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Tattoo Artist Scott Campbell
The artist Shan Yi
Hong Kong women shrug off tattoo taboo
Spurred-on by celebrity style or simply looking for a new way to stand out in a city of seven million, Hong Kong women are increasingly taking to tattoos -- an art form long considered taboo.
Spurred-on by celebrity style or simply looking for a new way to stand out in a city of seven million, Hong Kong women are increasingly taking to tattoos - an art form long considered taboo.
Hidden demurely behind blouses and stockings during office hours, the walking, talking, body-art galleries are flaunted at the beach or in Hong Kong's trendy nightspots.
"Most women here who want tattoos are between 20 and 40 years old," says tattooist Joey Pang, who went a step further than most and opened her own parlour, the Tattoo Temple.
"At first they want smaller tattoos, more for beauty, more feminine designs. For their first one, most of the female customers want lower back tattoos, very popular.
"We educate them; they can have more choice, but they still don't want to show off."
Historically a firm favourite with male-dominated triad gangs, tattoos have been slow to gain popularity among women in the southern Chinese territory.
But with the ancient art now flashed on the pampered skin of a range of celebrities from movie star Angelina Jolie to party girl Paris Hilton, Pang says there has been a sharp rise in female customers eager to "get inked".
Tattooist Kenny Chin of Solo tattoo agrees that the old stigma attached to body-art is fading.
"Some men in Hong Kong do not accept their girlfriends having tattoos," he said. "But people are more open now - the tattoo is loosing the bad-guy status it once had."
For young women the decision to go under the gun now revolves more around the reaction of their parents than touchy gangsters - something Hong Kong student and apprentice tattoo artist Jeyers knows well.
"I had to hide my first tattoos because my parents are pretty traditional - and especially because they work in the medical field," she says, asking for her full identity to be withheld.
"They still don't know that in my spare time I work as an apprentice tattoo artist," she adds, recalling that when her mother found out about the first tattoos she initially wanted them removed by laser.
The 25-year-old, whose collection of body-art includes a hand-sized portrait of her surgeon father at work, located on her left shoulder, feels that mass media has played an important role in the rise of the female tattoo.
"Ten years ago tattoos were more underground; you didn't see a lot of tattoos on the streets, so I didn't know much about them."
But she says she saw more and more tattoos popping up in magazines and on the internet, and was attracted to them immediately.
"Before, there was not much choice, but it has evolved a lot more now," Jeyers says. "There are portraits, colour works, Japanese works, all kinds of styles, and I am so amazed by the work that you can put on people's skin."
Airbrush Tattoo Artist
ART TATTOO AS A LIFE STYLE
Style Tattoo Artist
To tell you the truth I don’t really pay too much attention to syles/fads or what’s “so right now.” I believe every artist should have they’re own style, or at least be developing their body of work in a particular direction of originality which they can call their own. I think as far as tattooing goes there are styles that are tried and trued as exceptional tattoo imagery and have proved to hold the test of time in the skin. I think it is of crucial importance that every tattooer have some degree of knowledge and understanding of why these styles work in order for them to create good works.
Tattoos Jim Jones At AOL Style Studio
Since Barth is said to have a year and a half waiting list, the Club Cards are an excellent way to give celebrities special treatment and to expand his own rep while marketing his multiple tattoo studios where you can get a Starlight Tattoo even if you can't afford Mario Barth himself.
In addition, Barth used the opportunity to get celebrities to sign a "custom-made leather embroidered chair that Barth will auction off for CureSearch, Childhood Cancer Foundation", thus working some positive energy into his marketing while giving him a future event to publicize.
There's also supposed to be coverage of Barth at AOL Music but I couldn't find it. I'm not how useful that would be for Mario Barth and I'm not really sure what all this does for AOL Music but Barth obviously knows how to work an event.
Traditional Borneo Tattoos by Ernesto
Badass Tattoo Artist
Celtic Painting and Tattoos Creating Sensual Atmosphere
In many of the Celtic paintings, you would find a woman standing with a long spear held upright in her left or right hand. It was customary to wear only a large ring around the woman's waist, from which a curved sword would hand behind. In Celtic art, we can see a smaller ring around a woman's neck, too. Much of the woman's body would appear to be painted or tattooed. The modern men and women, too, like such tattoos on their body, as these Celtic tattoos create sensual atmosphere. The Celtic tattoos have become the symbol of modern fashion.
Celtic traditions can is as old as 3,000 years and today many people are being attracted and are willing to know about them. This tradition known as Celtic was grounded in harmony. Now a day many New Age advocates practice those environment-friendly traditions of the Celtic people. If such beautiful and utility based traditions are not preserved, they can die or be forgotten.
In the ancient time the Celtic womanhood and motherhood got the utmost reverence and admiration. any type of degradation of the woman hood or a rape were considered the worst crime; and such a crime was treated with the absolute highest severity. The act of rape was not pardonable and the punishment meted out was very serious; and no one would be ready to show leniency.
Pretty Flower Tattoos
Choosing a Tattoo Artist
There are a lot of other factors to consider when selecting a tattoo artist. Looking for the cheapest seems like the most obvious way to go, but you do get what you pay for. The best way to choose a great tattoo artist is to go buy reputation. Ask around, especially any of your friends that already have tattoos, and they will be able to give you some feedback regarding which tattoo artist did their tattoos and how they were.
One of the best ways to choose a tattoo artist is to shop around. Make a list of tattoo parlors you want to visit and go have a look at their samples. You can generally tell which tattoo artists are any good by the samples that are usually hanging in their shop. If the samples are bad or not drawn as well as you like, check the next shop. You are certain to find one that suits you.
It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to take your time when deciding which artist to let tattoo a design to your body. After all, you don’t want to give that task to just anyone.
Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past
I was first introduced to tattoos as a boy through bubble-gums purchased from the local shop with my pocket money. I would ensure I had lots of the little sweet treats included in my ‘mixed bag of lollies’ before heading home on my push-bike. To the bathroom basin I would head, to get the flannel face-washer – an essential tool for tattoo application. I would decide where I wanted the back-the-front looking design and put the little piece of paper on my skin, carefully following the 4-step instructions. The damp flannel would then be pressed against the paper while I counted and soon took little peeks underneath to see if it was ready. Once confident, all would be removed and revealed. I would look at the colourful little design in the mirror (now back-the-front again) thinking that it looked good on me. It would then be time to go and kick the football outside again, burning off energy from the lollies.
None of my family had tattoos and there were really none around me to check out up-close as I grew up. They were viewed as the domain of rough and shady characters; perhaps this added to my intrigue of them. As a rock’n’roll loving teenager, I was always looking at pictures of my favourite bands and enjoyed checking out any tattoos they had. The general rule was: the harder the band rocked, the more tattoos they had. As I took hold of my independence and became of legal age to get a tattoo, I thought for a long time about what design I would get. I didn’t really know what I wanted, but I knew I just wanted one. I was keen to emulate my favourite rockers in as many ways I could.
I befriended a bikie chick that worked at the local photo shop on the corner of my street. When I picked up my photos of bands and friends from being developed, Cassandra would comment on them and we’d talk a little rock’n’roll. She had a few tatts including one inside her bottom lip. Her business card was a picture of a pistol with a big headline “Cassandra Shoots Photos” – so we hired her to shoot us on our wedding day! She even drove us there in her old blue Jaguar, swerving madly across lanes; weaving in and out of traffic since we were running late.
When I mentioned to Cassandra that I wanted to get a tattoo, she told me to go and see AJ (Adrian Jarrett). I did… and (between you and me) he scared the shit out of me! He was a large bikie dude who often wore a huge gold bone through his nose with a ruby in the end of it. His head was shaved into a Mohawk and not only did he have full sleeves and tatts on the sides of his head, his face was heavily tattooed as well. When I walked into his shop, he greeted me with, “What the fuck do you want?” I’d never walked into a tatt shop before. Going in to sort out your first tattoo is scary enough, but I guess I knew no different and assumed all tatt studios were like this. I told him that Cassandra told me to come and see him as I’m ready to get my first tatt. His demeanour changed in an instant and I was now welcome. As I waited to discuss my design with him, I soaked up the smells and buzzing noise of the studio, while looking at the flash designs on the walls.
Bring it to your favorite tattoo artist
Kate Moss reveals new nautical style tattoo
'It's definitely a little anchor,' he said. 'Her tattoo is very basic, as small as it could be and just a ten-minute job,' said the artist, who works in Metalmorphosis in the London branch of Selfridges.
Relentless Tattoo is located at 608 12th Street in Downtown Sacramento, California.
Rihanna's tattoo artist tells Life & Style about her gun tattoo
"She flew me out to LA for the day because she was getting a tattoo for one of her friends as a birthday gift. She'd been toying with the idea for a while to get another tattoo. I've done other tattoos for her; I added stars to the ones she already had.
"So when I was done with her friend, we talked about what she wanted to get. She was doing research on what would look good, and I drew up a couple of things on the back of her arm, but they weren't the perfect one.
"I'm a big advocate of guns. So I said, 'How about a gun?' I printed out a picture of a gun that I thought would look good, and she loved it. We were thinking of putting it on her finger next to her wrist, or on her shoulders. She loved that, but it took away from her face, and you know, she's a CoverGirl, so we couldn't do that!
"So we put it under her ribs and she loved it. It took about 15 minutes. She didn't complain while I did the tattoo.
"We also talked about her getting a skull and crossbones, but she didn't love it."
Asked why he thinks RiRi got the gun tattoo, given the assault charges against her boyfriend, Chris Brown, BangBang said, "If I had to say why she
got it, it's because she kicks ass and everybody supports her! She can do whatever she wants. She's one of the nicest and sweetest people I know. She has a lot of really good friends supporting her.