Here are some Polish prisoner tattoos. They were cut with razor blades, glass shards and sharpened paperclips. Then inked with burned rubber, charcoal and other shit. Then, after the convicts’ deaths, they were “extracted” from the corpses, stuck into jars of formaldehyde and stacked at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Then, photographed by Polish artist Katarzyna Mirczak. Then, loftily hypothesized upon as to their meanings (” emblematic signs,” “secret criminal code,” “hidden language”) and implications (“an alternative view on social issues such as exclusion, crime and punishment”), and ooh’ed and ahh’ed at. But really, they are just lumps of bio-looted flesh with bad tattoos of chicks getting fucked, animal predators and something about Jesus. The “symbols and motifs” are very direct. (Images: DesignBoom)
ANIMAL’s feature Artist’s Notebook asks artists to show us their original idea sketch next to a finished piece. This week, we're talking to Brooklyn-based painter Christian Rex van Minnen whose immaculate portraits and tableaux are a perfect mix of visual opulence and pretty horror. Today, he shows us the inspiration and process behind RED &…
A certain teenage male celebrity has made tabloid farts for this "new photo" of a horrible stick-n-poke that he did on someone named Bang Bang (or somewhere named Bang Bang) and it looks like this. Hahahaha. Wait. Hold on. This is brilliant. SWAGGY. Holy shit. It's like a Russian toddler prison…
ANIMAL’s feature Artist’s Notebook asks artists to show us their original “idea sketch” next to a finished artwork or project. This week, Loney Abrams and Johnny Tragedy talk about their tattoo-themed multi-disciplinary project There There. We watch a lot of reality television. And a lot of our ideas start there. In…
