Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.
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We showed off Babylovedoll yesterday in all her orange glory, and today it’s a pleasure to start the day with this piece, described only as “orange,” by Terry Ribera, who’s been splitting his time between Avalon Tattoo II in San Diego, California, and Daredevil Tattoo in New York City. It’s pretty easy for bio-mech stuff to end up looking samey, but Ribera’s work is so damn solid it’s pretty hard not to appreciate. What can I say? I’m a sucker for citrus-powered limbs.
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Well, this isn’t good. Last week, we mentioned the predicament in which Moonshin Tattoo and Peel Region find themselves—namely that, after it was discovered Moonshin had neglected its book-keeping for its sterilization practices for four years and that the local government had made no efforts to inspect the premises, both are now the subjects of a $20 million lawsuit by people who had been customers at the shop during the aforementioned period.
CityNews is now reporting, as seen above, that a man who received a tattoo from Moonshin in that time-frame has been diagnosed with hepatitis B.
“A close friend of mine went there before and said they were professional,” revealed the father and husband.
“You should feel comfortable and [be able to] get artwork done without fearing anything happening to you.”
A grain of salt is necessary here: The man has asked to remain anonymous, and his claim alone doesn’t prove anything. But, he also mentions he’d had blood-work done prior to getting the tattoo that recorded him as having a clean bill of health. If this is in fact true, and there’s nothing in his personal life to suggest he was exposed to the disease anywhere but Moonshin, this is a case that could have far-reaching and potentially devastating effects on future legislation.
Once again, there is no excuse at this point for irresponsible record keeping (or worse, sloppy practices not even worthy of record keeping). If you’re in the body modification industry and want to be taken seriously and treated like a professional by the public at large, then the onus is on you. It’s no secret what’s at stake; the fact that your carelessness can wreak havoc on an entire industry should be common knowledge. This isn’t to say there aren’t client-side responsibilities as well, like getting frequent blood tests if you’re getting body modification work done regularly, but nonetheless.
Whether or not the man interviewed above is telling the truth (and hopefully we’ll find out for certain soon, one way or the other), the fact that this is gaining traction at all isn’t doing the industry as a whole any favors. If Moonshin hadn’t dropped the ball, this probably wouldn’t be a story in the first place.
Tattoo Parlour, Peel Sued Over Possible HIV, Hepatitis Exposure [CityNews]
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Mamma Tomma of Raven Ink: Studio 2 Tattoo in Portland, Oregon, sends in this picture of a piece she did of nature’s most perfect killing machine. A murderous lion? No. Elephant on PCP? Nope. Chimpanzee on Xanax and Sleepytime Tea? Wrong again. It’s a rabbit, armed with blades, furious about the attention bestowed upon some damned chinchilla. You underestimate the vengeance of a rabbit scorned at your own peril.
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Hey, nobody likes rain on a Monday morning, but if all you’re getting drenched with is delightful rainbow-colored, um, little people?, things could be a whole lot worse. So, c’mon—buck up, guy. Between the stylish overcoat and the jaunty ascot, you’ll be just fine.
(This raining pictograms tattoo by Marcelo Berribilli at O Corsario Tattoo Shop in Sao Cralos, Brazil, sent in by O Corsario.)
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Says Josh of this piece on his left forearm by Nathan Kostechko from Anatomical Art Studio in Moreno Valley, California, “No matter what happens, someone is gonna try to make a dollar.” Ha ha, luckily, soon there will be no more of these “dollars” to make, although I guess the same sentiment could be expressed about gold bars or bags of sand or whatever the new form of global currency will be.
