A Wentzville tatto shop owner is facing gun and drug charges, which is a total bummer since he’s already in trouble for getting caught video taping women in his shop’s bathroom. The real shame of all of this is the lost of trust, because if you can’t trust your small town creepy tattoo artist to not shoot you or videotape you in the horrible little bathroom, then what do you have in this world?!

Court documents say that when a customer told him she wanted a piercing removed from her belly, he pulled out a hand gun and told her that “this would remove it.”

If we were that lady, we’d be less worried about this chosen piercing removal tools and more concerned about his little squinty eyes. Look at those things! They’re barely bigger than his nostrils! How is this guy tattooing anything correctly, let alone shooting off belly piercings? Maybe that’s why she wanted it remved to begin with, we hear belly piercings are more sexy and easier to remove yourself, when they aren’t 5 inches off center.

via STLToday

Michael Campbell of Springfield, Missouri was arrested the other day after coming within 500 feet of a playground or public pool. Campbell was detained, not because he looks like the freaking boogey man, but because he’s also a sex offender, adding a second reason he should be nowhere near children. How this creepy bastard doesn’t have a crappy SyFy Channel or Lifetime movie about him yet, we have no idea.

As seen [right], Campbell is known in these parts for the remarkable transformation undergone by his face. The “before” photo was taken following a 2003 theft arrest. Five years later, he had used up almost all the free space on his mug.

Campbell was booked into the county lockup Sunday and later released. He presumably returned to the residence listed on his page in the Missouri sex offender registry.

Geez, give the guy a break. Everyone’s all knocking on his look…”What’s with the forehead pentagram?!” his mom always says. Just like a mom. You go out of  your way to tattoo on a bow tie and does she notice? No. Of course not.

via The Smoking Gun and Gawker

If  you live in St. Charles you should know that your local government thinks your stupid and it hates good ole American capitalism. They may also like stepping on cats tails and punching smiling 5 year-olds in the stomach. The last part we’re not 100% sure of, but the first two things are totally true. Exhibit One: They, once again, denied tattoo shops the right to start up within incorporated St. Charles.

The St. Charles City Council on Tuesday voted 6-4 against allowing tattoo shops within city limits. The bill failed despite it being amended to only allow tattoo businesses in C2-zoned areas at least 300 feet from a residential district and not on Main Street.

Mayor Patti York said that even though the bill would have disallowed tattoo shops on Main Street, those shops could move in a block away in the Historic District.

Oh no! Not a block from the historic district! You know, the district that tries to perserve all that was perfect about the past like fresh baked apple pie, slavery and the rules so that chicks can’t become mayor. Yup, the good old days.

“To me, if it’s something the council does want in the city, I think it should be like adult videos and some of the other stores, I think it should be out in the hinterlands, not in the districts we really want to protect,” York said.

What exactly are you protecting here? No one’s going to be made to get a tattoo just because a shop comes to town. If the community really won’t support a tattoo shop, the “problem” will take care of itself. It seems bizarre that a city would pass a law banning any kind of store, prohibiting both a potential tax-paying shopkeep, but also limiting a building owner’s options for new tenants. Look, St. Charles has some nice areas with fun restaurants, but to pretend the place isn’t just one giant strip mall after another is a little pretentious.

No, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a big deal and people can just go elsewhere for their tattoo needs, but it is odd that St. Charles has to “protect” their residents from tattoos, but don’t feel the same obligation to protect them from heart disease and obesity from the variety of all-you-can-shovel buffet options at nearly every exit along highway 70. Which is more of a body modification: a little ankle tattoo of a cross, or gaining 300 pounds? …the later, which somewhat ironically gives you more tattoo-able surface area.

via STLToday

Cardinals starting pitcher Kyle Lohse arrived at Spring Training the other day sporting some new ink.  Let us guess! Some sort of baseball that’s flying so fast the cover is coming off of it? Ding! Ding! Ding! How’d we guess?! Oh yeah, every pitcher that thinks tats are a good idea get something about a ball’s cover coming off. They must be big fans of The Sandlot or something.

Lohse has a scar the length of his forearm curving from his elbow toward his wrist. He called it his “shark bite” last year. To draw attention away from the jagged fissure, Lohse enlisted the help of a tattoo artist who drew the intricate Koi fish and Zodiac tattoos that Chris Carpenter has on his leg and shoulder, respectively. Lohse gave him some ideas and this winter the artist went to work.

Ugh. Note to self: Chris Carpenter has the douchiest tattoo ever. We’re guessing the next phase of Carp’s ink is some sort of skeleton riding a Harley or maybe a Bald Eagle with something bitchin’ clutched in his talons.

Lohse said the baseball near his wrist is peeling away to reveal a globe underneath it. The purpose of the baseball shedding its hide is “to remind me there’s something else besides baseball.” The wings that sprout from the top of the baseball and run the length of his forearm to his elbow draws from a Native American inspiration for “power.” Lohse is a member of the Nomlaki tribe.

More symbolic of Lohse’s Cardinals years would have been a little baseball car with the wheels coming off, or maybe just the words “My best year was a contract year. Ca-ching!” …you could still put the “power wings” on there if you wanted.  We do love though when atletes like Lohse get something to “remind them that there’s more to life than baseball.” Seems a little extreme doesn’t it? Try reading a book maybe.

via STLToday

Way back in March of this year we told you about the Wentzville Timberland High school, and their teaching staff’s stomping on the poor little journalists of their school paper because they wouldn’t let them write about tattoos. Here’s how we summarized the situation it at the time:

No one is arguing that the principal has the last call in his school, and we aren’t going to get in to that here. This is really about letting the kids put their argument out there, be heard, and have a rational discussion about it. Hell, they even cared enough to start a blog about the subject, and just wanted to be heard by the school board.

…of course by the time all the people on the other side of the coin got done blathering about how censorship is good, time was up and the meeting was over. Go home. F*ck you kids.

Seriously. That’s what happened.

Here we are, eight months after that story, the kids lost and the school board effectively got away with being giant dicks to the very people they are trying to help, all over some silly article about tattoos not being allowed in the school newspaper. The only real winner was the nutcase parents cheered for the principal because he was “saving their children from tattoos”. Guess what guys, the minute your little Jessica gets out of the house her drunk ass is getting a flower on her ankle and won’t tell you until she’s 34.

…especially true since she’ll be getting some practice tattoos from the school this week.

Yup, this week, the Wentzville school district gave out temporary tattoos in support of “Red Ribbon Week,” and even went as far as to encourage the kids to put the tattoos on right away! So the Wentzville school district is not only taking a odd step in their anti-tattoo stance, but now are also taking the role of your drunk friend at the tattoo parlor: “Do it right now man! Don’t think about it! You know you are down right? You support the cause! Just get the tattoo so you can show everyone what you believe it!”

Then 20 years later, when putting away groceries on the top shelf, you can hear your 5 year old child his mother why she has roses growing out of your ass crack and through the eyes of a skull. Because it’s bitchin’ son…and your mother is a skank. Some day when you’re older I’ll explain the Winger tattoo on my left forearm and why you should never do cocaine.

via The Tip Line!

A tattoo parlor in Heckler, Illinois has been giving out free body art in the form of breast cancer awareness ribbon tattoos for a week now and the demand for a free pink ribbon tat has been surprising.

There’s been a steady line at the Eternal Ink Tattoo Studio in Hecker, Illinois since last Thursday. The small shop stocked up on supplies and hired extra help to keep the lines moving.

Nothing like a hastily done permanent mark on your body referencing cancer to make you want to drive to Illinois and wait in line next to people covered in denim and mud. Apparently simply recognizing that big hairy mole on their back wasn’t enough of a body-based tribute to cancer awareness.

The tattoos were free but donations, all of which going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, we accepted. Big spenders out there in Illinois! Out of the estimated 400 tattoos given, they have raised about $400. Go ahead and do the math.

Despite the rush of business to his little tattoo shop, owner Eric Catalano, still took time out of his day to drop some tired metaphors…

“Each person who has came in the shop has tattooed me, because I’m probably going to remember this week for the rest of my life, because I never had any idea how wide spread this was and horrible it was, never had a clue,” Catalano said.

We don’t get it. How have they tattooed you?! …ah, wait. Yup. Now we get it. Very deep. Now you making metaphors about tattooing people that have tattooed you has now tattooed us, like a little pink brain tramp stamp…to fight against breast cancer.

Check back in next week to see our full sleeve tattoo of a giant pink ribbon with a unicorn jumping through it, while Godzilla fights the dad from Just the Ten of Us below on our forearm. The rest of the space will be filled up with barbed-wire and koi fish.

via KSDK