Ink Inc. Why having a tattoo is no longer taboo (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/ink-inc-why-having-a-tattoo-is-no-longer-taboo-7668389.html#)
With 1.5 million Britons getting one each year, it's not the sign of rebellion it once was, discovers Sarah Morrison at the UK's biggest inking show
Sarah Morrison
Sunday, 22 April 2012
When the comedian Harry Hill fronted an advert for T-Mobile earlier this year called "What Britain Loves", he proudly stated that Britain loves gardening, marching bands, nostalgia and – er – tattoos. One person who would not disagree with him is Stacey Evans. Sitting in a corner, facing the wall, she is an object of stillness amid a blur of mohicans, burlesque artists, BMX dancers and scores of inked arms, legs and torsos at London's Olympia exhibition hall, hosting the Great British Tattoo Show, believed to be the country's biggest ever.
The 25-year-old accountant from West Yorkshire is nervous and visibly uncomfortable as an artist's needle hovers. This is her ninth tattoo, adding to the Salvador Dali-inspired design on her back. She laughs as she describes how, "drunk, at a Christmas party, my boss once told me to 'Cover 'em up'." But, while she says she takes care to wear coloured shirts at work so her tattoos stay out of view, she adds: "Our generation is much more open. A girl at work also has one, hidden on her foot."
It is not just the accountant at the next desk who might surprise you. When the wife of the Conservative Prime Minister wears one – a dolphin, below the ankle – it is hard to maintain the illusion that people with tattoos are part of a rebellious underground scene. One-fifth of Britons are now inked, according to a recent survey. Roughly 1.5 million tattoos are drawn each year, and some 14 per cent of teachers wear them.
For Sion Smith, editor of Skin Deep, the UK's best-selling tattoo magazine, the industry – said to be worth £80m – is in "flux". Despite receiving notifications of 250 studios opening each year – a rate he calls "unprecedented" – he says it is moving away from large studios to bespoke parlours, where clients and artists collaborate to create "pieces of art".
Louis Molloy is best known as David Beckham's tattoo artist. When he started in 1981, he says there were just 200 studios across the country; now there are an estimated 1,500.
"Back then, it was very much a minority thing. There weren't a huge number of people tattooed; it was looked down upon," he says. Seasoned artists today earn £50,000 a year.
Having spent 40 hours tattooing the UK's best-known footballer, Mr Molloy has experienced first-hand the increased scrutiny the industry receives. Beckham's Hindi script tattoo, on his left forearm, was criticised for its supposed mistranslation of Victoria, something Mr Molloy disputes. "It was always supposed to be a phonetic translation," he says, "I had it professionally translated by a guy whose own wife was called Victoria. David was cool with it."
More than 12,000 people are expected at Olympia this weekend. There are 130 artists there and an estimated 600 tattoos will be inked on skin. Customers include Ryan Middlebrook, 17, from London, who already has two, and 60-year-old London cab driver, Duncan Burbrudge, who is getting his 16th – a James Dean portrait on his leg. It is impossible to stereotype the customers. Half-naked exhibitionists mingle with families in the convention's dining area.
For Shelley Bond, the show's organiser, tattooing is now "very much a middle-class activity". Saira Hunjan, 31, dubbed the "girl with the golden needle", fits into this narrative. Having been introduced to the Primrose Hill set – including Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Jude Law – through a friend, her art can now be seen on their bodies. The swallows she drew on Moss's back became a staple image in the supermodel's Topshop campaign, and her customers now join a three-year waiting list. "Tattooing is now recognised as an art form," says the artist, who lives in Wales and is in the process of collaborating with luxury brands. "People are pushing the boundaries even more."
With 1.5 million Britons getting one each year, it's not the sign of rebellion it once was, discovers Sarah Morrison at the UK's biggest inking show
Sarah Morrison
Sunday, 22 April 2012
When the comedian Harry Hill fronted an advert for T-Mobile earlier this year called "What Britain Loves", he proudly stated that Britain loves gardening, marching bands, nostalgia and – er – tattoos. One person who would not disagree with him is Stacey Evans. Sitting in a corner, facing the wall, she is an object of stillness amid a blur of mohicans, burlesque artists, BMX dancers and scores of inked arms, legs and torsos at London's Olympia exhibition hall, hosting the Great British Tattoo Show, believed to be the country's biggest ever.
The 25-year-old accountant from West Yorkshire is nervous and visibly uncomfortable as an artist's needle hovers. This is her ninth tattoo, adding to the Salvador Dali-inspired design on her back. She laughs as she describes how, "drunk, at a Christmas party, my boss once told me to 'Cover 'em up'." But, while she says she takes care to wear coloured shirts at work so her tattoos stay out of view, she adds: "Our generation is much more open. A girl at work also has one, hidden on her foot."
It is not just the accountant at the next desk who might surprise you. When the wife of the Conservative Prime Minister wears one – a dolphin, below the ankle – it is hard to maintain the illusion that people with tattoos are part of a rebellious underground scene. One-fifth of Britons are now inked, according to a recent survey. Roughly 1.5 million tattoos are drawn each year, and some 14 per cent of teachers wear them.
For Sion Smith, editor of Skin Deep, the UK's best-selling tattoo magazine, the industry – said to be worth £80m – is in "flux". Despite receiving notifications of 250 studios opening each year – a rate he calls "unprecedented" – he says it is moving away from large studios to bespoke parlours, where clients and artists collaborate to create "pieces of art".
Louis Molloy is best known as David Beckham's tattoo artist. When he started in 1981, he says there were just 200 studios across the country; now there are an estimated 1,500.
"Back then, it was very much a minority thing. There weren't a huge number of people tattooed; it was looked down upon," he says. Seasoned artists today earn £50,000 a year.
Having spent 40 hours tattooing the UK's best-known footballer, Mr Molloy has experienced first-hand the increased scrutiny the industry receives. Beckham's Hindi script tattoo, on his left forearm, was criticised for its supposed mistranslation of Victoria, something Mr Molloy disputes. "It was always supposed to be a phonetic translation," he says, "I had it professionally translated by a guy whose own wife was called Victoria. David was cool with it."
More than 12,000 people are expected at Olympia this weekend. There are 130 artists there and an estimated 600 tattoos will be inked on skin. Customers include Ryan Middlebrook, 17, from London, who already has two, and 60-year-old London cab driver, Duncan Burbrudge, who is getting his 16th – a James Dean portrait on his leg. It is impossible to stereotype the customers. Half-naked exhibitionists mingle with families in the convention's dining area.
For Shelley Bond, the show's organiser, tattooing is now "very much a middle-class activity". Saira Hunjan, 31, dubbed the "girl with the golden needle", fits into this narrative. Having been introduced to the Primrose Hill set – including Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Jude Law – through a friend, her art can now be seen on their bodies. The swallows she drew on Moss's back became a staple image in the supermodel's Topshop campaign, and her customers now join a three-year waiting list. "Tattooing is now recognised as an art form," says the artist, who lives in Wales and is in the process of collaborating with luxury brands. "People are pushing the boundaries even more."
A friend of mine posted this article (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Lifestyle/FashionAndBeauty/Think-twice-before-getting-tattooed/Article1-762443.aspx) on Facebook. I thought it'd be interesting to have another opinion.
Think twice before getting tattooed
for Hindustan Times
If you’ve been debating whether or not to get inked, you might want to consider this new trend. City doctors report a rise in tattoo removal procedures after the festive season.
“We receive several cases of tattoo removal after Diwali and Navratri. Since getting a tattoo done has become common during the festive season — especially among youngsters — a lot of them also choose to get them removed once the good times end,” says Dr Jaishree Manchanda, cosmetologist, Berkowits Skin and Health Clinic, Andheri (W).
However, the treatment for removal may prove to be more complicated than getting inked. “On an average, it takes about two to five sittings depending on the depth and size of the tattoo,” says plastic and cosmetic surgeon Dr Meenakshi Agarwal, director, Face & Figure clinic, Mahim. She adds, “After each sitting, an abrasion or scabs forms around the tattoo. It heals in two to three days. The procedure involves multiple sittings, and an interval of at least six weeks is needed in between these sessions.”
Twenty-six-year old Vaijanti Patra had a tattoo on her forehead, which she had got done around six years ago. But post marriage, she decided to get it removed. “My husband didn’t approve. It was a one-and-a-half inch tattoo and took me around six to seven sittings for the treatment,” says Patra.
Doctors also reveal that since a lot of people tend to get inked on an impulse, they have to face repercussions later. “Several young girls and boys get tattoos of their boyfriends’/girlfriends’ names. And we frequently get cases where they want to remove these tattoos after a break-up or before they marry someone else,” says Dr Manchanda.
Dr Agarwal adds that dark-coloured tattoos are easier to remove, with the treatment showing 100 per cent results. “However, yellow, pink or red coloured-tattoos may pose some difficulty as they don’t respond well to laser. Thus, even after the removal procedure, one may find remnants,” she explains.
Think twice before getting tattooed
for Hindustan Times
If you’ve been debating whether or not to get inked, you might want to consider this new trend. City doctors report a rise in tattoo removal procedures after the festive season.
“We receive several cases of tattoo removal after Diwali and Navratri. Since getting a tattoo done has become common during the festive season — especially among youngsters — a lot of them also choose to get them removed once the good times end,” says Dr Jaishree Manchanda, cosmetologist, Berkowits Skin and Health Clinic, Andheri (W).
However, the treatment for removal may prove to be more complicated than getting inked. “On an average, it takes about two to five sittings depending on the depth and size of the tattoo,” says plastic and cosmetic surgeon Dr Meenakshi Agarwal, director, Face & Figure clinic, Mahim. She adds, “After each sitting, an abrasion or scabs forms around the tattoo. It heals in two to three days. The procedure involves multiple sittings, and an interval of at least six weeks is needed in between these sessions.”
Twenty-six-year old Vaijanti Patra had a tattoo on her forehead, which she had got done around six years ago. But post marriage, she decided to get it removed. “My husband didn’t approve. It was a one-and-a-half inch tattoo and took me around six to seven sittings for the treatment,” says Patra.
Doctors also reveal that since a lot of people tend to get inked on an impulse, they have to face repercussions later. “Several young girls and boys get tattoos of their boyfriends’/girlfriends’ names. And we frequently get cases where they want to remove these tattoos after a break-up or before they marry someone else,” says Dr Manchanda.
Dr Agarwal adds that dark-coloured tattoos are easier to remove, with the treatment showing 100 per cent results. “However, yellow, pink or red coloured-tattoos may pose some difficulty as they don’t respond well to laser. Thus, even after the removal procedure, one may find remnants,” she explains.
Please check out this video about DR. LAKRA http://vimeo.com/10934518
It was shared by
Highsnobiety is the flagship site of the Titel Media network of fashion and product focused websites. (highsnobiety.com)
The leading independently run resource for street fashion and lifestyle culture news on the Internet, Highsnobiety was established in 2005 by David Fischer as an outlet to broadcast the latest in products and goods
DR. LAKRA
Converse created a video as a focus on the brilliant work of Dr. Lakra. It is the latest of profiles of artists who Converse recruited from around the globe with the goal of elevating and celebrating their work and passion. This and each film in the series shows artists at work, their creative process and inspiration. In tandem with the release of Dr. Lakra's film, Converse is also supporting, as presenting sponsor, the Dr. Lakra Exhibition at the ICA in Boston, on view April 14th - September 6th, 2010.
His first major US exhibition at the ICA in Boston, Oaxaca, Mexico-based artist Dr. Lakra transforms found printed materials and objects with mischievous, tattoo-inspired drawings. Referencing a range of imagery from traditional Maori tattoos, Mexican Day of the Dead icons to R. Crumb comics, Dr. Lakra's work blurs cultural identities as it explores tensions between the group and the individual, the sacred and the profane. The artist's first solo museum exhibition presents work in a variety of media and a newly-commissioned mural.
ICA, BOSTON
100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA
It was shared by
Highsnobiety is the flagship site of the Titel Media network of fashion and product focused websites. (highsnobiety.com)
The leading independently run resource for street fashion and lifestyle culture news on the Internet, Highsnobiety was established in 2005 by David Fischer as an outlet to broadcast the latest in products and goods
DR. LAKRA
Converse created a video as a focus on the brilliant work of Dr. Lakra. It is the latest of profiles of artists who Converse recruited from around the globe with the goal of elevating and celebrating their work and passion. This and each film in the series shows artists at work, their creative process and inspiration. In tandem with the release of Dr. Lakra's film, Converse is also supporting, as presenting sponsor, the Dr. Lakra Exhibition at the ICA in Boston, on view April 14th - September 6th, 2010.
His first major US exhibition at the ICA in Boston, Oaxaca, Mexico-based artist Dr. Lakra transforms found printed materials and objects with mischievous, tattoo-inspired drawings. Referencing a range of imagery from traditional Maori tattoos, Mexican Day of the Dead icons to R. Crumb comics, Dr. Lakra's work blurs cultural identities as it explores tensions between the group and the individual, the sacred and the profane. The artist's first solo museum exhibition presents work in a variety of media and a newly-commissioned mural.
ICA, BOSTON
100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA
NY Magazine (http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/70976/) (R)
He’s Just Not That Into Anyone
Even, and perhaps especially, when his girlfriend is acting like the women he can’t stop watching online.
By Davy Rothbart Published Jan 30, 2011
I met the woman at a Broadway show, but the night’s best piece of acting, I’d say, came from me, back at her East Village apartment, after we’d been having sex for about 25 minutes, with Neil Young wailing the song “Comes a Time” from the laptop on her bedside table. The dried-out condom had a full-bodied choke hold on me, but I’d already stopped twice to put on a fresh one, and I knew, as I kept earnestly pumping away, that one more condom wouldn’t make the necessary difference. Had I just given up, things might have played out the way they often did, with shades of confused disappointment and inadequacy on the part of the woman and mumbled apologies and awkward shame from me. But that night, ingenuity struck—unable to actually get off, I found myself flying a fresh route: I faked it.
Why would I, a healthy guy in his thirties, need to fake an orgasm? It was mystifying. I wasn’t on antidepressants, which I’d heard could decrease sensation. I got plenty of exercise. It didn’t seem to matter which woman I was with, or what kind of condom we used, or whether I’d downed one glass of whiskey or ten, or if we listened to Neil Young or Al Green, as I learned through trial and error (mostly error). Over the course of months, I picked a dozen suspects out of the lineup and gradually cleared each one. Except, perhaps, the most obvious.
“Pornography? It’s a new synaptic pathway.” This is what John Mayer said in a candid interview with Playboy. “You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora’s box of visuals,” he continued. “There have probably been days when I saw 300 vaginas before I got out of bed.”
Porn’s allure and ubiquity isn’t exactly titillating news. The question that still remains, however, is how this tsunami of porn is affecting the libido of the American male or, more selfishly, mine. First I came across a post on Sanjay Gupta’s blog by Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor, who wrote that he noticed a distinct rise in the number of men approaching him with concerns about delayed ejaculation. Kerner went on to attribute much of the problem to a “rapid proliferation of Internet porn” which leads to “over-masturbation,” something I’m very familiar with. Then I read about a University of Kansas study that found that 25 percent of college-age men said they’d faked orgasms, which, I’ll admit, was oddly comforting to hear. But it wasn’t until I interviewed dozens of men with varying porn-watching habits (and a few very open-minded women) that some unexpected themes began to emerge. Porn is not only shaping men’s physical and emotional interest in sex on a very fundamental neurological level, but it’s also having a series of unexpected ripple effects—namely on women.
For decades, hand-wringers have warned of a porn epidemic that would tear the nation’s moral fabric asunder. But if online porn has spread a sickness, it’s one that’s less like Ebola and more like a midwinter cold. The initial symptom for a lot of guys who frequently find themselves bookmarking their favorite illicit clips appears to be a waning desire for their partners. Jonas*, a 34-year-old ad exec, told me, “I get on SpankWire or X Videos—you could carve ice sculptures with my dick. I take a girl home from the bar, though, and I’ll be up for a minute while she’s going down on me, but once I put a condom on and we start going at it, it’s like the Challenger exploded—all the flags are at half-mast.”
Then there’s Stefan, a 43-year-old composer, who has no problem getting aroused when he has sex with his wife. “In order to come, though, I’ve got to resort to playing scenes in my head that I’ve seen while viewing porn. Something is lost there. I’m no longer with my wife; I’m inside my own head.”
As John Mayer told Playboy, “How could you be constantly synthesizing an orgasm based on dozens of shots? You’re looking for the one photo out of 100 you swear is going to be the one you finish to, and you still don’t finish … How does that not affect the psychology of having a relationship with somebody? It’s got to.” Most of the men I interviewed admitted having a similar habit of jumping quickly from porn clip to porn clip (which explains the rise and popularity of “cumshot” montages and other rapidly edited compilations). Kerner went so far as to coin the term “sexual attention deficit disorder.” For a lot of guys, switching gears from porn’s fireworks and whiz-bangs to the comparatively mundane calm of ordinary sex is like leaving halfway through an Imax 3-D movie to check out a flipbook.
“I used to race home to have sex with my wife,” says Perry, a 41-year-old lawyer. “Now I leave work a half-hour early so I can get home before she does and masturbate to porn.” Throughout the course of our conversation, Perry insists that he’s still attracted to his wife of twelve years. Still, he says, she can’t quite measure up to the porn stars he views online. “Not to be mean, but they’re younger, hotter, and wilder in the sack than my wife,” he says. “Me and her, we still ‘do it’ and everything, but instead of every day, it’s maybe once a week. It’s like I’ve got this ‘other woman’ … and the ‘other woman’ is porn.”
Ron, 27, an architecture student, met his girlfriend when they were both undergrads. She goes to school in another city, and Ron says that for the past couple of years, he’s had weekly “dates” with his favorite porn stars, which he looks forward to all day and even showers and shaves for, as though preparing for a live-action rendezvous. “Mondays are for Gia Jordan,” he says. “Tuesdays for Sasha Grey.” Wednesdays he has a reprieve—a Portuguese night class. “I always look forward to Thursdays the most—Kasey Kox,” he says. “Then, on the weekends, I hang out with my girlfriend.” Occasionally, when he returns to his apartment on Sundays, Ron explains, he roams the web looking for candidates to spend time with on Wednesday nights in case he has leftover energy after his language class. “I don’t like to believe that porn is replacing anything I have with my girlfriend,” he says, “but I’ve always loved sex, and I’ve always had a lot of it, so I really had to stop and think about it when she asked me recently why she always has to be the one to initiate things. And she was right; I guess I’ve been fading from her. It’s like all that time with these porn stars was subduing any physical desire for my girlfriend. And, in some weird way, my emotional need for her, too.”
“I used to race home to have sex with my wife. Now I leave work early so I can get home before she does and masturbate.”
Is it possible that porn is causing men to detach from their partners in more profound ways? Though porn research is the subject of much debate and barb-flinging (with religious groups seizing on any study to prove that porn and masturbation are wrong), scientists speculate that a dopamine-oxytocin combo is released in the brain during orgasm, acting as a “biochemical love potion,” as behavioral therapist Andrea Kuszewski calls it. It’s the reason after having sex with someone, you’re probably more inclined to form an emotional attachment. But you don’t have to actually have sex in order to get those neurotransmitters firing. When you watch porn, “you’re bonding with it,” Kuszewski says. “And those chemicals make you want to keep coming back to have that feeling.” Which allows men not only to get off on porn but to potentially develop a neurological attachment to it. They can, in essence, date porn.
And as tripod-in-the-corner porn evolves into a high-def wonderland, our grasp on whether we’re watching sex or actually having sex may, with the help of oxytocin, loosen. Many of the men I interviewed spoke of the charge they get from watching their favorite porn actresses. But they also had a tendency to describe the act of watching porn as though it were a real sex act they had participated in—making their emotional investment in porn all the more concrete. “I love when Kasey [Kox] is fully clothed and smiling at me from her bed, or I’m doing her from behind,” says Ron, the architecture student. “I get one glimpse of Kasey and I’m so turned on. I get dizzy.”
All of which raises an interesting question: How does having sometimes flaccid, sometimes faked, oftentimes dizzied sex impact the partners on the receiving end? Sadie, 29, a real-estate agent in Boston, quotes performance artist Nicole Blackman to make her point: “ ‘There is no glory in trying to make love to men who only know how to fuck—man after man after man after man raised on porn.’ There have been times in the past,” Sadie continues, “when I would be with someone and thinking, Jesus fucking Christ, what the fuck kind of stupid porn have you been watching? Did you just smack my kitty? Dumbass!”
“There’s a failure to distinguish between porn reality and reality reality,” says Monika, 27. “One guy kept shouting at me, ‘Ride the cock, ride the cock!’ I was laughing so hard we had to stop.”
As a result of the blending of reality and fantasy, some women have chosen to willingly play along by a new set of rules in order to keep their men interested: They’re intentionally impersonating porn stars. Sadie, the real-estate agent, says, “A lot of guys have come to expect P.S.E. [the “Porn-Star Experience”] as a common thing—snatches waxed bald, access to every hole—and plenty of women are more than happy to provide. A few might enjoy it, but for most it’s harrowing. I think there’s a fear that if they can’t make it happen, their boyfriend will retreat online.”
Monty, 31, an actor from Queens, who between shooting scenes spends about an hour a day masturbating to online porn, says he’s noticed the shift. “I was with a girl who seemed to be in an arms race with porn,” he says. “She had this imaginary Soviet Union she kept trying to out-fuck.”
“Women are turning up the dial,” says Evan, also 31. “I’m a pleaser. I get off on a woman’s arousal. But I’ve noticed that women are getting a lot more vocal now. Either I’m doing something I’m not aware of, or women are beginning to mimic what happens in porn. Honestly, it’s kind of weird. I’m not sure if I like it.”
Tony, 48, a web designer in St. Paul, who separated from his wife a few years ago after twenty years of marriage, echoes the thought. “I’ve always thought it’s really hot when women in porn movies say dirty stuff,” he says. “Usually, they’re just literally narrating the shit that’s happening, giving the play-by-play: ‘You’re fucking me! Your dick’s in my ass! I’m sucking your cock right now!’ For whatever reason, that’s what does it for me. But recently a woman I was with started saying all that stuff, and it just kind of spooked me. She seemed slightly nuts.”
And so a conundrum emerges. Men, oversaturated by porn, secretly hunger for the variety that porn offers. Women, noticing a decline in their partners’ libidos, try to reenact the kinds of scenes that men watch on their computer screens. Men, as a result, get really freaked out. They don’t want their real women and their fantasy women to inhabit the same body. Or, as Ron analogizes: “Remember Ghostbusters? How in love Bill Murray was with Dana, the Sigourney Weaver character? He feels lucky to even get her to agree to a date with him, but then when he shows up at her door, she’s possessed by demons, floating four feet above her bed, begging him to fuck her brains out. And he’s completely rattled by it and can’t get out of there fast enough. Well, that’s what it’s like when your girlfriend suddenly starts acting like a porn queen. You’re like, ‘Baby, where’d you go? I just want my girlfriend back.’ ”
Like any thorough researcher, I decided to investigate a theory. I had heard about something called the National Day of Unplugging, sponsored by the New York–based Jewish group Reboot, which encourages people to take a one-day vacation from their tech. But I chose to unplug in my own way: by refusing to visit the usual series of tawdry websites I frequent before bedtime. Now, I’m certainly not trying to indict porn, or to conclude that it has no place in men’s lives, whether they are alone or in company. And I’ll concede that some couples still find it to be something of a turn-on. But realigning one’s relationship to it might just improve one’s actual relationships—especially if you’re often finding yourself in the bedroom, staring into the eyes of a very confused partner. So I did some realigning.
I went without porn for a day. Then I tried it for two. Then three. On the fourth day, I had the fortune of having sex with a woman. And nothing was faked, although I can only speak for myself.
He’s Just Not That Into Anyone
Even, and perhaps especially, when his girlfriend is acting like the women he can’t stop watching online.
By Davy Rothbart Published Jan 30, 2011
I met the woman at a Broadway show, but the night’s best piece of acting, I’d say, came from me, back at her East Village apartment, after we’d been having sex for about 25 minutes, with Neil Young wailing the song “Comes a Time” from the laptop on her bedside table. The dried-out condom had a full-bodied choke hold on me, but I’d already stopped twice to put on a fresh one, and I knew, as I kept earnestly pumping away, that one more condom wouldn’t make the necessary difference. Had I just given up, things might have played out the way they often did, with shades of confused disappointment and inadequacy on the part of the woman and mumbled apologies and awkward shame from me. But that night, ingenuity struck—unable to actually get off, I found myself flying a fresh route: I faked it.
Why would I, a healthy guy in his thirties, need to fake an orgasm? It was mystifying. I wasn’t on antidepressants, which I’d heard could decrease sensation. I got plenty of exercise. It didn’t seem to matter which woman I was with, or what kind of condom we used, or whether I’d downed one glass of whiskey or ten, or if we listened to Neil Young or Al Green, as I learned through trial and error (mostly error). Over the course of months, I picked a dozen suspects out of the lineup and gradually cleared each one. Except, perhaps, the most obvious.
“Pornography? It’s a new synaptic pathway.” This is what John Mayer said in a candid interview with Playboy. “You wake up in the morning, open a thumbnail page, and it leads to a Pandora’s box of visuals,” he continued. “There have probably been days when I saw 300 vaginas before I got out of bed.”
Porn’s allure and ubiquity isn’t exactly titillating news. The question that still remains, however, is how this tsunami of porn is affecting the libido of the American male or, more selfishly, mine. First I came across a post on Sanjay Gupta’s blog by Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor, who wrote that he noticed a distinct rise in the number of men approaching him with concerns about delayed ejaculation. Kerner went on to attribute much of the problem to a “rapid proliferation of Internet porn” which leads to “over-masturbation,” something I’m very familiar with. Then I read about a University of Kansas study that found that 25 percent of college-age men said they’d faked orgasms, which, I’ll admit, was oddly comforting to hear. But it wasn’t until I interviewed dozens of men with varying porn-watching habits (and a few very open-minded women) that some unexpected themes began to emerge. Porn is not only shaping men’s physical and emotional interest in sex on a very fundamental neurological level, but it’s also having a series of unexpected ripple effects—namely on women.
For decades, hand-wringers have warned of a porn epidemic that would tear the nation’s moral fabric asunder. But if online porn has spread a sickness, it’s one that’s less like Ebola and more like a midwinter cold. The initial symptom for a lot of guys who frequently find themselves bookmarking their favorite illicit clips appears to be a waning desire for their partners. Jonas*, a 34-year-old ad exec, told me, “I get on SpankWire or X Videos—you could carve ice sculptures with my dick. I take a girl home from the bar, though, and I’ll be up for a minute while she’s going down on me, but once I put a condom on and we start going at it, it’s like the Challenger exploded—all the flags are at half-mast.”
Then there’s Stefan, a 43-year-old composer, who has no problem getting aroused when he has sex with his wife. “In order to come, though, I’ve got to resort to playing scenes in my head that I’ve seen while viewing porn. Something is lost there. I’m no longer with my wife; I’m inside my own head.”
As John Mayer told Playboy, “How could you be constantly synthesizing an orgasm based on dozens of shots? You’re looking for the one photo out of 100 you swear is going to be the one you finish to, and you still don’t finish … How does that not affect the psychology of having a relationship with somebody? It’s got to.” Most of the men I interviewed admitted having a similar habit of jumping quickly from porn clip to porn clip (which explains the rise and popularity of “cumshot” montages and other rapidly edited compilations). Kerner went so far as to coin the term “sexual attention deficit disorder.” For a lot of guys, switching gears from porn’s fireworks and whiz-bangs to the comparatively mundane calm of ordinary sex is like leaving halfway through an Imax 3-D movie to check out a flipbook.
“I used to race home to have sex with my wife,” says Perry, a 41-year-old lawyer. “Now I leave work a half-hour early so I can get home before she does and masturbate to porn.” Throughout the course of our conversation, Perry insists that he’s still attracted to his wife of twelve years. Still, he says, she can’t quite measure up to the porn stars he views online. “Not to be mean, but they’re younger, hotter, and wilder in the sack than my wife,” he says. “Me and her, we still ‘do it’ and everything, but instead of every day, it’s maybe once a week. It’s like I’ve got this ‘other woman’ … and the ‘other woman’ is porn.”
Ron, 27, an architecture student, met his girlfriend when they were both undergrads. She goes to school in another city, and Ron says that for the past couple of years, he’s had weekly “dates” with his favorite porn stars, which he looks forward to all day and even showers and shaves for, as though preparing for a live-action rendezvous. “Mondays are for Gia Jordan,” he says. “Tuesdays for Sasha Grey.” Wednesdays he has a reprieve—a Portuguese night class. “I always look forward to Thursdays the most—Kasey Kox,” he says. “Then, on the weekends, I hang out with my girlfriend.” Occasionally, when he returns to his apartment on Sundays, Ron explains, he roams the web looking for candidates to spend time with on Wednesday nights in case he has leftover energy after his language class. “I don’t like to believe that porn is replacing anything I have with my girlfriend,” he says, “but I’ve always loved sex, and I’ve always had a lot of it, so I really had to stop and think about it when she asked me recently why she always has to be the one to initiate things. And she was right; I guess I’ve been fading from her. It’s like all that time with these porn stars was subduing any physical desire for my girlfriend. And, in some weird way, my emotional need for her, too.”
“I used to race home to have sex with my wife. Now I leave work early so I can get home before she does and masturbate.”
Is it possible that porn is causing men to detach from their partners in more profound ways? Though porn research is the subject of much debate and barb-flinging (with religious groups seizing on any study to prove that porn and masturbation are wrong), scientists speculate that a dopamine-oxytocin combo is released in the brain during orgasm, acting as a “biochemical love potion,” as behavioral therapist Andrea Kuszewski calls it. It’s the reason after having sex with someone, you’re probably more inclined to form an emotional attachment. But you don’t have to actually have sex in order to get those neurotransmitters firing. When you watch porn, “you’re bonding with it,” Kuszewski says. “And those chemicals make you want to keep coming back to have that feeling.” Which allows men not only to get off on porn but to potentially develop a neurological attachment to it. They can, in essence, date porn.
And as tripod-in-the-corner porn evolves into a high-def wonderland, our grasp on whether we’re watching sex or actually having sex may, with the help of oxytocin, loosen. Many of the men I interviewed spoke of the charge they get from watching their favorite porn actresses. But they also had a tendency to describe the act of watching porn as though it were a real sex act they had participated in—making their emotional investment in porn all the more concrete. “I love when Kasey [Kox] is fully clothed and smiling at me from her bed, or I’m doing her from behind,” says Ron, the architecture student. “I get one glimpse of Kasey and I’m so turned on. I get dizzy.”
All of which raises an interesting question: How does having sometimes flaccid, sometimes faked, oftentimes dizzied sex impact the partners on the receiving end? Sadie, 29, a real-estate agent in Boston, quotes performance artist Nicole Blackman to make her point: “ ‘There is no glory in trying to make love to men who only know how to fuck—man after man after man after man raised on porn.’ There have been times in the past,” Sadie continues, “when I would be with someone and thinking, Jesus fucking Christ, what the fuck kind of stupid porn have you been watching? Did you just smack my kitty? Dumbass!”
“There’s a failure to distinguish between porn reality and reality reality,” says Monika, 27. “One guy kept shouting at me, ‘Ride the cock, ride the cock!’ I was laughing so hard we had to stop.”
As a result of the blending of reality and fantasy, some women have chosen to willingly play along by a new set of rules in order to keep their men interested: They’re intentionally impersonating porn stars. Sadie, the real-estate agent, says, “A lot of guys have come to expect P.S.E. [the “Porn-Star Experience”] as a common thing—snatches waxed bald, access to every hole—and plenty of women are more than happy to provide. A few might enjoy it, but for most it’s harrowing. I think there’s a fear that if they can’t make it happen, their boyfriend will retreat online.”
Monty, 31, an actor from Queens, who between shooting scenes spends about an hour a day masturbating to online porn, says he’s noticed the shift. “I was with a girl who seemed to be in an arms race with porn,” he says. “She had this imaginary Soviet Union she kept trying to out-fuck.”
“Women are turning up the dial,” says Evan, also 31. “I’m a pleaser. I get off on a woman’s arousal. But I’ve noticed that women are getting a lot more vocal now. Either I’m doing something I’m not aware of, or women are beginning to mimic what happens in porn. Honestly, it’s kind of weird. I’m not sure if I like it.”
Tony, 48, a web designer in St. Paul, who separated from his wife a few years ago after twenty years of marriage, echoes the thought. “I’ve always thought it’s really hot when women in porn movies say dirty stuff,” he says. “Usually, they’re just literally narrating the shit that’s happening, giving the play-by-play: ‘You’re fucking me! Your dick’s in my ass! I’m sucking your cock right now!’ For whatever reason, that’s what does it for me. But recently a woman I was with started saying all that stuff, and it just kind of spooked me. She seemed slightly nuts.”
And so a conundrum emerges. Men, oversaturated by porn, secretly hunger for the variety that porn offers. Women, noticing a decline in their partners’ libidos, try to reenact the kinds of scenes that men watch on their computer screens. Men, as a result, get really freaked out. They don’t want their real women and their fantasy women to inhabit the same body. Or, as Ron analogizes: “Remember Ghostbusters? How in love Bill Murray was with Dana, the Sigourney Weaver character? He feels lucky to even get her to agree to a date with him, but then when he shows up at her door, she’s possessed by demons, floating four feet above her bed, begging him to fuck her brains out. And he’s completely rattled by it and can’t get out of there fast enough. Well, that’s what it’s like when your girlfriend suddenly starts acting like a porn queen. You’re like, ‘Baby, where’d you go? I just want my girlfriend back.’ ”
Like any thorough researcher, I decided to investigate a theory. I had heard about something called the National Day of Unplugging, sponsored by the New York–based Jewish group Reboot, which encourages people to take a one-day vacation from their tech. But I chose to unplug in my own way: by refusing to visit the usual series of tawdry websites I frequent before bedtime. Now, I’m certainly not trying to indict porn, or to conclude that it has no place in men’s lives, whether they are alone or in company. And I’ll concede that some couples still find it to be something of a turn-on. But realigning one’s relationship to it might just improve one’s actual relationships—especially if you’re often finding yourself in the bedroom, staring into the eyes of a very confused partner. So I did some realigning.
I went without porn for a day. Then I tried it for two. Then three. On the fourth day, I had the fortune of having sex with a woman. And nothing was faked, although I can only speak for myself.
Wednesday blog about the Financial Crisis (I found this explanation on the Internet and later, I'll post a translation into Spanish that I received via email)
US - World Financial Crisis Explained
From Benjamin Fulford
1-11-11
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Chicago. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Chicago.
By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS. These securities then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.
Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses and are sold and bought world-wide.
One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.
Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Heidi's 11 employees lose their jobs.
Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.
Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi's bar.
Now do you understand?
Benjamin Fulford 090-3439-5558
US - World Financial Crisis Explained
From Benjamin Fulford
1-11-11
Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Chicago. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans). Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Chicago.
By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.
At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS. These securities then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.
Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses and are sold and bought world-wide.
One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs Heidi.
Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Heidi's 11 employees lose their jobs.
Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.
Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from their cronies in government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Heidi's bar.
Now do you understand?
Benjamin Fulford 090-3439-5558
This is for members in Colombia. Unfortunately I am not there, but it seems that there is going to be a great exhibition with works from Salvador Dalí interpreting Goya's "Caprichos". The text of this newspaper clip is in Spanish. sorry.
Del capricho al disparate: el universo surrealista de Goya y Dalí
Miércoles, 22 de Junio de 2011 00:00
Oportunidad única para realizar una relectura de dos de los grandes genios plásticos del arte español
LOS CAPRICHOS de Goya recreados y expresados al estilo surrealista de Dalí en 80 grabados serán expuestos en el Museo de Arte de Colsubisido para acercar al público a la obra de dos de los más importantes artistas de la historia de la pintura en Hispanoamérica.
La obra denominada Del Capricho al Disparate muestra las modificaciones que hizo el pintor español Salvador Dali al arte de Goya, en el que impregnó figuras representativas del arte renacentista.
“Lo que hace Dali no es otra cosa que transformar en disparates la obra de Goya, anulando su mensaje social, hasta llevarla a un terreno irracional mediante la proyección de sus obsesiones”, señala la directora del Museo de Arte y Cultura de Colsubsidio, Elvira Ospina.
“Así, los disparates, proverbios o sueños de Goya, constituyen por su innovación en la técnica, por el proceso de creación y por el contenido, el inicio de la modernidad” agregó.
Según Ospina esta obra es única en el mundo ya que refleja dos movimientos artísticos, distintas técnicas y diferentes épocas.
En los grabados se puede evidenciar el uso de figuras humanas y de animales propias del estilo de Dalí, aunque según Ospina éstas son algo confusas y a veces pasan desapercibidas.
Otros íconos de Dalí presentes en la obra de Goya, son los típicos relojes blandos, los cuales están un tanto modificados en el capricho 33 y en el 42.
Ospina agregó que “la intervención de Dalí no puede entenderse sin revisar la obra de Los Disparates de Goya, de la cual, según mi hipótesis, extrae los recursos y elementos que junto con los propios se integran en las escenas de los caprichos convirtiéndolos en disparates”.
Interpretando a Goya
En la serie Los Caprichos y Los Desastres de la Guerra, con sus imágenes grotescas y monstruosas, Goya representa la sinrazón, la estupidez y los vicios humanos. Posteriormente, en Los Disparates, el artista libera su inconsciente donde los monstruos surgen como pesadillas, como expresión de la degeneración y muerte de la humanidad.
“El surrealismo surge de Goya como una proyección de las preocupaciones que antes representó en escenas de la vida. Ahora emanan del gesto, del boceto automático, del sueño que libera el subconsciente, del delirio paranoico que proyecta libremente, instintiva y automáticamente la expresión de sus obsesiones”, manifestó el experto en arte del Museo Nacional, Federico Fernández.
Elvira Ospina explica que lo que hizo Dalí con la obra de Goya fue integrar el universo surrealista de una forma armónica.
Esta muestra artística fue organizada por la Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana Funiber, y estará abierta al público desde hoy y hasta el 31 de agosto en el Museo de Arte y Cultura Colsubsidio.
“Es una oportunidad única para realizar una relectura de dos de los grandes genios plásticos del arte español”, señala Ospina.
Sobre los artistas
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, pintor y grabador español. Nace en Fuendetodos – Zaragoza el 30 de marzo de 1746 y fallece en Burdeos – Francia el 15 de abril de 1828. Su obra abarca la pintura de caballete y mural, el grabado y el dibujo. En todas estas facetas desarrolló un estilo que inaugura el Romanticismo. El arte goyesco supone, asimismo, el comienzo de la pintura contemporánea y se considera precursor de las vanguardias pictóricas del Siglo XX.
Salvador Dalí, pintor español considerado uno de los máximos representantes del surrealismo. Nace en Figueras – España el 11 de mayo de 1904 y fallece el 23 de enero de 1989. Es conocido por sus impactantes y oníricas imágenes surrealistas. Sus habilidades pictóricas se suelen atribuir a la influencia y admiración por el arte renacentista.
Del capricho al disparate: el universo surrealista de Goya y Dalí
Miércoles, 22 de Junio de 2011 00:00
Oportunidad única para realizar una relectura de dos de los grandes genios plásticos del arte español
LOS CAPRICHOS de Goya recreados y expresados al estilo surrealista de Dalí en 80 grabados serán expuestos en el Museo de Arte de Colsubisido para acercar al público a la obra de dos de los más importantes artistas de la historia de la pintura en Hispanoamérica.
La obra denominada Del Capricho al Disparate muestra las modificaciones que hizo el pintor español Salvador Dali al arte de Goya, en el que impregnó figuras representativas del arte renacentista.
“Lo que hace Dali no es otra cosa que transformar en disparates la obra de Goya, anulando su mensaje social, hasta llevarla a un terreno irracional mediante la proyección de sus obsesiones”, señala la directora del Museo de Arte y Cultura de Colsubsidio, Elvira Ospina.
“Así, los disparates, proverbios o sueños de Goya, constituyen por su innovación en la técnica, por el proceso de creación y por el contenido, el inicio de la modernidad” agregó.
Según Ospina esta obra es única en el mundo ya que refleja dos movimientos artísticos, distintas técnicas y diferentes épocas.
En los grabados se puede evidenciar el uso de figuras humanas y de animales propias del estilo de Dalí, aunque según Ospina éstas son algo confusas y a veces pasan desapercibidas.
Otros íconos de Dalí presentes en la obra de Goya, son los típicos relojes blandos, los cuales están un tanto modificados en el capricho 33 y en el 42.
Ospina agregó que “la intervención de Dalí no puede entenderse sin revisar la obra de Los Disparates de Goya, de la cual, según mi hipótesis, extrae los recursos y elementos que junto con los propios se integran en las escenas de los caprichos convirtiéndolos en disparates”.
Interpretando a Goya
En la serie Los Caprichos y Los Desastres de la Guerra, con sus imágenes grotescas y monstruosas, Goya representa la sinrazón, la estupidez y los vicios humanos. Posteriormente, en Los Disparates, el artista libera su inconsciente donde los monstruos surgen como pesadillas, como expresión de la degeneración y muerte de la humanidad.
“El surrealismo surge de Goya como una proyección de las preocupaciones que antes representó en escenas de la vida. Ahora emanan del gesto, del boceto automático, del sueño que libera el subconsciente, del delirio paranoico que proyecta libremente, instintiva y automáticamente la expresión de sus obsesiones”, manifestó el experto en arte del Museo Nacional, Federico Fernández.
Elvira Ospina explica que lo que hizo Dalí con la obra de Goya fue integrar el universo surrealista de una forma armónica.
Esta muestra artística fue organizada por la Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana Funiber, y estará abierta al público desde hoy y hasta el 31 de agosto en el Museo de Arte y Cultura Colsubsidio.
“Es una oportunidad única para realizar una relectura de dos de los grandes genios plásticos del arte español”, señala Ospina.
Sobre los artistas
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, pintor y grabador español. Nace en Fuendetodos – Zaragoza el 30 de marzo de 1746 y fallece en Burdeos – Francia el 15 de abril de 1828. Su obra abarca la pintura de caballete y mural, el grabado y el dibujo. En todas estas facetas desarrolló un estilo que inaugura el Romanticismo. El arte goyesco supone, asimismo, el comienzo de la pintura contemporánea y se considera precursor de las vanguardias pictóricas del Siglo XX.
Salvador Dalí, pintor español considerado uno de los máximos representantes del surrealismo. Nace en Figueras – España el 11 de mayo de 1904 y fallece el 23 de enero de 1989. Es conocido por sus impactantes y oníricas imágenes surrealistas. Sus habilidades pictóricas se suelen atribuir a la influencia y admiración por el arte renacentista.
Hi there,
This is crazy!
Brand's fan have very "interesting" tatoos.
Check it out here: http://www.puromarketing.com/3/9916/fanaticos-marcas-tatuajes-iconos-comerciales-sobre-piel.html It's a set of 69 pictures.
Until next time!
This is crazy!
Brand's fan have very "interesting" tatoos.
Check it out here: http://www.puromarketing.com/3/9916/fanaticos-marcas-tatuajes-iconos-comerciales-sobre-piel.html It's a set of 69 pictures.
Until next time!
This is my first posting and I just want to endorse a new book by RM editores, a publisher company in Mexico that shows the work of Dr. Lakra. (http://www.editorialrm.com/2010/product.php?id_product=173)
Some of you may be familiar with his work. But for those of you who aren't I'm transcribing his wikipedia entry:
Dr Lakra (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Dr Lakra (Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez, born 1972, Mexico) is an artist and tattooist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Apart from tattooing, his art involves embellishing images and other found objects - for instance, dolls, old medical illustrations, and pictures in 1950s Mexican magazines - with macabre or tattoo-style designs.[1]
He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including Stolen Bike at the Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York, Los Dos Amigos at MACO in Mexico, Pin Up at Tate Modern and Pierced Hearts and True Love at The Drawing Center in New York.
He is the son of the graphic artist Francisco Toledo.[2]
In 2007, he co-produced the book 'Los Dos Amigos' with artist Abraham Cruzvillegas. In 2008 he participated in the "Goth: Reality of the Departed World" exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art, curated by Eriko Kimura.
His works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art,[3] the Hammer Museum[4] and the Walker Art Center.[5]
Dr Lakra is represented by kurimanzutto, Mexico City and Kate MacGarry, London.
This is the book information from AMAZON:
Dr. Lakra [Hardcover]
Gabriel Orozco (Author), Dr. Lakra (Author)
Product Description
A refined woman gazes elegantly from the cover of a mid-twentieth-century Mexican magazine--its title, Blanca Sol, lays bare the publication's Eurocentric character--but the cover girl's loveliness is compromised by the penciled-in skull that replaces the right side of her face. In another image, a sleek gentleman who might otherwise be debonair becomes fearsome and fierce with the addition of a pattern of contoured lines, like Aztec facial tattoos, over his entire face. This is the work of Mexican artist Dr. Lakra, who superimposes mystical, ancient or funerary symbolism--gang tattoos, bones and skulls, Aztec warrior heads, spider webs, serpents and demons--onto vintage advertisements, girlie pinups, Japanese prints, baby dolls, cast skulls and the like, attaining an effect that resembles a Dia de los Muertos altar slyly erected in place of a kitchen table in the home furnishings section of a Mexico City department store. "In one way or another, the noncivilized human, the nonrefined, the primitive, is always being repressed, in a way that's almost criminal," Dr. Lakra, who also works as a tattoo artist, has said. "I think that through these themes you can define the essence of culture." This lavishly illustrated volume contains 120 color images of Lakra's work, plus a contribution from renowned Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.
Born Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez in 1972, Dr Lakra is an artist and tattooist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Lakra has shown his work internationally, at Tate Modern in London, The Drawing Center and Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and elsewhere.
Product Details
Hardcover: 116 pages
Publisher: RM (December 31, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 8492480866
ISBN-13: 978-8492480869
Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.6 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #853,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Some of you may be familiar with his work. But for those of you who aren't I'm transcribing his wikipedia entry:
Dr Lakra (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Dr Lakra (Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez, born 1972, Mexico) is an artist and tattooist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Apart from tattooing, his art involves embellishing images and other found objects - for instance, dolls, old medical illustrations, and pictures in 1950s Mexican magazines - with macabre or tattoo-style designs.[1]
He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including Stolen Bike at the Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York, Los Dos Amigos at MACO in Mexico, Pin Up at Tate Modern and Pierced Hearts and True Love at The Drawing Center in New York.
He is the son of the graphic artist Francisco Toledo.[2]
In 2007, he co-produced the book 'Los Dos Amigos' with artist Abraham Cruzvillegas. In 2008 he participated in the "Goth: Reality of the Departed World" exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art, curated by Eriko Kimura.
His works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art,[3] the Hammer Museum[4] and the Walker Art Center.[5]
Dr Lakra is represented by kurimanzutto, Mexico City and Kate MacGarry, London.
This is the book information from AMAZON:
Dr. Lakra [Hardcover]
Gabriel Orozco (Author), Dr. Lakra (Author)
Product Description
A refined woman gazes elegantly from the cover of a mid-twentieth-century Mexican magazine--its title, Blanca Sol, lays bare the publication's Eurocentric character--but the cover girl's loveliness is compromised by the penciled-in skull that replaces the right side of her face. In another image, a sleek gentleman who might otherwise be debonair becomes fearsome and fierce with the addition of a pattern of contoured lines, like Aztec facial tattoos, over his entire face. This is the work of Mexican artist Dr. Lakra, who superimposes mystical, ancient or funerary symbolism--gang tattoos, bones and skulls, Aztec warrior heads, spider webs, serpents and demons--onto vintage advertisements, girlie pinups, Japanese prints, baby dolls, cast skulls and the like, attaining an effect that resembles a Dia de los Muertos altar slyly erected in place of a kitchen table in the home furnishings section of a Mexico City department store. "In one way or another, the noncivilized human, the nonrefined, the primitive, is always being repressed, in a way that's almost criminal," Dr. Lakra, who also works as a tattoo artist, has said. "I think that through these themes you can define the essence of culture." This lavishly illustrated volume contains 120 color images of Lakra's work, plus a contribution from renowned Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.
Born Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez in 1972, Dr Lakra is an artist and tattooist based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Lakra has shown his work internationally, at Tate Modern in London, The Drawing Center and Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and elsewhere.
Product Details
Hardcover: 116 pages
Publisher: RM (December 31, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 8492480866
ISBN-13: 978-8492480869
Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.6 x 0.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #853,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
FEBRUARY 2012
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29