Pounded Ink – News

Principal Censors Newspaper’s Articles About Tattoos
By Joanna Brenner
Published : October 16, 2009

MISSOURI – Timberland High School Principal Winston Rogers is refusing to give the editors of the student newspaper an explanation for why he required replacement of a story in the second issue of their paper that included ads and an article about tattoos.

The original page included one story and an editorial, the story investigating the health risks associated with getting tattoos and the editorial discussing the meaning of tattoos. The students also obtained two tattoo parlor ads they wanted to publish. The principal initially prior reviewed and flagged all four elements for changes. Rogers requested that the students add quotes that portrayed the “conservative” side of the first article � specifically from employers who are turned off by interviewees with tattoos. Though the students made the required changes, ultimately only the ads were permitted to print. The Wolf’s Howl was distributed Oct. 9 with a final page that was pulled together with photos from the school’s Homecoming at the last minute to avoid blank space.

“We went down Wednesday afternoon to talk to principal and he said he wasn’t concerned about the articles, he just wanted to make sure we showed the other side of the story,” said Nikki McGee, co-editor of The Wolf’s Howl. “Thursday was our layout night, and we thought we were ready to go.”

On Friday morning, Rogers reviewed the issue with his original edits included and decided the final page needed to be pulled, without providing any explanation.

“He asked us to just trust him, and that it was being pulled because of the principal’s discretion,’” McGee said.

Rogers did not respond to calls by press time.

Last school year administrators at Timberland objected to students’ decision to accept a church’s ad with an anti-abortion message. After the ad initially appeared, administrators demanded that the students pull the ad from future editions and refund the church’s payment. McGee said since last year’s controversy, Rogers has required that he review each issue of the paper before it is distributed. However, the standard for high school publications set by the Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier does require school officials show they have reasonable justification for censoring an article, according to Mike Hiestand, legal consultant for the Student Press Law Center.

“A huge mistake that many school officials make is that they believe Hazelwood gives them an unlimited license to censor,” Hiestand said. “Hazelwood did lower the bar … but it did not eliminate that bar. The problem that we have here is that [Rogers] has not provided any sort of justification for his censorship, and that’s unlawful.”

The Hazelwood standard does not require school officials to provide much information, but they have to provide at least some, Hiestand said.

Hiestand said that hopefully Rogers will realize he needs to provide the students with an explanation. McGee is worried because she believes hot topics like tattooing are what pique students’ interests.

“Controversial topics really should not be avoided in the high school paper; especially controversial topics with reasonable coverage,” McGee said. “I think it’s extremely unfair with this tattoo subject … all of our surrounding schools are covering it, and it’s such a big trend of 2009, especially in regards to teens.”

Source : Student Press Law Center

Child’s Tattoo : Disfigurement Or Poor Parenting?
By Tracie Cone
Published : October 1, 2009

FRESNO, CA – Enrique Gonzalez wanted his 7-year-old son to have a gang tattoo, like the many that adorn his own body. About that there is no dispute.

The question that a judge says she will decide Friday is whether placing a tattoo on a minor is a permanent and painful disfigurement worthy of the potential life sentence that comes with a mayhem conviction, or is it something less?

Are there other procedures children routinely undergo that are decidedly more painful and permanent?

The tattooing case became international news in April, not just for the quarter-size dog paw print on the right hip of the young boy, but for what the paw represented: Fresno’s most notorious criminal street gang, the Bulldogs.

Gonzalez and fellow gang member Travis Gorman were arrested on charges that also include street terrorism with enhancements related to gang activity. Placing the gang tattoo on the child, prosecutors allege, is a recruitment tool that furthers the gang’s criminal enterprise.

For three years, the Fresno police have been engaged in tactical warfare with the Bulldogs, sweeping through neighborhoods and calling the media to announce arrests. The resulting stories make the Bulldogs as infamous as the town’s original Bulldogs—the mascot and moniker of California State University, Fresno—are beloved.

Nothing, however, has garnered as much widespread publicity in recent years as a father, his son and the paw print tattoo.

“I had mothers calling me from Australia wanting to get this guy,” said Det. Jesse Ruelas, who investigated the case.

Law enforcement officials threw the book at Gonzalez and Gorman.

But testimony at the preliminary hearing this week to establish which charges the evidence supports gave pause to Fresno County Superior Court Judge Hillary Chittick.

A defense attorney, seeking to undermine the potential mayhem charge, raised the issue of a painful, irreversible, and increasingly controversial medical procedure with the boy’s pediatrician, a witness for the prosecution.

“Which is more painful, circumcision or a tattoo?” asked public defender Manuel Nieto about the practice performed on a decreasing number of newborn boys.

“I would guess the circumcision,” Dr. Carmela Sosa responded.

“Do you recommend it to your patients?”

“There may be medical reasons that develop, but not on a routine baby.”

For decades many mothers have pierced the ears of their infant babies, a practice Sosa said also is painful. And in some cultures the tattoo has been a symbolic rite of passage, given to children as protection from the gods or to identify membership in a clan or social group.

It is a misdemeanor in California to tattoo anyone under the age of 18. But prosecutor William Lacy conferred with gang investigators before applying the more sinister charge of aggravated mayhem, which California statutes describe as “extreme indifference to the physical or psychological well-being of another person” that intentionally causes disfigurement “unlawfully and maliciously.”

Conviction means life in prison with the possibility of parole.

“It seems to the court,” Judge Chittick said as she asked Monday for a few days to think, “that mayhem requires a certain level of bodily injury, and I’m not sure a quarter-sized tattoo meets that.”

Disfigurement doesn’t have to be permanent to qualify as mayhem, says law professor Laurie Levenson, director of the Center for Ethical Advocacy at Loyola Law School. Gonzalez could argue that he didn’t intend to harm his son, she said, but that won’t necessarily take the life sentence off the table either.

“It’s an interesting issue,” Levenson said. “I don’t think kids belong to their parents. You can give a child the haircut you want him to have, but you can’t permanently disfigure a child.”

Gonzalez granted his son’s request for the tattoo because the son begged “I want to be like you,” the defense says. But the prosecution says Gonzalez held the boy down while Gorman forcibly applied it.

Either way, says Levenson, “I don’t know if children can readily give permission for a tattoo.”

In court this week Gonzalez’ estranged wife, Tequisha Oloizia, testified that her son suddenly refused to change clothes in front of her after he returned from an Easter break visit with his father. “I thought it was a boy thing,” she said.

A few weeks later, as he lay stretching in his pajamas, she saw a black mark on her son’s hip.

Gonzalez told her the tattoo was “the result of a misunderstanding” and promised to have it covered with flesh-colored ink, she said.

Instead, this month the boy began laser removal at a local doctor’s office, performed after a topical application of painkiller and a local injection of lidocaine.

Souce : Mercury News

Texas Has State-Sanctioned Murder
By PZ Myers
Published : September 30, 2009

TEXAS – The story of Cameron Todd Willingham (via Digby) ought to be read by everyone. Willingham seems to have been a kind of Texan dumbass, an uneducated, wife-beating piece of work, but he was also the father of three children, who he, by all accounts, loved. Those kids died in a house fire. Forensic ‘experts’ declared the fire an arson, Willingham was arrested, tried, and convicted of murder, and was executed.

Only problem: he didn’t do it. The fire experts were good ol’ boys who were operating on folklore and fairy tales about how fires propagated; real experts have looked at the scene and since declared that it was an accidental fire. Nobody killed those little girls, but their father was killed for their deaths.

That’s not the most disturbing part of the story to me. You have to watch these videos of Judge John Jackson (he was prosecutor in the case, and is now a judge). He openly admits that the evidence for arson was weak, and that he looked at the circumstances to determine Willingham’s guilt. Those circumstances? Willingham was a low-class ruffian with tattoos of skulls who like heavy metal music. Therefore, he was probably a satanist. Therefore, he probably killed his children.

I’m not joking. That was the basis for this smug cracker’s determination of guilt, that led directly to his execution. Why not just criminalize tattoos and Metallica? It would make it easy to round up the riff-raff and exterminate them.

The state of Texas murdered an innocent man, and we can see the whole chain of incompetence, bigotry, and cowardice that led to the tragedy, from this ass of a prosecutor to Governor Perry, who refused to heed the evidence of malfeasance. Why aren’t all of them being impeached or fired, and facing criminal charges in a court of law? Is it because they don’t have any tattoos and listen to patriotic tripe from Lee Greenwood, Brooks & Dunn, and Tim McGraw?

End the death penalty everywhere. Drum the red-necked blundering boobs out of office, at the very least.

Source : Pharyngula

Tattoo Parlor Offering Free Ink For A Good Cause
By Tammy Vigil
Published : September 30, 2009

DENVER, CO – Pink ribbons have long symbolized a solidarity against breast cancer. And you see them all over-from lapel pins, to bumper stickers, a giant one even decorates Invesco Field.

But soon, you’ll see more of them on people’s skin.

A Federal Heights tattoo parlor is offering free ribbon tattoos as a way to show support to those who are battling, battled or have lost their fight to the devastating disease.

Shane Adair of 5280 Ink has created 30,000 tattoos in his career. But none mean more than the ones he tattoos for people like Jamie Brosteun of Westminster.

“I want to give the best tattoo because it’s really significant,” says Adair. Brosteun’s mother is battling breast cancer that has spread to her liver.

“It means a lot to me to get one because my mom is very sick,” she says. “The doctors, as of last Friday, said there’s nothing they can do for her, except make her more comfortable.”

So Brosteun will show a symbol of support on her skin – a pink ribbon along with three little letters that mean so much: MOM.

“I love her very much,” she says.

Breast cancer also colored the life of Reni sSoto.

“I lived in a cloud for a year. It was so difficult and hard to accept and absorb,” says Soto. But now she’s weeks away from a milestone in breast cancer survival.

“What better way to celebrate the 5th anniversary than getting a tattoo and raise awareness,” says Soto.

It’s a tattoo that’s a daily reminder of a fight triumphant.

“I’m getting “Faith” underneath it. I kept my faith through the process. Every time I look down I remember what I went through,” she says proudly.

The free ribbon tattoos will be available every Saturday through October. But you have to make an appointment.

The free tattoo is a basic ribbon. But you can add a name or another design to it for a small fee – between $20 to $30. Normally, the tattoo would cost $60.

Source : KDVR Denver

DeShawn Stevenson Neck Tattoo Gives Props To Honest Abe
By Bill Freehling
Published : September 30, 2009

DeShawn Stevenson appears to be a fan of Abraham Lincoln, and word is spreading fast.

DeShawn Stevenson showed up at training camp for the Washington Wizards this week sporting a neck tattoo of Lincoln between two number “5s.” Lincoln is on the $5 bill.

Internet searches to see DeShawn Stevenson’s new neck tattoo quickly went crazy. They’re still the fourth-most common search term on Google.

It remains to be seen whether the 28-year-old DeShawn Stevenson will get as much attention for his play as he has this week for the neck tattoo.

The 6-foot-5, 218-pound guard is entering his ninth year in the NBA after coming into the league right out of high school. DeShawn Stevenson’s career averages are 8.6 points per game and 2.4 rebounds per game.

Not bad. But not the kind of numbers that get you the search traffic that DeShawn Stevenson got this week for the Abe Lincoln neck tattoo.

Source : Examiner

Jessica Alba To Remove Neck Tattoo
Published : September 29,2009

LONDON, ENGLAND – While Hollywood stars like Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, Lindsay Lohan are adding to their body art every now and then, actress Jessica Alba seems to have got tired of her neck tattoo.

The ‘Fantastic Four’ star had got the body art on the back of her neck as a ‘bonding experience’ with her mother and aunt two years ago but it appears that she has got wary of the etching and wants to remove it.

The noticeably faded daisy and ladybird suggests the 28-year-old star is undergoing laser surgery to get rid of the design, Dailymail online reported. Laser surgery takes between three to 15 treatments, which take place at least six weeks apart, to remove all trace of the tattoos.

Alba has two remaining tattoos – the Sanskrit word ‘Padma’ on her wrist and a bow on her lower back. Alba is currently filming romantic comedy ‘Valentine’s Day’ with Kutcher, as well as a second role in crime thriller ‘Machete’.

Source : Indiopia

Man Charged After Crashing Into Front Of Tattoo Shop
By George Anderson
Published : September 29, 2009

KENNETT, MO – A Kennett man is currently being held on a $50,000 cash-only bond following an automobile accident on Saturday evening that caused severe damage to a local business and left another local resident with serious injuries.

According to Kennett Fire Department Capt. Paul Spain, an accident call came in at approximately 10 p.m., on Saturday.

Kennett Police Chief Barry Tate said the accident occurred as Michael Shannon, 23, of Kennett, was traveling on St. Francis Street when he passed out, lost control, and veered to the right, hitting Perry Tucker, 24, of Holcomb, Mo., and crashing into the Ink Emporium tattoo shop.

Police Chief Tate said Shannon was suspected to be driving under the influence, after possibly huffing some dust remover.

Tate said that in his statement, Shannon said he was driving westbound on St. Francis Street when he blacked out. He said he remembered waking up in the front seat of his car.

According to the police chief, Tucker suffered serious injuries, including a “very deep laceration” on his right knee, going from the front of the leg to the back. He was airlifted to Memphis, Tenn., where he is being treated.

According to prosecutors, Shannon is being charged with second-degree assault with a motor vehicle and driving while suspended. He is currently being held at the Dunklin County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond.

Tate said more charges could be filed pending the final results of a drug screening performed regarding the possibility of Shannon driving under the influence.

According to Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen P. Sokoloff, Shannon could face between two and seven years in the penitentiary.

The owner of The Ink Emporium, David Samples, of Kennett, said he was outside when the incident occurred.

Source : SE Missorian

Crack Down On Teen Tattoo Parties
Published : September 28, 2009

PHILADELPHIA, PA – Illegal tattoo parties have been raided in the city’s Frankford section, part of a growing trend in the Delaware Valley.

Investigators say the parties could pose a potential health risk and they’re being advertised on the Internet, reported Fox 29’s Dave Schratwieser.

Police, health inspectors and investigators from Licenses and Inspection have broken up four unlicensed tattoo parties in the past month, including three this weekend. Making matters worse, the customers who are getting inked are underage.

“16-years-old, 17-years-old, sometimes even younger than that, 14-years-old,” says Kevin Daly, chief of L&I’s Nuisance Task Force.

In Pennsylvania, the law states that you must be 18 or older to get a tattoo. Otherwise, you have to have written permission from a parent or guardian who must be present.

On Saturday, police shut down a seafood and soul food restaurant in Frankford after they found ads for a tattoo party online. That came after they found posters advertising free tattoo parties posted all over the city.

“The one we did Saturday night was craigslist, the one we did on Parkside Avenue at the beginning of the month, they had put posters that were scattered all over the city,” says Daly. “Fairmount Park, throughout the city. ‘Free tattoos, tattooing available, tattoo parties.’ There’s no sanitary conditions or a controlled environment.”

None of the four places that were shut down were licensed.

Police say they will continue to respond to complaints.

Source : My Fox Philly

Hulk Hogan And Girlfriend Get New Tattoos
By James Caldwell
Published : September 27, 2009

publications, including People Magazine, report that Hulk Hogan and his girlfriend each received tattoos during a weekend trip to Las Vegas. Hogan’s girlfriend, Jennifer McDaniel, reportedly had “Terry” inked on her wrist. Hogan’s real name is Terry Bollea.

Hogan simply had “I am that I am” tattooed on his forearm. The publications didn’t pick up on that being a reference to Hogan’s self-professed new Christian faith. One of the most profound passages in the Bible is God stating who He is after appearing before Moses, who asks who he is. “I AM THAT I AM” is God’s response translated into English. (Exodus 3:14)

Gossip publications also covered Hulk’s ex-wife, Linda, moving closer to a serious commitment with Charlie Tanner, who is in the age group of Linda and Hulk’s daughter, Brooke Hogan.

A “well-placed source” for FOX News’s gossip column says they “definitely plan on being together” for the long haul. Apparently the race is on for both Hulk and Linda to get married to their new love interests.

Source : PW Torch

Waiting Period Eliminated For Most Blood Donors Getting Tattoos
Published : September 25, 2009

NEW WINDSOR – Blood and platelet donors who previously had to wait a year after getting a tattoo before being able to donate again at Community Blood Services no longer will have to wait to donate as long as they were tattooed at a licensed facility under sterile conditions.

“This is great news for our community’s critically low blood supply,” said Garrett Allen, call center manager. Allen noted that more than 500 donors who wanted to continue donating were deferred during past year.

“If each of those donors had donated at least twice a year, that means we probably lost 1000 pints of lifesaving blood,” Allen said.

Allen is encouraging anyone who has been tattooed during the past year to call the blood center at 201-251-3703 (NJ) or 845-220-2030 (NY) to schedule their appointment today and continue to help save the lives of patients at their community hospitals. Walk-ins are also welcome but an appointment is needed to donate platelets.

“Every blood donation can save up to three lives,” he said, noting the return of tattooed blood donors could help ease the blood shortage.

Allen said anyone who gets a tattoo from and unlicensed facility, or in non-sterile conditions, still must wait a year before returning to donate.

Community Blood Services provides blood and blood products to more than 30 hospitals in northern New Jersey , southern New York State and parts of New York City . It operates convenient donor centers in Paramus and Lincoln Park in New Jersey and in New Windsor and Warwick in New York , as well as mobile blood drives throughout both states.

Whole blood donors must be 17-75 years old (16 with parental consent) and weigh at least 110 pounds. Donors also receive complimentary cholesterol, glucose, hemoglobin and blood pressure screenings.

Source : Hudson Valley Press Online