Anyone have Tattoos?

[Antlerface]

Brutal Black is fucking awesome.

That dude looks like a fucking manic, and probably is, but I dig that shit a ton.

[D.o.S.]

The weird thing is that tattoos appear to be necessary-but-not-sufficient for outsider status.

Sleeves are part of an 'arms race,' though I don't begrudge anyone for having them if that's what they want.

Not that I disagree with the bit I took out, but to this point I'm not sure you're totally in the correct here (I know you're certainly not correct in the other bit, Mr. fled to southeast asia to avoid interment, but that's another can of soup), insofar as it seems the really extreme body modification people don't seem to give a shit (this obviously varies from person to person, which is an important note when you're talking about groups of hundreds on a planet with billions) but I guess the moms and dads of the former mt. dew army and the #thoughtful creatives with the portriature might?

[D.o.S.]

That said I think the "thing" to Brutal Black thing is ultimately that it's blackwork done in a faux Polynesian style (there are undoubtedly other cultures with the same sort of tattoo styling but this is the one I'm familiar with) for people who don't want to travel to Samoa (for example) to get a traditional bodysuit done with a hammer.

[D.o.S.]

Tattoos meant so much to me 17 years ago. I could give you some really passionate opinions and explanations on tattoos in general and the ones I had/wanted. Now, if I woke up tomorrow and all my tattoos were gone I wouldn't care at all. I don't hate them or want to pay to have them laser removed or anything, I just don't care at all and haven't gotten a new one in probably 10 years. I got tattoos right at the point where having any visible ones was probably edgy, but before everyone got whole sleeves at a time. I've just kind of got the punk/rockabilly special of a smattering of a bunch of tattoos all over, they're not connected and coherent. Anytime I say I would get rid of mine in front of anyone who's super into tattoos though, they act like someone who lives in NYC if you told them living there wasn't for you. Like I'm a quitter and they won. It just seems so meaningless to anything in my life in any real way at this point. Same way I don't care about band shirts or bumper stickers anymore. No opinion or judgement about what anyone else does with them.

You sound like a little like Christian Fletcher from the video someone else posted (not in an insulting way. In some ways I agree with you). Which reminds me: his part from Wave Warriors IV is still awesome.

[Kacey Y]

You sound like a little like Christian Fletcher from the video someone else posted (not in an insulting way. In some ways I agree with you). Which reminds me: his part from Wave Warriors IV is still awesome.

No offense taken. I don't have it codified as a life philosophy or anything, but I guess I tend to follow the "take what you need, leave what's not helpful" approach to things. I don't see trying something out and not committing to it forever as a weakness. Some people do, they take it as an attack on their being. I try to avoid those people as much as possible. Same with the types that quit something and view everyone still there as idiots who haven't woken up yet. Goes in all directions. People with tattoos who think untattooed people are bland, people with no tattoos that think people with are low class, AA people who think everyone drinking hasn't realized their an alcoholic yet, people who do mushrooms that think everyone who doesn't want to are repressed or unenlightened, atheists who think christians are idiots and vice versa, people in music scenes who think musicians who start new bands in different genres are sellouts or posers. I get latching onto something external for meaning and direction, that's some foundational human being stuff right there. It can be used to good ends. I just don't get down on turning it into a reason to judge or fuck with other people at all.

[samzadgan]

hmmm...just read that Brutal Black article...i mean, each to their own, but i don't get it.

maybe I'm too old or too mainstream or whatever. But I've always thought tattooing is about the art and how you stretch the limitations of artwork on skin. When i look at the pictures, the actual work itself doesn't do anything for me, kinda looks like a mistake. I also disagree that tattooing these days has lost its roots because its been commercialized...im happy that more people are getting tattoos, because the explosion has meant that more people can actually make a good living from tattooing and they deserve it. 30-40 years ago you could work your ass off being a great tattoo artist, but still make fuck all money, now the rewards are starting get closer to the effort, which is a good thing.

Sure there are more people and its becoming a mainstream etc etc, but its also a very personal thing, so although it may be fashion for some people for a lot of people its not, and you wouldn't necessarily put them in the same bucket.

also...the tribal ritual bullshit...i hate when people start referring to shit in the past and saying oh, that was the real thing...the reality is, if those island nations had a means of doing the tattoos in a less painful way, they would have done it...guaranteed. No one likes pain...they did what they with what they had...if you have a better way of doing things now, then you use it, its called progress. The ritual can still exist...the ritual for those tribal tattoos wasn't about how much pain you go under the, ritual was the stage of life or coming of age and progressing in some hierarchy in a tribe.

Sometimes I feel like westerners have too easy of a life and they start making up ways of creating pain and hardship just to feel they are alive.

anyway...i'm rambling...so ill just stop...

[OldGeorge]

I agree with you as far as tattoos be "mainstream" and that's good. Almost half my friends are tattoo artists who chose that as a way to make a living with art that was realistic. I'm also happy that because I have visible tattoos I'm not the scum of the earth and can hold down a great job that pays for my indulgence into musical equipment and paint(that shit is soooo expensive).

I disagree with your comment on western culture to some degree. Some rituals very well may have been about the pain. But that pain may not be about being hurt. For an example the yakuza would do body suits for an hour a day every day till they were done and it was a little about the pain, but being silent through it. Same with the marks of gar and circumcision for Aboriginal tribes. So in a sense you're not all correct in that. Yes it was about ascendance but through pain in many cases.

I will say I hate when people get on the "that was the real way" kicks... I know folks that use lidocaine when they get tattooed. While I feel like I should feel the tattoo and "earn" it, cool for them finding a way to get what they want without having too...

That's just me though =)

[samzadgan]

I agree with you as far as tattoos be "mainstream" and that's good. Almost half my friends are tattoo artists who chose that as a way to make a living with art that was realistic. I'm also happy that because I have visible tattoos I'm not the scum of the earth and can hold down a great job that pays for my indulgence into musical equipment and paint(that shit is soooo expensive).

I disagree with your comment on western culture to some degree. Some rituals very well may have been about the pain. But that pain may not be about being hurt. For an example the yakuza would do body suits for an hour a day every day till they were done and it was a little about the pain, but being silent through it. Same with the marks of gar and circumcision for Aboriginal tribes. So in a sense you're not all correct in that. Yes it was about ascendance but through pain in many cases.

I will say I hate when people get on the "that was the real way" kicks... I know folks that use lidocaine when they get tattooed. While I feel like I should feel the tattoo and "earn" it, cool for them finding a way to get what they want without having too...

That's just me though =)

ahh...you're probably right...i was just having an old man rant...

i do agree with the "earn it" sentiment...but i wouldn't go out of my way to feel it more...and if there was some kind of Novocain laced paint out there that delivered a similar end result, id probably be up for it....for me the end result and having something beautiful on my body is the aim.

i liken the ritual thing to my use of fountain pens...i don't use normal pens, only fountain pens. I do that because yes, i like the ritual of having the right paper notebooks and filling the pen with ink and mixing inks and finding new colours etc. but the end result is having something nice in my hands and enjoying the process of writing. Now, there are so many ways of actually filing a fountain pen, some of the old mechanisms were shit, fraught with spillage issues. I, like the majority of others, will avoid those pens with those filing mechanisms, unless we are buying purely for displaying the pen with no intention of writing with it...for the most part if we are using it, we will get some kind of adapter for a better (modern) mechanism.

I guess my point is, ritual and "the way things were" is great, and i'm big believer in that, but if i can maintain the real essence of the ritual and end result whilst improving it, then i would be silly/illogical not too...but that's just me maybe.

[D.o.S.]

I dig crimson ritual.

[actual]

The stripes that one 'brutal' dude got are pretty cool. Do they fall under a certain style or like genre?

[Iommic Pope]

I dig crimson ritual.

Highlighted for hilarity.

[D.o.S.]

The stripes that one 'brutal' dude got are pretty cool. Do they fall under a certain style or like genre?

Screenshot? I'm at work can't watch.

[samzadgan]

I dig crimson ritual.

you're on the list

[actual]

These. Also he's wearing two pairs of pants. Two.

[D.o.S.]

It's blackwork. Brutal blackwork, even.