I have no idea what’s going on with Machine Gun Kelly’s “blackout” body tattoo but it feels weirdly like controversy-bait? [Socialite Life]
I would be into Florence Pugh & Paul Mescal as a couple. [LaineyGossip]
Beyonce tops the Billboard country chart! [Seriously OMG]
Meatball Ron’s Regrets. [Pajiba]
Ice Spice went to the People’s Choice Awards. [Go Fug Yourself]
What a name for a new perfume! Mugler’s Alien Hypersense. [OMG Blog]
It doesn’t sound like Travis Kelce is rushing to see Taylor Swift.[Just Jared]
Zendaya & Timothee Chalamet looked adorkable in Seoul. [RCFA]
All about Beyonce’s new haircare line. [Hollywood Life]
What I don’t get about these TikToks is…just make a YouTube video? [Buzzfeed]
I dont think MGK is courting controversy with this.
Kat Von D is also blacking out most of her tattoos. Im seeing more of this around in public as well. Based on what I’ve read from people who have done it, at some point if you have so many tattoos, laser removal isnt really going to work for you -so if you want to get rid of the visual chaos or memories associated with all of them, black out is the alternative.
So, white people getting themselves tattooed black isn’t viewed as “controversial “? I’ll remember that. I guess one question is who’s doing the viewing.
Tangentially, I’ve also found it odd that the most overtly racist US President in my lifetime seems to spend a fortune on tanning and makeup. That’s orange though, so it hits a little different.
Why would it be? Not sure what you’re getting at here?
“Black face” makeup is generally viewed as racist. Americans with naturally dark “black” skin have been systematically discriminated against and enslaved because of even “one drop” of “black”ness. Yet edgy artsy white people getting black body tattoos is apparently seen by some as simply an aesthetic decision? I find that bizarre.
Judging by the pictures here, it looks great. But it’s bizarre. Why is his contrived “black”ness simply aesthetic— while my natural blackness meant segregated schools?
Totally agree with this.
I think that artistically, the tattoo is very unique and quite gorgeous.
But I do also think it borders on a the side of a white person using black face. Maybe in an indirect and not purposefully offensive way, but in a way that makes you question how backwards our society is.
I would say the difference for me is that I don’t see this as black face, since the intent isn’t to mimic black people, make fun of them, or pass himself off as black. It’s just the option to cover up heavy tattoos. I see this in same way as a Raiders fan who painted their torso black for a game. I would not call that black face.
But am I missing the mark?
@Slush, I don’t think it’s possible for casual observers to know what the intent is — which is why I, personally, view it as “courting controversy”. There are many ways to cover tattoos. Someone could have the exact same design — but choose midnight blue, grey, or turquoise instead of black, and for me, it wouldn’t raise these kinds of issues. He chose black, and choosing black has meaning, potentially many meanings, which at least some of us will react to — even if those meanings are unspoken or unconscious.
I view the most overtly racist president of my lifetime, who seems to have moved to wood stains for his face, as Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs. The guy who wears the skin of his victims.
@Truthiness, I think you’ve permanently changed the way I view what I always thought and hoped was just makeup.
This! I agree with you @Blithe. You were able to express so much better what I wanted to write. Am sure he would say but he has a biracial daughter.
@ BLITHE really great point about not knowing intent.
However I do want to correct you on one point – you *can’t* cover up a tattoo color with a lighter color. It won’t work. So grey or blue, or anything else would not work to cover up black, which it looks like most of his tattoos were.
If your opinion is, given that black is the only color option, he should not do it, that’s fine! But I just want to make sure you have all the information.
The point of blackface is that it’s a racist caricature. It comes from minstrel shows. It has a specific history. It doesn’t begin and end with black skin; see examples of caricatured black people in, say, Tintin comics for a sense of what else is caricatured (lips, language, body, facial expressions…it doesn’t stop with skin colour). Recognizing this will help you understand how blackface caricatures remain alive and well – heavily applied to Obama, for instance, even if not always coloured black.
“Blackout” tattoos don’t have that history. Yes, they make your skin black. You could argue that this is some sort of race-based luxury in that white people can have “black” skin and not face systemic discrimination (although anyone with that amount of tattoos almost certainly has a difficult time finding work in any number of industries, which means that class elements are at play here too).
But I wouldn’t water down the charge of blackface by slapping it everywhere that happens to involve the colour black, personally.
@Slush: Thanks for the correction— and the information. I genuinely don’t have an opinion about whether or not MGK should — or should not — get a blackout tattoo. My only opinionated point is that doing so is not neutral, and is likely to provoke reactions from at least some people, and that at least some of these reactions will be influenced by the ways that “black”-ness has historically been viewed in the US.
Blackout tattoos are rooted in Polynesian tattooing techniques that have grown in popularity in the last few decades. They’re fairly popular in SE Asia. Just to clarify that they aren’t “edgy white” tattoos. They’re linked to a very specific tradition of tattooing that has spread across the globe in the last fifteen years or so.
Exactly @Veronica S! This has been part of indigenous cultures in various parts of the world with profound meanings not only for the individual but for the whole community since time immemorial. Only to be become an “edgy, cool” aesthetic by white people. Celts and Picts have tattoos but the blackout tattoos are Polynesian and some Native American tribes.
I may be dreaming but I thought I read that Kat Von D did this with her tattoos because she got most of hers when she was either abusing drugs or alcohol and didn’t want to be reminded of that time of her life? Did anyone else hear about that?
I don’t know, it seems like this would be extremely painful, but I guess if you have that many tattoos you are ok with that type of pain. I just know that I have two tattoos and while I love them and kind of want more, I can’t take the pain!
Yes that is what I hear her say in a podcast as well.
Kat Von D is racist, so she is not the best example fir what you are saying.
Kat Von D married a nazi, found Jesus, became an antivaxxer, and moved to Kentucky. I wonder what she’ll do with the blackout tattoos when she gets bored with her tradwife phase.
Hmmm 🤔 my first reaction was not about controversy. I don’t think the intention of the guy was controversy. Personally I think it’s just art for him. Maybe to cover past tattoos too but the end result for the people who get tattoos is ultimately to look and feel and/or remember important events that changed them? Im zero offended by this. His body his decision.
Blackout tattoos creep me out. I just don’t like the look. But it’s not my body. Maybe Travis needs a rest after a long ass season.I doubt that he won’t go on any of her tour stops.
I like them and I think well done black out tattoos or negative space tattoos can look really awesome.
Agree. I think blackout tattoos look really amazing and the placement he chose is artful and interesting with the negative space showing bits of his previous work.
One question, is this dangerous? Looks like a lot of ink…..
That was my thought, too. As a work of art, it’s attractive, but I wonder what it does to the body. And it’s beautiful as long as the underlying “canvas” stays beautiful, but gravity will prevail someday.
Inking the skin revs up an immune response. The body sends cells known as dermal macrophages to attack and remove the foreign substance. It results in continual, low-level inflammation. Can’t imagine that’s a good thing.
I was wondering about vitamin D too.
So many questions. For religious purposes is what he put in the comments. Curious to know more about that. Is the blackout part permanent? And is all that ink safe on your body? It’s actually an interesting tatoo.
As someone with a decent number of tattoos of all colors and many friends who are longtime artists, I can safely say that as long as someone is getting only a portion of their body tattooed, “blackout” work is safe, and really doesn’t run the risk of any sort of reaction any different than a “regular” tattoo. You won’t keel over dead from dermal suffocation like the girl at the beginning of “Goldfinger”.
HOWEVER…
Just imagine multiple needles poking the top layers of your skin over and over and over and over…and over and over and over. Blackout tattoos are monotonous as hell, and physically really hard on artists. Just imagine taking a fine line Sharpie and trying to cover lines going all sorts of directions and in any array of colors, and your job is to try and smoothly cover all of that with even, solid coverage. Not fun. It’s been my experience that the actual tattooing doesn’t hurt…it’s all the wiping off with a paper towel (damp or otherwise) that starts to suck. Just imagine someone rubbing a sunburn over and over and over again.
I absolutely would NOT recommend anyone doing this much of one in one sitting (that would be unbearable, and I have a high-ass pain tolerance), not to mention if done in HUGE swaths, it could potentially run the risk of affecting your body’s ability to absorb Vitamin D from natural light. That could lead to a whole other litany of health issues. And if you don’t practice the most fastidious of cleaning practices while a blackout tattoo heals? The risk of infection (since your wound…tattoos are absolutely wounds) with a large area is increased. And if you are like me and have an autoimmune condition, blackout work would not be something any artist would really recommend, as Teddy said a few comments above. The reaction, while minor to some, could cause major issues if it is done when your body is already under stress or experiencing a flare. That’s been my experience with some piercings and other forms of body modification. But each person’s mileage may vary.
Anytime Kelly and Fox break up they debut big new “looks” – I’m not even hating on them, I sort of appreciate and accept that they’re just that FB couple from high school who continue to have a terrible, trauma bonded, super toxic relationship that is actually just “too real” for anyone else to understand. *sigh* that’s fine. When Fox had the big new pink ‘do last week I thought, ah, ok so when is Kelly’s new look debut? And here it is.
Travis Kelce is enroute to Sydney, as confirmed by ET, TMZ and Page 6, so that link is off the mark.
His dad comes across like an asshole here to me. Like “he is a big celeb so he has no time to follow his woman around, you know. We like her though, she is from a good family”
Really? I didn’t get that vibe at all, sounded to me like his dad was saying that Travis wants to join her but has a few preexisting obligations and just has to work out the scheduling. Part of what has been appealing (to me) about their relationship is that they DO both continue to have their own lives while also showing up for each other.
Ok, but what will he do when he inevitably gets bored with this? Not a lot of options.
Maybe he can get it removed one day. I think it looks fugly and ridiculous.
I don’t think this would be removable.
That’s his problem lol
People should think before they do this much damage to their body. This is going to look ridiculous when he gets old.
There are many indigenous cultures for whom tattoos and the process of being tattooed is very spiritual, communal, and meaningful. It is a very communal experience where songs are sung, etc. It can also be quite meditative. I think this recent work of his is beautiful – Painful but beautiful.
Is he indigenous? did he actually go through the ceremony in which indigenous people go through? It is part of my culture and like you said these are very spiritual, communal, and meaningful ceremonies we hold. He said it was for spiritual purposes and i’m going to take his word for it. But i think mentioning indigenous culture in reference to this person stylizing his tattoo this way is just not right.
No, youtube videos have ads.
Tiktok doesn’t.
If there aren’t ads on an app, then your personal information is the commodity.
Zendaya and Timmy look extremely cute and I don’t want the Dune fashion tour to end.
It’s called a blackout tattoo for a reason and I don’t see any connection between this and blackface. Blackface/minstrel was about impersonation, usually in the most derogatory manner possible. People need to know the history before applying their knee-jerk virtue signaling to one of the most shameful and offensive acts of human ‘entertainment’ ever witnessed. If you think MGK is trying to be black, that’s on you.
He’s so tiring.
He’s a tedious drama queen with questionable taste in music. I will never forget when he and Travis Barker were gushing ridiculously over Avril Bloody Lavigne, how she was so inspiring to them and wrote music that made them feel accepted. Jesus, she’s not a female version of Trent Reznor you idiot.
Am I surprised ww are falling over themselves to praise and excuse MGK? Lol, no. I’m not even disappointed in all honesty. I expected it. If you’ve never been on the receiving end of colorist or anti-Black slurs because of your dark skin I don’t really give a flying fig what you think about it
Literally no one is praising him. Defending him, maybe but not praising him. He’s not trying to replicate a skin color. I’m pretty sure anyone who gets blackout tattoos has no intention of that. You taking it that way is your own issue and opinion. It has nothing to do with race and I was WAITING for someone to bring this up.
I believe I already said I don’t care about your opinions and I meant that. Not one single solitary f*ck
The tattoo that could have been a shirt.
Ok serious question: How do they do skin cancer screenings with those?
It would be hilarious if that alien perfume ended up smelling like Lily of the Valley.