A Russian man who reportedly has the habit of scamming tattoo artists by refusing to pay for their work recently got “scammer” permanently tattooed on his forehead by his latest victim.

A photo of the smiling unnamed man showing off his unusual forehead tattoo was posted online last week by Russian tattoo artist Roman Bikeev, a.k.a. Mr Amsterdam. In the photo caption, Bikeev explained that the man had come in for a neck tattoo, but later said that he had no intention of paying for the artwork and nonchalantly admitted to pulling the same trick on other tattoo artist in Ufa, the capital city of the Republic of Baskortostan. So the tattoo artist decided to take his revenge by inking “Кидала” (Russian for ‘scammer) on the man’s forehead, along with his autograph.

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Naz Mila, a young reality TV and social media star from Azerbaijan, recently attracted international media attention, after posting a photo of a huge tattoo on the side of her body. Just take a good look at it and you’ll understand why.

Just in case the font is giving you trouble, the black ink tattoo running down the side of Naz’s body reads ‘I can judge a single god with my wrongs and wrongs‘. Doesn’t quote sound like the kind of thing someone would permanently have inked on their body, does it?

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A young Ohio mother was recently arrested for allowing her 10-year-old son to get a permanent tattoo in unsanitary conditions, from a 16-year-old unlicensed artist. She later claimed she got simply got tired of her son asking for a tattoo.

34-year-old Nikki Dickinson was arrested last week in Bellefontaine, Ohio, after a disturbing video showing her young son getting a tattoo on his arm went viral on social media. Dickinson doesn’t appear in the video simply because she is the one recording the footage, but she admitted to police that she gave her parental consent for the tattooing, because her son had been pleading with her to get a tattoo of the first initial of his name. It’s unclear whether she knew that the 16-year-unlicensed tattoo artist had a history of malpractice and once gave a client MRSA (a Stafilococus aureus strain) from a dirty needle.

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Jesse Rix has been tattooing since 2005 and specializes in a wide range of styles, from realism to nature pieces, but it’s hid geometric, three-dimensional optical illusion tattoos that really get people talking. Some of his works are so trippy that you could swear you’re looking at a fantastic world underneath a person’s skin.

In most of his incredible tattooed optical illusions, Rix uses geometrical shapes like hexagons and cubes to “remove” pieces of skin from his subjects and reveal the colorful world beneath. However, his art and skills are constantly evolving, as shown in some of his latest works, which feature windows inked on to his subjects through which you can see the universe beneath their skin. The New Hampshire-based artist is obviously a master of the trompe-l’œil technique, and some of his tattoos are so insanely realistic they can be kind of creepy to look at.

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The Russian branch of Domino’s Pizza was curious to know just how much people love their pies, so they came up with a promotion that challenged fans to get a tattoo of the Domino’s logo in a visible spot on their bodies, for the chance to win 100 free pizzas per year, for 100 years. The response was overwhelming.

When Domino’s launched their unusual promotion, on August 31st, they probably expected just a few die-hard pizza fans to take them up on their offer, but they were inundated by hundreds of photos of fresh tattoos on social media, in the first couple of days. In an attempt to stave off the wave of tattoos and requests for free pizzas, the company had to clarify that only the first 350 people to get the tattoo – which had to be at least 2 cm (0.79 inches) in length – and post it on social media would get the 10,000 free pizzas. They also released an image clarifying the visible parts of the body where candidates could get the tattoo, but that didn’t help things too much.

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To say French tattoo artist Eliot Kohek is a master of black and grey realism would be a gross understatement. Some of the works he has inked on his clients over the years look ready to jump off of their skin.

Judging by the level of detail in Eliot Kohek’s tattoos, it’s hard to believe that he has no formal artistic training. He has been fond of drawing for as long as he can remember, but it wasn’t until he attended a tattoo convention at age 19 that he knew that’s what he wanted to do with his life. He quit his job and found a talented tattoo artist who would let him watch as he inked his clients. For practical experience, Eliot would practice everything he learned on his friends. Today, he is regarded as one of the world’s most talented tattoo artists, and it’s easy to see why.

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Most people spend a considerable amount of time deciding what design or phrase they want permanently inked on their bodies, but one tattoo artist asks his clients to leave that decision to him. Several hundreds of people have already allowed him to ink the phrase of his choice on them without even knowing what it reads beforehand.

Monty Richthofen, a.k.a. Maison Hefner, had only been doing tattoos for a year and a half in 2017, when he started “My Words, Your Body”, an artistic project where he tattoos wiling adults with motivational quotes and mantras without revealing what they are before permanently inking them. Clients only decide what part of their body they want tattooed, but the tattoo itself is Hefner’s choice. He has a conversation with every person and based on their discussion and his experience, he picks one of around 5,000 different phrases he has scribbled in five notebooks.

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A Swedish mother of two whose tattoo artist misspelled her son’s name decided that it was easier and a lot less painful to legally change the boy’s name rather than go through several painful laser removal sessions.

30-year-old Johanna Giselhäll Sandström, from Kyrkhult, Sweden, wanted to show her devotion to her two children, Nova and Kevin, by having their names tattooed on her arm. She visited a local tattoo shop, told one of the tattooists there what she wanted and gave him her children’s name. He never asked anything about the spelling and instead just went to work on her arm. The woman didn’t notice anything strange about the tattoo at first, but when she got home and had a closer look at it, her heart sank. Instead of ‘Kevin’ the artist had misspelled it ‘Kelvin’.

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Die-hard soccer fans have been known to do some crazy things to honor their favorite teams, but I don’t remember anyone actually covering their entire upper body in a permanent tattoo of their team’s official jersey. Well, a fan of Brazilian soccer club Flamengo spent an entire year doing just that.

José Maurício dos Anjos, a 33-year-old man from Rio de Janeiro, has been making headlines in his home country for having a life-size version of his favorite soccer team’s jersey tattooed on his upper body. It reportedly took a tattoo artist 90 hours of work split in 32 sessions, throughout an entire year. The striped black and red jersey tattoo comes complete with the club’s emblem on the left side of his chest, and the number 10 tattooed on his back.

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A 26-year-old woman recently made headlines in Thailand after posting photos of her enormous tattooed eyebrows on social media. They had been permanently inked by a cheap, inexperienced tattoo artist, but the woman was lucky to have them corrected for free by a kindhearted beauty therapist.

The woman, who goes by the name Kanyarat Dew Chaichan on Facebook, reportedly decided to get her eyebrows permanently tattooed last year, after finding a tattoo artist willing to do it for very little money. Unfortunately, the age-old saying “you get what you pay for” once again proved true, as Kanyarat was left with two giant slug-like tattoos above her eyes. She had always had wide, fluffy eyebrows, but these tattoos were almost double in size.

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Looking at most of Adam Curlykale’s Instagram photos you would think he used a negative filter, but that’s actually how he really looks. After tattooing his entire face – including his eyes – graphite grey and dyeing his facial hair white, the 32-year-old tattoo enthusiast looks like a real-life negative version of himself.

Adam got his first tattoo when he was 20-years-old, a small message on his arm that read ‘I am’. But that was only the beginning of a transformational journey that the 32-year-old claims is far from over. He has so far covered 90% of his body with tattoos, and doesn’t plan on stopping until 99% of his skin has been covered in ink. As for the 1% Adam plans to leave untouched, he says they are “secret”.

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With millions of fans around the world, Dragon Ball Z is one of the most popular anime series to ever come out of Japan. From cosplaying as their favorite characters, creating amazing fan art to spending their hard earned money on memorabilia, fans love to show their appreciation for the epic saga, but few have gone as far as this hardcore Dragon Ball Z fan from Thailand who covered his whole body in colorful tattoos inspired by the Japanese franchise.

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A German model has found a way to makes sure her beloved pet cat stays with her forever. Not only did she get a huge tattoo of it on her thigh, but she had it done with a s special ink synthesised from its fur.

38-year-old Kathrin Toelle loves her two pet cats like they were her own children, and knows that she’ll miss them more than anything else when they eventually pas away. So when she heard about a new tattoo ink that would help her stay connected to her felines forever, she didn’t hesitate. Now Kathrin, who goes by the modelling name Makani Terror, sports a large tattoo of her 10-year-old cat Gizmo, made with ink from its luscious fur, and plans on getting one of her other pet soon.

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At just 30-years-old, Karol Rybakowski is already one of the biggest names in the world of tattoos, and looking at some of his works, it’s pretty easy to see why. His portrait tattoos look as if a picture has been slapped on the subject skin, and in many cases they turn out even better than the photos that inspired them.

It won’t surprise you to learn that Karol Rybakowski studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Warsaw, before becoming a tattoo artist, but while that explains his artistic style, I for one still can’t wrap my head around how a 30-year-old can create such stunningly-realistic tattoos. And apparently, I’m not the only one. About four years ago, just when his works started showing up online, people in the business who had never seen his tattoos in person actually thought that they were photoshopped. There was a particularly heated debate surrounding his tattoo of Bradley Cooper as sniper Chris Kyle in “American Sniper” with many people claiming that it looked too good to be true.

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Although stretch marks are a typical, albeit annoying, part of life, most people wish that they could make them permanently disappear. There is an entire industry built around creams, lotions, and even surgery to help conceal these imperfections, but a Brazilian tattoo artist has developed a much simpler, more effective solution.

Rodolpho Torres, of São Paulo, uses flesh colored ink to hide stretch marks as well as circles under the eye. His exact method is a closely guarded secret, but we know that it involves creating an optical illusion via tattoo shading. Anvisa (National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance) has approved his ink, and he personalizes each mixture to achieve a tone similar to that of the client’s skin. The ink blends into the stretch marks and dark circles, giving them the color of the skin. Once the tattoos have healed, the client’s skin appears smoother, and after sixty days they can sunbathe without the risk of spots developing.

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