Prison Break

My initial impression of Fox's new show Prison Break (the pilot for which I watched last night) is good overall. I have kind of a hard time imagining how they will fill a whole season (nevermind the idea of any following seasons, but I said the same about Lost), but I'll watch anything with a guy who has plans for an entire prison campus and clues for how to exploit said campus' weaknesses tattooed on his body.

"The tattoo takes about four to five hours to apply, if you've got two people working on it," Wentworth explains. "It's a series of decals that fit together like puzzles. They're kind of more sophisticated versions of what you might find in a Cracker Jack box. You lay it down, spray it, peel it off and then seal it with glue, paint in the filler parts. It's apparently the most complicated imitation tattoo ever created, done by the art house that did all the special effects for 'The Passion of The Christ.'"

It is impressive.

Another Tattoo Blog

I previously pointed you fine folks to Needled, which remains a steady read for me. However, one tattoo blog can't possibly be enough, so I'm happy to find INKEDblog:

INKEDblog takes you beneath the skin of today's tattoo culture. Our mission is to celebrate tattooing as a modern art form which incorporates art, fashion, style, and pop culture. While paying homage and respect to the past, we look to present a contemporary take on the present and future of skin art.

Take some time in the archives, there's some good stuff. One post points to this bit about rose tattoos and what the color of the flower might symolize, which I dig on since I'm planing a dagger/rose tattoo.

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Oh, yeah, by the way... I'm spending some of my stock option payout on new ink this Saturday. Stay tuned. (Hint: It's not the dagger.)

Tattoos: No longer cool

Artists concerned tattoos losing nonconformist lure

Long-time tattoo photographer Charles Gatewood of San Francisco said: "It (tattooing) is so popular that it has lost some of its magic. It was like a club, a secret society and family. Now it's gotten commercialized, co-opted and watered down ... in the opinion of some people."

I've never understood this kind of "mainstream == lame" mentality that is so... well... mainstream among so many so-called "subcultures".

Tattoos are "cool" (and will always be so) if they mean something to the person wearing the ink.

End of story.

That's just not cool!

Men accused of tattooing vulgar phrase on teen's forehead arrested

Authorities have jailed two men after they allegedly held down a teenager and tattooed an obscene phrase onto his forehead.

Police in Norwich, N.Y., about 60 miles south of Syracuse, wouldn't identify the phrase, saying only that it was vulgar and offensive.

I'm guessing it was a three-letter epithet for a homosexual, but I could be wrong. The NY Post says the tattoo "is an extremely obscene phrase and a diagram." A "phrase" is more than a "word", so I'm probably not guessing right.

Our Tattoos

Since I lost my tattoo stories in the Great Hosting Disaster of '05 (and since my tattoo category has been sitting empty for so long), I thought I'd just point to this photo set of our recent tats. I'm sad to report that my coat of arms healed like boogers and needs some retouching. Not sure what went sideways with it, but I blame only myself.

Also, I'm currently working on a design for my other forearm. One word: Dagger.

Yeah, that's right.