Embracing female tattoo culture
The first ever Southampton Tattoo Festival was held over the weekend 4th-5th July at Ageas Bowl, Hedge End Southampton. Yellow Vintage Fair have teamed up with Ian Ink Tattoo shop to bring a family-friendly tattoo convention like no other.
Here are a few of the tattoos created at this year’s convention:
Jakub Pollág, a Royal College of Art graduate has developed the Personal Tattoo Machine which allows users to create markings on their skin to be associated with memories and meanings, rather than art. “Personal Tattoo Machine democratises the tattoo industry,” he said. “It puts a tool used only by a limited group of people into the hands of enthusiasts, who are seeking an alternative and unique way to permanently mark their meaningful memories onto their skin.”
Pollág has some homemade tattoos on his own skin that he executed with a needle and ink, but he wanted to try and make this diy experience more “user friendly” and accessible. The same way that prisoners fashion tattoo machines out of found objects is what influenced Pollág’s design for his own machine.
Pollág allows only one thickness of needle and a much slower speed within the machine so that it allows the user to focus on what they are drawing…hopefully enabling more precision.
So far the machine prototype has been used to create 30 tattoos on 20 different subjects. However, Pollág still recommends visiting a professional parlour for more accurate designs. “This machine is not aiming to replace tattoo parlours,” he said. “It’s there to offer a more personal option. If you want a realistic portrait of your, let’s say, cat, you should still go to a tattoo parlour and not use this machine.”
Pollág is presenting his project at this years RCA graduate show in London which ends today, July 5th.
While we’re all slathering ourselves – and our tattoos – in factor 50 during the summer sunshine heat, others appear to be burning “art” onto their skin in a strange, and dangerous, new social media phenomena: #sunburnart. Also called a sun tattoo or sunburn tattoo.
Search the hashtag #sunburnart and over 80 images come up that feature intricate art sunburned onto people’s skin. One guy has even created the Mona Lisa.
The hashtag has caused concern amongst dermatologists, and Deborah S. Sarnoff, MD, the Skin Cancer Foundation’s senior vice president, released the organisation’s official position on sunburn:
The Skin Cancer Foundation strongly advises the public to avoid sunburns at all costs. A sunburn is not only painful – it’s dangerous, and comes with consequences. Sunburns cause DNA damage to the skin, accelerate skin aging, and increase your lifetime skin cancer risk. In fact, sustaining five or more sunburns in youth increases lifetime melanoma risk by 80 percent. On average, a person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns.
The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends adopting a complete sun protection regimen that includes seeking shade, covering up with clothing, including a broad-brimmed hat and UV blocking sunglasses, in addition to daily sunscreen use.
Guys, our advice to you: Be safe, don’t burn. Get quality tattoos instead – they look cooler too.
Wim Delvoye is a Flemish contemporary artist, whose work breaks boundaries and challenges notions of ethics. His art aims to be provocative and that is certainly what Tattooed Pigs and Art Farm does.
He started tattooing pig skin in the early 1990s and wrapped his art work around polyester moulds. It wasn’t until 1997 that Wim started to use live pigs as his canvas and in 2004 he bought a farm near Beijing, where animal welfare laws are not as strict as other places.
Art Farm sees the piglets cared for by specialists who clean the pig’s wounds and moisturise the pig’s newly tattooed skin regularly. The animals are anaesthised and tattooed by up to three people at a time, with images including Disney Princesses and fashion brand logos.
Buyers can choose whether to buy the tattooed pigs alive or as taxidermy specimens when they die of natural causes. The pigs are not killed for their skin but they live and grow to be older pigs, in order to produce the live canvas that is their skin. The tattoos grow as the pigs do, images stretch and get bigger as does their value and desirability.
The animals skin is has been known to sell for more than £55,000, skin was sold to Chanel to be made into two exclusive handbags. Animal rights campaigners have complained that the pigs are put under unneccassary trauma and being abused for commercial profit.
Wim has also tattooed a man’s back in 2006 with a mixture of Japanese koi fish and Christian iconography. The piece was sold and the buyer will collect the piece when the wearer has died.
What do you think about Tattooed Pigs, is it art or animal cruelty?
Hope Laliberte is an eight-year-old Disney lover who has cerebral palsy, a condition she has lived with since birth.
She has to wear leg braces and has always had them decorated with skulls or superheroes.
When it came to getting her leg braces redecorated she dismissed the pre-made designs offered to her by the hospital, instead she wanted Disney Villains.
Her mum decided to contact family friend – tattoo artist and owner of Up in Flames Tattoo, in Massachusetts – Aaron Guillemette, who faced the challenge of customising Hope’s leg braces.
The braces are made from resin and acrylic plastic so instead of painting them Aaron decided to create huge stickers with Ursual and Cruela de Ville on them. The polyurethane surface will protect the designs aiding their durability.
Images from Herald News
