Editor's Corner September 2008

The idea of a tattoo magazine was born from a cover I made using Flickr Toys. Since photography is one of my drives in SL, I undertook an interesting project: to design the covers of an imaginary monthly magazine devoted to tattooing and publish them on Flickr. Not all readers understood that the magazine didn’t exist - every month I had an IM or Flickr mail asking me where the magazine could be found. In January of this year, one of my covers was featured in the Second Life official blog. I received an amazing response to it, and many more requests for the magazine. At that time, some tattoo artists contacted me and wanted to advertise in the magazine, contribute to it, or have a vendor at their stores.

As a result, I launched a real magazine. Tatuaje is the Spanish word for tattoo; I chose it simply because it looked better in the artwork on my first cover. I thought of changing it for my second cover, but again the visual of the word in Spanish was better than the word in English.

When tattooists create tattoos, they certainly look at them with an artistic eye, but when they display the designs for sale, showing the product and its features, the art is almost lost. Tatuje is a collection of tattoo photos shown from an artist’s point of view. In Tatuaje, we hope to enhance the beauty of the tattoos, give them movement, and give them life.

Although the core of our magazine is photography, every issue will contain an article on tattoos, tattoo-related trivia, history, stories, etc.

Enjoy your reading!

Styles of Body Art (tattooing)

In Real Live tattooing is an expensive, dramatic, and diverse art. Most tattoo artists specialize in one style of tattooing. In Second Life, the experience of getting a tattoo is not dramatic; however it may be expense, and there is as much diversity in styles as there is in Real Life.

I have done a little research about tattooing, and found that there are three basic types of tattoo: Flat, Traditional, and Fine Lines.



Flat – their main characteristic is their lack of detail. Flat tattoos are made in solid blocks of color, usually black; they contain no shades, details, or textures of any kind. Tribal tattoo are the best example of Flat tattoos.




Traditional - are known for their thick black outlines filled with solid blocks of color. There is little detail in the design of a Traditional tattoo, the artist uses only what is necessary to show the basic design. Examples of Traditional tattoos are Daggers, Hearts, Snakes, Roses, and Pin up Girls; although these can also be made into any style, they can be recognized as Traditional because they are not totally flat, they have color, but they lack fine details.




Fine Line - are characterized by thinner outlines, precise shading, and detailed designs. Almost anything can be translated into a tattoo now. Fine Line tattooing is possible with the use of smaller needle configurations (smaller needles grouped to create a design).

Editor's Corner June 2008

“The word tattoo is said to have two major derivations: from the Polynesian word ‘ta,’ which means striking something, and from the Tahitian word ‘tatau,’ which means to mark something.

The practice of tattooing goes as far back as the Bronze Age, testimony of it being the Iceman found in 1991 in the mountains between Austria and Italy. The Iceman had approximately 57 marks tattooed in his body. Tattooing was also practiced in Egypt, and when the Egyptians passed their culture to the Greeks, Persians, and Arabians, so did the art of tattooing. The Japanese practiced tattooing since the Paleolithic, and the Chinese began at around 2,000 B.C. The practice of making permanent marks into the skin has been performed by almost every major culture in history. Today tattooing it is called an art.

The style and reasons for tattooing are as diverse as the individuals who wear them, or the society to which they are a part of. Some tattoos are done for healing purposes, for religious reason, to demark ownership, or as decorations.

The information age is not exception in the practice of tattooing; in RL tattooing is used for as many reasons as they were used in the past, therefore it’s not surprising that tattooing is an important part of our SL, and that they are use for as many reasons as they are in our RL.

Virtual inking is an art, and Tatuaje Magazine is committed to capturing a few of the most amazing and beautiful creations made by SL virtual tattoo artist.

Welcome to our first issue, we hope you enjoy it!