Inked Talk

Tattoos and blogs are two things that have gained incredible popularity in recent years, so it is no wonder that the number of blogs about tattoos has increased exponentially.  A few tattoo blogs truly stand out as quality reads, and of those the first that comes to mind is Under the Gun Tattoos’ Myspace blog.  Under the Gun Tattoos is a studio in New Brighton, PA, and like many tattoo shops it has used Myspace as a promotional and networking tool as well as a gallery of tattoo art, studio photos, and more.  What sets Under the Gun Tattoos apart from the literally thousands of other tattoo shops with a Myspace page is the quality of Under the Gun’s blog.  Blog topics range from truly deep subjects, such as art appreciation generally and the ethics of tattooing (should an artist refuse to tattoo something, such as a swastika or white power slogan, that goes against his personal beliefs? ) to practical issues such as tattoo price considerations.  The pieces are always well written, informative, often humorous, and the only possible complaint one could have is that the blogs are sadly infrequent.

Tattoo enthusiasts of all kinds would do themselves a favor to subscribe to this blog.  I’d even go so far as to say it is worth setting up a Myspace account for.  Kudos to Under the Gun for doing such excellent work, and I look forward to reading your next piece.

Data:

Under the Gun Tattoos

1105 3rd Avenue, New Brighton, PA 15066

724.847.1592

Myspace Page

The Smoking Gun website has long been a fun website for finding celebrity mug shots, wacky police reports, interesting court pleadings and obnoxious riders and requirements for famous musicians. More recently TSG has been providing its readers with things like the weekly mugshot roundups featuring everything from ironic arrestee t-shirts, booked hotties, and some of the most screwed up individuals known to civilization.

Today’s Smoking Gun really delivers though, and in a tattoo-related way. Today’s Smoking Gun feature is a before and after picture of a man with some extreme facial tattoos. The first mugshot is from 2003. Michael Campbell of Colorado sports just a few face tats and a very dazed look in the early photo. His latest booking from just six weeks ago reveals a totally different look. Campbell’s entire face has been tattooed almost completely, with a particularly jarring expanse of black across his forehead, topped by a pentacle.

Other notable features of this incredible facial work is the Celtic knotwork running down the left and right sides of his face. While most of his original facial tattoos have been obscured, a doglike creature from the original photo remains on his chest. The tip of his nose has been tattooed black, with receding scale-like lines ascending towards the bridge of his nose. My personal favorite touch, however, is what appears to be a big polka-dotted bowtie tattooed across the front of his neck.

The article accompanying the photos is brief, but it notes that Campbell has spent a good deal of the years between his two mugshots in custody, so either he has found a very prolific jailhouse tattoo artist, or he is one dedicated man when he’s out of jail.

Ready for the photos?

The original Smoking Gun post can be found here.

A recently published study on tattoos in Australia has been cited by a number of authors as hard evidence of the end of Australians’ love affair with tattoos.  Specifically, the study by UMR Research that inspired these articles suggests that Australians of all ages find body art to be a “turn off.” Over 1000 Australians participated in the survey, and over 50% of those surveyed indicated that a tattoo on a member of the opposite sex makes them “less attractive.” Men were slightly more likely than women to indicate that a ink made someone less attractive, with 56% of men finding tattoos on women unattractive, while only 50% of women felt the same about ink on men. Only 7% of those surveyed indicated that body art makes its bearer more attractive. Survey participants ranged in age from 18 to 70.

For every trend, there is a sector of naysayers who say the trend is dead or dying, and others will even deny it is a trend at all.  Admittedly, few back up their opinions with a survey.  However, the articles hailing this study as the beginning of the end of the tattoo trend in Australia go much farther than the study itself suggests.  For example, the results of this survey don’t shed light on whether this is a change in Australians’ opinions of tattoos, or whether half of Australia’s population have always found tattoos unattractive.  It only tells us that now, at this time, about half of those surveyed found tattoos on the opposite sex to be unattractive. The survey as presented is an interesting collection of statistics, but it doesn’t go far to predict the future of tattooing in Australia.

Personally, I don’t expect to see any marked change in the tattoo industry based on these results. Nothing, not even the world’s current economic woes, have seemed to quash the popularity of tattooing in recent years.  If you are interested, here is one of the articles that cites the Australian study.