When Tara and I originally talked about what she wanted on her stomach, we didnt have a super clear idea of the design at all. She left it pretty open and gave me artistic freedom to create something beautiful, specifically for her. When i finally saw this piece healed after 2 years, i was amazed at...
The weather is getting colder in our part of the world; hopefully we’ll see some snow before the new year; Quebec City’s Efix Roy is getting a jump start on it with this snowflake/cherry blossom piece. Efix spent a few days with us at Xanadont a few weeks back- we’re already looking forward to visiting him in 2010.
My work schedule is starting to get crazy; for the next few weeks updates will likely be sporadic from me but I’ll do my best to keep up.
I was driving home from work the other night; on a forced Thanksgiving shift, and to get out the frustration I switched from my normal Decemberists/Belle and Sebastian saccharine softer music to my “I’ve had a bad day” commute choice of Slayer’s South of Heaven. It’s what I do every time I get in the car and need to decompress after work has brought me down. An electric blue PT Cruiser (don’t judge me) going 90mph on a back road in New Jersey (don’t judge me) with one temporary tire (since my tire blew on my commute to work on Thanksgiving morning) with the windows down blasting “Read between the lies”…..
I’m sure my friend Scot would have approved. This is his tribute to throwin’ the goat; a flesh removal done at SW2 by the equally goat throwing Ryan Ouellette of PBA.
Scot and his band Kali-ma will be rocking the Tritone in Philadelphia, Dec. 4th.
There’s a long story behind this painting that’s far too boring to go into…. but it sort of fits the holiday mood. My pal Rick Lohm painted this for/of me; you can catch him tattooing at John Joyce’s Scarab Body Arts in Syracuse, NY.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I haven’t done much in the way of non-photo updates in the past, but I think my friend Matt really captured some of the “why” in the following passage from the intro to the (consistently delayed) Scarwars book.
Excerpt from Scarwars forward by Matt Lodder:
“Why, then, are more and more people, outside of direct cultural influence, driven to get scarred? A cry for help? Mental disturbance? Self-harm? Thse are all easy labels to use- the process is painful, invasive, messy. The cuts bleed and the process of irritating them to ensure successful scar formation is often excruciatingly painful. Nevertheless, scarification is markedly different from angry, impulsive self-harm, or “cutting”.
Scarification involves a deliberate selection of design, placement, symbolism, form and healing. We’re not talking for the most part about slashed wrists and razor blades, although it is indubitably true that for some the line can be crossed. Instead, scarification is consensual, considered, calm; the rational expression of what, to many, may seem an irrational desire.”
The always impressive Mr. Lewis Dodd checks in with another amazing all black tattoo removal piece. Working on tattooed skin is very difficult; keeping up with the stencil takes a lot of patience and skill; luckily Lewis has both.
Healing at one month:
You can contact Lewis via his iam.bmezine.com page.
Our friend Rata checked in again with this Japanese tattoo style demon cutting; nice bold lines accentuated with flesh removal and shading techniques. I can’t wait to see this one healed!
