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Design

15 Amazing Tattoos Inspired by Science

By Caroline Stanley on

[Editor's note: While your Flavorwire editors take a much-needed holiday break, we'll spend the next two weekends revisiting some of our most popular features of the year. This post was originally published November 8, 2011.] Back in 2007, after spying a colleague with DNA-inspired ink at a party, Discover Magazine’s Carl Zimmer asked his blog readers whether any of the scientists among them were sporting similar tattoo odes to their work. Perhaps surprisingly, the response was overwhelming. “Without intending it, I became a curator of tattoos, a scholar of science ink,” he explains. “Tattoo enthusiast magazines called to interview me. All in all, it was a strange experience; I have no tattoos of my own and no intention of getting any. But the open question I posed brought a river of pleasures.” A collection of the photos that Zimmer received as a result of his query — which range from a tattoo of Darwin’s finches to a pair of colorful odes to Halley’s Comet — were published earlier this month in a new book called Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. Click through to check out a slide show featuring some of our favorite science-inspired ink. … Read More

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Art

10 Awesome Animations Found in Very Unusual Places

By Emily Temple on

Recently, we spotted Katy Beveridge‘s amazing bicycle wheel animation, where she channeled the zoetrope to turn her bike’s wheels into a delightful moving piece of art, over at Colossal. The work got us to thinking about other unusual spots for animations, whether built into turntables, sent down miniature tracks or painted frame by frame on city walls. As it turns out, you can turn almost anything into an animation. Click through to see our collection of animations in unusual places, and we bet that like us, you’ll start to see everything that moves with a new eye. … Read More

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Film

Trailer: Tattoo Documentary Starring Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons

By Judy Berman on

As tattoo culture grows ever more widespread, we’ve seen ink devoted to all sorts of artistic subject matter, from indie comics to song lyrics. And it appears that we at Flavorpill are not the only ones who have noticed the intersection between high art and body art. In the new documentary Skin, filmmaker Ryan Hope enlists such artists as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Richard Prince in what is described as a “dark, stylish examination of tattoo culture as high art.” The glacially paced trailer doesn’t give away much of what’s in store for viewers, but the visuals sure are intriguing. Watch it after the jump. … Read More

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Film

Check Out a Crazy Fan’s ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Tattoo

By Caroline Stanley on

As regular readers will know, we’re usually fascinated by tattoos around here — whether they’re odes to famous works of art or a celebration of wonderful song lyrics. But we’ve got to tell you, this one has us stumped. Apparently some dude in Istanbul decided that it was a good idea… Read More

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Photography

Sacred Ink: Beautifully Intricate Traditional Thai Tattoos

By Emily Temple on

In America, we don’t necessarily think of our tattoos as holy. Meaningful, perhaps, or simply beautiful, but mostly devoid of serious spiritual tradition on more than an individual level. Not so in Thailand, where the spiritual “Yantra” tattoo tradition merges sacred art with the bodies of the believers. Our friends at Lost at E Minor tipped us off to this amazing project by Cedric Arnold, a French and British photographer who divides his time between London and Bangkok. Arnold writes, “A chest etched with a fierce leaping tiger, a hand adorned with images of geckos on each finger, a back protected by a monkey God, or a shoulder inscribed with ancient Khmer text, sacred ink, believed to have mystical powers. Known in Thai as ‘sak yant’, the tattoos are a testament to the complex spiritual makeup of Thai society, incorporating elements of Buddhism, Animism, Brahmanism and Hinduism.” They are also beautiful to behold, and Arnold’s black and white photography does them perfect justice. Click through to see some of the photographs that blew us away, then make sure to click over to Arnold’s website for even more. … Read More

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Design

Wanted: Temporary Tattoos for Design Geeks

By Judy Berman on

Temporary tattoos get a bad rap. From the Spongebob Squarepants stick-ons you most often find in supermarket vending machines to the messy, do-it-yourself mehndi kits that were so popular around the same time Gwen Stefani was sporting a bindi, they never really seem all that appealing. So, what are those of us who appreciate nice ink but suffer from a serious fear of commitment to do? Now, you can check out Tattly — a design-savvy shop where you can buy fake tattoos including Marc Johns’s smoking rabbit, Julia Rothman’s Polaroid camera, and James Victore’s tribute to New York. See some of our favorite selections from their stock after the jump. … Read More

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Food

Photo Gallery: Delicious and Nutritious Fruit and Veggie Tattoos

By Emily Temple on

It’s summer, and you know what that means: fresh food is in abundance, and it’s never tasted better. Farmer’s markets are exploding with organic goodness and all we want to do is while away the hours next to a pitcher of iced tea and a quart of plump strawberries. Summer is the perfect combination of skin-bearing opportunities and fresh produce availability, so maybe it makes sense that we’ve been seeing a ton of fruit and vegetable-related tattoos this year. As a tribute to the warmer months and all the market salads we have been consuming, click through to see our gallery of fruit and veggie tattoos. Maybe it will inspire your next bout of body art, or maybe it will inform your dinner, but either way, we think it’s sweet and delicious. Be warned: the final image, an artichoke tattoo, is NSFW but was just too good not to include. … Read More

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Web

Watch the First-Ever Animated Tattoo Get Inked

By Caroline Stanley on

Is the fact that Paris-based tattoo artist Karl Marc created the world’s first “animated” tattoo less interesting because it’s part of a viral ad campaign for Ballantine’s, a brand of Scotch whiskey? No, because it got us thinking about a strange, future world where inserting QR code into a design will be as commonplace as rappers with face tattoos. That said, this better not be yet another hoax. Click through to see Marc (and the tattoo) in action. … Read More

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Web

WTF: Woman Tattoos 152 Facebook Friends on Her Arm

By Judy Berman on

Here at Flavorpill, we love a good tattoo. And while we’re all for body art that expresses your individuality, especially in a world that’s seen so many identical butterfly tramp stamps, we think one woman in the Netherlands may have gone too far. In the (mercifully brief) video after the jump, you can watch her get full-color images of 152 Facebook friends permanently printed on her arm. Kudos to the tattoo artist, but we can’t imagine carrying photos of that many people — some of whom we may eventually end up hating — around with us for the rest of our lives. Isn’t their fleeting nature the whole point of Facebook photos, anyway? … Read More

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Books

10 Awesome Indie Comics Tattoos

By Judy Berman on

If we had a nickel for every superhero comic tattoo we saw, we’d be set for life. So, while DC and Marvel are great and all, it’s always much more exciting to spot an arm adorned with images inspired by an indie or web comic artist we love. After the jump, we’ve rounded up ten of our favorites, from Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine to Frank Miller and R. Crumb. … Read More

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