning fun in Photoshop attempting to edit off his body modifications. There’s something a little strange about how it turned out, although it is a passable amateur shop-job. But there’s something about it that doesn’t feel right.
It’s not quite “cover-up makeup” or anything but Pauly just posted a picture of himself with a facial mudbath (deep cleansing blue corn mask to be specific) or in preparation for his job as a mime or something. I’m sharing it here for those who are curious as to the impact that the facial tattoos and piercings have on the aesthetic of his face. Unlike with the Photoshop job, it’s easier to hide his tattoos than his cheek scars!
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.
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.
I realized today that lately I’ve neglected to feature J.C. Potts’s “The Modified World” when it airs on Friday nights. I have so much respect for what J.C. is doing with his videos, and think they’re an incredibly valuable contribution to body modification culture. As I’ve said before, if it wasn’t for one important fact I’d do everything in my power to have Rachel offer him a job at BME and have ModBlog host his videos rather than just linking to them. But that big important fact is that one of the things that makes J.C. so valuable is that he is a true independent, and is beholden to no one other than himself. He’s not afraid to say what he feels needs to be said. I can’t say I agree with every word he’s spoken — although I do more often than not — but I can say emphatically that he’s an intelligent person whose opinions and knowledge I always take the time consider. He’s broadening horizons and spreading the gospel of the modified world for the betterment of this community, and I hope he continues finding the energy to produce “The Modified World” for a long time to come.
Anyway, his most recent show is a continuation in his excellent body jewelry series, this week focusing on Glass Body Jewelry Basics — a follow-up to his earlier introduction to wood body jewelry — seven minutes of stuff every piercing lover needs to know (about four or five minutes of actual “meat” — as he admits, there’s not all that much to say about glass). As a side comment, beautiful production and editing on this show as always — even though it’s only seven minutes of video, serious time and effort went into creating it. This is a true “television show”, not some vlog with a kid rambling into his webcam.
As I write this, Rachel is still moving BMEshop to its new location, but she carries some beautiful glass jewelry made by our old friend Jason from Gorilla Glass.
The glass video was admittedly brief, so hopefully you’re hungering for more. The previous week saw a quick interview with Jared Silverman, a St. Louis-based professional piercer. Personally I like the long videos and you may recall my interviews on BMEradio were often well over an hour, but five minutes is admittedly much easier to fit into your day. This interview I think will be of great interest especially to people thinking about a career in piercing. I also always enjoy interviews from different areas because it gives me a peek into the way this culture that’s so dear to my heart expresses itself in different geographies.
That’s actually part two from an earlier video from the same day that I won’t embed here but you can follow a link to it. It shows you what J.C. got himself up to in St. Louis both as a tourist, and while doing a guest spot at TRX.
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