This piece by Grisha Maslov shows just how awesome abstract tattoos can be when you think outside the box.

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That’s some pretty impressive blackwork work done by Babakhin Dmitry from Babakhin Tatau in St.Petersburg in Russia.

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I really like what Nick Kelley has done with this backpiece.  The cutaway to the spine gives the impression that the vines started growing from within, and have burst outward, pulling the flesh back with them.  This back in particular belongs to Nixiie.

Nick works at Precision Body Arts in Nashua, NH

When Jason Stephan’s wife asked him to tattoo her back, it was the first time he’d ever been able to complete a piece of this size on blank skin.  The couple came up with the design together, and the result is fantastic.  Here’s what Jason’s wife had to say about the design:

This piece is the culmination of feelings about many of the issues of today. Some of these issues have come up in the past, most notably in George Orwell’s book “1984″ and so this tattoo could be described as a creative visualization of that novel. The lamb/ human figures are representative of all things that are good and innocent about mankind: curiosity, naivete, kindness, tolerance, etc. The robot is symbolic of all of the forces that corrupt those “good things.” The corrupting forces could be technology, government, greed, etc. On the robot’s screen is a face reminiscent on “Big Brother” in Orwell

Jason works at Loose Screw Tattoo in Richmond, VA.

This is a backpiece!  A Chad Koeplinger backpiece.  Enough to make most men bow down at the majesty of this piece.  Calamityspills should be very proud of his back.

Well, with all the hoopla surrounding a small group of Christians who think the Big J is coming back tomorrow to take away the good ones and leave the rest of us scoundrels here to face the apocalypse, I felt it only fitting to go with a religious theme today.

Even though I am by no means a Christian, I have a long standing affinity for angels, I think watching The Prophecy a few dozen times too often may have led to this. This particular angel backpiece was done by Matt Kramer of Mind’s Eye Tattoo in Emmaus, Pa.

The thing I like most about this piece sent in by Cyber Tattoo Israel, is that it only covers half of the back.  With the vast majority of upper back pieces being symmetrical, a little asymmetry is nice.

Fans of Brom will instantly recognize his style in this backpiece.  Brom’s the guy behind a lot of the art in role-playing games, fantasy novels, etc.  The lovely clockorange from Moscow, and her artist Sergey Voynov from Extreme Art in St. Petersburg, are big fans of Brom, and it shows.  The detail that Sergey put into this is masterful, which makes for a truly spectacular piece.

Oh Ninja Turtles.  Hands down the best anthropomorphic ninjas ever.  Sure the movies didn’t live up to the pure awesomeness of the cartoon show, which in turn was never as cool as the comics, but they were damn fun to watch.

Now this person, they’re a huge turtle fan.  Probably not as obsessed as this woman, but definitely a huge fan nonetheless.

Now while this was uploaded anonymously to the cartoon tattoo gallery, we do know it was done by Orlando Ferron from Gold Coast Studio in Monterey, CA.

Personally, I was always a Raph fan.  Even before the movies came out and he became the de facto lead character.  Don was fine, but he always seemed to be a little dumb for a genius, and well, Mikey was Mikey.  Leo was always an enigma.  For the leader of the turtles, he didn’t really have much control over them.

As for the tattoo, it’s still incomplete.  The next step is to add a Manhattan skyline behind the turtles.

Did you have a favorite turtle?  Or were you a fan of one of the many supporting characters?  Casey Jones, Shedder, Beebop, Rocksteady?  The list goes on, and while the height of turtlemania has passed, they will live on forever in our hearts, as well as our bellies when we eat pizza.

I’m probably the furthest thing from a religious scholar you will find, but during my years in university I did come across a large number of texts that were either directly tied to the church, or at least were influenced by it.  Now the term “gargoyle” refers to any sculpture (usually in the form of an animal or person) that is designed to allow water to fall away from the edges of a building to prevent erosion.  Over the years people have just adopted the term to apply to any decorative sculpture on the roof of a building.

The reason I bring up the religious side of gargoyles is that centuries ago, when being illiterate was the norm, the church needed ways to convey their stories and rituals to the masses.  What better way to educate an illiterate crowd than through images.  It was here that the myth of the gargoyle began.  As the story goes, St. Romanus encountered a monster in his travels, your typical dragon type creature that breathed fire.  Well when Romanus defeated the creature, he brought its body back to be burned, but discovered that the head wouldn’t burn because the dragon breathed fire and the head was adapted to heat.  So he hung the head on the outside of the church to ward off evil spirits.  Over time the churches would add their own stone gargoyles to the outside of the building in order to let people know that outside the church evil lurks, but inside they will be protected.

Now of course when I was growing up gargoyles were just scary looking statues that eventually came to be “cool” in my young eyes.  I suppose that was aided by the Disney cartoon.  Of course I’m not the only person walking the planet that enjoys looking at gargoyles.  Bromley_Daz submitted this image to BME the other day, and I think it’s safe to assume he enjoys gargoyles as well.

It’s always nice to see images added to the mythological and religious gallery, because often there is a good story behind the designs.  This image in particular reminds me that every culture around the world has developed their own wards against evil.  Be it symbols or rituals, these wards have become much more than just a repellent to evil.  The gargoyle being a prime example of that.  What first started as a way to protect buildings from erosion, a practice that pre-dates Christianity by centuries, eventually became a symbol of warning to people.  As time passed, these statues became the guardians of the the buildings they were installed on, until eventually they were regarded primarily for their historical significance and their art.

Now while I don’t feel the need to possess any particular wards against evil, I do own a Rangda mask that hangs on my wall, that I really like the aesthetics of.  How about you?  Do you possess any symbols that can be attributed to warding off the evils of the world?