While listening to talk radio yesterday, heard about this case where a Mount Vernon Middle School science teacher, who had previously refused to remove his bible from the top of his desk, was branding his middle school students with a cross design.
Several students were branded during a science class in which Freshwater asked for volunteers who wanted to see how an electrical device in his classroom worked.
“He (one of the boys) didn't know it would be a cross and he didn't know it was going to hurt.”

I guess I must have been living under a rock - because I just read an article about te popularity of this trend or branding - and after doing further searching, found it's been around awhile and gaining in popularity.

Insurance clerk Paul Doling, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, had eight circles in two lines burnt onto his forearm, which took an hour to complete.
The 29-year-old said: "It was an incredible experience. There was smoke coming out of my arm and my burnt flesh smelled like a cross between chicken and bacon."
"Tattoos and piercings have become so common and mainstream now that people are looking for something different, which is why they are turning to branding.'
Click on the title of this post to check out more pictures of brandings.

Origami is the art of paper folding. It was first developed by the Chinese, but was later adopted by the Japanese. ...It is believed that Origami is a great way to help manage stress. Stress is a physiological problem. So origami engages both the mind and hands to produce a calming effect. The art of origami involves folding and creasing paper. This uses both sides of your brain. In my own case, I think trying to produce a piece of work from folded paper would have the opposite affect - as in stress me out! - click on the title of this post to see more of these interesting sculptures.

Happy Mother's Day everyone! - So in honor of the day, I'm writing about the woman that runs, owns, and tattoos at Mom's Tattoo Parlor located in south Austin. (Clicking on the title of this posting will take you to the site) Debi, Mom's owner, has been tattooing for over twenty years and has been in business at this location for the past five. She does all styles of tattooing. Debi treats her customers like family and really lives up to the Mom image.

I barely need to write anything about this tattoo picture. Think he likes the stooges? To the extreme....

I always wondered if any nut case would ever do this and found that this had actually happened a couple of years ago involving Mariah Carey-A man filed a lawsuit over his tattoo of the singing superstar.

On US TV show THE PEOPLE'S COURT, a man who had Carey's image tattooed onto his body felt the artist didn't do justice to her and was suing because the tattoo wasn't as beautiful as the GLITTER star that he adored.

When Carey heard about it she made a request to see it.

She says, "Somebody taped it for me because I didn't believe them. It was interesting.

"It's an honour that somebody would do that, but then I couldn't believe it made it to The People's Court. When I was growing up I watched The People's Court, and I'm like, 'I'm on The People's Court as a tattoo!'"

What is there about Amy Winehouse that fascinates society? I hear either the extreme criticism of her style and f'd up life to complete heartfelt sympathy and hope that this girl pulls it together. Everyone agrees she has a voice. Maybe this latest drug posession bust will wake this girl up. She is into the hard stuff from what I've read- heroin and crack. Can't get much worse than that.

She was arrested yesterday in connection with a January video that allegedly shows her doing drugs at a party at her north London home.

I recently rented Amy's DVD and she is amazing and sad and pulls at your hearstrings.

This one is kinda funny - but so freaking big! Defintately a conversation starter...The quality isn't the greatest but a funny tattoo like this probably shouldn't have a realistic feel to it- mort cartoony -

Hard to believe how many tattooed pig stories I run across without even searching for them! - this is an old story I found from 2005 -about

a tattoo artist working on a live pig at an organic art center outside Beijing Friday Aug. 19, 2005. Artists at the Art Farm tattoo anesthetized pigs to create works which are expected to be displayed in galleries once the pigs eventually die. The pigs, which are tattooed with designs ranging from the Louis Vuitton logo to Russian prison tattoos, are expected to live a longer than normal life since their increased value protects them from being killed for food.

Science is not my strong point so it's hard to understand the appeal of the art related to it and the desire to tattoo equations, etc. on your body but to each his own - I DID like the colorful artistic slant put on this (is it a DNA visual? ) - click on the title of the post to see a page full of science related tats.

This is a small example of the creative and mind teasing meticulous work of Billy Reynolds. To see and buy his work go to his site by clicking on the title of this post.
He creates realistic oil paintings from direct observation of clay models and sets that he construct himself this piece's perfection gives it the feel of a computerized image.

My favorite subject - dragons! amazing!

Click on the title to get to the site - make sure you read the previous post.

Click on the title of this post you to check out more work by Etcha - You will be amazed by the beautiful artwork done with this difficult tool. The picture I'm displaying here isn't as detailed as most of his pieces and I'll probably post more to entice you to check out the site -

I choose this one because it's easier to see on my blog but a lot of the pieces are unbelievable detailed. About this piece - "From the collection of ‘The Art of David Bollt’, my rendition of one of his flash tattoo pieces. This is one of the first ‘tattoo style’ pieces I attempted, and in fact is the second time I did this piece. Ironically, I destroyed the first one while trying to take apart the Etch A Sketch in an attempt to preserve and save it."

Amy Winehouse was arrested for an alleged assault. The story is that Amy has headbutted a man outside a London pub. She voluntarily reported to a London police station on Friday to answer questions, and was arrested. It is a policy in England to arrest a suspect before questioning her in connection to a possible crime.

A 38-year-old man filed a report stating he was "headbutted" by Winehouse after trying to hail her a cab at 3:20 a.m. on April 23. According to a detailed account in the British paper The Sun, she also allegedly punched another man in the face and smoked drugs on the street.

Hopefully, this troubled, talented girl will straighten up before she absolutely destroys her personal life, her health, and her career. People seem drawn to her and want to help her. At least, that's how she affects me and I hope for her sake things go better for her and she gets the help she needs.

I wish I could give credit to the artist but unfortunately I found this picture without any background on the technique, medium used or the artist. I pretty much know nothing about this pic except it's intriguing. The faces must be strong as the pouring pots look heavy.

You gotta wonder how risky this type of tattoo is - the eyelid is such a thin, wrinkly part of our bodies. The realistic quality that these tattoos have must have been an artistic challenge for the artist since an important part of tattooing is the stretch. I'm assuming this was a challenge working on this part of the body. Very realistic.

Isn't Photoshop an amazing tool - someone put it to funny use and did a page of transposing heads to outragous bodies such as the queen here. This was one of the better more seamless ones - cute

Actually cereal characters hanging out together in a 70's style basement rec room. AH, this brings back memories of my teenage years.

This is the work of Rob Sheridan who has a very cool fun blog and is a talented artist with a sense of humor. He says this is portraying the akwardness of old friends getting together. You can click on the title of this post to check out Rob's work and his blog.

There is a fine line between having confidence and being full of yourself and I believe this is crossing the line into egotistical. Maybe it's tattooed for a laugh. I wouldn't waste such a prime territory of skin with this particular phrase.

This is a touched up photograph - obviously - but it does raise the question of regulations and laws and protecting the kids. I'm not a big fan of government getting too involved in my life but the area I live in does not have much in the way of tattoo regulations. For instance, you have to be 18 or have an adult with you to get a tattoo. I, personally, know of someone that took her 12 year old for her first tattoo. Unfortunately, not all parents are responsible to raise kids or make a responsible decision so shit like that happens..................................