Kimberley Vlaeminck, the girl who claimed her face was tattooed with 56 stars while she slept, has confessed to making up the incredulous story. The 18-year-old Belgian girl insisted she requested 3 stars tattooed on her face, fell asleep during the needle jabbing procedure and woke up with a veritable constellation. Vlaeminck then blamed the tattoo artist Rouslan Toumaniantz for misunderstanding her request and threatened to sue for $20k, the cost of the laser tattoo removal. Last week she said, “It is terrible for me. I cannot go out on to the street. I look like a freak.” Read more »
Parting Shot: Bombed Out
While traveling in Madrid, a member of Queens-based Smart Crew faces the dilemma of sidebusting or continuing to roam the city in search of empty space to paint. |Smart Crew|
The Kills guitarist Jamie Hince doesn’t back up his computer, so when his model girlfriend Kate Moss threw his laptop into a swimming pool in a fit of rage, he lost six new tracks. Not surprisingly “Jamie was absolutely livid and kept yelling, ‘Why would you do such a f***ing stupid thing?!’ ” but the couple have apparently since made up. |Contact Music|
Shepard Fairey Credits One of His Sources
Legally embattled artist Shepard Fairey will be releasing a print tomorrow in collaboration with both the subject, legendary skateboarder Tony Alva and the photographer who shot the original image pictured above, Wynn Miller. The $80 print is available in two colorways limited to an edition of 250. |Poster District|
Images by Shepard Fairey and Wynn Miller
Following a weekend graffiti spree in New South Wales, Australia, officials are looking to install a surveillance system. However, nobody in the small town of Cardiff wants to pay for CCTV cameras, which are not only expensive, but also not useful, so local business leader Robert Denton is trying a different tact: Read more »
For what feels like a year now, NYC has been besieged by gray clouds and torrential downpours, but things could be worse, it could be raining animals. Like an excerpt out of Exodus, people in Japan have reported seeing frogs drop from the sky as well as tadpoles and fish for the past few weeks. Waterspouts are often responsible for this natural phenomenon, but reportedly “no meteorological agencies have observed strong wind or unstable weather conditions in any of the areas where the rain has occurred.” |PinkTentacle|
Semen Sperms documents “Golden Baby Shower (2009),” his latest collaborative art project with Dash Snow and the hamster nesting artist’s toddler daughter Snow: “a semi-sealed golden bubble wrap envelope containing Secret Snow’s dirty diaper, deposited at an OG piss spot on Bleeker street, waiting to be discovered by some brave soul.” However sicko art collectors should know that it’s not worth as much without proof of authenticity. |SS|
A U.S. District Court judge in California denied Louis Vuitton’s motion to have a class action lawsuit brought by gourmet butter maker and bad art collector Clint Arthur dismissed. Arthur filed the lawsuit after discovering the $6,000 Takashi Murakami prints he bought at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art were made from Louis Vuitton handbag scraps, a fact he accuses the company of hiding. |Art Info|
Hybrid taxis are a good idea, but Mayor Bloomberg’s thuggish methods for encouraging them is bad says Judge Paul Crotty. He ruled against the city’s latest attempt to force cab owners to go green, citing existing federal laws and effectively stalling the mayor’s fantasy of an all hybrid fleet by 2012. |Bloomberg|
Graffiti Bicycle Hits a Wall
After last week’s sneak peek at the Joyride, the Bicycle Film Festival’s two-wheeling art show, here’s another look at the rainbow handiwork of Benedict Radcliffe’s paint spraying folding bike.
Photo: Maos
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