Two tattoo artists who go far beyond butterflies and tribal arm bands. Ryan Mason crafts lush pieces ranging from the sacrilegious to the hilarious to the literary. Amanda Wachoub has expanded fine art to the tattoo realm with her delicate watercolor-like works and conceptual bloodlines. [more inside]
posted by Juliet Banana on Aug 21, 2009 - 35 comments

Two artists that paint humans so that they blend into their surroundings: Liu Bolin and Emma Hack (click 'body art' and then 'exhibitions' to get into the image galleries)
posted by Kattullus on Aug 27, 2008 - 16 comments

All the girls love Zombie Boy. [more inside]
posted by Dave Faris on Jul 4, 2008 - 99 comments

Russell Higgs has been adorning his face and head with various objects and posting photographic portraits online since July 2006. Dutch artist Levi van Veluw also likes to modify his face by putting things on it and photographing the results.
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 12, 2008 - 11 comments

Top 10 Physically Modified People -- A list of those who have gone to extreme lengths to modify their body for decorative purposes. Let the squeamish beware (especially the videos embedded in the page).
posted by fallenposters on Aug 24, 2007 - 68 comments

Lost Art is the fascinating site of Brazilian Mefite Ignacio Aronovich and Louise Chin. It's a deep vein of adventurous, quirky, and kinky photo essays from around the globe. Scroll down on the main page to see a text menu or browse the visual index. Much content is NSFW but - stick with "adventure" and "travel" if that's a concern - or view the SFW slide show Our Year in Pictures 2006 (with sound) or without sound.
posted by madamjujujive on Jun 25, 2007 - 5 comments

Look, a dancing skeleton!
posted by koenie on Apr 23, 2006 - 37 comments

A Koi on Keith Alexander - Keith Alexander of modern american bodyarts(NSFW) gets a huge back tattoo, and documents it all before and after each biweekly session. Some of it is a bit campy.... but still wow.
posted by sourbrew on Aug 16, 2005 - 25 comments

Body Art. (NSFW) Martin Armand gives a whole new meaning to the term "anatomical art" with his airbrush paintings on bare skin. Five galleries of photos: the first page only links to a few larger images, but the rest of the galleries work fine. More bodypainting here (E-cards site, but very cool images), here (very nice "camouflage" body art), here (especially artistic) and via this previous MetaFilter thread. But remember; if you worky, no clicky the linky!
posted by taz on Jun 2, 2005 - 10 comments

The World Body Painting Festival will be held in Austria at the end of the month. The event site has some colorful photo galleries from prior years. Are these festivals the modern incarnation of an ancient art and tradition? Is there a gold standard? Some works show great artistry while others, not so much. This photo has always been one of my favorite examples. NSFW - nakedness abounds!
posted by madamjujujive on Jul 18, 2003 - 14 comments

Is It Art Or Is It Just Ewww? Four centuries after the first stirrings of body art and four decades after Piero Manzini's Merda d'Artista and his egg-eating sessions there is Chrissy Caviar by Chrissie Conant, complete with website and Quicktime video. A can of Manzoni's shit was recently bought for over $30000 by the Egg-sponsored Tate Gallery. For that money you could buy ten whole kilos of Royal Beluga from Petrossian costs ten times less. Difficult call.
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jun 20, 2003 - 15 comments

African Ceremonies - Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have been recording African tribal rituals and customs in stunning photography for the last three decades. Beckwith, a U.S. native, is an expert on the Massai and also spent three years living among the fascinating desert nomads, the Wodaabe. Fisher, an Australian native, spent nearly a decade and a half studying and recording jewelry and body adornment. For at least the last decade, they've been collaborating with spectacular results.
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 5, 2002 - 9 comments

Portrait tattoos have a long history in tattoo art. Some believe that wearing an image calls the spirit of that image. With this in mind, it is both amusing and baffling to see the cast of characters that people choose to immortalize.
OK, chances are you never would, but if you simply had to make a decision about having someone's portrait tattooed on your body, whose spirit would you choose to call up?
posted by madamjujujive on Oct 5, 2002 - 30 comments