tattoos area

Who knew where the hell Stone Island came from when hit the designer shops and football terraces of the U.K. in the late 90s apart from those who had bothered to read the labels or the everyday Italians who passed the unsuspected designer wear in their local shops. To those who had grown up looking at it, it was just another Italian label originally designed with one specific purpose - to keep the local fishermen warm and dry but for those wearing the designer brand in the U.K. it had other purposes. For many it was a status symbol to show others that they spent good money on good clothes but for most it told the visiting football fans that 'We're game and ready for battle!'

From the routes of football anarchism, the generation that once fought for their individuality in the most violent of ways began to conform to a fashion that became known as 'Terrace Wear', bore a resemblance to both fascism and socialism and wouldn't go out of place at a either a Hitler or Stalin rally. For the first time in history it became boring and dull to wear designer labels, but all that would soon change.

With absolutely nothing interesting for teenagers to get up to in the 80s and 90s there was bugger all to do apart from take drugs, go to raves or get pissed up and have fights at football matches, so it was fair to say for that football hooliganism was the closest thing they had to an extreme sport and if hooliganism was an extreme sport then 'Terrace Wear' was extreme sportswear. No matter how boring it looked.

As the new millennium came in a new wave of extreme activities arrived that urban kids could get their kicks out of. Mountain Biking became fashionable and fun for both adults and teenagers alike and Trials MTB and Free Running hit the streets. And as skateboarding and BMX became more popular than ever a new fashion rose up from back street bike parks and skate parks and made it onto the shelves of Main Street designer clothes shops, a style that quickly became known as 'Urban Streetwear'.

'Urban Streetwear' screams individuality mixing both retro and modern styles and consisting of combat pants, cargo shorts, hip hop style jeans and unique t-shirts sporting fresh graffiti and tattoo style designs. It is an untamed style that refuses to let main stream designer labels such as Ed Hardy, Affliction and Christian Audigier corner the market and has given birth to smaller independent brands like the Japanese designed Shiroi Neko and other smaller brands like Eternity, Billy Eight, Ronin and Kustom Kulture all made in Thailand.

Urban Streetwear has done for fashion what Punk Rock did for music back in the 70s and that is to give it a well and truly needed kick up the ass. No longer do kids feel pressured by their peers to go out and buy dull designer labels at extortionate prices just to be in with the crowd but can wear anything they want when they want, mixing and matching urban wear and skate wear brands at prices they don't have to rob houses for to afford.

By Mark Paul Alexander

By Mike K.

1) If you are assuming that it will only take a couple of sessions to totally remove your tattoo using laser tattoo removal equipment, I'm afraid that you are sadly mistaken. I have read about people that had to deal with the painful treatments during 10 to 15 sessions. What is involved is to outline or to trace your tattoo with a laser that will burn away the skin. You'll then have to wait for the skin to peel off before you will be able to deal with another treatment.

2) The cost to have treatments by laser to remove your tattoos can be extremely high. A good estimate is to assume that you will have to pay about $200 American per square inch. This expense could be lower if the ink for the tattoo did not reach multiple layers of your skin. If your tattoo was completed by an amateur, the likelihood of it being embedded deeply into your skin is low which will indirectly reduce the cost.

Professional tattoo artists use techniques that prevent the tattoo from fading over the long term. If your tattoo was professionally embedded into your skin, the cost to remove it will be much higher than if it had been performed by a nonprofessional. Also, certain colors are harder to remove than others, so if your tattoo is complex and colorful you will have to deal with more than the average amount of laser treatments.

By Tobin Tatio

Tattoo artist Todd Kirkland looks at the new artwork on the body of Tara Ivanova at Key West Ink August 23, 2007 in Key West, Florida. After a 40-year ban on permanent body tattoos Key West has allowed two tattoo parlors to open as part of a legal settlement over city's rules. The ban was put in place on the island in 1966 when a Navy commander wanted to prevent sailors from getting them. Key West Ink sued the city, claiming the prohibition on their opening shops there violated their constitutional rights.

Tattoo design the gain popularity, mainly because of their meaning, symbolism and the interest they create between individuals. Some good examples of tattoos in relation to civilization (such as Aztec, Celtic, etc.), flowers (like the lotus, rose, etc.) and many more. Similar to this tattoo, the intelligent sports tattoos of their favorite sports team logo or number of sports stars and lovers of rap artist tattoos of their favorite rap artist.

A MEDIEVAL torture technique is the latest trend among fans body art.

Branding - used for millennia by African tribes and inflicted on slaves and criminals - is now regularly carried out in Manchester tattoo parlours.

But experts warn the technique, in which designs are burned onto people's skin, is dangerous because wounds can easily become infected.

Graham Martin, owner of Holier Than Thou tattoo parlour in Oldham Street, is now branding at least one person a week - up from just one a year.

Customers pay up to £70 for their skin to be permanently scarred with red-hot cauterising pens.

The small implement has a wire across the end, which is heated to around 1,000C and used to outline the design.

Graham, whose own arms are branded as well as tattooed, said the procedure - which carries the risk of nerve damage if it goes wrong - is no more painful than a regular tattoo.

"It is not like burning your skin on a cooker," he said. "We don't use old-fashioned cattle rods. The heat numbs the nerves so it doesn't hurt much."

Human branding was introduced as a punishment in England during the middle ages but was abandoned in the mid 18th century. The branding of livestock has been outlawed by animal welfare legislation.

But the internet and mass marketing of alternative culture has made the technique increasingly fashionable, although only over 18s can legally have it done. Tattoos and piercings are now so commonplace it takes a more extreme form of body art to stand out.

Graham, who is also president of the Tattoo and Piercing Industry Association, said: "We've always had a few people coming in to ask to be branded - from students to teachers and policemen - but it's just snowballed over the past few years."