Yesterday morning I caught a clip on CNN about tattooing in Iraq. I had my camera and managed to get some shots.? Like this one at left with the guy tattooing with one plastic glove. It turns out? tattooing used to be the type of thing that would get you killed in Iraq. Saddam outlawed tattooing because it was seen as "too American". To Muslims it is "Haram" or forbidden, considered a desecration of Gods creation. These days though CNN reports that business is booming for tattooers in part because many people want to be tattooed so their loved ones can identify their bodies in case they are killed. Apparently there are countless unidentified bodies in Iraq from all the car bombings, terrorist attacks, etc. People are getting their names and phone numbers tattooed on them so their family can be called if they are found. About 100 bodies are found each day in Iraq nationwide. Most people have been taken from one neighborhood and killed in another.

At one time tattooing was a mark of pride in Iraq. Women would be tattooed on their faces with lines and dots on their chins and men would get tattooed on their hands and wrist. Saddam himself has three dots tattooed on his wrist as a symbol of his "humble origins"

Chuck was as happy as a pig in shit this afternoon, with this "sweet ass piece" he did? today......That's right, the girl got a drill, tattooed on her ass. She said she liked tools. Fair enough.

Billed as "A unique pictorial study of America's most personal art form - at the height of it's popularity at the turn-of-the-century." This book is a look at the scetch book of Victorian tattooer C.H. Fellowes. The Tattoo Archives say that, " not much is known about Fellowes. All that remains is his scetch book and a hand tattooing kit, which were found in 1966 in Providence, Rhode Island and later sold to a private collector."

Fellowes scetch book features mostly, "patriotic emblems, mothers, and sweethearts, mythological heroes and beast, sinking ships, daggers and flowers, and less than decorous body art." The preface of The Tattoo Book has "A Short History of the Strange Custom of Tattooing" by William C. Sturtevant from the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution. This book was published in 1971 I'm not sure if there are any reprints out there but there are some great pages of designs mostly printed in black and red with a few pencil drawings included. Check out the nice lady reclining on a giant fish tattoo I added to Bailey's "worst ever" post. Someone needs to get her tattooed.

This story actually ran in September but the other day I saw Nikki (pictured) who never got to see the piece so I promised I'd post it. They had shot this months earlier but I was told the Daily News editor HATES tattoos and didn't want to run it at all so it got put aside. When it finally ran it only ran in the early edition so a lot of people missed it.

Thanks to Linda Rosier who took the pictures and Ethan Sacks who wrote the story. The story didn't even run with the picture it was only posted online

The caption reads, "Nikki McDonnell arrives at Fun City on St.Marks Place to get long awaited Sacred Heart tattoo from Michelle Myles, who goes to work on her. Pain's "the price you pay," McDonnell says."