No tattoo aficionado can avoid knowing of Kat Von D. She is LA’s best known female tattoo artist and persona. She has been instrumental in the shift in attitude towards women and tattoos. In fact, I credit her with the huge societal ground shift which has seen professional women choose to have tattoos to adorn their bodies and enhance their sexy charisma, their power and their talents. If I have any criticism it is only that tattoos have now become so popular that the trend buckers among us are going to start soon to choose to go as blank canvasses just to be different…
Why do I say that? Well, Our Kat has done what every other celeb woman has done (or tried to do) – she has launched her very own smell, or smells in this case… Kat Von D has introduced her very own signature fragrances which reflect her view of herself as naughty but nice, I presume….
continue reading "Kat Von D and her Sensuous Smells Sinner and Saint"

Ever heard of Rescue Ink? Well, you should have (no, neither had we) because they are the epitome of inspirational and just plain fantastic human beings. I’ll tell you why…
Rescue Ink is a group of people – well, men, for the most part -  almost all heavily tattooed, who work out of Long Island, NY to rescue animals from abusers. Their motto is: “Abusers are losers”. In their own words from their own website, they are: “a bunch of tattooed, motorcycle-riding tough guys who have joined together to fight animal cruelty, educate abusers and help resolve situations other rescue groups can’t – or won’t – handle themselves.”
I see them as the Sea Shepherd of the domesticated animal world. These guys are all people who have been in need of a second chance themselves at some point in their lives. They are all street savvy and know how things actually work in the down dirty reality of animal abuse.?
continue reading "Rescue Ink"

Davina McCall was born in 1967 in London. The world was never going to be the same. The wild child product of a messily broken marriage, she suffered anorexia and went a bit off the rails in her twenties, which was to be expected. However, during those days of drug induced hazes, she still managed to sing at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, work as a nightclub hostess in London and date Eric Clapton. Yes. Eric Clapton. Love her yet? In fact it was Clapton who put her on the road to recovery, despite her mother who died years later. Davina’s comment on the matter? “We hadn’t really communicated in the last ten years. She sold stories about me to the Daily Mail, one about us attending a Narcotics Anonymous meeting together, which you just don’t do.”
Today Davina is most well known for presenting Big Brother on Channel Four but she has a good few shows under her belt including several on MTV and was once a popular and successful model booking agent. After a brief marriage to Andrew Legget, she finally spotted Pet Rescue presenter, Matthew Robertson while walking her dog in the park, They were married 18 months later and today have three children together.
continue reading "Davina McCall Whacky Tattoos"

The last weekend of September 2009 was a memorable one for East London. There were hundreds of tattoo and body artists from all over the globe attending and performing their trade from traditional Nordic facial tattoos applied with a chisel and hammer to heart-stopping full body designs ranging from Eastern mystic creatures to science fiction characters and more.
The Convention is well known for its wide variety of entertainment from exhibitions, artistic events and live rock bands to burlesque performers from around the world. The food stalls are bewildering in their variety and mouth watering in their offerings. There are also your traditional East End bars and pubs but the best part of the day is just sitting with an ale in the corner and watching the throngs pass by in all their glory.
25,000 body art aficionados descended on the Tobacco Docks for the fifth annual London Tattoo Convention. Full on piercings and implants, full body art, dragon horns and devil sprouts. They were all there. So many attendees stood out for their artistry, wackiness or just plain gorgeousness. One in particular, a 29 yr old Japanese woman called Rie Gomita won the Coxsoft Art Bum Of The Month Award in deference to her rather gorgeously tattooed buttocks.
continue reading "London Tattoo Convention 2009"

Wim Delvoye is a Belgian conceptual artist known for hi rather unconventional endeavours. Born in 1965, he is a Dutchman and lives in Ghent.

Among the weirdest of his projects is Wim Delvoye’s Art Farm in China. There, he has been tattooing pigs since the 1990s. Why China? Well, my guess would be that it is because there are fewer regulations regarding animal welfare out there than in most parts of the Western world. In 2005 Wim was joined by artist Danny Devos who spent several months at the farm, reorganizing, managing and rebuilding. Danny Devos is a vegetarian, it appears.
continue reading ""

Leona Lewis has what?! Yes, you heard me right. Squeaky clean Leona has gone and got her first tattoo. Imagine that! Ms Lewis has been East London’s darling ever since she won the X Factor program all those years ago. Simon Cowell was so impressed with her performance that he is rumoured to have called the boss of J Records and told him: “You might have the next Whitney Houston on your hands.”

The modest Leona is still in a relationship with her boyfriend Lou who she met when she was 10. Lou is an electrician and her one true love. He is also fairly elaborately tattooed, not that that has anything to do with anything…

About the tat, she is being rather coy: “It’s incredibly private and something that we both had done. It’s Hebrew letters and I’m thrilled with it. I can’t reveal what it is. Some things need to remain private for me.”

continue reading "Leona Lewis got her first Tattoo"

The son of a dancer and a literature professor, Nicolas Cage is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola. Cage changed his name so that his career would be judged on merit alone. He chose the name Cage for the cartoon hero, Luke Cage.

He struggled to get started, despite studying acting, and at one point was selling popcorn in a theatre. By the 80s, though, he had completed some memorably quirky and truly outstanding roles and had made a name for himself as a method actor.

continue reading "The Fabulous Nic Cage"

They do say that a tattoo represents your soul on the outside. One group of people you would not normally expect to wish to portray their inner selves to the outside world is the quintessential reserved librarian. How wrong you would be!!

A group of women representing the Texas Library Association have done just that and published the results in a new 40 page calendar called “The Tattooed Ladies of TLA.” It’s all for a very good cause, one that they feel very passionately about. The Texas Library Disaster Fund helps libraries along the Gulf Coast recover from natural disasters such as hurricane Katrina.

continue reading "Tattooed Librarians"

Tattoo parties have been around for a long time. The idea is a simple one. A group of people get together at someone’s house, a tattoo artist shows up and everyone gets a tattoo. Problem is that the tattoo artist is not necessarily qualified, the environment is not sterile, alcohol makes you bleed more profusely and crowds are distracting. Doesn’t sound like much fun to me somehow.

I am sure there are examples of good tattoo artists attending sterile tattoo parties where the clients were all of legal age, no alcohol or drugs were on site and the tats were of a superior quality. I just haven’t yet heard of one. The usual reasons for holding a tattoo party include celebrating an event (usually involves some form of inebriation), the lower cost per tattoo, the clients are minors or (worse) the tattooist is unqualified, unlicensed or just bad and has to work underground.

continue reading "Toxic Party"

How far? How about as far as Russia. Now, we all know that in everything there is a boundary that must not be crossed. Call it bad taste, call it social madness, even call it outright wrong. Russians have found just such a boundary and boldly gone where no true animal lover could possibly contemplate going.

The new trend first arose in Russia. While it may have occurred elsewhere before, never in recent history has any society embraced such an aberrant use of tattoo art with such openness and lack of shame. What is this horrid new fashion? It is the tattooing of one’s pets.Cat owners have taken to getting their felines tattooed with elaborate, colorful designs for no other reason than because they can.

continue reading "Tattoo Madness taken just a tad too far…"