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BOCA RATON — Mo Brenner is taking Jewish pride to a new and controversial level. The 27-year-old Boca Raton tattoo artist boasts a large Star of David on his upper right arm engraved with Abram, his Hebrew name. He'll gladly sketch Hebrew writing and Jewish stars on his clients at Boca Body Art, because what could possibly be a better way to celebrate religion than with a shrine that will last a lifetime? "A tattoo should really mean something to you," Brenner said. "Mine represents my religion and family." With the tattoo phenomenon continuing to explode - 40 percent of...

Perhaps it was because she had always wanted to do it. Or it could have been the fact that her college friends were road tripping from her university in Boston to Rhode Island to have it done. Whatever the reason, Jana Steele says that the flowers she got tattooed on her lower back when she was 18 years old are a lingering reminder of her freshman year. "It was something that I always talked about doing and wanted, but I probably would not have gone through with it without a big group of people," she says. Now a 26-year-old professional...

A New Jersey woman has sued her orthopedic surgeon after awakening from surgery to find a temporary tattoo below her panty line. Elizabeth Mateo, of Camden County, N.J., filed her lawsuit Tuesday saying she found "a temporary tattoo of a red rose" below her panty line the morning after her surgery for a herniated disc, her attorney, Gregg A. Shivers, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "She was extremely emotionally upset by it," Shivers told the paper.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama owns a piece of T.J. Wells’ heart. And of his leg. You may have heard of wearing your heart on your sleeve, but your political convictions on your calf? That’s what Wells, a culinary arts student-to-be at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, has been doing since May 12, after the Illinois senator made a lasting impression on him during a May 4 speech at Headwaters Park. On May 12, Wells went out and got a full-color portrait of Obama tattooed on the back of his right leg – a place that was chosen, he...

I was thinking about getting a tattoo of a Byzantine style 3 bar Cross on my upper right arm. I am wondering if that would be considered wrong or somehow sacreligious. Please let me know your opinion because I cannot find any conclusive answer.

Cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Edmond Cabbabe, uses a laser during Fadi Mouhanna's first treatment to remove a tattoo from his arm at Cabbabe's office near St. Anthony's Hospital. Nothing says "I love you" quite like permanent ink injected into the skin. But as tattoo artists and divorce rates show, love doesn't always last. A tattoo, on the other hand, is everlasting. ... Once the name goes into the skin, the relationship often goes south. And when that happens, tattoo regret can set in. Laser tattoo removal, in fact, is a growing business, and doctors say it will continue to expand...

Even the sight of someone being needled with a normal tattoo is enough to make your eyes water, then it might be best to look away now. For body-art enthusiasts have developed a new technique that gives a whole new meaning to beauty being in the eye of the beholder. What is thought to be the first ever "eyeball tattoo" has been inflicted on a man in Toronto - good news, perhaps, for anyone who ever dreamed of having blue eyes. The tattooer injected ink into the eyeball of volunteer Pauly Unstoppable using a needle, until his eye was completely...

CHAPARRAL, N.M. - Getting a tattoo can be a painful proposition, but usually it's just the needle you have to worry about. Two men trying to trace a loaded .357-caliber Magnum as a pattern for a tattoo accidentally shot themselves, the Otero County Sheriff's Department said Monday. Robert Glasser and Joey Acosta, both 22, were treated at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, after the shooting Thursday evening in nearby Chaparral. Authorities said Glasser was struck in the hand when the gun accidentally went off, and Acosta was hit in the left arm. Their injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.

An unlucky British man seems doomed never to get his ex-wife off his back after his decision to have her portrait tattooed on his body backfired when she left him for another man. Alan Jenkins endured 20 painful hours of needlework — as well as forking out almost $2000 — to have the life-size faces of his wife Lisa and two daughters forever etched on his back. However, his 36-year-old wife had the image of another man burned into her heart — a Latvian fitness instructor 11 years her junior. "It's a real sickener," Alan told the Daily Mail. "I...

MERCEDES — Two young children left alone at home while their father went out for a tattoo remained in state custody late Monday, police said. A neighbor spotted a 3-year-old boy wandering around the La Herencia Apartments just before 10 a.m. Monday, Mercedes Police Chief Olga Maldonado said. As the neighbor stopped to talk to him, she heard crying coming from inside his apartment home, blocks from the Mid-Valley Golf Club. Officers found a 1-year-old girl, barefoot and wearing soiled diapers inside. It appeared as if both children had been left alone for at least several hours, investigators said. Police...

Over the years, I have thought about getting a tattoo. Surprising considering my fear of needles! lol I see them everywhere on every classs of person, I see the artwork vary from onr body to another.What causes someone to decide to have a tattoo. Is it cultural? Is it a fad? I am seriously thinking about it now. Any stories, suggestions? Thank you!

Drag queen Inga the Swedish Bombshell gets a tattoo by artist Boe Mencarelli at Key West Ink.

Why not? It's easier than ever to get it removed. So much for ritual and permanence. Upper-right pectoral region, just a few inches above the nipple, that's where you'll find it, a true and permanent marker of my glorious dorky semi-rebellious middle-class white suburban rock 'n' roll youth and one of the reasons I have trouble wearing a strapless dress in the summer. Or something. It's still a bit pink, even after all these years, pinker than the other skin around it and it's about 3 inches high and 1 inch across and I still get asked about it now...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Kelly Brannigan was suffering from a case of tattoo remorse. Just a year ago, Ms. Brannigan, 24, who holds up Case No. 24 as one of the models on the NBC game show “Deal or No Deal,” had been full of hope when she and her fiancé had each other’s names tattooed across their inner wrists. But now, when she looks at the letters — P-A-T-R-I-C-K — she is reminded of the failed relationship. For help, she turned to Dr. Tattoff, a chain of tattoo removal stores where nurses use lasers in a series of treatments...

The day after the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the 2006 World Series, fan Jason Harris went to a local tattoo parlor to permanently memorialize the team's tenth championship. Harris, a 20-year-old college student who had never previously gotten a tattoo, headed for The House of Ink in St. Louis, where he wanted the words "St. Louis Cardinals, World Series Champions, 2006" inked on his back. However, according to a negligence lawsuit Harris just filed, the resulting fist-sized tattoo was marred by errors for which he now wants in excess of $25,000 in damages. Harris's Circuit Court complaint, a copy of...

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Five tattooed skulls stretch from Marine Cpl. Jeremy Slaton's right elbow to his wrist, spelling out the word "Death." He planned to add a tattoo spelling "Life" on his left arm, but that's on hold because of a Marine policy taking effect Sunday. The Marines are banning any new, extra-large tattoos below the elbow or the knee, saying such body art is harmful to the Corps' spit-and-polish image. [snip] Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway announced the policy change last week. "Some Marines have taken the liberty of tattooing themselves to a point that is contrary...

The tattoo artist is searching for someone willing to turn themselves into a live exhibition of the classic bacon and eggs way to start the day. Mr Dickinson, from Penmaenmawr, Conwy, wants to take his model around UK tattoo competitions. It would include a knife and fork behind each ear.

Part 1 of 2 Part One, Tattoodom Come In recent years tattooing and body piercing have become ever more vital methods of personal expression for millions of people, especially those of the younger generations. But now many people are discovering incredible new and valuable uses for their collections of individual and wearable body art. On college and public high school campuses across the United States tattooing and body piercing have become the acknowledged means of expressing personal individuality. One young student described it succinctly in this way, “You’re really not an individual unless you’ve got some kind of tattoo or...

EVANSVILLE, Indiana (AP) -- An inmate serving a life sentence for molesting and murdering a 10-year-old girl named Katie was apparently forcibly tattooed across the forehead by a fellow prisoner with the words "KATIE'S REVENGE," authorities say. Anthony Ray Stockelman, 39, was removed from the general prison population for his own safety last weekend after authorities discovered the tattoo, officials said.

Guards Fired After Girl's Name Tattooed On Killer's Head Child Molested, Killed By InmatePOSTED: 7:47 am EDT September 29, 2006 EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- An inmate serving life in prison for molesting and killing a child has had the victim's name tattooed across his forehead. Anthony Ray Stockelman, 39, admitted molesting, kidnapping and killing 10-year-old Indiana girl Katie Collman. Katie was missing for five days before her body was found last year in a creek. A photo of what is identified as Stockelman's forehead and eyes appeared online on a blog that focuses on news reports about crimes against children and...

A GULF War hero was banned from joining the police because he has a Union Jack and the words “British Army” tattooed on his arm. Proud Sgt Ivan Ivanovic was told the two-inch design could be seen as RACIST. Ivan was stunned — as he has served Britain for 22 years, seeing action in the first Gulf War and playing peacekeeping roles in Iraq and Kosovo. The dad of two wanted to become a police community support officer when he quits the Army. But Cumbria Constabulary refused to consider him due to the tattoos. Ivan, 40, who serves with the...

NEW ORLEANS - Sean Jeffries never thought he'd feel strongly enough about something that he'd permanently mark his body with a tattoo. But that was before he and a handful of friends were trapped in a city that spiraled into chaos following Hurricane Katrina. Two weeks after being rescued by a caravan of buses led by the National Guard, he and two friends got small matching hurricane-symbol tattoos in various shades of blue. "We went through a lot," said Jeffries, a 38-year-old banker whose tattoo is on the upper portion of his right arm. "I'll probably never get another tattoo,...

A worrisome superbug seen in prisoners and athletes is also showing up in people who get illegal tattoos, federal health officials said Thursday. Forty-four tattoo customers in Ohio, Kentucky and Vermont developed skin infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The infections occurred in 2004 and 2005, and were traced to 13 unlicensed tattoo artists, according to an article in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. These are the first documented cases if tattoo-related MRSA infections, said Dr. Mysheika LeMaile-Williams, a CDC infectious disease investigator who co-authored the report....

WASHINGTON - A sun shines on Dan Yu's back, alongside a swimming koi fish. A tree soon may grow on his arm. "Your body's an empty canvas, so you almost want to continue to add to it," said Yu, 28, as he showed off his tattoos. A generation or two ago, Yu's tattoos — to say nothing of his pierced nose — probably would have placed him in a select company of soldiers, sailors, bikers and carnival workers. But no longer: The American University employee is among about 36 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 with at least one...

On Diana Duyser's right breast there was, at last, just in time for Friday's evening newscast, a tattoo of a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary burned faintly into the crust. It was smaller than most actual grilled cheese sandwiches and iridescent under the Vaseline's protective coat when she turned into the Washington Avenue sun. A crowd was watching. More specifically, a production crew from a television show called Miami Ink was watching a TV news crew watching some tourists from Nebraska watching this exquisitely rendered image on her breast, and everybody was filming everybody else....

Please Remove My Nonsensical Asian Tattoo Monday , May 08, 2006 By Michael Y. Park She thought it said "blood and guts," but it really said "blood and intestines." He thought it said "rock 'n' roll," but it really said "to sway and to roll." The touchy-feely, quasi-spiritual trend of getting Asian-language tattoos became popular in the 1990s. For many youngsters, or for people who wanted to feel young, a tat with the characters for “peace” and “truth” seemed just the thing. But now that the fad-following hipsters of a decade and a half ago have graduated to jobs and...

Tattoos and piercings are ways for an individual to express their personality, but most employers are looking for presentable employees. "I think that appearance is very important, [because] it lets the employer know that you know how to take care of yourself," said Eric Constantine, the manager of Athlete's House in Nashville. It can be a very difficult choice whether or not to have your ears pierced or to get a tattoo, as Lisa Stevens, a freshman, found out. "I really wanted the lifeguard job at the local pool back home," she said. "The only thing was that I also...

Joaquin Laguer (above) fainted and fell through glass, killing himself, after getting the tattoo (below) entitled 'Last Rites.' A Brooklyn father getting a tattoo called "Last Rites" inked into his flesh passed out and crashed headfirst into a glass counter yesterday, killing himself, police and witnesses said. Joaquin Laguer, 27, nearly was decapitated during the horrific accident inside Buzz Tattoo, an unlicensed parlor in East Williamsburg. "There was nothing I could do," said shaken tattoo artist Julio Ramos, 36. "I was kneeling next to him, praying to God. My assistant said, 'He's gone.'" Laguer, an aspiring model and rapper,...

There was no hesitation when preschool teacher Alex Campbell began the process of filling her lower leg with a bright orange koi swimming in a blue pond of labyrinthine waves. The intricate tattoo is not hidden under schoolmarm tights or practical slacks; instead it has become part of the lesson plan in her class at Corner Co-op Nursery School in Brookline. Campbell's students followed the process of their teacher getting a tattoo firsthand -- or as close as a 4-year-old can get to firsthand without stepping into a tattoo parlor. They talked about sketching, needles, and, most importantly, not touching...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Mar. 15, 2006) – The Army has revised its policy on tattoos in an effort to bolster recruitment of highly-qualified individuals who might otherwise have been excluded from joining. Tattoos are now permitted on the hands and back of the neck if they are not “extremist, indecent, sexist or racist.” Army Regulation 670-1, which was modified via a message released Jan. 25, also now specifies: “Any tattoo or brand anywhere on the head or face is prohibited except for permanent make-up.” For women, allowable make-up would be permanent eye-liner, eyebrows and makeup applied to fill in...

WASHINGTON - Uncle Sam wants YOU, that famous Army recruiting poster says. But does he really? Not if you're a Ritalin-taking, overweight, Generation Y couch potato - or some combination of the above. As for that fashionable "body art" that the military still calls a tattoo, having one is grounds for rejection, too. With U.S. casualties rising in wars overseas and more opportunities in the civilian work force from an improved U.S. economy, many young people are shunning a career in the armed forces. But recruiting is still a two-way street - and the military, too, doesn't want most people...

No longer a badge of otherness, body art has become a mainstream movement. Twenty years ago, when tattooing started its amazing crossover, culture-watchers wrote it off as a glib fad. But instead of fading into an embarrassing relic from the deeply unhip '80s, tattooing is stronger than ever. The Bay Area keeps more than 100 tattoo studios in ink. Tattoo conventions are held where the demographics skew far wider than the stereotypic cross section of skinheads, bikers, ex-cons and gang members. Tattoo art is dynamic and diverse, with styles that range from Japanese to tribal, from bold designs that...

RAMADI, Iraq -- Not long before the invasion of Iraq, when death still seemed far over the horizon, Jason Lemieux joked that he would tattoo Ruben Valdez's name on his arm if his buddy were killed in action. A few months after Lance Cpl. Valdez died in a gunfight on the Syrian border, Sgt. Lemieux remembered the conversation and decided the joke was a promise. When the sergeant made it home, he walked into a tattoo parlor and had the artist dye a rifle-helmet-and-boots memorial into his upper arm. Beneath is written "Never Forget," for Lance Cpl. Valdez and three...

All Things Considered, January 11, 2006 · Robert Siegel talks with Tian Tang, author of a Web site dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture. Tang posts photos of Chinese character tattoos that either contain errors or carry no meaning. Tang says as a Chinese American, he felt it was his "duty and honor to educate the public about the misusage of Chinese characters."   A reader e-mailed Tang this photo of a friend's tattoo. It's supposed to read "bad boy" in Chinese, except the order of last two characters has been reversed. Courtesy Tian Tang  ...

Before catching a plane from Oakland to Las Vegas on Thursday, Lance Frey made sure he had everything he needed: keys, cell phone, wallet. Then he let his 3-year-old get a tattoo. Going through busy airports where a child can get lost or separated, Frey said he feels safer knowing that his daughter, Elizabeth, has one -- even if it's only temporary. Besides, she likes it. While tattoos normally don't conjure images of safety and security, temporary tattoos do these days for the Alameda resident and his wife, Lynne. That's because whenever their family travels -- they expect to take...

OAK RIDGE - A controversial edition of the Oak Ridge High School student newspaper that was confiscated last week will remain banned, school officials announced late Tuesday. A revised version of The Oak Leaf will be distributed to students today, Superintendent Tom Bailey said in a release. Dropped from the retooled edition is an article describing various types of birth-control methods. Hastily put in its place Tuesday afternoon by student editor-in-chief Brittany Thomas is an editorial about a recent school play, "The Importance of Being Earnest.'' School officials demanded the change, Thomas said. "I was told to fill it with...

'Dumb' Tattoo Leads To Bank Robbery Suspect Waterford Police Say They Know Identity Of RobberPOSTED: 1:51 pm EST November 17, 2005 A man with an identifying tattoo is being sought by Waterford police after they said he robbed a National City Bank. The suspect, identified as Andrew Jeffrey Webster, has tattoos on both arms, including one that says "Dumb" on the inside of his right arm, according to police. Webster is considered armed and dangerous. Police responded to a bank robbery at the National City Bank, located in the 900 block of West Huron at 12:55 p.m. Tuesday. The robber...

Just think of the special moments you and your daughter will share -- that first day of school, the first grown-up dress, and even a first date. And then, of course, there is a trip to the tattoo parlor, where a guy with a lip stud and spiked hair will stick a needle in her belly button. Haven't you had the talk yet? It is coming. Trust me. When a young lady reaches her teens, her thoughts used to turn to puppy love. Now she's thinking whether she'd rather have a piercing in her belly button or her nose. Shocked?...

Potentially the stupidest tattoo ever. Thanks to Image Shack for the free image hosting.

"Last Rites" Tattoo October 15, 2005 -- A man getting a "Last Rites" tattoo etched into his arm in a Brooklyn shop yesterday felt dizzy, fainted and fell head-first into a glass display case - slitting his throat and killing him, police said. The tragic mishap occurred at 2 p.m. while Juaquin Leger, 28, of Brooklyn, was getting the tattoo in the Buzz Tattoo Shop at 61 Graham Ave. in Williamsburg. Store owner Julio Ramos cried as he described what happened as he began etching the eerily foreboding tattoo on Leger's right forearm. "I was doing the linework," he said....

Meet Damon Conklin, organizer of this weekend's Seattle Tattoo Convention. See him in his milieu, his roomy Super Genius shop on Capitol Hill. The music blares. Sample racks of tribal, skull and voluptuous-women tattoos hang from the ochre-colored walls. See him in his milieu much later one evening, still in his shop, but with a blue "Bible Study" binder in his lap. "If it's one point I always try to drive home, it's that you cannot judge a book by its cover," Conklin, 38, says. Tattoo enthusiasts have long been at the receiving end of gawks or scornful remarks. The...

Now that Cindy has been interrupted by real life, and will presumably be cutting back on her earth-shattering pronouncements–it’s time to get back to the little things that make life worth living.  Like her fetching ankle tattoo. Observant folks noticed it in the photo of our hero mother getting her hair done before the cameras (posted down below). Since then the media has been religious about not showing her left ankle. (Believe me, I’ve looked.Here it is at last: Well, at least she doesn't wear her grief on her sleeve.

A WOMAN WHO was branded with part of Con Edison's logo after falling onto a burning hot Manhattan manhole cover is suing the utility. A lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses Con Ed of allowing the manhole cover at E. 13th St. and Second Ave., to become excessively hot through a buildup of steam under it. Elizabeth Wallenberg, 27, suffered "excruciating pain, disability and grotesque cosmetic disfigurement," according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. The fall left Wallenberg with a "C" and "O" and part of the manhole grid burned onto her back, just above the buttocks,...

By Lester Haines Published Friday 1st July 2005 12:39 GMT A Utah woman has become the latest asset in online gambling outfit GoldenPalace.com's eBay preposterous purchase portfolio after accepting $15,000 dollars to have the casino's name permanently tattooed on her forehead. Karolyne Smith joins the Virgin Mary toasted cheese sandwich and other assorted tat for which Golden Palace has shelled out gambling punters' hard-lost cash. Back in February, an amply-endowed Glaswegian lass trousered £422 to bear a temporary Golden Palace tattoo on her heaving cleavage. All good clean fun, we noted at the time. But Karolyne Smith is altogether...

For $10,000 and a brighter future for her son, Kari Smith on Wednesday became a real life pop-up ad for a virtual casino. Smith shows off the new ad site. She plans to use the $10,000 to send her son Brady, left, to a private school. Keith Johnson, Deseret Morning News "It feels like someone is taking a pin and just stabbing you with it," Smith told her son, Brady, seated nearby on the floor as tattoo artist Don Brouse — in permanent black block letters — branded her forehead with the Web site domain GoldenPalace.com. The 30-year-old Bountiful mother,...

I moved to NYC from Atlanta in April. Having grown up in Chicago, I knew what I would be facing moving from red state to blue state and, with a true freeper heart, I was looking forward to the change. Frankly, it is a lot more fun.

Two avowed New Jersey racists have been charged with trying to build a fertilizer bomb similar to the device that blew up in Oklahoma City, authorities said yesterday. Gabriel Carafa of Pennsville, N.J., and Craig Orler of Whiting, N.J., allegedly gave a federal informant 60 pounds of a fertilizer component and asked him to build a bomb. "Carafa boasted that this urea was more pure than the stuff that [Timothy] McVeigh used," authorities said in court papers. McVeigh was executed for his role in bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City. Convicted of beating a Hindu store owner in 2002,...

The young man sitting in the corner of Starbucks looks like a typical twentysomething in his blue T-shirt and relaxed fit jeans. A closer look reveals tattoos on his face and arms. It’s written all over his body: This man was a gang member.   The man, who asked that his identity be kept secret, says he joined a Portland gang at age 15.   “I think I was just young and impressionable,” he says. “It didn’t seem like I could fit in anywhere else.”   He says he spent his teenage years drinking, fighting and causing mayhem. Then, in his early 20s,...

Businews Columnist Roger Button went looking for some different ideas to honor the women in our lives. Here's some of what he found. We have come a long way since 1858, when Mothers Day began in this country in West Virginia. Church worker Anna Reeves Jarvis introduced Mother's Work Day to encourage better sanitation in her town. Twelve years later a Mothers Day Peace proclamation was introduced and two years later modified to Mother's Day of Peace. Jarvis's daughter dedicated her life to honoring mothers. In 1908 she introduced the use of the carnation, a tradition still honored today, with...