Hello there, ModBloggers! On the off-chance you’re not outside enjoy this lovely weather, well, here’s the chilling, steely visage of Neil Patrick Harris to scare you off your computer. Just look at him! Those eyes are a window to a soul darker than midnight.

All the pertinent info is up there, young chappies. If you’re a fan of (1) tattoos and/or (2) awesome things, this is one hell of a get-there.

Ahoy-hoy, ModBloggers! Hope your Saturday is treating you well. I’m just in and out at the moment, but I wanted to quickly share this gorgeous portrait of Dave’s. It’s not of anyone in particular, but, as he explains:

I, like so many of our community members, have been totally fascinated with tribal cultures and their ideas of body art and beauty. In all simplicity this tattoo is my way of paying homage and showing people what body modification means to me and showing where my roots in this industry lay.

From a technical standpoint, I’m very curious to see how the huge amount of white holds up in the long term. I’ve got high hopes, though—I really love the look of this piece.

Enjoy your day, folks, and go on, gimme some fresh new eyes.

New rule: When you get an A Christmas Story tattoo, slightly re-imagined as an old-school piece (with a flash-y banner, at least), you get to be on ModBlog. Doesn’t matter what season it is, not even a little. And if you disagree? Take it up with Ralphie there, who has been instructed to fire at will.

(Tattoo by Jason Gone, who’s on the road and currently in Cincinnati, Ohio.)

And that, my lovely friends, is how this week ends. How did we spend our time together?

- I’ll have whatever she’s having.

- Hey, a pretty pierced corset done up as formal-wear! Good stuff.

- We made fun of a stupid fake trend.

- All cephalopods, all the time, forever, amen.

- Surprise! It’s not a dick.

- And here is a corset that would probably be frowned on as formal-wear.

- High-fives all around.

As per usual, we’ll be around here and there over the weekend, but Monday morning is when we really gas up the jet and get this thing going again. Until then, have fun out there, stay safe and, of course, thank you for your continued support of BME.

Hey, aw, this is sweet, right? Neither of these folks, Nadine (more) or Alex (more), are strangers to this corner of the Internet’s Wild West, but Nadine sent in these shots of the happy pair sporting a damn ocean’s worth of ink by our old friend Marc (with photos by Marc as well), and you know what? They were too damn cute to pass up. Everyone understands, right? Right. After the jump, some sound advice, in the form of a tattoo, etc.

After last night’s beautiful, colorful sleeve post, we took a (very scientific!) vote and decided, hey, how about another one? We’ve featured Terry Ribera’s work before, and it is almost singularly gorgeous, and this under-the-sea piece is really no exception. An underground tree, a giant crab and a little boy riding a mermaid who’s looking into a pearl/crystal ball? Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop huffing paint.

[Shutdown Corner] Well, here’s the biggest tattoo-related non-story of the day. Chad Ochocinco, the Cincinnati Bengals safety formerly known as Chad Johnson, is, for those unfamiliar with the NFL, one of the bigger clowns in the league. (See: Legally changing his last name to a mangled Spanish translation of his jersey number.) Anyway! Mr. Ochocinco, like so many athletes, has wandered into the land of Twitteronia, and made this startling announcement yesterday:

Yall might not believe me but my tatoo guy is here and i getting my face done, looks cool to, dont be mad just accept the Ocho please

The tattoo, as you can see, is of America’s wang, the state of Florida. Has your world been turned upside down? Well, keep your head on, folks: It was just a gag! Yep, this prankster just had someone Photoshop a smudge onto his mug. Ha ha, hilarious…?

The entire twitt world and media outlets got punked, that was my twitt joke from yesterday, they follow I’ll have fun with it.

My grandma would kill me if I had damn facial tatts!!! Fun while it lasted, back to normal, I felt different to.

In conclusion, you are never getting those five minutes or wasted brain cells back.

[The Globe and Mail] Whoa ho, what’s this? Actual good legal news about tattoos? It is! Nadine Bélisle, a daycare worker in Quebec, has been embroiled in a legal battle for five years now over whether or not she should be allowed to display the tattoo on her shoulder while on the job. Well, the results are in, and a Quebec Superior Court judge has decided that the policy that forced her to cover up was, in fact, a violation of her rights. Hot damn.

“Five years of frustrations have collapsed. I’m thrilled,” Ms. Bélisle, 35, said in an interview yesterday from her home in Saguenay. “This is a question of human rights, of freedom of expression.”

The May 27 ruling brings legal heft to the murky question of what’s appropriate to wear in the workplace, at a time of relaxing attitudes to dress codes. While body piercings and dressing down seem to be gaining acceptance, there are signs that more employers are drawing the line. This week, University of Montreal hospitals adopted dress codes for employees that prohibit jeans, short skirts and tattoos deemed to be in bad taste.

For Ms. Bélisle’s union, the visible-tattoo ban by the CPE La Pirouette, one of Quebec’s publicly funded daycares, went too far.

“Publicly funded” being the operative term there, I believe. I’m not sure whether or not this sort of ruling would apply to private businesses, and whether or not private enterprises should be beholden to the same standards of personnel decisions as public businesses is another matter altogether. As far as this case is concerned, the daycare’s position was that, while some tattoos are surely inoffensive, some may not be appropriate for the environment, and so a blanket ban was, for them, preferable to having to decide what was acceptable on a case-by-case basis. The ban, however, was determined to be prejudicial in nature, and that while violent or vulgar tattoos will still have to be covered, the majority will be free for display:

“Tattooing nowadays is a phenomenon that cuts across all levels of society,” [Judge Jean Bouchard] wrote. “If it was once associated with delinquents, that’s no longer the case.”

The daycare’s policy forced an employee with a tattoo of a butterfly or flower on her forearm or calf to wear pants or a long-sleeved shirt, even while working under a hot summertime sun, he wrote.

“This is, in the opinion of the court, ridiculous and outrageous.”

The daycare will still have the right to prohibit inappropriate tattoos including those expressing violence.

And that, well, that’s a fine precedent to set.

[Jason Dunn] And finally, Jason Dunn, a techie fella from Calgary, was vacationing in Japan when he came across this tattoo studio, bearing what he thinks may just be the worst (or at least the funniest) name for a tattoo studio possible. Oh, comical translations. We’ll let FailBlog decide.

Continuing on with our much-heralded “Corset Week” here on ModBlog, it’s the lovely Jenica, posing in a photo by Megan Cash, showing off these fancy arm corsetry projects she had done for her birthday. Not just that, though—these were done in tandem, while she was having both legs tattooed as well. Sensory overload, hmm? In her own words:

My piercers wanted in on the fun too, so towards the end of the night, Amanda and Kaz did tandem corsets on my arms while Bert and Kaelyn were tattooing my legs. Four artists to one canvas! With all of my limbs being worked on at one time, my brain was having a hard time of choosing where to direct my attention. It was a fantastic adrenaline high to say the least!

Jenica then hulked out of her shirt and punched through a brick wall, just because.

Well hey, look at that! It’s the always lovely (and controversial?) Lesha, checking in again—this time bottomless as opposed to last time’s toplessness. And…hey, what’s that on her stomach?