News

Philip Barbosa shot this great portrait of artist Dave Gillstrap and client at SW1 in 2005. Dave had just finished the cutting on her leg and Phil decided to go for a very intimate pose to show the connection between the two. The photo loses a lot of detail with resizing, but take note of Dave’s torso scarification. (and his painted toenails)

Welcome to 2010, Scarwarriors.
I’ve been taking a bit of a break from updating the Scarblog, but now I’m back and ready to get the fun train rolling.

My friend Matias sent this one in; a healing shot of his amazing demon cutting we featured back in November. Great progress and texture.

Things are quiet at Scarwars central.
My hectic work schedule has crept to a halt (which means the book/shirts ship on Monday!) for the time being and it’s time to slow down and spend some holiday time with the family.

I’ve just made a batch of deviled eggs (with bacon and truffle salt) and Claire whipped up some tasty froot loop treats; soon we’ll be in the car headed for the P5 Compound and 4 days of relaxation and present swapping.

My present to you guys/gals is this fine cutting from our good friend Thorsten. Done at SW2 in LA and documented by the spirit of Christmas himself, Atom Moore.

Happy Holidays!

I was just thinking the other day “man, the blog needs more Wayde Dunn”,
Since it’s been a while since the Thunda has sent in new scar pics, I took the ‘roo by the tail and found a photo OF Big Red taken at SW3 by Atom Moore. While it’s not quite the same as one of Mr. Dunn’s expert cuttings, it certainly ups the testosterone of the main page.

Crikey!

I hadn’t planned on updating tonight, but as I sat down to watch a movie and prepare for the threat of a major snowstorm I happened upon new cutting by my poutine loving friend Efix Roy.
He says this lettering took approximately two hours. Clean work as always. I’m counting the months till my summer trip to spend some time in Quebec City with Efix- until then….

Tabarnak!

Another pic from Thorsten!
I have so many amazing cuttings from Thorsten to choose from that I just couldn’t help using one more this week; with amazing work from Rata, Lewis, Capo and Thorsten over the last few updates we’ve covered two continents and more than a few countries.

My hellish Holiday Season is almost over; regular updates will commence soon and the much delayed books/shirts will finally ship.

As promised; more work from my friend Thorsten.
I bring this up a lot, but you can’t really predict how a cutting will heal; so many factors play into the end result. But going to a professional exponentially increases your odds of ending up with an amazing piece.

I’m seeing a LOT of folks getting into cutting; some of whom go about things the right way and learn from other professionals. Others just grab a scalpel (if we’re lucky) and start hacking up their friends.

Unfortunately there are very few sources for the aspiring scarification artist; and with that lack of availability there seems to be a justification of just doing it on your own. Sky Renfro and Fakir each offer courses; John Joyce and Wayde Dunn did a killer “introduction to scarification course” a few months ago that I’d love to see developed further… There are always options if you’re willing to devote time, travel and financial resources toward them.

Thorsten can be contacted via myspace at: Myspace.com/artofscars

More Lewis Dodd?
Hell yes. This decorative skull piece was done at Addicted Tattoo & Body Piercing in Barcelona; a collaboration between Mr. Dodd and Addicted’s owner Capo.

I’m freshly returned from John Joyce’s Scarab Body Arts in Syrcause; newly tattooed by Rick Lohm and enjoying a day off looking through pictures for the next few sw blog updates. Check back later tonight for more from Thorsten!

The eternal question: Hanya or Oni?
My friend Thorsten sent in three emails this morning full of scarification goodness but didn’t specify what kind of demon this fellow is, so I’ll have to just leave it up to you guys.

The piece was done in two sections (left and right) and healed beautifully. I’ll be posting more from Thorsten over the next several days.

You can contact Thorsten via:
STIGMATA-Inc (Augustinerstr 6, 50667 Cologne, Germany) or on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/artofscars

In tattoo iconography, the rose is one of the most highly recognizable “old school” designs. To get it just right is deceptively hard. Too realistic, it looks gaudy. Too simple, and it looks like cabbage. It’s especially difficult to pull off a good rose design when you don’t have shading and color to give it definition.

If you’ve been keeping up with the scarwars blog lately though, you know that our man in the UK Lewis Dodd has a keen eye for scarification pieces featuring traditional tattoo imagery and is quickly becoming known for his bold line cutting. Add it all up and the client is going to end up with an amazing scar courtesy of Mr. Dodd.

Rata just sent over a whole bunch of new cuttings; the first to get featured is this tattoo/scarification hybrid. The outlines were standard scalpel scarification, with the shading portions done with a tattoo machine.

This technique has a lot of promise- we’ll check back with Rata to see how things heal up.

Keylan holds the record for being both the youngest and the tallest artist ever to work a SW event. This shot (taken by the ever-bearded Atom Moore at SW3) features the lanky Levine and a very fresh tiki mask cutting/removal.

My schedule has been VERY hectic lately- I’d like to apologize to everyone who ordered the Fall/Winter book & shirt combo. I’ve not been able to get to the printers to pick up the shirts. The books are ready and numbered, the packages made out, I’m just waiting to get a free minute to go pick the shirts up. My work week is 60+ hours right now and it’s regrettably not left any time for extras; you have my thanks for purchasing the combo, my apologies for the delay and my hope that you’ll be patient while I get everything sorted out.

I sat here for a few minutes trying to come up with some clever title for today’s update; Efix from Quebec City is responsible for the work, but as for a title…. nothing came to me. I kept thinking of a Journey album cover, so in the spirit of the design….

Efix has been turning out some amazing work lately; I considered several kickass pieces before deciding on this removal. I’ll bug him for healing/healed photos.

You can contact Efix via his bmezine.com page: Efix@iam

I promised Tiana that I wouldn’t embarrass her on her birthday by making a post here on the scarblog. But since her birthday has come and gone….

Here’s a great shot that Atom took at the SW3 event in Philly. I’m fairly sure the removal piece was done by Ryan Ouellette of PBA. I probably should have checked before I started working on this update… but cookies and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince distracted me.