Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.
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A while back I showed you the long wing tattoos on winged_boi. Presumably you already know about Elayne Angel‘s pioneering wings (also covered on BME), but I thought that I ought to show you Catie’s wings as well, done by Shaf at Painless Steel in Missoula, MT:
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Everyone loves animal tattoos, right? In terms of tattoo iconography’s ancient (as in caveman) roots, the first tattoos were medical and spiritual in nature, followed not long afterwards by drawings of animal (I don’t think we know if they were totemic or decorative).
Let’s start with a little animal — these are IAM:thouarttheman40‘s rat footprints by Mike Zimmer at Lake Monster Tattoo in South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Conceptually, I also like this flock of birds by Mato at Dunajska in Bratislava, Slovakia, although I have the feeling this might be one of those tattoo that looks a little better in photos than it does in person for graphic design reasons.
This pitbull portrait is sweet as well, done by Dennis at Big Joe and Son’s Tattooing in Yonkers, NY.
Finally, I’ve been wondering if the movie hit March of the Penguins would leave us with a whole lot more penguin tattoos. It’s not as if they’re unpopular as is. Anyway, I hope so.
This one is by Dave Cutlip at Explosive Tattoo in Salibury, MD. Their IAM name (the person with the tattoo, not Dave) won’t surprise you: penguinkelp.
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I don’t really know why, but it always kind of weirds me out when I see a tattoo that has been signed by the artist. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just very unusual… I think it often even makes the tattoo artist uncomfortable — I strongly suspect that these two examples are only signed because the client insisted.
Left tattoo is by Mike Boseman at Sleep Hollow Studios in Roanoke Rapids, NC, and the one on the right is by Wally Poltern (sorry, I don’t know the studio).
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On the left is a medic alert tattoo on a diabetic (tattoo by Stacy Shappa at Electric Graffitti Tattoo in Muscatine, Iowa). On the right is a tattoo that signifies a more heavy duty body modification — an implanted defibrillator tattooed by DJ Rose at Halo Tattoos in Syracuse, NY.
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Yes, it’s a MY SPOON IS TOO BIG tattoo. If you’re not sure what this is about, you can watch the inspirational video here (if that link is broken, just search online for “my spoon is too big”).
I think I may have confused my records, but if I didn’t, that’s done by Rev. Marshall at Exotica Tattoo in Madison, WI. Marginally related are these wedding tattoos by Alastair “A.J.” Cameron-Hodges at Mom’s Tattoo in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Now I feel dumb because I can’t remember the origin of this tattoo… Phil told me about it (and the first one in the entry too) when it came in, but he’s gone fishing today… So someone post in the forum about these!
