We appreciate that the world of tattoos and art often merge, but this has to be one of the most bizarre fusions to date.

Retired teacher Geoff Ostling (below), who currently lives in Sydney, Australia, intends to donate his colourful, and clearly costly, tattooed exterior to the National Gallery in Canberra when he dies!

As much as we love tattoos, we think that hanging the skin of a deceased tattooed man for all to see may be taking contemporary art to the extreme. That said, it would look rather nice in the office….

If you’re not keen on having your entire body covered in permanent tattoos, then you can always have fun with our temporary Flower Tattoo Designs and many, many more great patterns!

In one of our March blog posts we informed you that household favourite Barbie would be celebrating her 50th birthday with a collection of temporary tattoos that can be applied to her body.

Well, we now have pictures of her sporting her new tats and doing so with the glamour and professionalism that we expect from her!

The doll’s maker, Mattel, are adamant the move will bring Barbie, and her brunette rival Nikki up to current trends, although there are no plans to give Ken any tattoos!

We appreciate that this new look Barbie has divided the world with peoples views, but temporary tattoos have been around for decades (who remembers having hours of fun with the pop star tats you got free with Smash Hits?!), so as long as children are careful, safe and educated then there is nothing wrong with a bit of harmless fun!

Check out our temporary Celebrity Tattoos and Fairy Tattoos for even more ways to have fun!

Pop princess Kylie Minogue won’t be asking herself “Je ne sais pas pour quoi?” after her boyfriend, Andres Velencoso Segura – the Spanish Supermodel – has expressed his love by having her name tattooed below his hip.

What she may ask herself, however, is what will happen to the tattoo if and when they break up? A close source to the Aussie singer has retaliated to people commenting on the 10-year age gap, by stating “Andres knows how insecure the 10-year age gap makes her feel and this gesture has really boosted her happiness.”

We certainly hope so. With so many celebrities having tattoos applied to express their undying love and lust to the world, we just hope that Kylie and Andres go the distance, or there could be some “tears on my pillow”. Well, maybe not…

Well, it may well be for Lindsay Lohan. After her very public split from DJ lover Samantha Ronson recently, the Hollywood socialite has got herself a new tattoo as part of her rehabilitation.

The 22-year-old actress has had the words “Everyone’s a star and deserves the right to twinkle,” surrounded by yellow, blue and green stars inscribed on her wrist.

The words, once spoken by dazzling starlet Marilyn Monroe, is yet another tribute by Lohan who last year recreated Monroe’s famous 1962 nude photo shoot for a New York-based magazine.

We think that Lohan is a star, but let’s just hope that she doesn’t twinkle too bright and burn out…..

We probably all know someone who has either a Chinese or Mandarin character for a tattoo, as these designs are perfect for illustrating a name of a loved one or a favourite saying with an air of mystery.

In Asia, however, the trend is the exact opposite as the tattoo population are choosing English characters and translations due to it being more appealing, both aesthetically and stylistically.

Zhang Hui, who lives in Beijing, has the name of his ex-girlfriend in Roman letters between his shoulder blades. “It’s better looking and is simpler than Chinese,” he said.

It is only in the past few years that tattoo parlours have become more mainstream in China’s capital, and although the industry is still unregulated, it is thriving with scores of tattoo enthusiasts now making the most of the fad.

Some of our favourite pop stars, including Britney, Justin and Angelina sport Chinese-themed tattoos, while celebrities in the East are opting for English and Greek letters to exhibit to the world.

Whatever your preference, we just love the fact our alphabet is in such high demand!

People will go to great lengths to make some cash, and when it involves tattoos, we like to tell you about it! So, when we found out that a tattoo artist offered his bald head as potential advertising space to raise money to clear his debts, it did make us smile.

Thomas Tanriverdi, an established tattoo artist from Coesfeld, Germany, was so concerned about his mounting financial problems that he thought he could raise the 50,000 euros (£53,000) by auctioning his cranium online to the highest bidder.

Unfortunately for Tanriverdi, the bids only reached a miserable 355 euros, and rather than give up on his quest altogether, he decided to restructure his initial proposal. With the new opening price of 500 euros, he now has renewed optimism due to interest from a number of Internet shops and tattoo companies.

We understand that his noodle is still for sale and is willing to take nearest offers. Watch this space, or his head, I guess….
 

When we heard that Barbie was celebrating her 50th birthday this year we imagined a glamorous, limited-edition doll that parents could buy their children to love and cherish forever.

Well, not exactly. To mark this momentous occasion toy maker Mattel will launch the ‘Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Barbie’ in California this month, which comes with 40 miniature tattoo stickers that can be placed all over her body. The box-set also includes a faux tattoo gun and temporary tats that children can apply to themselves.

The landmark anniversary of one of the world’s most well known and collectable dolls has caused controversy among parents who have made their thoughts clear on a host of blogs in America, with one mother stating that “’Totally Pierced Barbie’ would be the next to roll off the assembly line”; while another claimed that we could soon see “’Divorce Barbie’, who would take possession of Ken’s accessories.”

We just hope and recommend that children use the tattoos responsibly - at least for Ken’s sake!

We don’t think that any animal should ever be tattooed, but we wanted to share this bizarre and, quite frankly, unethical story of a cat that received a new body design from its owner.

Mickey, a rare Canadian Hairless breed, more commonly known as a Sphynx cat, spent three hours under local anesthetic while the vivid Tutankhamun tattoo was being inscribed to his chest.

His unnamed female owner who lives in Moscow said: “I’m delighted with the design and I wanted something different for the times we live in.”

Animal rights campaigners, however, condemned the act as “barbaric” and are concerned that further controversial body enhancements would catch on with rich pet owners in the West.

We also believe that pets shouldn’t be used as fashion accessories, so if you want to see a beautiful, colourful Egyptian design – go to a museum!

Tattoo Fashion appreciate that tattoos are more popular than ever before, and you no longer have to spend time in prison or the armed forces to have them!

We what we appreciate even more are the many people out there who choose to get celebrities (if you can call some of them that) tattooed to the various parts of their anatomy! We’re still trying to work out whether alcohol was responsible for these wonderful creations or just plain stupidity……you decide.

Here are 10 of the best:

1. Britney Spears – Or is that Grant from Eastenders?

2) Elf – I’m an illegal alien (well, this tattoo should be)

3) Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice – Once is enough

4) Bono – Blimey, he gets everywhere does Bono

5) Al Pacino – A nice scar, so now hide your face

6) Bill Murray – Don’t point the finger at us, Bill

7) Hulk Hogan – Hulk looks angry and we don’t blame him

Harry Potter – For my next trick: make this tattoo disappear please

9) Patrick Swayze – Anyone fancy a Swayze centaur?

10) Prince – For You, the symbol formally known as the tattoo formally known as Prince

Tattoo Fashion warning: Do not go out and get drunk tonight and regret getting a really horrible celebrity tattoo!

How far would you go to get what you wanted? Or, more specifically, what would you do to get a new mobile phone? 

We’re still laughing here at Tattoo Fashion after we found out one tattoo enthusiast got a picture of the desired handset on his leg to win one!

TJ, from Toledo, Ohio, entered the competition launched by RIM after they asked: “What would you do for a BlackBerry Storm?” We’re convinced that the judges weren’t quite expecting this particular response. TJ was picked from over 3000 entries (the image was sent via his existing phone) and is now planning his “The iPhone sucks” tattoo. We’re also sure he won’t be receiving an iPhone in the post anytime soon.

And worse still…   

Although we found the above amusing for several days, our giggles soon turned to astonishment and sympathy when we found out about the two Indonesians who were ‘tricked’ into having dragons tattooed across their faces.

The two men were told that they would be employed as intelligence officers if they had dragons permanently inked onto their faces. But, after undergoing the painful process Nanang, 30, and Bambang, 40, soon realised they had been victims of a cruel hoax. 

The two men are currently being treated in hospital and Indonesian police said it was the third such hoax to have been reported in recent months.

Contact us if you’ve heard of any other extreme of funny stories of people who have gone a little bit too far with tattoos to get what they wanted. We would love to hear from you!