Heritage Tattoo

Choosing a Tribal Tattoo Design

Tribal tattoo art looks great, but more importantly, every tribe has design deeper meaning. Tribal TattoosWhen choosing tribal tattoos, you should consider the meaning of this, and make sure that you believe in the statement you made.

There are some tribal tattoos designs that can be chosen differently. There zodiac tribal designs, sun and stars, religious symbols, and even tribal band tattoo. Each design has a meaning, be it spiritual or community. This has been happening since time immemorial, when the tattoo is used both to mark the affiliation with a group, or religion, magic, or spiritual beliefs.

Some of the oldest tribal tattoos there are thousands of years ago. Many of these tattoos represent the sun and the stars to honor the sun god and the element of fire. Tribal sun tattoo, and the stars, can vary in size and detail. This allows them to adapt to every part of your body, even though the shoulders and back seem to be the most popular locations. If you want to get creative, you can create a chain of ethnic tribes with pictures of the sun star as center.

Injectable Biomaterials

Surgically repairing delicate soft tissues like those on the face after an injury or illness is a tricky business. Surgeons can fix bones, joints and other body parts--but lips and cheeks simply aren't as repairable. But they soon may be, if a new material developed by medical researchers becomes commercially available. The Johns Hopkins team has come up with an injectable smart material that lets surgeons "sculpt" fine features into the tissue's shape, and then fix them in place with a simple burst of LED light.

The material is a mixture of hyaluronic acid and polyethylene glycol. The acid is already approved for use as a soft-tissue implant, and glycol, or "PEG" as it's known, is a material that has uses in manufacturing, the beauty industry, and medicine. When blended, the two liquids create a biomaterial--partly synthetic, partly biological--that's a polymer, one that's fluid enough to be injected.

Surgeons would inject the biomaterial into the skin and massage the features into the desired shape. By exposing the material to bright-green LED light (bright enough to penetrate skin up to four millimeters thick), the polymer molecules change their properties and tangle to form a rigid structure, setting the shape of the implant permanently.

This means big changes for patients suffering from facial disfiguration, a highly visible injury that can have social consequences. But that's just the most obvious use. If the material becomes a commercial product, we could see a wealth of potential customers among the extreme body-modification set. After all, the idea of reliably adding semi-permanent Klingon-like bumps to your face with a simple injection (a far less risky and expensive process, perhaps, than full-on plastic surgery) will definitely interest some people.

It's been tested on rats, and in a very limited form on humans too, with very positive results and only minor side effects. A full-scale human test is upcoming, and the only issue so far is that the material degrades at a rate that could mean re-injections are needed every year or so--but the team thinks new tissue may actually grow into the implants in time.

Extreme Body Modification in Japan

As with most things they embrace, the Japanese have taken the western cult of Extreme Body Modification to new extremes in recent years. "Scar Factory is a document of the Japanese scene in words and pictures.

Includes Japanese tours by scarification and piercing/implant artists Lukas Zpira and Steve Haworth; interviews with extreme manga artists Hideo Yamamoto ("Ichi the Killer") and Kago Shintaro; a pictorial history of Torture Garden Japan; clandestine tribal gatherings in Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto; branding festival in Tokyo, 2004; body suspension parties in Tokyo; Eizo Mamiza, Japanese Body Mod pioneer; and interviews with Extreme Body Mod practitioners.

Arabic Tattoo - Scripts

Although it is not uncommon to see Arabic lettering tattoos in the United States, many Muslims residing in Middle East countries like Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia (particularly followers of Islam) are staunchly against it. Informed readers may be scratching their heads and wondering, "But what about henna?" You are absolutely right.

Henna, the art of decorating the hands and feet with a paste made from the Hina plant, originated in the Middle East. The women there adorn their bodies with Henna to celebrate births, victories, birthdays, circumcisions and especially weddings. And yet tattoos are strictly forbidden because, unlike Henna, which washes off within several days, tattoos are permanent.

It is unlawful to have anything on your body which God did not create--tattoos, piercing, even plastic surgery procedures are an abomination. Unless it is done to eliminate pain, all surgeries which alter one's appearance in any way are against Islamic law.

Of course, this does not prevent Arabs and non-Arabs alike from getting Arabic tattoos. I always recommend consulting several different sources if you're looking to translate an English word or phrase into a foreign language and are not a native speaker of the language yourself. When it comes to Arabic translations, however, this task may prove to be a bit difficult; due to their religious beliefs, some Arabs will not even partake in the translation if they know it will be used as a tattoo.

If you are interested in getting an Arabic tattoo, keep in mind that Arabic is written from right to left using 18 distinct letter shapes which may vary slightly depending on which letters come before and after. The shapes will change in order to be connected to the letters that surround it. There are also different types of script used in traditional Arabic calligraphy as early as the 7th century: Farsi, Naskh, Kufi, Deewani, Req'aa and Thuluth.

Again, it is important to consult several different sources to ensure your translation is correct. Native speakers or scholars of the language are your best bet. Although the Internet is ripe with translation services, finding one can be difficult when it comes to Arabic because there are not many that specialize in Arabic translations.

Red Brick Gallery Exhibition

We were lucky enough to have three little artworks in the Red Brick Gallery Small Works Exhibition. It was a great show featuring over 40 local artists and 90 works of art. If you are ever in Ballarat i recommend poping into Red Brick for a little look-see...