Tag Archives: body art

Mike Tyson’s Tattoo: what the…?

Mike Tyson’s tattoo

By Christopher Agostino 6/9/2012

First off, I invite you to add your own comments to this one, as I am sure there are aspects to this that I am missing, and I have as many questions as opinions here. So, woo-hoo!, Hangover 2 gets to open because a judge rules that even though Victor Witmill does own the copyright to the tattoo design he famously put on Mike Tyson that was then imitated in the film, the financial damage of keeping the film closed would effect too many people to be justified. I’d only followed this with amused interest until I heard an “On the Media” report about the possible ramifications of tattoo copyright — and now I have some questions. (On The Media: This Week “Can you Copyright the Human Body?)

Is it the norm for a tattoo artist to retain the rights to a design they put on someone else’s skin? Or did it only apply in this case because Tyson is a celebrity and the tattoo artist was seizing an opportunity? What a weird idea that somebody else might own something on your skin. (In a related opinion of mine, I think that the models we paint at conventions should be allowed to get copies of all the photographs taken of them…the person on whom the bodyart is created is as intrinsic to the result as the art is)

Secondly, how does a non-Maori tattoo artist get to claim intellectual property rites over an obviously traditionally styled design? When Tyson first appeared with this thing around his eye I remember how he talked about it’s traditional origins and significance, so what about it makes it something that some tattoo artist can claim as original? I mean, really?  (In doing a web search for a common use eligible image of the tattoo I did come across an article from Techdirt about an indignant Maori response to this claim — see the quoted portion below)

However, the larger point I want to make, is what’s up with Tyson’s tattoo in the first place?

From the first I saw it and heard his comments about it, I had to ask: what the….? He talked real big about it being the sign of the warrior and all that, and for a few years afterwards I had all sorts of guys asking me to give them a Tyson Warrior Tattoo. But, what the….?

From Robley’s book: photograph from the 1890’s of a “well chiseled” Maori tattoo design

I’m no expert, just a fascinated artist, but everything I’ve read abut Maori tattoo traditions  (“moko”) say that warriors tattooed their whole face, not just some little bit around the eye, and that a big part of the process is enduring the months of painful work required for the full face. I didn’t go back just now to fact-check this little bit but I distinctly remember reading that only priests wore partial tattoos by the eye. Not only did the warriors tattoo the full face, but the designs were incised so deep that the skin became ridged and grooved like a sculpture. In H. G. Robley’s book, Maori Tattooing, first published in 1896 when the tradition was still in general practice, there is not a single example of a man’s face without extensive tattooing.

On the final night at the 2011 Face And Body Art International Convention (FABAIC), sitting in the outdoor courtyard after the party, I met a gentlemen who was extensively tattooed. He was a soldier, recently back from service, and he was fascinated by the painted people walking through the hotel. We talked about what I did, but then I got him to tell me about his tattoos. The first two he showed me were Cherokee inspired designs on his shoulders. Then he showed me others on his arms and legs, each one marking a place he had been in the service — some, it seemed, for lessons learned and experiences to be cherished (like a samurai inspired mark down the back of his neck from time in Japan) and some for more painful memories. We talked for a while and at one point he asked me if I had any Native American blood in me, and I said no, but that I knew that he was Cherokee, for I had learned from our talk that he wouldn’t wear a mark unless he’d earned it.

Robley’s sketch from the 1890s

From Techdirt:

An illustration from 1800, from Karl Gröning’s book “Body Decoration”

Maori Angry About Mike Tyson’s Tattoo Artist Claiming To Own Maori …

Professor Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, author of Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo, described Mr Whitmill’s claims of ownership as insufferable arrogance. “It is astounding that a Pakeha tattooist who inscribes an African American’s flesh with what he considers to be a Maori design has the gall to claim that design as his intellectual property,” she said. “The tattooist has never consulted with Maori, has never had experience of Maori and originally and obviously stole the design that he put on Tyson…. The tattooist has an incredible arrogance to assume he has the intellectual right to claim the design form of an indigenous culture that is not his.”

I looked it up, from Wikipedia: Pākehā is a Māori term for New Zealanders who are not of Māori blood lines

There are a lot of intersting little articles about this whole issue, and the legal ramifications of tattoo copyright, here’s one: Copyright Yo Face!. Copyfight: the politics of IP

http://www.agostinoarts.com

Check out my Body Painting Page https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/body-painting/

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Turning Someone into a Giant Squid — the joy of facepainting

The Giant Squid

I was back at the NY Aquarium at Coney Island for an event this morning for the first in a few years, and that meant painting again some of the more unusual sea creatures we have worked out faces for over the years. We painted a significant number of adults as well as kids, and I was very glad when a men sat down at the end of the end and asked me to make him “spooky”, thus allowing me to turn him into one of my favorites, the Giant Squid — a face that just doesn’t work as well on a kid.

Sea Lions

 

Laughing Gulls

Lionfish

 

The Giant Squid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s one of my “Every Face” videos of faces at the Aquarium a few years back:

 

 

And tomorrow I get to go even further off the usual menu of facepaint designs as we will be turning people into DNA, Isaac Newton, Moon Shots and such at our fourth year painting faces for the World Science Festival Street Fair at Washington Square Park.

DNA

 

Isaac Newton Discovers Gravity

 

Rocket Shot

 

Man on the Moon

 

www.worldsciencefestival.com

http://www.agostinoarts.com

 

 

How-To use UV (Dayglo), Metallic and Interferenze Makeups – FABAIC 2011 Class

Under Blacklight, only the UV makeups show, all the metallic colors underneath the UV dots turn dark

by Christopher Agostino

Class notes from my presentation at the Face & Body Art International Convention FABAIC 2011

Under regular light, this same face design also looks good, with shimmering Metallic and Interferenze colors, and the Kryolan UV colors still look bright, even over a metallic base color.

My intention in this class is to give participants an understanding of how to use Kryolan UV, Metallic, and Interferenze Aquacolor makeups for face and bodypainting. A hands-on and very practical class in how to use specialty makeups from basic application and tricks of technique to design concepts like how to get the most out of your metallics, how to make Dayglo designs look good in regular and UV light and how to get the maximum effect with minimal makeup expense — the primary focus is on how to incorporate specialty makeups into regular face and body designs that look good in a variety of settings. Although these are specialty makeups I use them most often in my regular faces, using the brightness of the UVs to “pop” a design, or the shimmer of the Interferenze to add glamour. Even we I am painting for an event that has Blacklight (such as club or adult party) usually the blacklight is in only part of the space, so the bodypainting needs to look good both ways —under white light and blacklight. This is a very different approach than how one would use these UV makeups for a BlackLight Show.

Kryolan Aquacolors are the only specialty makeups I use. Their UVs create the brightest effect and are the most flexible in application. Wolf Reicherter was also at the convention teaching classes in “Blacklight Magic”, painting full UV body designs for nightclubs and performances.   http://www.wolf-bodymagic.de/

He’s a true master of the medium, and he made the point that Kryolan’s UV Aquacolors (both the cakes and the liquids) are so flexible that they can be applied with any amount of water, from a wash effect to a thick cream, allowing for real control of the amount of light the makeup generates, so you can get subtle shading effects with thin applications and also can go right over other colors with thicker applications and still get the full fluorescence. The UV colors I use most often are Pink, Orange and Green — because these three also look very bright and wonderful under white light so can really add color to any design.

Metallics and Interferenze are two types of Aquacolors that shimmer. The same color can come in both types: there is a Metallic Silver (which looks very much like real silver metal) and an Interferenze Silver (which has a more pearlized appearance), for example. Intereferenze makeups have the pigments ground very fine, so they can sheen in more than one color as the light moves across them, such as the beautifully subtle color “Nacre”, which is a pearlized white that has glimmers of pink and gold as the light changes. I use a variety of metallics and interferenze for special projects like full bodypaintings. The ones I use most often in my regular facepainting kit are the Metallic Silver and several Interferenze colors: Gold, Copper, Bronze, BG (Blue Green), Strauss Wine, and 838G Electric Ocean Blue.

www.kryolan.com

In preparation for the class I painted a model (Jessica), with a variety of techniques to show the range of possibilities, then finished the painting in the class to show application methods and let the participants try the products and paint. Photographing a UV painting is hard, and we had limited time to try before vacating the Blacklight room, but I did manage to get a few reasonable shots. I include here shots of the face and the back, in both regular light and under Blacklight — notice how the face looks completely different under the two different lights, but still works both ways. That is the goal. It has to work both ways because at most events the people you paint will be seen under both types of light, and you want there to be an exciting change as the person you paint moves under Blacklight, because that is part of the fun of Blacklight, the surprise effects.

CLASS NOTES: ( click here for a pdf of these notes, plus a list of Kryolan Aquacolors) Dayglo&InterferenzeClass_Hints

The design on the demonstration model’s back, under Blacklight. See how the UV colors fluoresce, and everything else turns black.

Kryolan Dayglo Makeups (also called UV or Blacklight)

•  UV makeups are special effect makeups — go all UV only if the gig is all blacklight.

•  Most gigs are regular light, so I mostly use UV makeup to add “pop” to regular designs.

Use in combination with regular colors for brighter designs in normal light – makes elements of the design stand out. EX: UV eyes on eyelids can be seen from across the room • UV green stipple on top can make a spooky or alien face “glow”  •  UV orange over reg. red is a powerful background for dragons, etc.  • UV orange tiger image can seem to leap off a regular blue background  •  try UV colors as accents over the same aregular colors, like UV pink dots on a pink butterfly wing

•  Mixed light: the design has to look good both ways. Generally an all UV design doesn’t look as good under normal light – so include other colors too and feature UV elements of design that will pop out under the blacklights. Christopher’s Trick – I mix UV colors with Metallic Silver or Interferenze Gold to get a makeup that still flouresces under blacklight and also looks glittery under regular light.

• CLOUDY DAY EFFECT – because clouds block some white light, but let UV light through, UV makeups glow a bit on cloudy days at outside events — and also near sunset.

APPLICATION – UV makeup tends to be softer/stickier. Use more water, apply more thickly.

BASIC APPLICATION ADVICE= “It works — make it work for you”

Creating Designs for Full Blacklight — hints

• All UV colors glow bright under blacklight – the individual colors don’t differentiate much – therefor the essence of UV painting is controling the image through the use of black, not the colors. Think of stained glass.

• for brightest effect, paint UV directly on skin or over white base. (but can still work over colors)

• white underwear is a problem, it glows too bright – even if you paint over it.

• Black can make parts of the body disappear.

Under white light, the same UV colors are bright, but not fluorescent. Notice how different the dragon’s fire looks here, because I “hid” the UV orange flames over regular orange, knowing that would be an exciting change in the image as the model goes from white to UV light. The silver on the armor would normally turn fully black under UV light, so I mixed a little UV Blue into it so it would still fluoresce a bit under the blacklight.

Photographing UV Designs  — ain’t easy. On a digital camera, manually set the ASA as high as possible (I shoot at 1600), use a tripod, shoot under full Blacklight (not mixed), No Flash, take lots of shots and then adjust levels on the computer.

•  Will look nice on the computer, but they don’t print well (printers can’t print the colors true)

•  I sometimes add some blacklight during regular foto shoots to get UV accent colors to pop.

Kryolan Interferenze and Metallic Makeup

•  These I think of as “fancy makeups”, not special effects. I use them all the time to help people be excited about their faces.

“Premium Faces” – at our Bronx Zoo concession we get extra $ per face for incorporating Interferenze or UV makeups into our regular designs.

•  I prefer metallics and interferenze makeups over using glitter because I can paint with them in all the same ways I use my regular makeups, both with sponges and brushes. Part of my regular kit.

•  They blend beautifully into, over and under regular makeups.  red/gold blends; purple/gold; blue/silver; green/gold; red/copper; blue/Strauss Wine; etc. Or stipple a little Metallic/Interferenze over regular base to make amore “fantastic” background. APPLICATION is a little trickier than regular bright colors, so may need to use more water than usual, or try dabbing with a sponge rather than swipping or using a brush.

•  Can use a full metallic/Interferenze base with regular colors on top and give all the colors a metallic sheen – can also go the other way: try metallic/Interf. over a solid black or dark base.

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