Mark of Cain, a documentary by Alix Lambert about the culture of Russian criminal tattoos, is now available for free online under a creative commons license. This documentary served as a reference for the David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises.
Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan put up a post about an extremely brutal hate-crime attack on an openly gay man. The 2-minute news report he embeds is depressing, but there was something to laugh about at the end. The studio interviewed one of the attackers’ friends, who proudly displayed this tattoo.
It’s a tattoo reading “[Thou] shall not lie with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination. Leviticus 18:22?. Who else sees the problem here?
Leviticus also forbids tattooing. In the very next chapter.
“Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:28?
Pauly Unstoppable from Canada has got the world’s 1st eye tattoo. The process involves forty insertions of a needle to turn a body-art fan’s eye blue. Pauly said that ‘The procedure was extensively researched and done by people who were aware of the risks & possible complications and that it should not be casually attempted.’
Update: Although it was Pauly Unstoppable who tried the procedure first, the subject pictured here is actually Shannon Larratt. You can find more information on BMEZine.
A young engineer has created a robot tattoo artist:
Freddy’s computerised brain has a complicated programme for creating the designs that are constantly being improved and redesigned before being etched forever and for free on the bodies of volunteers at the trade fair.
Eric Vinten, “famous for the numerous tattoos that cover his body,” will auction his skin to provide for his children’s future. The rest of Vinten’s body will be buried according to Christian tradition. Although exquisite tattoos have been preserved in the US and Japan, the writer of the article notes that Vinten is likely to have trouble registering his will in Great Britain.