From Vietnam to Paris
I know, I know, you're sick of hearing about Paris Hilton. So am I, we all are. I'll try to give her as little attention as possible here, OK? Now surely youve seen the photographs of the heiress in tears, snapped as she drove away from the courthouse this past Friday:
(©Nick Ut/The Associated Press)
Years from now, this particular image -- in all its washed-out, blown-up, grainy glory -- might serve as an apt reminder of a time when our collective fixation on celebrity had reached critical mass. But if you stop to consider the man who took the picture -- AP photographer Huỳnh Công Út, better known as Nick Ut -- the photo transcends its image of wounded ego and becomes a fitting testament to one man's career, the vast spectrum of photojournalism as a whole, and the impact of iconic images.
Some might say there are no coincidences when it comes to such things; that they happen specifically to draw our attention to them. Nick Uts snapshot of Paris was taken exactly 35 years to the day from another hopefully-more-famous photograph he took during the Vietnam War, titled The Terror of War.
(©Nick Ut/The Associated Press)
Far more memorable in its composition and its content, this photo of Phan Thi Kim Phúc is usually considered the definitive image of the Vietnam War, and won both Kim Phúc and Nick Ut the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. David Hinckley of the NY Daily News, who interviewed Mr. Ut a few days ago, contrasts the pictures:
Phan Thi Kim Phuc was crying because napalm - black, oily blazing jellied gasoline - was burning the skin off her back.
Paris Hilton was crying because she had just been told she had to serve her 23-day jail sentence in jail.
The simple juxtaposition of these two photos takes on added weight and meaning knowing that they were taken by the same expressive lens. But what does it say? Ut doesn't offer any answers. Hinckley writes:
He probably won't win another Pulitzer this time, and neither does he try to contrast this world to that one.
Asked about celebrity versus war photography, he says only, "It's very different."
Drawing on these two photographs, a lot can be said about the world: the way it's changed over the course of the last generation, or simply the way it's presentation has changed; whether we reflect our media or the other way around. But one thing is for certain: the importance of the image to our culture cannot be underestimated.
Colombia Hearts Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Given what the general idea of celebrity seems to indicate for the most part these days, it comes across as strange and almost foreign when an individual is celebrated in correlation to his or her talents and accomplishments. The average person probably wouldnt be able to pick a Nobel laureate out of a line-up unless hed been in Us Weekly for going postal or getting into Lindsay Lohans knickers. This familiar social contract has been in play for years now, much to the relief of reclusive Salinger types, but leave it to our friendly southern brothers in Colombia to muck things up by getting all paparazzi-happy over a visit from national hero/living treasure/literary god Gabriel Garcia Marquez this past Monday during a meeting for the Inter-American Press Association.
The publicity-shy Nobel literature laureate arrived just as the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, was leaving the meeting. But the author clearly wished he had the security detail afforded the Microsoft chairman to fend off overzealous admirers.
Garcia Marquez, whose Hundred Years of Solitude is considered by many as a Spanish-language classic, is a national icon in his native Colombia. People treated him like a museum piece as he dined with journalist friends in a big tent at the event. Dozens jostled with police officers standing guard to have their pictures taken with him and to have books autographed.
Señor Garcia Marquez isnt exactly known for exchanging words with just anyone, but you have to hand it to the fresh young reporter kids for giving it their all. If nothing else, it led to a brief dialogue that can only be described as absolutely precious, and that the reporter in question will likely carry in his heart forever.
Garcia Marquez, known endearingly as "Gabo," has in recent years shunned interviews assiduously even with journalists he knows well.
One young radio reporter tried anyway Monday. "How about a few words for Cararcol radio," he said, thrusting a microphone in front of the 80-year-old writer.
"If I give an interview to you I have to give an interview to everyone," the writer responded.
Noting the reporter's crushed expression, Garcia Marquez then softened: "I love you, young man," he said.
Still, even in the midst of absolute adoration, theres only so much that one octogenarian genius can take, and before long Garcia Marquez was like lets blow this taco stand. Belying true rock star style, he slid into his posses SUV and booked it to Mexico (his ex-pat home for decades now) at warp speed.
He is now comfortably back in the lands of America del Norte, where writers write peaceably, Thalia and the cast of Rebelde! take center stage, and the social contract we all know and love lives on.
Needled News by Marisa DiMattia
I've been obsessed with celebrity tattoos lately. They're inescapable. I've seen clients walk into tattoo studios brandishing CD covers, wrestling magazines, and Perez Hilton print-outs. Online tattoo forums flame over whether it's cool to get Bam Magera's body art. And the news headlines, well, they taunt me.
All I want to do is sit back and reflect upon the national repercussions of the Scooter Libby trial, but then Robbie Williams busts outta rehab with a new tattoo and I'm forced to take stock of this momentous event.
By getting love tattooed across his knuckles on his right hand, what is Robbie telling us? Did he find God's love in detox? Or was he lonely and relegated to self-love? I'd also like to know what it is about rehab that drives people to the tattoo studio. Not once, but twice, we witnessed America's train wreck begging for the needle after stays in luxury treatment centers.
It's not like these celebs are going Straight Edge. The booze-filled post-tattoo partying does not indicate a non-tox trend, and I don't see tattoos like these catching on in Hollywood.
Instead, many actors and musicians--you know, creative types--search the depths of their platinum souls for body art that speaks for them, illustrating their very essence. Here's what they come up with: the backside bow, the mini wings, the forearm dice, and of course, the scratcher portrait of your TrimSpa suga-mama.
Ok, I'll accept that last one. Being Anna Nicole's bitch was limited in its lucrativeness. However, there's no excuse for multi-platinum artists, even if they are straight outta Compton.
The Game, aka Jayceon Tylor, refuses to pay for his tattoos--and it shows. ContactMusic.com quotes the rapper on his body decoration decisions:
"My tattoos are always free, man. I can pretty much walk in anywhere I fancy and they'll do one for free. If they're not, I'm walking out. [...] "I don't know how many I've got. S**t, I stopped counting after, like, the first two. I don't plan them. I just wake up with the idea and I go in that day."
I wouldn't call it sage tattoo advice but, then again, I aint gangsta. I suppose it's a g-thang: Money. Cash. Hoes. Sub-par body art.
In other headlines, Nylon magazine's March issue featured the fabulous Christina Ricci on the cover with the tag "Tattooed Rebel or Girl Next Door?", which I thought was funny as most of Ricci's patchwork tattoos were covered in the photo except some small blur on her ankle. Now Ricci's got a number of tattoos and a kick-ass style but I wouldn't trumpet her as the tattoo rebel darling. This crown clearly goes to Saint Angelina, and who among us here is not on Team Jolie?
Finally, in this needled celeb round-up, I'd like to welcome my fave comedian/activist/rapper Margaret Cho into the loving arms of freakdom. She's just added another beautiful Japanese inspired tattoo to her fabulous collection, which includes an Ed Hardy piece that winds around her belly-dancing waist. Her latest work of art is by Andrew Moore of Shogun Tattoo in Pasadena, CA.
Photo by Ian Harvie.
I'm hoping more celebrities show the same tattoo intelligence and not treat ink as swag. Free does not necessarily equal good. If more beautiful artwork adorned the bodies of tabloid staples, perhaps tattooing as fine art would become a trend, not a post-rehab adventure.
Marisa_DiMattia is a lawyer and editor of Needled.com, a blog on tattoo art and culture.
Cobain Reaches Nirvana as Top Earning Dead Celeb
The King is dead. This year Forbes.com declared Presley's reign as the top-earning dead celebrity over. For the first time since the list began 6 years ago the crown was ceded and to none other than newcomer Kurt Cobain nosing out in front of Elvis Presley by a cool 8 mil, who has reigned supreme over all the dead up until this year.
Cobain's triumph can be attributed to financial whiz Courtney Love, the actress, singer, widow, and legacy destroyer. Love sold a 25% stake in the Seattle grunge group's catalog to the New York publishing company PrimeWave. The reported 50 Million dollar sale means that Nirvana fans should expect material in pretty much every commercial and TV spot show in the near future. Brace yourself.
Here are how the dead rank this year:
1. Kurt Cobain - 50 Million
2. Elvis Presley - 42 Million
3. Charles M. Schulz - 35 Million
4. John Lennon - 24 Million
5. Albert Einstein - 20 Million
6. Andy Warhol - 19 Million
7. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) - 10 Million
8. Ray Charles - 10 Million
9. Marilyn Monroe - 8 Million
10. Johnny Cash - 8 Million
11. J.R.R. Tolkien - 7 Million
12. George Harrison - 7 Million
13. Bob Marley - 7 Million
Fortunately, the future looks bright for dead people, and the advantages of technology can help ensure that their legacy is exploited for years to come in ways they never dreamed or intended. From Forbes.com:
...with emerging technology, the public will likely get an opportunity to hear--and see--a lot more of many deceased stars, often as theyve never been seen before. Already, voice modeling and computer-generated imaging can bring posthumous stars back to provide authentic performances for videogames, films and advertisements. You need only flip on the TV to see Audrey Hepburn dancing about in the Gap's skinny-black-pants advertising campaign.
Here is that commercial:
Gallery of the Absurd
Gallery of the Absurd is a blog cataloging one artist's "gossip fueled" visual creations. It's like the hilarious product of someone who has as difficult a time putting down a paintbrush as she does putting down Us Weekly.
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Needled News: Marisa DiMattia's Tattoo Revue
With this post, I mark my first weekly round-up of tattoo news for SuicideGirls, and theres plenty to talk about.
Case in point, blogs were buzzing this past week over rumors that Eddie Murphy and Scary Spice, a frightening new It couple, are so enamored that theyve tattooed each other's names on their hips what is known in the tattoo community as the kiss of death in any relationship. Blessed be the tattoo cover-up, as Heather Locklear has recently attested to.
Angelina Jolie has also learned her lesson and become savvier in her choice of tattoos. She has lasered Billy Bob from her bod and replaced him with the latitude and longitude coordinates of her adopted childrens birth places. Shes come a long way from tattoo dragon flash to traditional hand tapped Thai art, as chronicled in one blog this week. [Note her tattoo-baring fashion: couture not cut-out.]
Decidedly not couture but tattoo fashion nonetheless is Tommy Lees new clothing line incorporating designs inspired by his skin art. The line, called PL for TL (People's Liberation for Tommy Lee), will mostly consist of jeans, T-shirts and hats oh, but not trucker hats as Lee thinks they are over, unlike the classic wife-beater you usually find on this fashion forward rocker.
Thankfully, this is all the latest celebrity tattoo news. It may be a guilty pleasure of mine, but like all vices, one must not overindulge.
My true passion and the primary focus of my blog, Needled.com, is actually the artistry rather than the celebrity of tattoos. A custom work of art in harmony with the body makes me tingle. Finding custom body art positively touted in the news makes me hot. Needless to say, my husband was very happy when I spied a profile on LA tattoo artist Roni Zulu in the UKs Observer yesterday. Zulu takes a spiritual as well as artistic approach to tattooing and the results can be quite intense and engaging. His work is also featured on the cover of the September issue of International Tattoo Art, perhaps the first time a US tattoo magazine has featured an African-American woman on its cover.
Spiritual tattoos, specifically Christian body art, was also part of this weekends news as the Detroit Free Press looked at young people wearing their sacred hearts on their sleeves and backs and chests. The article presented the debate among Christians on whether biblical teachings ban body art, quoting both sides of the issue:
[
] Pat Bullock, director of the Wichita, Kan.-area association of Southern Baptists, said he believes that tattoos fall under displeasing the Lord.
Scripture teaches us that your body is the temple of God, and you are not to desecrate the temple, he said.
Bullock also referred to Leviticus 19:28 ("You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you") as scriptural evidence that tattoos are wrong.
Kistler, the Christian missionary, said the scripture referring to tattoos is "old law" intended for people who would scar their bodies as a sacrifice for dead family members. He sees no harm in getting tattooed.
And what's more, he said, his tattoos have helped him grow in his faith. "How can you ever turn against Christ if you have him there on your arm?"
Organized religion, however, does not hold a monopoly on spiritual tattooing. The Maori Moko has sacred origins and communicates the ancestral and tribal messages of the men and women who wear them. Because of the importance of the facial tattoos, Maori heads were often preserved after death. These heads became a hot commodity in the West, beginning in the early 19th century, and have wound up in museums as well as private collections around the world. In the news this week, the National Museums Liverpool will return three heads and other Maori human remains to the National Museum of New Zealand, which will then identify the origin of the heads and return them to their tribes.
Just as the Maori marked their families, place of origins and battles on their skin, so have survivors of Hurricane Katrina, as noted by the Associate Press. According to local tattoo artists, more than 1,577 Louisiana residents have requested Hurricane Katrina-related images. One resident tattooed a storm symbol on the back of his neck and is quoted, I'll always have a hurricane at my back. I never want to have one in front of me again.
Marisa_DiMattia is a lawyer and editor of Needled.com, a blog on tattoo art and culture, which includes profiles on tattoo artists, news, book reviews, event listings, and shopping guides.