Borneo Tattoo Convention Day 1

DAY 1

What can I say ?!

It was great being in Sarawak for the 2nd International Borneo Tattoo Convention 2007 !! I wished it never ended so fast. It was the best experience and being able to be tattooed traditionally by Enersto himself, from the Borneo Head Hunters, was a great honour. Walking around Bukit Aup Jubilee Park was the most physically tormented thing I ever did !! It was such a huge place and climbing up endless fleets of stairs was madness. I will tell you all about it as we go by...

Day 1 of the convention...

I was able to meet Alex Nadini of Italy and it was awesome to be side by side with one of the world's best !

Borneo Design being done by Rotary Tattoo Machine

FreeWind of USA doing his thang ya'all..

Freewind tattooing traditionally with the help of his wife...

Later that evening, I was traditionally tattooed by Ernesto and it drew a large crowd witnessing it. The whole event was videographed and photographed by the press for magazines and documentaries and such... My oh My, was I excited or what ?!

After close to a hour, the tattoo was done. And I had another day to go for my other fist to be tattooed again..hehe !!

Junk Food

The following tattoos are in a new category of bad tattoos: Good Execution, Bad Idea. These tattoos are all done well (some of them amazingly well), and they are such terrible, horrible, awful ideas that they come around full-circle and are possibly the coolest tattoos ever. Only the truly brave and awesome can pull off having a greasy junk food item tattooed on their body for the rest of their life.
This entry is dedicated to BCO. Pizza Forever!

Pizza! (sorry for the bad quality photo):


Pizza and Monkeys and Pot Bellies, oh my!


Flaming Burger:


Summer Vacation Burger:


Monster Burger (done by my favorite tattoo artist, Myles Karr):


And finally, related but not as awesome- McDonald's Boy:

Wizards

Please let me state that I have a huge soft spot for wizard tattoos. They are pretty much always terrible (let me know if you have seen a good wizard tattoo), but charming, in a weird kind of way. I don't really know why I like bad wizard tattoos so much, because I certainly don't find bad fairy tattoos charming (or even good fairy tattoos). Anyway, here is a bevy of awesomely awful wizard tattoos:

Hairy Red-Eyed Floating Head Wizard:


Meek Purple Wizard:


Yin-Yang "POUNDER" Wizard (the bats are really cool though):


Death Wizard:


Space Wizard (I love love love this dude):


Blasty Wizard:


Wizard-That-Doesn't-Look-Like-A-Wizard 1 (the website I found it on clearly stated that it was a wizard):


Wizard-That-Doesn't-Look-Like-A-Wizard 2:


And, for the grand finale, Not Safe For Work Wizard (thanks Jen):
click here to see NSFWW

Bad Portraits

One of the most unfortunate tattoos that you can have is a badly done portrait, and sadly there are a lot of them out there.
Here is the first of what I am sure will be many installments of Bad Portraits:

The details are what makes this tattoo truly awful. The tattoo of her chest tattoo. The hands (which aren't even in the photo). The cheekbones. The teeth.


This is my favorite bad portrait. It's shark-zombie-bride. I feel so sorry for the guy who got this. Again, note the teeth.


This poor guy has a zombie child on his arm. She doesn't have shark teeth- she seems to be suffering from the opposite problem: gummy mouth.



Okay, this one isn't executed so terribly (I'm sure when it healed it looked pretty decent) but it's creepy as hell!


From the same place that brought you creepy thumbs-up dude, we have creepy-cutter-angel (complete with tattoos-of-tattoos):

Star Wars

I bring you three wonky Darth Vaders, one zombie Leia, and an amazing back piece:

Monsters

Today's theme is monsters! I have some gems for you. I actually have a huge soft spot for terrible 80's metal looking tattoos. There's something about the wonkiness that makes them awesome, but only if they are of really brutal monsters. Or maybe wizards.

I think this is a vampire dark elf zombie monster, but I am not really sure. Also, what is spearing the left eye? A tail of something even more sinister?


I actually kind of love this one. I can't figure it out! I think it has three heads, a bunch of bulging muscles, some horns, some hands doing the claw (my favorite), and the weirdest lower body I have ever seen.


This is the best hellhound-in-a-graveyard EVER, but only because he has a really wicked goatee. I think it is from Big Dogz Ink. The skull looking woefully upwards is a great bonus.

Skull tattoos

I love skull tattoos so very, very much. I have nine of them myself. But these ones? Not so much to love about them.

Is this a welder skull? He looks like he is melting!


Does this skull have a cigarette coming out of his head? And what is the big log behind him?


I couldn't figure the other two out, but I really can't figure this one out. What is this? Alien angel quarterback skull?


** update! Apparently Skull #2 is a skull bong. That pretty much makes it more awesome/awful all at once.

Fantasy Failures

Fantasy gems from Big Dogz Ink:

Unicorn tattoos are awesome! Tribal tattoos are not. Wonky unicorns floating astride a tribal piece? Totally awful.



This wizard is almost awesome. He's grizzled and has a cool staff, but his hand is melting, his beard and his cloak meld into each other, and the whole tattoo looks scratched.



And from Headlight Tattoo (not all their stuff is terrible, so it's not as fun as Big Dogz, but there are some gems in the galleries if you search)


Okay, so the color choices in this fairy aren't that bad, but the proportions? The smooshed face? The hair? The floppy left hand? (the right hand claw is kinda sweet though.) The weird shading in the dress?

Day B4 The Trip

Hello Boys and Girls !!

I will be flying off to Sarawak tommorrow for the 2nd International Borneo Tattoo Convention 2007.

I will be back on the 2nd July 2007 and business will resume as usual.

2nd Borneo Tattoo Convention

I will be away for the 2nd Borneo International Tattoo Convention 2007, from 29th June - 1st July which will be held in the Sibu district of Sarawak, eastern Malaysia.

The 2nd Borneo International Tattoo Convention 2007, will bring together international acclaimed tattoo artist from all over the world and also local talents, whereby the Art of tattooing will be highlighted by traditional performances, traditional music, cultural dances, tribal peace offerings to the spirits and parades from all the major tribal cultures and what is left of the elders who were tattooed the way it was a long time ago … so in other word bringing you back in time when the tattoos worn by the individual glorifies the life of the oneself.

The Sarawak Borneo tattoo culture has been known all over the world because of its cultural and traditional roots, and as an Iban who comes from a culture and tradition and being Sarawakian, I present to you the 2nd International Borneo Tattoo Convention to the world and all Sarawakians, I hope that it will bring back to life a lifeless body of this dying culture.

Thank you for the support

Ernesto
www.borneoheadhunter.com

Happy Bday - Immortal Tattoos

Immortal Tattoos turns 1 today on the 14th June 2007. It has been one wild ride for the past one year and hopefully many more years of wild rides to come !! I thank my family, all my friends, my clients and everyone else for the surpport.

May Immortal Tattoos be Immortal !!

Phoenix Part II

In my post about Phoenix in May, you guys might have read about the legends and myth on the Legendary bird. I happen to do one again today, which took a toll on me. Sometimes, most of the customers don't realise that their skin tone plays a part on how the tattoo turns out. And of course, being a professional in this business, its your duty to edcuate them. Most of the time, you can succeed in it, but bad times do roll in too...

A customer of mine, being in the midtone skin wanted to get a phoenix done, which obviously needs colours, but then again there are also option to have it done in black and grey. But sadly, colours won't show much of how it will be on a lighter toned skin.

Talking about the colours that would match his skin tone, I had to really crack my head...

So after close to 2hrs, when the dust has settled from the wings of the Phoenix, I called it a day with some happy endings...

Aum Tattoos

Aum - is a mystical or sacred syllable in the Dharmic religions. It is placed at the beginning of most Hindu texts as a sacred exclamation to be uttered at the beginning and end of a reading of the Vedas or previously to any prayer or mantra. The Mandukya Upanishad is entirely devoted to the explanation of the syllable.

The syllable Aum is first described as all-encompassing mystical entity in the Upanishads. Today, in all Hindu art and all over India and Nepal, 'Aum' can be seen virtually everywhere, a standard sign[citation needed] for Hinduism and its philosophy and mythology.

Aum is not a word but rather an intonation, which, like music, transcends the barriers of age, race, culture and even species. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, aa, au and ma which, when combined together, make the sound Aum or Om. It is believed to be the basic sound of the world and to contain all other sounds. If repeated with the correct intonation, it can resonate throughout the body so that the sound penetrates to the centre of one's being, the atman or soul.

In modern time, Aum tattoos have become very popular with the crowd, regardless of thier age, sex or even religion. It has become the most common design to my knowledge and seriously I have lost count on how many of my clients carry that sacred symbol.