Inked Talk

Editor’s Note: I’m not what you would call an avid television watcher, so blogging about what’s on the TV takes a lot of effort on my part. Nevertheless, it’s hard to have a tattoo blog without talking about LA Ink and Kat von D, and with the third season of the show premiering shortly, it all merits a little mention.

LA Ink’s Third Season Premiere

The third season of Kat von D’s LA Ink premieres next week, October 9, 2008 at 10/9 Central Time. The latest clip gives us a glimpse into what’s in store for the new season:

Filming for Season Three is still ongoing, and today Kat von D’s Myspace bulletin featured some information about the new season, including the fact that the first episode is going to feature Dave Navarro getting a pretty significant tattoo by Kat.

For more information about the upcoming episodes of LA Ink:

Discovery Channel’s LA Ink Website

Kat von D’s Myspace Page

Steampunk is a fantasy/fiction subgenre which can be described in its most basic terms as the incorporation of new technology with Victorian style. Imagine a truck powered by a steam engine, or a zeppelin with smoke stacks. Infuse the Victorian style - wood paneling, polished brass, gears and mechanisms - with futurism and high technology, and you have a good idea of what steampunk entails. Sometimes it takes the route of a “path not taken” type of alternate history, and it is in some ways similar to cyberpunk. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is probably the most recent, well-known movie that exemplifies the steampunk style, and the XBOX 360 game Bioshock is an excellent exemplar of the genre.*

Elements of steampunk have certainly attracted the attention of some tattoo collectors. Where tattoos are concerned, the theme of “the machine in the man” has inspired some great ink which its bearers attribute to the steampunk genre. By its very nature, the steampunk feel can make for some beautiful tattoos that go beyond a simple picture on the skin.

Here is a relatively common tattoo concept: the skin appears to be torn away, revealing the biomechanics below which power the man. Strictly speaking, it is debatable whether this is completely “steampunk,” but the blend of machine and man really has a great steampunk feel.

Another great steampunk-inspired tattoo - the cogs at the elbow joint and down the arm suggest something more than human.

This tattoo is a good thematic blend of the two previous - here, the shoulder area appears cut away to reveal underlying mechanical works.

From a visual standpoint, steampunk-inspired tattoos seem almost obvious. When skin is the canvas, it isn’t a stretch to envision what lies beneath. Imagining something greater than reality is, artistically, the next logical step. Steampunk tattoos have such great potential that it is only the genre’s relative obscurity that makes them as uncommon as they are.

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*For more of an explanation on steampunk, MTV’s website actually has a nice video that serves as a decent introduction to the genre, with some great accompanying visuals.

The neck tattoo is a bold statement. Like hand and facial tattoos, neck tattoos are very hard to conceal, meaning that every first impression - be it an employer, a police officer, or even a neighbor - can be colored by their perception of tattoos. Tattoos have clearly become more mainstream since the 1990s, but are the more visible and more difficult to hide tattoos following the trail blazed by the tramp stamp?

An article in the New York Times on Tuesday asserts that neck tattoos, once reserved for “gang members, prison inmates, members of the Russian mob and the rapper Lil Wayne,” are now entering the domain of the mundane. However, the article also goes out of its way to acknowledge that those who sport facial and neck tattoos, as well as those with unusual or excessive piercings, still face plenty of obstacles to acceptance in the workplace. Courts have repeatedly upheld workplace appearance requirements, including those that forbid visible piercings and tattoos. However, times are changing and workplaces are certain to evolve as our culture’s perception of tattooed people changes.

While the New York Times piece reads more like a cautionary tale than a real look at the increased prevalence of hard-to-conceal tattoos, the fact that the NYT has taken on the subject at all is a statement in and of itself.

You can find the original New York Times article from September 24, 2008 here at this link.

Readers: what are your thoughts on this? Have you noticed more neck tattoos on “unlikely suspects” in recent years? Tattoo artists - have you found more customers with “mundane” jobs seeking more prominent tattoos?

Much of that tattooed world has looked on with some amusement at the popularity that tattoo designs have enjoyed on clothing in the past few years. While tattoo inspired clothing may be expected at stores like Spencers or Hot Topic, nowadays even the most mundane department stores have featured clothing with tattoo-style designs. With tattoos becoming so mainstream, this isn’t really surprising. What is surprising is just how far tattoo-inspired merchandise has gone.

The Ed Hardy clothing line is probably the most recognizable of the “tattoo-inspired clothing,” with malls everywhere featuring t-shirts adorned with famous skull/snake/geisha-type designs. In fact, the Ed Hardy “vintage tattoo wear” line goes far beyond simple shirts and has expanded into jeans, swimsuits, shoes, belts, and, oddly enough, perfume.

Yes, “tattoo-inspired” perfume for the ladies, and cologne, for men.

One review of the women’s scent describes it as: “a fruity floral with notes of apple soufflé, mango, wild strawberry, rudy red grapefruit, freesia petals, watery muguet, linden blossom, warm amber, musk, tonka bean and vanilla pudding.” The men’s cologne “is a woody floral featuring bergamot, mandarin, clary sage, thuja, mint julep accord with ozone, musk, sequoia forest and amber.”

I like a lot of things about tattoo shops. I love the flash-splattered walls and the buzz of the tattoo gun, I enjoy talking to the artists, I even secretly relish in the palpable tension in the air surrounding a person choosing her first tattoo and wondering whether it will hurt. But of everything I love about tattoos and tattoo shops, none of them are associated with their smell. Really, the tattoo shops I have been in typically smell like the Taco Bell meal that was devoured quickly between tattooing sessions.

Of all of the things in the world that could be used as an “inspiration” for perfume and cologne, I can’t say that I would ever, ever choose tattoos.

The only conclusion that I can draw on this rather bizarre product comes from Yogurt, of Spaceballs fame:

“Merchandising! Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs the T-shirt. Spaceballs the lunchbox. Spaceballs the coloring book. Spaceballs… the flamethrower!”

Though I confess - I’ll stay tuned for my Ed Hardy flamethrower.

Author’s note: Today, Inked Talk takes a literary turn as we look at tattoos influenced by the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson. If this proves to be a popular subject, we may feature more articles featuring tattoos influenced by a particular artist or author. Read on.

Hunter S. Thompson is perhaps best known among the general public for three things: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his legendary drug use, and (sadly) to a lesser extent, Gonzo Journalism, even though the latter is truly his greatest contribution to the literary world.

It comes as no surprise to those familiar with his work and his life that he has also become the subject of a number of interesting tattoos.

This excellent portrait of HST features his oversized glasses and iconic cigarette holder at his lips. His distant stare, often captured in photographs and artists’ renderings of HST, may be the product of deep thought or heavy drug use. Or perhaps a little of each. The emblem in the background, which is a stylized fist grasping a peyote button, was first designed in conjunction with Thompson’s bid for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado. The logo is now associated with gonzo journalism, and is also popular subject for HST-influenced tattoos:

Perhaps the best evidence that HST’s persona remains at least as great and influential as his body of work is the fact that tattoos of HST’s most famous quotes are far less common. A popular HST quote, “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride,” is featured on this simple tattoo:

There is no doubt that Hunter S. Thompson’s work and influence will continue to outlive their source. In fact, that his influence has extended to body art seems like a natural extension of gonzo, culminating in a total conjunction of the work with the person.

Tattooed Kingpin’s Milwaukee Tattoo Arts Convention is right around the corner. The event, sponsored by Eternal Tattoos Inc., begins at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, October 3, 2008 at the Wyndham by the Milwaukee Airport (4747 S. Howell Avenue in Milwaukee). The convention promises over 200 tattoo artists, live performances, freakshows and sideshows, art galleries, art seminars, and more over the three-day event. Tattoo enthusiasts may be interested in the tattoo contests running every day, with a ton of categories and prizes on Saturday.

More details about the event are available here, and the Milwaukee Tattoo Convention also has a Myspace page.

Inked Talk will feature coverage of the event in the days that follow the event, so stay tuned