tattoo update

My friend the Chipster got himself a sweet tat last night (image altered to protect the sexy) and it reminded me that I should still be working on getting a sweet tat of my own. NOT A TATTOO. A sweet tat. Duh there's a difference.

Anyway, last time I talked about getting a tattoo I was debating between Eddie Campbell and some other sketch artists. Eddie Campbell was my frontrunner because he does messed-up scratchy line drawings like this:

and has a ravishing disregard for conventions of shading and clarity of image.

I also love that Eddie Campbell has the artistic ability to create incredibly realistic illustrations, but focuses his energies on conveying expression and mood.

Which is also why, when my tattoo ideas ran over to the other side of the Cold War, I started leaning towards the work of A. Nikitin, who no one has ever heard of except that he did the illustrations for Daniil Kharms' amazing book "Anecedotes from the Life of Pushkin."

Keep reading if you're willing to tolerate the complete geek-out that's about to happen over my fave Russian author. Otherwise scroll down for pictures of a hot chick in a bikini.

Anyway, Daniil Kharms was a totally weird motherfucker who lived in the Soviet period and wrote twisted children's stories and spent all of his money on weird hats. He was exiled and eventually put in a mental hospital, where he died of starvation during the Nazi blockade. I know you're starting to get depressed by this story, but you shouldn't be. Even though his life was the worst thing ever, he still wrote hilarious things and refused to wallow in the misery that was the status quo for most of his peers at the time. His humor was really Russian and I'm not goign to try to recreate it here, because (this is sounding boozhier than intended) it doesn't always translate that well. One time I was watching this episode of ER and one of the doctors said "life isn't about what happens to you, it's about how you deal with what happens to you," and even though it's embarrassing to take a life motto from an ABC drama that jumped the shark when I was in middle school but still airs for some reason, I find that outlook really comforting. Kharms embodies that really well, which is why I like his works.

He did a lot of drawings of his own, but the images that capture his mood best of all are by the myseterious A. Nikitin, who I can't find anywhere else on the whole internet - shocking, I know. They're line drawings that are almost childlike in their simplicity, but the expressions are spot-on. So far I am leaning towards this image, if I can find a way to not do it in a box:

Any thoughts from the 4 people who read this?


And, as promised, two hot babes for the price of one: