Leicester Square, May 1982

Tuinol Barry, Chelsea 1982

Skinhead, Leicester Square 1980

Leicester Square, London 1983

To see more of the exceptional photographs of Derek Ridger’s documentation of British youth culture have a look here.

Sacred Skin is a documentary in the making exploring the different forms of tattooing, piercing and scarification methods used throughout the world. Here in this trailer they start their journey by speaking to Henk ‘Hanky Panky’ Schiffmacher in Amsterdam.

Keep up with the progress of Sacred Skin on their facebook here

Wolfram Mehring in complex make-up shot by Thérèse Le Prat in 1961 for her project Un seul visage en ses metamorphoses.

Kōbō Abe (screenplay, based on his novel), Hiroshi Teshigahara (director) Tanin no kao (The Face of Another) / 1966, USA 1967

AP News
TODAY! July 9, 8PM

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Okuyama (Yojimbo’s Tatsuya Nakadai), after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist’s radical new experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the strange world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. With unforgettable imagery, Teshigahara’s film explores both the limits and freedom in acquiring a new persona, and questions the notion of individuality itself.

Text by AP NEWS
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screenings start at 8:30, use main entrance until 8

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AP News
Zentrum Wipkingen
First Floor
Röschibachstrasse 22
CH-8037 Zürich

Also, read ‘Facing in’, an excellent essay by Douglas Messerli in the International Cinema Review. (May 2012)

Born in South Africa in 1896 little is known about Van Dyn’s life, but what is known is suitably sensational and shocking. Other than being well know for having a highly decorated face in more conservative times Van Dyn was also known for being a regular at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park telling whoever would listen about his scandalous life. Tattooed by the great George Burchett in the 1930′s and rumoured to have worked for Al Capone as a gun runner, he worked on the Southampton Docks most of his life until his death in the 1980′s.

He made the newspapers in England on many occasions – most famously with the story of him selling his heavily tattooed head to anyone who cared to have it after his death. Tattoo artist’s Ben Gunn, Tattoo Jock, Cash Cooper and Jack Ringo all appeared in newspaper stories – telling of them buying Jacobus head – which they would receive after his passing (which of course they didn’t but worked as a great publicity trick for them).

This is what George Burchett had to say about him:

“The World’s Worst Man, my most plucky client, J. P. Van Dyn, who now works as a stevedore in the Southampton Docks is sixty three years of age. He claims to have been in every famous prison in the world, including Sing Sing, Devil’s Island. Very few of my clients, except professional fair-ground artist, would decide to ornament their faces in such an elaborate and distinct manner as Mr. Van Dyn. He sketched some of the designs himself.” (source)

Photographs by Howard Grey taken in 1959. More images can be seen here

Olive Oatman was kidnapped from her Mormon family in the Gila River (present-day Arizona) by the Yavapai Indians, while her family were traveling across the South West of America in 1851.
Most of her family were murdered but her and her sister, Mary-Ann were kidnapped by the Yavapai. After receiving harsh treatment by them for a year she was ransomed by a band of Mohaves. Olive went on to be accepted into the Mohave lifestyle and spent four years living with them. This was most famously acknowledged with her blue chin tattoo.
Mohaves considered tattoos to be a form of identification in the afterlife. The tattoo was secured by pricking the skin in small regular rows with a cactus pine until the skin bled freely. The cactus spikes were then dipped in weed juice and blue stone powder which was then applied to the pinpricks on the face. These chin tattoos indicated that the woman was ready to embark in adult tribal life.
Chin designs with the Mohaves were chosen by the tattooists and were based on the shape of the face. Narrow faced people usually wore designs of narrow lines or dots to accentuate the length of the face. Patterns for broad faces tended to have wider lines and cover more of the chin, making the face look even broader.
Olive was ransomed in 1856 by the United States Government at Ft. Yuma. On her discovery she was apparently found in nothing but a skirt made of bark which fueled suspicions of debauchery and sexual exploits.  Considering her puritanical upbringing, Olive’s experience was deemed as outrageous. An ambitious Methodist minister named Royal Byron Stratton wrote a scandalous book about her story which was named Olive and Mary Ann. The book sold 30,000 copies, a huge best-seller for that era. Rumours of her mothering two children by the chief’s son circulated but she denied this thoroughly.

Her story gripped the country so much that in the 1880′s, the “tattooed captive” became a popular circus theme. Their stories turned provocatively, on the notion that people of colour could transform whites into people of colour  ethnically and decoratively, as a means of exploitation and degradation.
Images and stories of Oatman’s tattoo fed the new America’s fear and ignorance’s towards the First World. In many ways Olive’s tattoo has captured a rather colonial view of the First World as terrifying primitives. Rather than a rather uplifting story of acceptance of this new culture and lifestyle bestowed upon her. Olive often proclaimed her love for the Mohaves in interviews and her brother indicated that she would weep night after night after leaving them. It has been said that she was the first white woman in America’s recorded history to have a tattoo.
Much material written about Olive appears to be confused and sensational but a  comprehensive book, The Blue Tattoo has recently been written about Olive’s life. Check it out here.

Two mixtapes are released by two of the most influential rappers/producers around. Stars align.

D O W N L O A D

SELF MADE
PRAY FOR FORGIVENESS