Cleaning Out My Inbox: January Edition

One of my New Year's resolutions is to share more of what gets sent to me from various parties looking to promote their tattoo-related projects. What follows are a few items that have been lingering in my inbox, and may be of interest to our readers:

This is "Pencil and Ink: A Film About Justin Klein":


Pencil & Ink : a film about Justin Klein from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Justin Klein is a New York-based tattoo artist. You can see some of his work here on his Facebook gallery.

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Occasionally I get e-mails introducing me to new shops, or at least shops that are new to me. Suzanne Sawyer is co-owner of Relentless Ink Custom Tattoo in Newburgh, New York. She writes:

"...Thought Id let you know about a newish (March of 2011) local tattoo studio in Orange County, NY, that my husband and I own. Not sure how you get your inspiration for the blog posts and I notice you do write several! Just wanted to point you over to http://www.facebook.com/RelentlessInkTattoo. We have several artists, a couple of whom have been published in tattoo mags or become Featured Artists on sites like Ink Army (Check out owner and my hubby Hal Sawyer & also Jack Hammah) and do tattoo conventions all over, soon Hal and Keith Zahra will be working Tattoolapalooza in Miami."

Tattoolapalooza, actually, is going on this weekend.

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Alexei Nunes, a scriptwriter and producer for Mellow9 Productions, reently pointed me to a video of their interview with well-known Tattoo Artist, Lou Molloy, as part of there "9 Scoop" Interview Series. Check it out here:

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I received a heads up from NOWNESS.com, which is presenting an exclusive extract from filmmaker Ryan Hope’s documentary Skin. The film follows five skin-art collectors on their journey to be tattooed with designs created by major contemporary artists like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince. Check it out here.

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And finally, a fan named Shannon messaged me:

You might dig these videos - photorealistic animated tattoo adventures!
The making-of video is pretty cool too.
http://www.joshuafrankel.net/Kabar.html

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Thanks for checking these out, and have a great weekend!

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Newsday on Tuesday?

Newsday on best-tatto-design?

So winter makes me consider desperate measures. As I've trickled down to two or three posts a week (believe me, it hurts me more than it hurts you), I've occasionally toyed with the idea of reporting on other things in the tattoo community, other than the Bill-o-centric encounters I have in the City That Never Sleeps. I've even gone so far as to write a few posts and then never published them. The reality is, however, I am facing a scarcity of inkspotting occurrences, and I'm just going with the flow.

So, here we go.....

I recently got an email from someone representing a Guide to Art Schools website, listing best-tatto-design among the top 45 tattoo blogs. Considering how specific the site is, I'm honored to be included, especially among some of my favorite tattoo cyber-destinations. You check out the list here:
http://www.guidetoartschools.com/library/best-tattoo-blogs.

And since we're throwing around the work "Best, " I received word about a  new tattoo reality show currently in production for the Oxygen Network. Its working title is "Best Ink" and it sounds rather compelling. Check it out:

Capturing the drama and culture of the tattoo scene, "Best Ink"(WT) will feature approximately 12 top tattoo artists as they compete for a cash prize and bragging rights. These unique artists will produce bona fide masterpieces on skin -- something rarely seen in the competition world. The permanent artwork will be created for -- and on -- real people in a variety of challenges to showcase the artists' talents. Only one artist will win the ultimate prize of BEST INK (WT)

Casting details are here.



And, finally, in a creepy news story, but one that certainly nipped at my curiosity, the artists at Sacred Art Tattoo Studio in Tucson are getting some publicity, as they had the dubious distinction of tattooing Jared Loughner last fall. Not to feed into the media frenzy surrounding this guy, but I was curious, so I just had to look into it. Read all about it here.

So what do you think? Should best-tatto-design Newsday becoming a regular feature? Feel free to comment below.

A Diversion: A Tattoo Across Time

Well, folks, at one point I had over fifty days of material backlogged, but I've been rationing of late, and tattoobernating a bit. I've less than seven days of posts remaining and this cold weather has everyone hiding their ink because of the cold.

So, until it heats up, check out this piece by writer Shonna Milliken Humphrey in tomorrow's New York Times.

It's a very nice essay and it is ink-related.

Read more about the author here.

Cleaning Out My Inbox: Ugliest Tattoos

I'm cleaning out my inbox over at best-tatto-design and am sifting through the gold.

My lovely wife Melanie sent me this link back in June (yeah, June).

So get your fill out of Ugliest Tattoos.

Tattoos and Poetry: A Call

I received an e-mail today from Claire Askew, across the pond, who runs a publishing house over in the U.K.

Among her many projects (Read the Miagazine and One Night Stanzas), she is working on an anthology of poems about tattoos and tattooing. They're seeking submissions from poets all over the world, and I encourage people to contribute.

Check here for more information.

Just Added to the Blogroll.....

Check out A Tattooed Blog by Noel Boyd and a site for Free Tattoo Designs called Tattoos and Art.

The Literary Tattoo

I didn't spot a shred of ink today, so let's look elsewhere for a moment.

A great site that I love to visit regularly is Contrariwise, an awesome blog devoted to literary tattoos.

On a related matter, a friend sent me the link to the following article about literary tattoos that I thought I'd share with everyone here at best-tatto-design.

In 2003, the author Shelley Jackson announced that she would publish a 2,095-word short story called “Skin” on participants who agree to be tattooed with randomly assigned words from her text. The tattooees alone will read the story, which will be complete when the last commissioned word is inscribed on its bearer, sometime in the next few years. It will not be published on paper. Jackson asks applicants (she has many more than she can use) to read her novel, The Melancholy of Anatomy, to ensure that they like her writing before committing to a word, because “Skin” is what she calls a “hidden track” (in the pop-music sense) of the book; both explore the relationship between words and the body.

Read the rest of the article here.

Knuckle Tattoos

Just a production note, one of my June posts has been picked up by a site devoted solely to knuckle tattoos. Click on the title of this post to check out the site here. I exchanged e-mails with Nathan, who runs the site, and he had kind words to say about best-tatto-design. Should I run across any more knuckle ink in the future, I'll be sure to send them his way.

Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium

A visitor recently chimed in about a blog similar to best-tatto-design, but with a more specialized slant. It is called Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium, and it's pretty cool. Check it out when you get a chance. If you forget, I added it to the sidebar for future reference.