Why the Economy is in The Shitter.
Now, one thing that gets me even more pissed off than having to battle the recent, annoyingly long, power outages that the blizzard left my area with, are short sighted employers.. (I grab a shower and all the amenities I can as soon as it comes back on, since I’ve no idea how long it will stay on.) And a recent poll by DenverBusinessJournal.com has shown me one of the big reasons these assholes have ruined our economy.
I mean, damn, is it so hard to figure out that the key to ending this economic depression is to put people to work? People who have a job spend the money they make. Spending money keeps the financial “blood flow” of the economy growing, and that leads to prosperous times. You know, I thought Franklin D. Roosevelt proved that during the last great depression. As soon as he created more jobs everything prospered.
But does anyone pay attention to that? NOOOOOOOO!
According to the poll one third, or 34%, of the business men with their heads firmly buried in their own ass, would not hire anyone who has even a small tattoo. Does it matter that the person is good at the job? NO! Does it matter that they may be more productive than a non tattooed person who goofs off on the job? NO! Does it matter that they could increase the business’s bottom line, and make them even more money? NO!
All that matters to them is their own baseless prejudice against a person who has a tattoo. To that effect they would rather cut their own financial throat than hire someone with a tattoo. And consequently, ours in the process.
How friggin’ stupid can you get? I thought the point to business was to maximize profits, minimize loss, and make big bucks. Shows what I know. It also shows why we are in the mess we are in. Employers who would rather air their prejudices than make a success of their business.
Where I’m from you call that kind of person a Dumbass. You know. The kind that cuts their own nose off to spite their face.
Here are the figures from the poll:
“Yes, for any job.” — 17%.
“Yes, but only if the tattoos are small” — 12%.
“Yes, but only for non-public-contact jobs.” — 23%.
“No.” — 34%.
Other — 5%.
Not sure — 9%.
So, for the better part, only 17% are smart enough to hire the right person for the right job, regardless…the rest would rather have a government bail out. Then spend it on bonuses for the idiots who screwed it up in the first place.
How sad is that?
Tags: business, Dislike, economy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jobs and tattoos, News, recession, Stories, Tattoo prejudice, Tattoos, Workforce
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Deeper Ink
It’s funny how a little bit of curiosity can go such a long way. I never ask people what their tattoos mean to them. I may be thinking it, but it’s always seemed to me to be a rather personal question. I’ve told people that I like their tattoo or tattoos and I’ve asked people where they got the work done and who the artist was, but when it comes to getting right down to brass tacks and asking about the meaning, I always stop short. After reading this article about photographer Marianne Bernstein, I may have to rethink my policy on talking to people about their tattoos.
Bernstein, 53, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, made the decision one day to talk to a homeless girl who was sitting on the street. Bernstein asked the girl if she would mind having her photo taken, and also if the girl would write down on a piece of paper what her knuckle tattoo “Lost Girl” meant to her. The end result became the catalyst for Bernstein’s new book Tatted.
Tatted is the culmination of a vast amount of curiosity and care. Within its pages, is a collection of people’s tattoos – a photo and a page written by the photographed person on what their tattoo means to them. There are almost 100 such photos and written statements. What Bernstein found while working on Tatted was that tattoos aided her in finding out so much more about the people she photographed.
“People are so much more interesting when you look closely. How many times do you walk by somebody like that and wonder what their story is? It was a chance to connect with somebody.”
It took Bernstein a year to complete Tatted, walking Philadelphia’s South Street and finding people whose tattoos caught her eye. The book was then published by Brian Jacobson and Nathan Purcell of GritCityInc.
At an opening party earlier this month at Pure Gold Gallery at the Piazza at Schmidt’s, almost 150 of Bernstein’s images and accompanying handwritten descriptions were on display and for sale. Jacobson said there was something nice about seeing some of his more straitlaced family and friends from out of town mingling with the city’s tattoo culture.
“They hold a common misconception that people with tattoos are different,” Jacobson said. “Being there with people covered in tattoos and seeing the images on the walls, I think it surprised them to see that the only difference is these people literally put their emotions on their bodies. I hope it changed their perception of tattoos.”
I think what’s possibly the most interesting thing about Marianne Bernstein and her book is that Bernstein herself doesn’t currently have any tattoos. For someone outside the tattoo culture to look so deeply into it and to learn so much from it is a really special thing. If more people took the time and care that Marianne Bernstein has taken in amassing Tatted, then maybe we would all be a tiny step closer to understanding one another; tattooed or not.
Tags: brian jacobson, grit city inc, Inspired, marianne bernstein, nathan purcell, News, Pictures, Pure gold gallery, South Street Philadelphia, Stories, tatted book, Tattoo Pictures
Grilled Cheese and Tattoos, Please.
Sure, we all love tattoos; that’s cool, sure. But let me ask you this: how many of you out there in this vast cyber universe love a good sandwich? I’ll tell you this much: I frigging loves me a sandwich. There’s just nothing quite like it. Bonus points go out to you if you’re actually sitting there, reading this and eating a sandwich. That my friend, is totally rad of you if that is infact the case.
Oh sandwiches. So lovely. Hey, remember that Seinfeld episode where George wants to get his two greatest passions – eating and sex – together at the same time? He ends up eating sandwiches (or trying to) while he’s getting it on with his girlfriend. It ultimately backfires on him, which is of course, too bad for him.
Well, at present time, if your two greatest passions happen to be tattoos and sandwiches, and if you happen to live in or near the Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Lakewood, then prepare to have your mind blown: Melt Bar & Grilled happens to be a place that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches. They make a huge variety of damn tasty looking grilled cheese; everything from chorizo and potato to something called The Parmageddon. My mouth is watering just looking at the photos of the sandwiches on their site. All sandwiches come with hand cut fries and a side of sweet slaw and oh damn, I seriously need to go to this place.
Anyway…where was I? Oh yeah, the sandwiches and tattoos thing. So, the deal with Melt Bar & Grilled is that anyone who goes out and gets a tattoo of their sandwich and cross bones logo will get 25% off their sandwich needs for life. They also encourage you to upload your tattoo to the restaurant’s website where the entire world can gaze at your sandwich lovin’ design.
It’s all pretty cool of them. Now if only they’d start offering discounts to tattoo bloggers who help spread the word about the ever so lovely restaurant called Melt Bar & Grilled.
How about it, guys?
Please?
Tags: 25% off sandwiches, Ads, chorizo and potato, grilled cheese sandwiches, Lakewood Ohio, Melt Bar and Grilled, News, Seinfeld, Stories, The Parmageddon
Meet Bert Krak!
If you happen to be someone who is a big fan of the classic American tattoo style and you’re looking for a tattoo artist who can really pull off that style, then look no further than tattoo artist Bert Krak.
Although the classic American tattoo is certainly not new, Krak’s approach injects a new life into the style. Animals become much more than just ink on flesh; they pulse with energy, often with a menacing shine to their features. There’s an abundance of colour and heft throughout his work, retaining the innocence of the storybook-like images that he works with, while adding just the right twist of the macabre. 
Six years ago, Krak began tattooing full time, after apprenticing for two years at Rock-A-Billy Tattoo in Lauderhill, Florida. These days Krak has set himself and his family up in Queens, New York, working for Top Shelf Tattooing. As with many other tattoo artists, Krak’s artistic impulses lead him beyond tattoo work into the mediums of painting and fashion. He recently designed this hat for the San Francisco based artist collective, 1333 Minna.
Bert Krak tattoos by appointment or walk in and does work beyond the classic American style. Although, with a classic American tattoo style as well defined as his, it’s pretty hard to resist.
Tags: 1333 Minna, bert krak, classic American tattoo, Pictures, Queens New York, Rock-A-Billy Tattoo, San Francisco, Tattoo Artists, Tattoo Pictures, Top Shelf Tattoo, Workforce
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Meet Yoni Zilber!
“I strive for beauty, flow and simplicity”
– Yoni Zilber
To me, hearing a tattoo artist speak about their work efforts in such terms as beauty, flow and simplicity is a surefire sign that the artist in question is a dedicated one. Not only that, but there is a modesty in such a declaration, a reassuring subtext that promises the best of the ability that the artist has to offer. I like that. I like that a lot.
Yoni Zilber began his tattoo career in his home land of Israel. Tel Aviv, to be more precise, in 1998. Since that time, he has travelled around the world, tattooing his way through various locations in Europe, Asia and America. He currently works at Brooklyn Adorned in Brooklyn, New York.
Like most tattoo artists, Zilber does many different styles of tattoo work, but he has his own personal favourite that he focuses on. Unlike most tattoo artists, Zilber’s point of focus for his work happens to be Tibetan. Quietly resisting expectations that because he is Israeli he would focus on work related solely to the Jewish faith, Zilber’s commitment to Tibetan art is great:
…[ I ] studied tirelessly on my own, but without a mentor I could only go so far.
As of 2007, Zilber has been studying Tibetan art under the tutelage of Tibetan Tangka painter, Pema Rinzin. Being able to translate Tibetan art into the form of tattoo art is a challenge for Zilber, but one that his work thus far proves him capable of handling. Zilber isn’t lying when he says that he is one of the few tattoo artists working who specializes in the Tibetan style. This brings a great wealth of originality and beauty to his work, not to mention affording the Tibetan art a chance to be seen and appreciated by many more people.
Check out some of Yoni Zilber’s beautiful work.
Tags: brooklyn adorned, israeli tattoo artist, new york adorned, pema rinzin, Pictures, Tattoo Artists, Tattoo Pictures, tel aviv, tibetan art, tibetan tangka, Workforce, yoni zilber
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Old Views, Old Town.
Oh man…oh man, oh man. It just kills me how clueless and out of touch with the reality of all things tattoo related that people can be. Take for example the case of Elk Grove, California.
Last week, Elk Grove’s city council voted to deny a proposal to transform a vacant building in Elk Grove’s Old Town district into a tattoo studio. We’re talking about a building that is sitting vacant, as in there is nothing going on inside that building. Nada. Zip. Along comes tattoo artist Patrick McGuire and he decides that he wants to open up Elk Grove’s first tattoo and piercing studio inside the vacant building. This of course means commerce, and a functioning business in an otherwise empty building. Seems like a no brainer to me: a guaranteed money maker of a business vs an empty building.
Too bad that the Elk Grove City Council didn’t see it in such easy to read terms. Despite being eager for the spot in Elk Grove’s Old Town to be filled by a business, a tattoo studio is just not what the city council is looking for, I guess. Neighbouring businesses in the area don’t seem too eager to have a tattoo studio within close proximity either:
Geno Cassillo, owner of the nearby Brick House Restaurant, cited recent fights and a drug bust in Old Town, and said a tattoo parlor would bring similar activity.
“I’m not saying that a tattoo parlor brings that much of that element there, but it does bring a small degree of that element there,” Cassillo said.
Yes, of course. Because EVERYONE knows that tattoos are personally responsible for fights and the insatiable demand for drugs. Rumor has it that tattoos even started both World Wars. However, there are some more rational heads milling about that city council. Not everyone is against the idea of getting some ink flowing in the Old Town:
Elk Grove City Council Member Jim Cooper disagreed at the Dec. 9 meeting.
“As a patrol commander in two different districts for the Sheriff’s Department, we didn’t have crimes (at tattoo parlors),” he said.
Fellow council member Steve Detrick said approving the tattoo parlor would have been circumventing the process already in place.
Cooper and then-Elk Grove Mayor Pat Hume were the only two to vote in support of the project. Old Town is “withering on the vine,” Hume argued.
“If you think Old Town is going to survive and be vibrant by a bunch of little antique stores or gift stores or beauty salons and if that’s going to keep you healthy – how’s it working out for you right now?” Hume said.
Unfortunatley, it’s sort of too little too late. Patrick McGuire isn’t giving up though, he still plans to open up a tattoo shop – it’ll just have to be somewhere else in Elk Grove. This will mean filing for a conditional use permit, which will run McGuire over ,000. Yikes. Well, good luck to you Patrick.
Tags: brick house restaurant, Dislike, elk grove, elk grove california city council, geno cassillo, News, Old Town, patrick mcguire, Workforce
Bromance
I love a good misunderstanding, especially when it comes to other people’s tattoos. I mean, I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings when it comes to my tattoos, but when it comes to someone else, I don’t have any problems enjoying the zaniness of a tattoo mistake.
For example. Anyone who grew up watching the sitcom “Roseanne” will be familiar with Roseanne’s real life ex-husband Tom Arnold. Tom seems like a pretty funny, good natured guy and he played a good sleezeball in that James Cameron film, True Lies. Anyway, Tom Arnold recently got re-married to a woman. I emphasize that he got married to a woman because despite what Tom Arnold’s tattoo may say, he isn’t gay.
Okay, now I know that I’ve got you confused and I’m sorry about that. Allow me to set things straight. You see, back in 1989 after the Chinese government massacred students at Tianamen Square over the student’s demand for a free and just society, Tom Arnold was moved. He saw this display of state brutality against men and women whose only crime was wanting to be free and he went out and got a tattoo on his leg of the Chinese characters that he was told translated to “Love of Mankind”. Tom was happy with this tattoo and nothing seemed to be wrong with it.
But there was something wrong with the tattoo, namely that what Arnold thought the tattoo said and what it actually said were two very different things. It wasn’t until this past November while Arnold was on his Honeymoon in China that he found out what the tattoo really said. While getting ready to be interviewed on Chinese television, Tom mentioned that he had a tattoo that said “Love of Mankind” which he had received after the Tianamen Square massacre. As Tom showed the tattoo around, he was not only told not to mention Tianamen Square on television, but also that his “Love for Mankind” tattoo actually read “Man Love”.
That’s the sort of misunderstanding that I’m talking about. That is just classic.
Tags: Celebrity, Chinese characters, chinese government, james cameron, News, roseanne arnold, roseanne barr, Stories, tianamen square, tom arnold, true lies
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What’s Under That New Tat?
Say, for the sake of argument, that you are engaged in a criminal enterprise, and you have those identifying marks known as tattoos. Either because you like them, or they were the ,(shudder), result of spending a little time in the Big House. Or, as it is better known, Criminal College. Believe me I know more than one person who wasn’t a real criminal when they went in…but they sure as Hell were when they got out!
Anyhoo, let’s say you have screwed up again. Perhaps it was because you felt you had no other option, or maybe your just one of the hard headed suckers who just can’t seem to learn from their mistakes, but now you have to get that tattoo covered up so the cops can’t pin the crime to you, or track you down because of it.
Sorry Charlie, but it ain’t gonna work this time.
A revolutionary new forensic technique developed by scientists at the University of Derby are using a familiar piece of technology to see through criminals’ cover-up work. Infrared light. That’s right. They have now developed a technique that will allow them to see the tattoo you thought safely hid beneath that bitch’n new tribal.
By using an infra-red digital camera, researchers are able to separate the original tattoo from its updated version, and as the old saying goes, “You are busted!”
In experiments the technique found that on a student’s back, a butterfly image had covered up an image of an imp in the original tattoo, and that other tattoos which had been updated, or changed were clearly visible once the technique had been used.
David Bryson, senior lecturer in applied photography and forensic science at the university, said:
“Identifying individuals using tattoos has been an established part of forensic science practice for some time, but there can be cover-ups of tattoos with lasers, more tattoos or surgery.”
“It is now possible to take a control photograph and a separate photograph with an infra-red filter to take images of the tattoo, and determine if it is indeed the original or is a cover-up, or altered tattoo on the surface.”
Oh, did I forget to mention that having the tat lasered off won’t help either? Well, now you know. Tattoo artists have said it many times. A tattoo is for life, whether it can be seen with the naked eye, or not. You can bet your bottom dollar that law enforcement is adding those cameras to their budgets even as I type this.
I guess this proves another old 70’s saying. When it comes to tattoos and breaking the law.
“Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.”
Hey. I liked “Berretta”! LOL! Peace out, Gang. 
Tags: cover up tattoos, forensic technique, identity tattoos, infra-red digital camera, laser removal, New Tech, News, prison tattoos, Stories, Tattoo Removal, University of Derby
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Dual touch Nokia M31 cellphone concept
The Nokia M31 by Jon DeGorsky is a cellphone concept that appeals both formally as well as graphically. Boasting latest technological advancements in cellphone industry, the graphically unique mobile handset draws inspiration from crop circles and comes integrated with two touch screens which pops up after sliding the phone. The top screen displays contacts, internet, mailbox, messaging, games, calendar and tools/setting, while on the other hand, the inner screen presents numeric interface, letter interface and interface changing bar. The dual touch mobile phone sliding smoothly is sure to widen your experience.
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Your Disqualified, Airman.
It’s hard to believe that one of the historical bastions of tattooing, the military, would turn its back on a tradition that goes back decades, if not further. But yes it is happening. The military is turning its back on tattoos.
Not only has the Marine Corps, and the Navy enacted stricter tattooing regulations, but now it would seem having visible tattoos can actually keep you out of some branches of the military.
Recently the Air force upped it’s tattooing regulations to the extent that having certain placement of tattoos will disqualify you from service un the USAF.
Such is the case for one George Sanchez of Sacramento Ca. One day before shipping off to boot camp in Texas, the 19 year old was told that his tattoo disqualified him from service. (Damn, couldn’t they have told him that before he took the physical, and oath?)
In truth they couldn’t because the regulations about tattooing didn’t apply to George until recently. Still it would seem to me that once you were sworn in you are in that particular branch of the armed services. I do know that if you don’t report for duty after taking the oath they will treat you as a deserter. So it seems to me that George beat the deadline on that one.
The changes did not take effect until after he was sworn in. So what are they going to do? Discharge everyone in the Air Force who has tattoos that violate the new standard?
According to the USAF regulations:
“For Air Force members, tattoos and/or brands anywhere on the body that are obscene or advocate sexual, racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination are prohibited in and out of uniform. Any tattoos and/or brand prejudicial to good order and discipline or of a nature that tends to bring discredit upon the Air Force are prohibited in and out of uniform. An Air Force member is not allowed to display excessive tattoos that would detract from an appropriate professional image while in uniform. Excessive tattoos are tattoos which cover over 25% of the body part.”
According to the revision :
4. Exposed body parts. If the authorized tattoo(s) covers more than 1/4 (25%) of the entire exposed body part or if it detracts from an appropriate professional image while in uniform, the applicant is not qualified to enter the AF.
a. Arms: from the elbow to the wrist. From just below the short sleeve to the elbow. No tattoos on the saluting arm.
So where was George’s offending tattoo? You guessed it, Gang. On his saluting arm. Damn! I knew a shitload of people in the sixties and seventies who could have saved a trip to Canada if that reg had been in place then.
I’m still betting it won’t hold water if they suddenly reinstate the draft for a national emergency.
Tags: Airforce, George Sanchez, Inspired, Military tattoos, News, Stories, Tattoo policy, Tattoos, Uncategorized, Workforce
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