City Council Will Address Tattoo Parlors, SONGS Concerns
by Adam Townsend
Published : May 16, 2011

CALIFORNIA – The San Clemente City Council is slated to decide Tuesday where tattoo parlors will be allowed in the city.

City staffers put the item on the agenda in response to a business owner who wanted to open a tattoo parlor in a space on Del Mar. The Planning Commission shot down the idea on the grounds that a tattoo shop was too dissimilar to other businesses on the street.

The business owner’s attorney contacted the city to further discuss the matter, according the to agenda staff report. As a result, the city attorney suggested that the council specifically address the issue with some code amendments.

The staff report states that the space the tattoo parlor owner wanted to occupy was subsequently leased to someone else, rendering the point moot in this specific case, however.

Also at the meeting will be a presentation by opponents of the continued operation of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Gary Headrick, the founder of the local San Clemente Green environmental group, had asked the council to add some space on the agenda to allow nuclear plant opponents to formalize their concerns in a cohesive series of specific points.

Also on the agenda:

The council is set to extend the lease of the concession stand at the end of the San Clemente Pier for another year. The leaseholder is Randy Raneses.

U-Haul on Pico Avenue wants to improve and enclose its storage facility on Calle Lago, a narrow cul-de-sac off North El Camino Real, across from the Miramar Theater. The council will hold a public hearing on the matter.

The city will tweak its water use plan. State law requires all water providers to cut their water use by 20 percent by 2020. The city has already met that goal, moving from an average of 186 gallons per person, per day in the mid-1990s through 2005 to about 148 gallons per person, per day in 2010.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers, 100 Ave. Presidio.

Source : San Clemente Patch

Teen attacked and tattooed on forehead gets gift
by Adam Mertz
Published : May 16, 2011

OKLAHOMA CITY – A teenager attacked and tattooed on the forehead will now have that tattoo removed. Stetson Johnson, 18, was viciously attacked and had the word “Rapest” tattooed on his forehead last month.

Anticipation Tattoo Removal heard about what happened and decided to remove the ink for free.

“I feel very excited that it’s coming off,” Johnson said.

Anticipation Tattoo Removal says Stetson will be treated ever six weeks.

It will take a year of treatment to remove the tattoo.

“It’s a blessing to help him out and move forward and maybe change his life,” Jennifer Early said, Anticipation Tattoo Removal employee.

Del City Police arrested four people in connection to the incident.

Stetson says they beat him with a baseball bat and tattooed him on the head and chest.

The suspects are in custody facing charges of kidnapping and assault and battery.

Court records show they have all entered pleas of “not guilty.”

Source : KFOR

Employee fired for tattoos takes action
Published : May 16, 2011

WARWICK, RI – A local man is gathering support and getting ready to sue his former employer.

Nathan Hardisty was fired from the Walgreens at Hoxie Four Corners in Warwick because he reportedly has too many tattoos.

On Saturday, several people gathered outside the store to protest his firing.

The 26-year-old Warwick man says he was hired with tattoos showing, got great performance reviews and was even promoted to shift manager without any problems until a few weeks ago.

He says the store fired him after one customer complained about his tattoos.

Walgreens wouldn’t comment, only saying it’s their policy to not give out information about employee termination.

Source : WPRI

Is that legal? Ali Lohan, 17, gets star tattoo to match her sister Lindsay
Published : May 15, 2011

Despite being the younger sister of famously troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan she has so far remained on the straight and narrow.

But it seems Ali Lohan may share a touch of her big sister’s wild side, as she revealed a new star tattoo on his wrist today.

At just 17 it would be illegal for Ali to get a tattoo in her home state of California, and even in more lenient states she would need written permission from her parents

It’s easy to see where Ali found the inspiration for her new inking – it matches one of her sister’s many tattoos. And her mother Dina also sports a star in the same place.

There are also unconfirmed reports that this is not Ali’s only tattoo.

Last July, when she was just 16, Ali was seen with the words ‘bella vita’ tattooed on her back, identical to a tattoo her sister had six years ago.

Like Lindsay Ali began work at a young age, working as a model from the age of three.

She has appeared in a clutch of 24-year-old Lindsay’s films and also attempted to launch a failed career as a pop singer.

Ali has long been close to Lindsay, with the two enjoying pampering spa treatments together this week.

The Mean Girls actress is currently on a three year probation after Judge Stephanie Sautner sentenced her to a 120 day prison sentence as well as 480 hours of community service over a theft case over a stolen $2,500 (£1,527) necklace.

She avoided serving time behind bars by pleading no contest to the charges and is instead expected to serve her time in her Los Angeles home.

Lindsay and Ali also have a 14-year-old sister, Dakota, and a brother Michael, 23.

Source : Mail Online

Tattoo fundraiser for Red Cross’ Japan relief
by Chris McDaniel
Published : May 13, 2011

YUMA, AZ – Alliance Tattoo Lounge and Poisonous Pinups are teaming up to raise money for the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief Fund.

From noon to midnight on Saturday, the tattoo artists at the shop will donate 100 percent of the profits they make from tattoos to the Red Cross.

For a $60 donation, attendees will be given a unique Japanese-style tattoo in honor of the occasion.

About 27 tattoo designs have been created by artists James Pruitt and Tony Ochoa just for the event.

To keep the tattoos unique, only a limited number of each design will get inked on those who want a tattoo.

“You get a cool tattoo out of it so you’ll remember that you did something good,” said Meme Kunkel, Alliance Tattoo Lounge owner.

There will be live music by local reggae band ShantyTown Rockers at 6 p.m., entertainment, popcorn, food and drinks, and two pinup girl contests featuring local ladies — the first at 3 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m.

Those who want to donate to the fund, but do not want tattoos, are also welcome at the fundraiser, Kunkel added.

Tattoo Alliance Lounge, which shares the store with Poisonous Pinups, is located at 2615 E. 24th St. “They are hand in hand with us,” Kunkel said.

Source : Yuma Sun

Dallas tattoo artist marks Friday the 13th with an inking marathon
by Jason Sheeler
Published : May 13, 2011

DALLAS, TX – At Elm Street Tattoo’s Friday the 13th marathon, there’s only one tattoo on the menu.

Not surprisingly, the first person in line at the start of a 24-hour tattoo marathon has earlobes stretched to the size of Christmas ornaments. Rush Coleman, 18, also has black metal piercings like buckshot across his baby face and 20 tattoos climbing his athletic frame.

The Carrollton native and heavy-metal musician is waiting outside Elm Street Tattoos to get his 21st, the number 13 over a trio of Xs and the word “edge,” one of hundreds off the 13-theme menu. Coleman will get his new art at 12:01 a.m., kick-starting Friday the 13th.

For 18 years, Oliver Peck, Elm Street’s co-owner (with Dean Williams) and resident star tattoo artist, has been inking ones and threes every time Friday the 13th rolls around.

“I just put a 13 on myself one year and everyone wanted one,” he says, having a brief quiet moment inside a Sailor Jerry rum-sponsored Airstream trailer parked outside the studio.

Ten years ago, Peck started the tattoo marathons, and in 2008 the 39-year-old Lakewood resident entered the Guinness Book of World Records for most tattoos drawn in 24 hours — 415 — besting his ex-wife, Kat Von D, the LA Ink reality star and Jesse James’ fiancée.

(“Every time she does some dumb [expletive], TMZ calls me,” Peck says with a laugh.)

The record still stands.

Peck saw inked bikers as a child growing up in Fort Worth and “thought they were cool.”

“I always drew on everything — my skateboards, my T-shirts, my jeans in class. So why not on my body?”

Peck’s 5-foot-5 frame is now almost covered.

“Except my face and feet, I’m pretty solid,” Peck says, his ever-present toothpick bouncing with his words. His markings include “more than a hundred” number 13s scattered through the dense foliage. The digits pop up around a swallow swooping across his neck, sailor iconography such as anchors, faces on his chest, his dad’s name on his knuckles and random words such as “brisket.”

By 11:45 p.m. Thursday, the line had grown to more than 200 customers who would each pay $13 and a $7 “good luck tip.” Peck crosses through the crowd, which now has the look (cut-offs and heels on women, stiff ball caps and high-tops on men) and smell (pizza, cigarettes, gas generators, marijuana) of a music festival.

At midnight, the music inside Elm Street Tattoo radically changes from Cab Calloway to AC/DC. Peck goes to work on an art director from the Dallas Observer , and Coleman, disappointed he didn’t get Peck, sits down in front of artist Bubba Reeves. Coleman lays his head on a black leather cushion and commits to a blank stare, somewhat of a yoga face.

As the needle repeatedly punctures the skin behind his right ear, forming the tiny words and letters, Coleman’s eyes slightly tear, his sailboat-tatted arms dangle, his hands go limp and he drops his “Straight Edge” hat.

Two minutes later, Coleman screeches away in an orange ’60s muscle car, and Wylie native Porsche Diamond Moore is sitting down for her second 13 — nestled in a skull with a party hat.

“Only 24 hours to go!” Peck screams over the chorus of “Shoot to Thrill.”

Source : Dallas News

Debate heats up on where tattooed heads rest
by Marika Hill
Published : May 14, 2011

The return of sacred Maori remains is another step towards putting a barbaric colonial trade to rest, academics say.

But while they applaud the return, debate is heating up on where the tapu toi moko or sacred Maori tattooed heads will finally rest.

There are 101 preserved heads stored at Te Papa in Wellington. At least 50 are known to remain in overseas collections – though it is estimated up to 500 were traded to overseas buyers in the 19th century.

Manager of reparation Te Herekiekie Herewini said Te Papa hoped to begin the process of returning the heads and remains to hapu (tribes) over the next decade.

Herewini was part of a delegation who returned from Europe this week with three toi moko and skeletal remains or skulls from five other Maori.

Many of the toi moko, stored in non-acidic cardboard boxes at the national museum, are unidentified.

Tattoo specialists would study the distinctive moko designs to decipher which area they come from so they could eventually be returned for sacred burial, Herewini said.

DNA testing would be too invasive as a piece of the skull would have to be removed, he said.

Maori throughout New Zealand would also have to be tested due a narrow genetic gene pool. This would prove costly, he said.

However, some academics argue DNA testing would be a more effective and precise tool than relying on tattoo identification.

Waikato University Maori research professor Ngahuia Te Awekotuku said the trade of Maori remains was barbaric.

The technology was now available to begin the process of laying upoko tuhi, as she refers to them, to rest with their family.

”There’s people walking around the streets of Aotearoa, New Zealand, who have their blood, their genes, and that’s really special.”

One of her Masters students recently completed a thesis on using tooth enamel for testing DNA.

History professor Paul Moon, from Auckland University of Technology, said using tattoos to determine the origins of toi moko can be challenging.

Entrepreneurial Maori reportedly bolstered the head trade by manufacturing heads in the 19th century.

”People were given tattoos quickly or even in some cases allegedly after they had been preserved,” he said.

Enemy heads were also kept as war trophies and in other cases generic moko were used.

This could raise problems if trying to assign a particular design to any one tribe.

He agreed advances in DNA could assist in identification.

The toi moko were created for three reasons: to remember a loved one; as a trophy of an enemy, or for trade.

”These heads were highly revered, they were ancestral heads. They may have been brought out on special occasion and considered very sacred,” Moon said.

The heads were preserved by removing the brain and being stuffed with flax. It was then placed in an underground pit similar to a hangi to cook, before being dried.

Joseph Bank, who was traveling with Captain Cook in 1770, was believed to be the first to collect a toi moko. However, the trade took off in the 1820s due to European interest in them as a collectors item.

By end of 1820s supply exceed demand and Europeans increasingly felt it was not right to collect human remains.

However, the toi moko remained on display in New Zealand until the 1970s when when Maui Pomare and Dalvanius Prime led a movement to remove them from sight and bringing them home from overseas collections.

Source : Stuff

Man’s mug shot, ironic tattoo goes viral
by Rachel West
Published : May 12, 2011

LITTLE RIVER, SC  – A Little River man was arrested late Friday night, but it isn’t the crime he’s now famous for – it’s his tattoo.

Robert Norton Kennedy, 51, was arrested Friday night around 10 p.m. after spitting in a man’s face in front of an Horry County Police Officer. According to a report, Kennedy was playing loud music, prompting his neighbors to call police.

When the officer arrived, Kennedy decided to spit in the victim’s face. At that time, the officer arrested him for assault and battery, and carted him off to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center.

While the crime isn’t anything of note, Kennedy’s unique tattoo has generated a lot of online buzz.

In the middle of Kennedy’s forehead reads the following:

“WITH GOD ALL THINGS”

“ARE POSSIBLE”

“GOD LOVES YOU”

“Please forgive me if I say or do anything stupid, Thank You!”

“LOVES” is written in bright red ink.

Sgt. Robert Kegler, spokesman for the Horry County Police Department, said he has received phone calls from such places as the New York Post and other news agencies based in London, England.

Websites such as The Huffington Post and The Smoking Gun have posted Kennedy’s mug shot with quips about the tattoo and the incarceration.

According to online booking records with the J. Reuben Long Detention Center, Kennedy remains incarcerated, leaving everyone to wonder if he realizes just how popular his mug shot is.

Source : WMBF News

Tattoo Removal, Piercing Reversal Not So Easy
by Brittany Borghi
Published : May 11, 2011

POCATELLO, ID – Extreme piercings and tattoos can be a form of rebellion for some, for others they are just a form of expression. But what happens if a fire-breathing dragon or a gauged ear is not something you want anymore?

Doctors and tattoo artists alike say a lot of it depends on the person, the type of work they have had done and how much they are willing to pay.

Preston Brower added ink to Corinna Heneley’s lower back tattoo in his Pocatello shop, Think Ink. Henely had the work done at another shop and after it was all said and done, was not completely happy with how it looked. Brower said fixing a bad tattoo is doable if you are willing to get re-inked, but he has people come in to his shop asking if he does tattoo removal all the time, and he can – on small letters or shapes.

“But you can go over it with the tattoo needle itself and peroxide and that will help bring out the ink, because it fizzes up enough to bring the ink up, but you also have to pick at it too, like you tell people not to do, because that’s exactly what it’ll do – it’ll ruin the tattoo,” he said.

If the idea of a peroxide gun under your skin turns you off, you can always go the medical route. Laser tattoo removal has been around for a little while, but not many doctors will do it.

Dr. Earl Stoddard of the Idaho Skin Institute said he refuses to do laser removal because the results are never that clean.

“The way the laser works is it concentrates it’s energy on pigment. And tattoo (ink) is pigment. And it’s got to break up the pigment into small enough particles so that the body itself can come in and clean it up. But if the particles are too big the body can’t get to them, and most professional tattoos are robust enough, that the laser just can’t break up enough to be cleaned up. So that’s why they won’t go away. Now the appearance can be improved through laser treatments, but it may take many more treatments than people expect,” Stoddard said.

And that’s going to take a few particles out of your wallet. Depending on the size of your tattoo, a laser session could cost you nearly $500. Coming back for repeat treatments means you are spending thousands of dollars to de-ink yourself.

So what about an extreme piercing? Or women’s earlobes that have been stretched from the wear of heavy earrings? That should not be as hard to fix, right? Not so fast, said Plastic Surgeon Dr. Angier Wills.

“You draw some lines and try and figure out how you cut out the elongated abnormal looking part and use the remaining tissue to put it back together to look something like an earlobe. It’s like anything else I do, sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard,” said Wills.

Wills said you can also have a tattoo excised, where doctors physically cut it off of your body and stretch the skin over the wound, leaving you with a scar.

Stoddard, Wills and Brower all agree: Getting body art can be a gamble, but having it removed can be an even bigger one.

“That’s why you have to be sure of the artist you’re having doing it and be sure of what you want, because it is permanent,” Brower said.

Source : Local News 8

Kat Von D vs. Ex – Tattoo Turf War in Hollywood
Published : May 10, 2011

Kat Von D’s ex-husband is launching a not-so-secret plot to defeat her tattoo parlor – in fact, he tells TMZ, he just opened his own tat shop nearby … and he’s determined to beat her at her own game.

TMZ spoke with Oliver Peck – who worked alongside Kat for years – and he BLASTS his ex, telling us, they “make real tattoos” at his new place … unlike Kat’s “gimmicky tourist tattoos” a few blocks away at High Voltage.

Peck doesn’t stop there, insisting, “Nobody gets a good tattoo [at High Voltage]” – and urges ink enthusiasts to stop by his place instead … “We’re a real tattoo shop.”

Oliver took over ownership of True Tattoo in Hollywood this January – where they also filmed a handful of scenes for”Miami Ink” – but the shop didn’t open ’til this week because of remodeling.

This is what happens when you look like a cartoon super villain.

Source : TMZ