My Findings on Body Art and Modification

To those of you loyal readers, or anyone who just happens to see this by chance, I apologize for my lack of postings lately. I’m just worn out on writing about the body art and modification world and related things. Perhaps, after over a year, I need a new topic to write about? What do you fine people think? Any ideas? Just anything to say? Maybe I could give advice on life from an idiots point of view. Not like Dear Abby, but just general write ups of every day situations most of us go through at some point. But how is real life entertaining when it is really real. Case in point, the film Paper Heart, good, but to real for some of us to really enjoy. I don’t know really, I’m just stuck I think.

I am sure many of you have seen people with chest tattoos. Some girls have very beautiful pieces above, or in some cases right on their boobs.  But, is it an even more noticable tramp stamp?

I personally do not think so unless someone has the words touch here with an arrow down to their boobs or something along those lines. Then they are just begging for attention that could be easily achieved with a low-cut top anyway. If someone is just  looking for a fun night with a joke cleavage/boob tattoo, here is a link for a temporary tattoo design for specifically for that area.  What does everyone else think of cleavage/boob tats?

Most everyone who has gotten a tattoo while in their right mind knows the aftercare drill. Rub on the stuff they tell you

This one kept me out of the pool for 2 weeks in June 08

to rub on until the scabbing is done, keep it clean, don’t itch and no swimming in the ocean or pools for 2 weeks or until healing seems to be done. Meaning, if you enjoy swimming, get your tattoos at a time you won’t be swimming, like fall and winter. I do not know about the rest of you, but I have seen some people go swimming in a chlorine filled pool go swimming barely a week after their tattoo is done. So, what I wonder is what are the exact, negative effects that may happen?

Australian Website TattooWorld.au.com says

During the healing process can I :
go swimming?
No. Swimming can expose your new tattoo to elements that are harmful to the healing process eg: chlorine (this is a bleaching agent and can drastically increase color loss), salt water (dries the skin and can lead to heavy scab formation and loss of color), bacteria (your new tattoo should be treated like a wound, exposure to bacteria can lead to infection).

What does salt water or chlorine have to do with a tattoo that is healing?
Both salt water and chlorine can leach the pigment out of the skin, which will compromise the integrity of the colour. After the procedure has completely healed, the client may go into a pool and into sea without complications.

While it is not guaranteed to wreck your new tattoo it is still a good idea to stay out of pools and oceans probably to be safe. I mean, you just paid something that hopefully turned out really awesome, why risk it. Either way summer is a great time to show off tattoos so get you tattoos a few weeks before big beach trips or pool parties or stay out of the water.

A woman arrested months ago for piercing her own cats was sentenced to house arrest recently, a little light of a sentence in my opinion. Also, the judge did let her keep some of her animals. What is going to keep her from doing it again I ask. But that is not the point, was this animal cruelty. I have written about this before but I am still iffy on the subject.

On one side, the cats where her own animals. Also, she was not hurting the animals and being a groomer she knows how to handle animals. Was she wrong to pierce her cats?

On the other side, she was trying to sell the cats as “Gothic Kitties”. Also, she had other arrests on her record such as heroin use on her record. Which leads me to wonder, was she under the influence while piercing the cats? This could have affected her ability to think clearly and perform a proper and safe piercing.

I, personally, do not agree with what she did. Especially when I found out about how she tried to sell her pierced cats. That was taking it a step to far. But she has lost her grooming license which serves some justice.  Giving her house arrest and some of her animals back might not be the best idea. But that is just my opinion. What do you think? Let me know in a comment please.

For more on the story click here.

Extreme Body Modification is about taking it to the next level. It being the body part being modified to mod technologies and your heart’s content. But how far is too far? In Ottawa, Canada the current debate is how far should a person be able to modify themselves and have it be called expression. Also, at what point does it become surgery?

I think that Expression, in terms of modifications, can still include mods that require surgery. They are just more extreme forms of expression. Like those who get sub dermal implants. If a person wants horns on their head, that is them expressing themselves.

The real debate in Canada is when should it be against the law for the more extreme surgery worthy mods to be deemed illegal for home practice by unlicensed doctors and surgeons. This is a good point. If done incorrectly some of these mods could severely injure or even kill participants. However, the question that should be brought up is how many doctors are willing to perform these procedures. The surgical mods being performed are not your run of the mill cosmetic procedures. More licensed doctors need to become trained and start to perform bod mods for home practice to become illegal in any country.

Here is the original article I read

Casa Sanchez, a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco recently brought back a ten-year old promotion giving away free meals for life to anyone who gets a tattoo of the restaurants logo, which is a boy wearing a sombrero riding an ear of corn. Customers have the choice of burritos, tamales, tacos, among many other choices but are limited to one a drink a day.

Ten years ago the original promotion had about 50 participants. This time around, there are already three people who have chosen to bear the logo for life to get free food for life.it doesn’t like such a bad idea. The logo doesn’t look to bad and it doesn’t have the restaurant’s name in it and can be anywhere. I’m sure putting on your butt or other private parts might not be good for showing off at the register though.

An example of a Suspension

Suspension events are popping up all over the place these days. This past weekend one was held on Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Punk N Ink Tattoo Convention.

At the event a mother daughter duo was suspended together. Who better to undergo an ancient tribal ritual and hang by meat hooks with than Ole Mumsy right? The mother said she felt an odd sense of freedom while being suspended. And that she did not feel the hooks stretching her skin but rather a sense of calm coming over her. The daughter said the real painful part was afterwards. The day after someone had to deeply rub the muscles in her back from the pain of the hooks being taken out. –Journal Gazette from Indiana

Here is the original article from the Journal Gazette for more on the event and experience of the mother and daughter.

Here is a past post of mine going into more detail on suspension

Tribute tattoos can be the best way to show love for someone or something, especially a band. Just make sure it’s a band whose music you just put on your iPod yesterday and will be constantly skipping over in three weeks’ time.

This guy(left)  is not just a fan, but a super fan. He has all his favorites surrounding a hairband guitar player on his back and then some. All I have to say to him is “Rock on dude!”

As most Sublime fans know they had a Sublime tattoo on the cover of one oftheir albums. What some people may not know is that the band is reuniting with a new singer to replace the late Brad Nowell. Maybe on a new album cover they could put this guy(right) who used the Sublime sun to make this awesome back piece.

Here(below)  is a tribute piece to one of my favorite bands, The Avett Brothers. It is from the cover of their Emotionalism album which featured many amazing songs such as The Ballad of Love and Hate and Paranoia in B- Flat Major.

Below are some more miscellaneous tribute tattoos

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In August of 2008 a thirteen year old girl walked into a Panama Beach Department store and was able to get an upper ear cartilage piercing with no parental permission. While this is not good that minors are able to get pierced as they please in this store that is not the issue.

The girl claims she that only was she not asked for parental permission, but was also not told how to care for the new piercing. By the time she returned home from her vacation she had an infection so bad she had to spend two days in the hospital and has permanent ear disfiguration. Her family is trying to sue the store for medical expenses and damages for the girl’s pain and suffering that apparently she still deals with to this day when she looks at her ear and cries.

But, besides for piercing a minor without parental consent, the store should not be responsible for covering her medical expenses and giving her money to ease her emotional suffering. While she was only thirteen at the time, she still should have recognized something was wrong when an infection started to develop, her parents should have also noticed. For a two-day hospital stay the infection and the pain must have taken some time to develop. I feel bad for her but she should not get money out of the store due to be young and foolish.

More information and pictures of the “horribly” disfigured ear (it is really just a small bend in the cartilage) can be found here.

As some of you may have seen I wrote about the rarely seen Bagel Implants back in the fall( I wrote an original post then an update). I have now found some more information on this type of implant which is actually better known as a Saline Injection.

A Saline Injection is a saline solution being used to inflate a body part. Such as, in the case of the bagel head implant, the forehead. While doing a quick internet search I also found that some people use saline implants as an alternative to silicone for breast augmentation.

The solution used is sterile .9% salt water and takes up to a few days to absorb into the body and deflate. So it is not a permanent body modification, making it a little like play piercings. There are risks involved with this such as stretched skin, discoloration of the area, and in some cases gangrenous growths which must be amputated.