A few months back we - along with our partners
A&E Networks and ElectricArtists (my day job) - launched href="http://www.inkedblog.com/">INKEDblog.com, a new weblog centered around
the art of tattooing. Since the launch we’ve put up hundreds of articles -
everything from interviews with tattoo artists, articles about health issues,
celebrity tats, etc.

And yet it’s only been in the last few weeks
that we’ve finally found the true - and best - direction for the INKEDblog
website - personal tattoo stories. We’re excited about what the weblog has
become and wanted to re-introduce it here on the Wooster site.

/>Sometimes projects need a little bit of time to find their course, and for us
INKEDblog has finally found it. Each day for the last few weeks, we’ve been
featuring only two things - (1) a personal story of why someone chose the tattoo
that they picked and (2) a photograph from Mark The Cobrasnake taken at a party
or event.

What we’ve learned is that less is more. Just as street art
has become addictive for us, so have these tattoo stories. Just as we’re excited
to check our email each morning to see what photos have been sent to us by
artists from all over the world, we’ve become equally excited to open up the
INKEDblog email each day to discover a new story.

So if you haven’t
checked out INKEDblog recently, give it a shot at href="http://www.inkedblog.com/">www.inkedblog.com. Each day we’ll feature a
new and different story. If you have a tattoo and a story behind it, be sure to
send it to us at either woostercollective@hotmail.com or
getinked@inkedblog.com

Here’s two recent stories from the site that
we really liked:

/>

“It’s a widely accepted phenomenon. Finding dimes is a message
from a loved one from “the other side”. I have been finding dimes for five
years, since my son died in a horrible car accident. I probably have 200 of
them! And they are always in the weirdest places. On the shoulder of the road,
in a driveway, etc. I almost always find a dime during a race (I am a runner). I
stop to pick them up, and have been almost trampled by runners behind me. I put
this dime tat on my wrist, in a spot usually covered by my watch. The
sillhouette is my son’s instead of FDR. Now whenever I have to remove my watch,
I find a dime. It always makes me smile.”

“This tattoo was designed by me, from a standard photo of a
Bard Parker Scapel with blade. I had this tattoo done because I have had a total
of nine surgeries, so the tattoo is a dedication to my doctor’s successful
efforts. There is a lumbar spinal surgerical scar right above the tat, and a
thin red tattoo line extending from the bottom end of the scar to the scapel
tattoo. My spine doctor liked it so much he took about 20 pictures of it for the
classes he teaches. He said he had seen tattoos where patients had attempted to
‘cover up’ a scar, but never one where the scar had a scapel tatoo extending
from it, thus emphasizing the scar itself.”

The tattoo was done by
Tommy of ‘SlowPokes Tattoos’ in Ranson, WV.

Do you have a tattoo with an interesting story behind it?. Send
us a photo and a paragraph or two about the story behind the tat. We’ll post
them each day of the week. You can email them to getinked@inkedblog.com. You can
check out the site at href="http://www.inkedblog.com/">www.inkedblog.com