If Looks Could Kill - Graphic Art & Design

Kat Von D is a hellaciously talented tattoo artist currently on the TLC show Miami Ink. She’s opening her own tattoo shop, High Voltage Tattoo soon! Creator of absolutely stunning portraits carved into flesh, which you can see here.

You can see my piece above featured prominently on the Official Kat Von D fan club on MySpace, which got me an illustrious spot in their Top 24 friends. Probably would have done a portrait of her eventually, as I totally dig feisty chickies who have their own thing going and she is fierce! This just gave me a reason.

It’s beyond my comprehension, how she creates these masterpieces on human flesh with blood gushing over her work all the while. I find Miami Ink to be a fascinating study. I love hearing the customers’ ideas, how the artists work with those concepts and placement with consideration for body contours. I love seeing them trace it out and ink it. Of course the end results are most gratifying, when the customers love it, but I am fascinated by the whole process.

Also, peep the gallery for this and other work in the Design section. Don’t forget to nab some icons too, devil chickies, mermaids and creepy dolls abound!

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana pulled this ad under pressure from protests in Spain, and it even hit them where they live, in Italy.

The main issues seem to arise in the female model’s hands being pinned and her lowered lids, eyes hidden beneath either lashes or closed lids. The implications of powerlessness and unconsciousness seem to be the main source of contention, but if you look at her raised hips and arched back, it would suggest that she is digging the scene.

Some people do fantasize about this, as the designers say - it was intended to depict an “erotic dream,” a “sexual game.” The men do look particularly creepy and lecherous, but I think it was intended to be a fantasy of willing and wanting submission.

In Italy, the image first came out Feb. 5, in the most famous and bestselling [Italian] newspaper … at that time, there was no reaction. The effects did not arrive in Italy until after the poor Spanish reaction [to] the ad. We understand that in Spain there is a truly important social emergency as far as violence against women [is concerned], which is why we did not want to offend anyone, so we immediately withdrew the image from all Spanish press.
- STEFANO GABBANA

Here is a website containing this and other ads that are supposed to be offensive to women. Me? I don’t buy any of this stuff, so I don’t give a shit. I’m not their target audience. Even if I were, I could care less. Got your attention, didn’t it? Advertising mission accomplished, massive publicity for them ensues.

Additionally, I am an avid supporter of FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION and If you don’t like it, put your money where your mouth is and don’t buy their product! That’s the best way to send a message, with your hard-earned dollars. Shouldn’t be too difficult to refrain, considering their prices, over-inflated by the imagined prestige of a brand label in the pretentious court of public opinion.

Otherwise, I believe that there are far more pressing issues in life other than an advertising campaign. Go find something PRODUCTIVE to do!

SOURCE

An interesting aside, is that Dolce & Gabbana work directly with their art directors and photographers to execute their campaigns, rather than an agency. This makes their advertising more personally aligned with their own unique vision and differentiates them from many, who outsource their creative work to established agencies who crank out a concept. I’ll bet this is a major factor in their success, not having committees or executive boards to syphon out creativity.

In Celebration of Naked Lady Mudflaps’ Victory over Idiots Trying to Outlaw Them Can you believe that Ed Ableser from Tempe actually raised this as an amendment to be tacked onto an Arizona state bill regarding truck splash guard requirements? Another Democratic Rep, perhaps plagued by her own insecurities, Theresa Ulmer of Yuma supported this foolishness. “I personally am tired of explaining to my 11-year-old son why they (women) are depicted on mudflaps , but not all women are 36Ds. He’s very confused by that,” Ulmer said. Lady, you have more serious issues if you feel compelled to explain all of this due to your son witnessing a a flattering silhouette of the female form. For all we know, she’s clothed, albeit snugly and form-fitting. Secondly, do you live in the land of D-cups? How does your son NOT know that women come in all shapes and sizes? This should be visably apparent. Celebrate Free Speech and pimp out your space by DOWNLOADING (not hotlinking) these 100×100 or 50×50 pixel Icons . Linkbacks/shoutouts are most appreciated. >;) Click on Gallery » Design to view the full-sized image, all done in Illustrator and edited in Photoshop CS2. As always, you may keep up with my antics here.

SOURCE

by Angel of Malevolence. I totally dig this, she totally captured my essence. I especially like the blackened eyes peering from the darkened sockets, complimented by the undead pallor. :)

Along the horror vein, a limited number of VIP passes remain for the impending Texas Frightmare Weekend, get in while you can, the Guest List is an exciting one, for any horror fan. I nearly passed out when Sid Haig and Bill Moseley were added - as if Doug Bradley and Ken Foree were not reason enough to attend! *swoon*

In other news, Hannibal Rising opens this weekend. I find myself actually wanting to journey out to see it in theaters, instead of waiting for the DVD as I typically do.

A higher resolution version is up in the gallery if you’d like to peep it. Green doesn’t translate well to RGB, at least not the warmer olive tones I used in the original, hence the limeyness of the final piece shown.

Plan on this:

I occasionally swap my images around to prevent the gang of Lichtenstein hotlinkers who display images from my server on their MySpace profiles.

While I enjoy Lichtenstein’s work, I still question his ethics, since he took his images directly from retro comics. How appropriate that many of his fans are secondhanders as well, leeching off of my server’s bandwidth. >;)

Dear Image Surfers,
SAVE IMAGES TO YOUR OWN SERVER, LINK BACK - OTHERWISE, PREPARE FOR PUBLIC HUMILIATION!
Love,
Amy