I'm crazy excited about this upcoming exhibit opening December 10th at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Ladies Ladies Art Show features the fine art of 50 women tattooists, from long-time veterans of the craft to rising stars. See the full artist list below.

It's an event where tattooed women are celebrated for their artistry and not how they fill a bikini. [So let's just see how many tattoo mags actually cover the show.] I'll be there with my signature out-of-focus photo skills and let you know how it goes down. The opening party runs from 7-10:30PM.

Here are a couple of paintings that will be on view. See more on their Facebook page.

Painting by Titine Leu.

Painting by Maria Sena

Starting off this year's gift guide are my picks for tattoo-themed greeting cards should you be the type of person who puts me to shame by mailing holiday cheer before the actual holiday to be celebrated (and not two weeks later).

Of course, nothing compares in my mind to Rolling Stone magazine's Christmas card of a naked Lyle Tuttle (photographed by Annie Lebowitz in the 70s). But here are some of today's options from Etsy:

* "Tattooed Lady" holiday card set of 10 by Sugar Beet Press (shown above) where the backpiece proclaims "Peace on Earth, Good Will To Men." The original artwork by Sugar Beet owner Joy Kolitsky is printed on heavyweight watercolor paper and the cards are  blank inside. A set of ten with envelopes goes for $22.50. Individual cards can be purchased as well. 

* Painted Ladies postcards, without the holiday theme, designed by Amanda Atkins. A set of six postcards goes for $10. Prints and individual cards with the artwork are also on sale.

* Sideshow Tattooed Men note cards, stamped and embossed on a set of five colorful cards (with envelopes) by Emma Mount of England go for $8 for a set of five. I'm also digging her skull gift tags. 


There's always the e-Card option. I'm thinking of sending this Santa tattooed with my face on his back. You may want to go with other personalized options however.

 

For the December/January issue of Inked magazine, I had the pleasure of interviewing tattoo artist, painter, and now sculptor BUGS, whose blend of cubism and art deco inspired tattoos have earned him international acclaim as an innovator in the industry. You can pick up a copy at local news sellers in the US & Canada or download the digital mag via Zinio. Here's a taste of our Q&A:

Because there's such a demand for your work, how do you keep things fresh and find new ideas to answer this demand?
Well, it's been about fourteen or fifteen years since I started doing my own style. I've been improving my style over these years and now it's kind of strong and powerful. When people see my work on others, they recognize it right away. I reached what I was looking for. To keep it fresh is a lot of work. You take a lot of time to progress but to stay on top of your game is the hardest part. Every day I draw. I paint a lot. I practice, and the more I do it, I discover new things.

How do you find the balance between very angular design and the contours of the body?
That's hard to explain. It has become natural to me--it's the way I draw things. When it comes to designs like flowers or women (there are a lot of women in my work), I try to avoid too much detail and information. I try, in just one outline, to show the silhouette of the body, for example.

What do you think is one of the biggest challenges?
It is to be creative every single time. Consider that all my work is custom and original--that's where it becomes complicated. When you do flash, you can do the same design ten or a hundred times with little variation, but when it comes to my kind of work, people are expecting original art. It's a lot of work. How many cubic women or flowers can I do? They all have to be different--in my style--but different. I never do the same tattoo twice.

Read more in Inked. You can make an appointment with Bug's at The Tattoo Lounge in LA.

Advertising's mad men and marketers have deemed today, "Cyber Monday," where our consumer fetish can be satisfied without knocking someone over with a granny cart, all for a deep discount. Well, I got your deep discount right here. If Amazon can give you a break, so can I.

Starting right now through Friday, December 3rd, 11:50 PM, I'm offering my limited author copies of the Black & Grey Tattoo box set for $350 including shipping for those in the US. [The book retails for $550.] Hit me up via email at marisa @ needlesandsins.com.

To make up for this shameless promotion, I got an artist profile and our first official gift guide pick coming up.

Tattoo by Joe Capobianco via TattooNow

The Needles & Sins crew has the day off to gorge ourselves have introspective moments  where we reflect on that for which we are grateful.  So, I'm throwing up this open post and turning over the reigns to you.

Use the comments forum to express whatever you want:  whether it be your thoughts on the state of the industry, your tattoo wishlist, how you feel about slaughtered turkeys and a bloodied history surrounding this holiday, whether you like long walks on the beach and the company of blow-up dolls. It's all in your hands.

I know this is dangerous, but it's my way of saying thanks to all y'all for being the most beautiful and sexy blog readership on this wacky internet of ours.

Much love, Marisa

Very cool to find BoingBoing's feature on MIR, the Russian criminal tattoo fashion company and Needles & Sins advertisers. [Many of you thought it was cool too, and we thank you for sending in the link.] In that post, co-owner Roman Belenky discusses his experience growing up in Russia surrounded by the tattoos and what inspired him to start the clothing line, which I thought was pretty interesting. Here's a taste from that part:

I was working in a tattoo shop and started noticing more and more people were coming in with the [Russian Criminal Tattoo] Encyclopaedia and asking to get an image from the books. We turned them away mostly because the shop was owned by Russians and we didn't think it was a good idea to tattoo most of the stuff from the books on someone that knows close to nothing about that world and sub-culture. At that time I thought it would be cool if I could offer those people a T-shirt with the image as a sort of "consolation prize." Plus a part of me also wanted to spread this fascinating Russian underground art to more people.

On MIR's site and on their Etsy pages, they offer explanations of each design, although some like the one below don't really need much explaining. What the BoingBoing article doesn't mention is their new SHTRAFBAT military-inspired line where most of the items are vintage or reconstructed military surplus clothing silk screened or altered with the Russian designs. You can hit them up by clicking the banner of the right.
Dasvidaniya!

Tattoo timeline on the bar at King Ink tattoo studio/club

There are tons of articles on "tat stats" [I know it even pains me to type it] but the folks at College Crunch put together a list that I like, highlighting the demographics of collectors, and the milestones of tattooing's popularity. One of the more interesting finds for me was this:

People aged 18-24 were the second least likely to have a tattoo (2008): Just nine percent of them said they had at least one tattoo in 2008; down from 16 percent in 2003. Only the aged 65 and older group had a lower percentage. Could the decline indicate that tattoos are becoming less hip?...

I also learned that Miami is the most tattooed city in America, and only 16% of people polled regret getting tattooed. [I can use that last one to rebuff the constant "oh everyone ends up wishing they didn't do it" line.] College Crunch not only offers the list but links to the studies behind the statistics. Check it.

If it wasn't for Twitter I wouldn't know things like Fake GaryBusey's tips on hookers, the exploits of douches on the subway, and what injustice is being done to our tattooed brethren. The latest in Delta doucherie happened earlier today to food stylist Adam Pearson.

Adam's first tweet, which sparked the re-tweet madness among foodies and tattoo freaks, said:

"Just pulled off delta flight, passenger said I was suspicious looking due to my tattoos @DeltaAssist not happy at all #goldmedallion fail"

Adam then rightfully asks:

"If this pasngr was uncomf with my tattoos why wdnt they offer to rebook them on another flight, why do they need to bother me @DeltaAssist "

Adam wasn't kicked off but pulled off and questioned for his "Atom Bomb" knux. The LA Times blog has the deets. Here's a bit from their post:

"Noted Los Angeles food stylist Adam C. Pearson was settling into his seat aboard a Delta flight Saturday morning when the flight attendant tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to come to the front of the plane. His first thought? "I'm getting an upgrade!"

Not exactly.

Pearson was temporarily asked to step off the plane and learned that another passenger had reported him for suspicious behavior, and noted that he had the words "Atom Bomb" tattooed across his fingers. Questioned by the captain and the flight attendant, Pearson explained that the tattoos referred to a childhood nickname. After answering a few more questions, Pearson -- who is a frequent Delta passenger and has flown over 142,000 miles with the airline this year alone -- was allowed to return to his seat."

Read more here.

I fly back from Brussels on Delta Monday. Let's see what they say about my muthafuckin snake tattoo on their muthafuckin plane.

It's red. It's swollen. And it needs to be lubricated.

My new tattoo, that is. But before I head off to the Brussels Tattoo Convention to show it off, I wanted to give y'all a sneak peak. This baby took 7 1/2 hours of straight tattooing and done by none other than blackwork guru Daniel DiMattia of Calypso Tattoo in Liege, Belgium. While I've been tattooed by a few others, Dan is my main artist, having done my sleeves, back, belly, ribs, and my pretty hobbit foot last May. You can see all my tattoos on Flickr here.

The photo and the work itself now is dark but as you know, once it settles, we'll get a better idea of what the tattoo will look like when I'm eighty years old.

I arrived in Liege on Wednesday, ignored the jet lag and headed to Calypso Tattoo to start drawing out the work with Dan. My idea was to have two snakes winding from my hips down to my thighs. Sexy, huh? Dan thought that we should add flowers on the hips as a base for the work and have the snake moving up towards them. [I also have dotwork floral designs on my belly.] The movement and then placement of the snake took the longest time to figure out. While Dan does mostly freehand, for this work, he sketched it all out and made a stencil for tattooing the next day.

Ok, Thursday. Game day. I leave my hotel and the city is a ghost town. Nothing is open. Barely a car on the road. I walk into the studio nervous -- about the zombie apocalypse and all -- and find Dan refining the dot patterns in the stencil.

"Dan, where is everyone?"
"It's November 11th, a national holiday."
"What are we celebrating?"
"The Armistice that marked the end of the war [in 1918 -- more here]."
"Well considering we're divorced but live in peace, this is my armistice tattoo."
[loud laughs]

But hell, that armistice tattoo was a battle. I always like to start the needling at the more painful part first, when endorphins really kick in. My right hip was particularly sensitive because I had zapped an old tattoo a few times and there was some minor scaring and skin sensitivity. But the pain was nothing like my foot or upper ribs.

We did the lining of the hip and upper thigh part of the tattoo -- and damn, Dan does looooong lines in one shot -- and then worked in the dotwork patterns. This took up most of the time. You have to have A LOT of patience for dots. It also does a number on the artists' wrists. The effect is beautiful, however, and settles in nicely over time.

Then came the snake's tail end. That was around the 6th hour and I was shot. I really wanted to grab the bottle of Vasocaine numbing spray I bought, desperate, like a pregnant woman begging for an epidural. But Dan encouraged me to tough it out with only an hour or two left because he wasn't sure how the skin would react. So I toughed it out.

Remember when we talked about tattoo pain in the Robert Atkinson post?

Robert said that he had no problems with people using the numbing sprays, adding: "At the end of the day, no one is giving out trophies for being tough." But I also took your thoughtful comments into consideration where many had negative experiences with healing tattoos that had been sprayed, so I did it old school. No trophy. But I came out of it with a tattoo I adore.

Will post pics once it's healed. My session for the other hip is in May. I have time to forget what it feels like until then.

Ok, off to the Brussels convention!

--
PS: There was some reason for having a Shakira song in the title of this post but now I forgot why. I should practice my snake hip moves just in case.

It was strange typing in the headline because normally the descriptor for a Tim Kern tattoo would be "cutesy zombie girl eating the head of the pope sleeve" or some variation thereof. But over lunch today, Tim showed me the piece, kinda nonchalantly, and I had to put it up -- not just because it's a bit of a departure from his general portfolio (although diverse), but because it's a beautiful tattoo on a member of the US Armed Forces who was just shipped back out to Afghanistan and I wanted to say a special thank you for his service. Thanks, Matt!

The backpiece took about 60 hours, with an average of five hours a session. Tim also did Matt's 3/4 sleeve, which is a tribute his Irish heritage.

FYI: Tim's work is featured in my Black & Grey Tattoo book. I still have limited author copies for the heavily discounted price of $350 plus shipping in the US (sorry, only US orders). The book retails for $550.

The fabulous Sunny Buick knows how to work a design around a 90s lower back tattoo, giving our favorite tramp stamp some competition.

Also check Sunny's blog with gems on her tattoos, travel, paintings, fashion and fun stuff like Henry Goldfield's word of wisdom.

An exciting solo show of paintings inspired by tattoo art opens November 19th at the Gebert Gallery in Venice, California: The Human Canvas by Paul Ecke.

Paul contacted me after finding my Black Tattoo Art book last year and being inspired by work he saw in it. I helped put him in contact with a number of the tattoo artists in the book like Yann Black, Rory Keating and Roni Zulu among others, which led to the beautiful collaborations that comprise The Human Canvas series. In this video interview below, Paul and Zulu discuss "how both artist's passions cross over into each other's mediums."





For more on the paintings, Virginia Repasky of Art Management says:

The latest issue of Inked magazine is out, and for the "Icon" feature this month, I had a blast interviewing LA native Robert Atkinson, who is widely respected for his Japanese-inspired as well as black & gray body suits. In the Q&A, Robert talks about how he went from tattooing tribal arm bands to crafting his signature large-scale work. He also muses on custom cars, the state of the industry and how to make tattoos hurt less.

You can pick up a copy at major newsstands or download the digital version here.

It's the making tattoos hurt less part that really had me thinking about what it means to "earn" your tattoos. Here's a taste of our talk where Robert discusses using numbing creams and sprays on certain clients:

Your clients seem to trust you with a lot of their skin. You've done a lot of huge backpieces.

I've done about 35-40 backpieces in the past 8 years. Large-scale tattoo work is a luxury for sure. Any time you see someone with large work you know they paid for it. It's like wearing a Rolex or driving a nice car. It's luxury lifestyle shit, but it's not something you can just go buy. You have to deal with a motherfucker like me, show up for your appointments, pay a bunch of money and get it done.

And it hurts.

It hurts more ways than one -- it's painful and it's expensive.

There are a number of tattoo artists these days offering numbing creams and sprays that make the tattoo process hurt less. Do you offer it to your clients?

I keep a thing of spray for a few guys -- not for someone who's going to sit for two hours -- but for someone who will come in from out of town and wants to sit there and get four to five hours done. It makes it easier on him and easier for me. If people come in after wrapping themselves in Emla cream [to numb the area], I'm cool with it, but I'm not gonna say, "I have a have this cream and for $50 bucks extra I'll numb you up." I used it myself for the last sitting I had with Filip [Leu] and it fucking helped man.

Don't you think you lose some badass cred by taking away some of the hurt?

At the end of the day, no one is giving out trophies for being tough. In the beginning I was like, "Oh no, fuck that shit." Then, at one point, I lined 18 backs in one year and all these guys were going to a spa to get numbed up before coming in would lay as stiff as a board and get four hours out of that shit. So I started to think it wasn't so bad because they weren't moving around, or pissing and moaning that they need to get up every ten minutes. It's just another tool for big work, especially if you're looking at a 20-plus hour ordeal.

Robert also shared his thoughts on how he's seen the industry evolve and where he thinks it's going. We talked about the progression of his own work and what he does for fun when not tattooing. But it's that pain part of the our conversation I've been fixating on as I'm staring a five to six hour rib session next week. In light of the news that no one will be handing me a badass trophy when I'm done, I may so opt for the Vasocaine.

For an appointment with Robert, hit him up through his site.

The Needles & Sins crew is grateful to our most fabulous advertisers who support us, so we can give you the tattoo goodness for free -- even better is when they offer you special deals on their own brands of goodness. Here's the latest offer:

Eargauges.net has new plugs, including wood with pearl inlay, and black & red hearts (perhaps a gift for your sweetie) at reduced prices. Plus, all orders will receive 15% off if you use the N+S coupon code:  NAS15.

I've gotten feedback from readers who've told me that Eargauges.net shipped fast, and they were happy with their order. The prices are affordable, and there's free shipping for all orders over $25. Stretch safely and beautifully.