Accolades are a weird thing. When I was considering creating an award in Keith Alexander’s honor for the second SW event, I threw out a bunch of names to the artists who I respect; asking them who they thought really changed the culture of scarification.

A similar list of names came up; each artists bringing up the people they were inspired by. It formed a pretty clear picture of the previous two decades of Scarring; Raelyn and Fakir, Steve Haworth and Blair… every list had a few of the same folks.. but only one name was on all of them.

Ron Garza.

I met Ronnie for the first time back in 1995 or so; virtually. He was already a character and laid claim to a burgeoning legend; some of which I’m sure he’d rather forget. But the constant back then was him sending me pictures of the cuttings he was doing. Very ‘ahead of it’s time’ stuff, Ron was using tattoo iconography as a basis for large scale cuttings. In 1995 the prevailing design aesthetic for cutting and branding was mainly ‘tribal’ or ethnographic, fraternity designs or geometrical stuff.

Ron took Chicano tattoo designs and laid them in with scalpel. Some of his early work really got my mind churning for what could be possible with scarification and along with Keith’s passion for it leeching into my brain, pretty much steered me on to the path that created the SW events.

With that in mind, we presented Ron with the first (and currently, only) ‘KEITH ALEXANDER AWARD FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE ART AND CULTURE OF SCARIFICATION’ in 2006.

He’s spent most of his life traveling, piercing, tattooing, cutting and suspending and continues to be a valued presence in my life.

Ron sent in a new cutting this morning; a shaded rose piece on a client from Ohio. The shading stuff looks so awesome when it’s healed. I’ll bug Ron to bug the client to keep us updated.

He’ll be guesting in Seattle March 8th – 14th and is taking appointments now: RonGarza.com for contact info.

“There’s a random painted highway
And a muzzle of bees
My sleeves have come unstitched
From climbing your tree “-Wilco

This is Tim’s (previously featured) three year old tree cutting by Brian Decker; the shading technique produced really impressive texture. Tim has this to say:

” I didn’t aggravate it much at all during healing, and only kept it covered for about 5 or 6 days. I wanted a subtle scar, and I got one.”

Continue after the jump for fresh and healing photos.

Fresh Cutting.

At three months.

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!

Brian Decker just finished up his Austin trip. Birds are the new Octopi.
The pieces (on two different clients) use line cutting, flesh removal and shading techniques.

John started this piece at Xanadont (my humble South Philadelphia estate) with the koi and added the cherry blossoms at SW3. The piece features cross-hatch shading and was photographed by Atom Moore.

Tattoo iconography is fairly common in scarification design choices, but scarification is not tattooing. (obviously)
I’ve seen a lot of posts recently on tattoo blogs/message boards referencing the scarwars.net site, saying that they don’t like tattooing being associated with scarification. I’m sure it further confuses things when the designs are based in tattoo art. I guess we should be flattered; I remember when the tattoo community wanted nothing to do with body piercing; piercers being threatened at Dave Yurkew’s Texas tattoo convention in the late seventies, tattoo magazines distancing themselves from piercing/modification content. It’s come full circle (Steve Haworth did Enigma’s first generation horns at the 20th anniversary of Dave’s convention back in 1995, on the convention floor; Tattoo Savage has been in print for almost two decades) so I guess it’s expected that scarification, sharing the same graphic nature of tattooing, is an easy target for people who feel that what they do is ok but what we do is “gross mutilation” (they seemed to be particularly humored by someone saying that they wished they could scar like Sam) so… yeah. That’s that.

It will be a slow process to get scarification accepted in the body art community… but we’re doing what we can.

Here’s an octopus cutting I did during my stay in Berkeley last month. I will be in Austin, TX from October 22 through November 1st. If anyone would like any scarification and/or modification work while I’m down south email me SOON at purebodyarts@gmail.com!

To continue our “Wayde Dunn Appreication day” them, my friend Timothy sent in this great multimedia experience.
Make sure to click through for the rest of the story/video!

Last night I got my scarification done by Wayde Dunn.

Three years ago I got a scarification piece on my left side, done by Brian Decker. I was in New York for a concert and was staying with Brian’s girlfriend, and was just hanging around Pure Body Arts. Brian asked me if I wanted something done, so I thought about it (briefly) and decided to get scarred, and to get a tree. Brian drew it up and we did it that day or the next day. It was a pretty spontaneous decision. Brian did an amazing job and I absolutely love that scar.

This time, my appointment was planned out well in advance, which was a lot different for me. There was way more anticipation. I sent Wayde some reference photos, letting him know the size and placement, and made the appointment. Then I just had to wait.

Last night, I met up with Wayde and he showed me the sketch. This tree has leaves, whereas my other tree has none. I wasn’t sure at first whether or not I wanted the leaves, but once I saw his sketch I knew I wanted them. They looked really cool the way he drew them and it makes for a bit of a repeating pattern. So he started tracing it onto the transfer paper and I got set up with my camera.

He got set up and we played with the placement a bit until it was good to go. Some parts didn’t quite transfer so he freehanded in the rest. I put on some music to take my mind off the initial pain and we got started.

The first bit is the most challenging. He has to cut the outline of everything before any anaesthetic can be rubbed into the skin. So the first bit, yeah, not too pleasant but it’s not too bad either. I just had to remind myself to keep breathing and not hold my breath. For some reason, I just kept holding my breath, which totally made it hurt more. When I focused myself and did some nice deep breathing, focusing on my dantium and just trying to ignore the blade it was much easier and less painful. I was pretty silent for this part and Wayde just quickly worked through it.

Wayde had started at the bottom and was working his way to the top. As he finished a section, he’d rub in the anaesthetic and cover it with clingfilm to keep it in there. By the time he got to the top of the tree, the rest of it was totally numb. So when he got back to the bottom to start really cutting, I couldn’t feel anything. That was a bit of relief, and I breathed easier and started talking.

We had a good chat for the rest of the appointment while he worked away and the whole thing was finished up in about two and a half hours, just as Wayde had predicted. The man works fast!

Afterwards he cleaned me up, we took some photos and then wrapped the wound. He had brought me one of his books, and I gotta tell you they are beautiful, really well printed. I got book #12.

I thanked Wayde and was on my way home. I got a cab so I could get home as quickly as possible. I passed out eventually, but it was hard because I normally sleep on my right side, which is where I got cut. I woke up a couple times in the night and had rolled onto that side so I kept forcing myself to roll back onto my left side.

In the morning, my shirt was bloodied and a few spots on the sheets but nothing serious. I’m about to shower, and I’m not really looking forward to it!

Things at SW headquarters are nice and lax tonight; having enjoyed a nice strong pink lemonade I’m sitting in my basement movie theater watching a terrible horror movie (the remake of One Missed Call) and scrolling through photos for tonight’s update.

The winner was a piece from my friend Efix from D-Markation in Quebec City, Quebec Canada. I’m sure the choice in subject matter is a direct response to just how terrible this movie is.

This is a good example of how a piece can be expected to heal; unlike tattooing where you can predict the results, scarification leaves a lot up to genetics, technique, aftercare and a little bit of chance. Most people who get cut/branded know that the design won’t stay crisp forever. It’s more about the journey than the destination.

Right now im on my way to the San Francisco/Bay area where i will be available for work at INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH TATTOOS in Berkeley, ca until the 18th of june. Contact me at wdscars@yahoo.com for appointments or enquiries.