In today’s internet-based media environment, it’s almost easy to become famous for at least a little bit; you can find your fifteen minutes of fame in about fifteen minutes if circumstances go your way. With that said, it makes it no less special, and in fact might make it even more special because of all the garbage contrast with when someone does something truly great. Such is the case with Charles Ramsey, the reformed convict who, despite his checkered past and less than ideal surroundings, decided to act when he heard screams coming from his Detroit neighbor’s home. The results of his actions were the freeing of Amanda Berry, 27, her 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32; three women who had spent over twenty combined years being held captive by Ramsey’s piece of trash neighbor. The women, who were subjected to all sorts of horrid treatment while in captivity, have Ramsey to thank for their freedom; and as of this article’s writing (you never know these days; remember the bum with the nice voice, his retribution went horribly) society has a prime example of how people can change and how heroes can come in all sorts of forms.

In honor of Ramsey’s awesomeness, Detroit tattoo artists Rodney Rose and Shawn Patton recently offered to give a couple of ink junkies free tattoos of the Big Mac lovin’ Detroit dishman superhero’s face; obviously some folks took them up on the offer. The end result is some ink that is very well done, but looks a little crazy…good crazy though, like that girl you date in high school who gets you arrested but is really good looking, or that dude you date who always breaks your furniture but also punches your ex to defend your honor…we’ve had some weird relationships. Anyhow, the image they chose to use for the pieces was probably the least crazy looking image they could find of the Detroit hero, as he’s not making any of the whacky faces that he did during his interviews. The image gives him the kind eyes that he most likely showed to the girls when he saved them. We’re also excited about how it’s going to be for this dude in ten years when he has to explain to everyone why he has a seemingly random dude inked on his calf. “Okay kids, so there was this guy…and he liked burgers…and he saved some people…and…I’m your father, stop asking questions!” So overall, we dig the tat, but we really wish that the guy had gotten a Hatchet Man Kai companion piece; nobodies perfect we guess.

 Okay all you athletes out there, how many of you have a favorite coach from your playing days? A coach who was so inspiring, so dedicated, so gung-ho that he or she made every game feel like it was the most important game of your life? Yeah well prepare to be less impressed, because Rick Pitino just one upped everyone.

In February of 2013, when his Louisville Cardinals Basketball Team (NCAA Division 1) sat at a less than impressive 7-4 in the Big East Division, and on the heels of a five overtime loss to Notre Dame, Pitino decided to make the kind of promise that’s usually reserved for movies starring Gene Hackman or Paul Newman. Pitino told his team that if they battled back into the mix and somehow won themselves a National Championship he would get a tattoo. This wouldn’t mean a thing if he looked like us, but considering the fact that he’s almost a senior citizen and doesn’t appear to have any other ink, it’s a pretty big claim. Well it worked, because his team took home the biggest prize in college basketball a couple of months later, and like a man of his word, Pitino hit the tattoo parlor. Here’s where the two-time national champion and former coach of the NBA’s New York Knicks really impressed us even more. Most people wouldn’t have gone through with the promise, they would’ve said that it was done for motivation and that since it worked, it could end there. However, Pitino not only got the ink in a timely manner, but he got a big ole’ honker of a first tat! He didn’t wuss out and get something tiny, no, he got a “L, 2013 National Champions, 35-5″ piece that covers most of his left shoulder blade; he even got color! So color us impressed Rick.

Now some of the more annoying people in the media have already said that Pitino is setting a poor precedent for coaching behavior, and that his actions will lead to a ton of coaches making big crazy promises to inspire their teams. Well…ummmmmm…who cares? He made a big claim and backed it up, and in the process showed a bunch of kids that not everything adults tell them is a lie or an empty promise, and if this leads to coaches doing crazy things to inspire their teams then great. Sports in America have become often jaded and devoid of true excitement, so if things happen to get a little more interesting because of this, then we’re even more impressed with Rick Pitino’s actions. Tat on Rick!

New York tattoo artist “Bang Bang” (we don’t know if that’s his legal name or not; if it is, then we’re strangely impressed) has long been known as an artist to the stars, but it appears he’s also a canvas to the stars, because he lets his clients work on him. People like Rihanna, Chris Brown, Katy Perry, Amar’e Stoudemire, Baptiste Giabiconi, and now Justin Bieber have all put their mark on the professional marker. Yes folks that’s right, a respected professional body artist has allowed the guy who sings “Baby” to permanently mark his leg; fortunately the tattoo didn’t turn out too bad…although the subject matter leaves a bit to be desired.

During a recent trip to Bang Bang’s New York shop, the Biebs inked a design of his cartoon alter-ego on the renowned artist’s calf. This alter-ego happens to be a cartoon mouse named “Swaggy”…who also has his own tattoo…and a six pack…and weird feet. As a group people who have crossed the line where the actual content of their ink now matters less than the story attached to it, we can understand allowing a random famous person to ink your leg in the name of running a good bussiness and getting good publicity, but why the hell would anyone want to be a mouse named “Swaggy”? To each his own; we guess. The new ink was part of an exchange between Beiber and the shop owner, who gave Justin the name of his new album (“Believe”) on his left forearm.

The new lower arm work is just the latest in a slew of tats for the “If I Was Your Boyfriend” singer. The Canadian-born pop prince has been getting inked since his mid-teens, and his collection already includes a Greek Chi (looks like an “X”, means “Christ”), praying hands with roses around them on his calf, Jesus on his leg, the Hebrew word for “Jesus” om his ribs, an owl, a crown, and a Japanese Kanji (it means “music”). We’re sure that he has more ink in his future, as he’s been so consistent with his work in recent years and he’s still in the middle of his prime tattoo years. We expect his to end up with a full sleave at some point, probably when he tries to transition to “more serious” music in a couple of years. We look forward to it, because say what you will about him as a person and an artist (we have plenty, trust us), but the kid usually has nice work done.

If Adele is one thing, it’s talented. If Adele is two things; one is definitely talented, and the other isn’t “good at picking creative tattoos”. In a recent appearance at the 2013 Grammy Awards, the “Set Fire To The Rain” singer and former dominator of the biggest butt kissing contest in the music industry debuted her new ink and didn’t really impress anyone. To be clear, the sentiment behind it was nothing but sweet, it’s just the execution that we find to be lacking.

The new ink is a simple “A” written in script on the side of her head, right behind her right ear. It’s very small and doesn’t draw a lot of attention, which is fine, but it’s also…just…so…lazy. We’re almost one hundred percent sure that the piece was done in honor of her son Angelo, which we think is great. You’re never going to go wrong when you get ink in honor of one of your kids; significant others can go leave and friends can bail, but your children should be forever, so it’s a pretty safe bet to pay tribute to them on your body. She’s shown public love for him before in the form of flashy jewelry and you know, by loving him; so it should come as no surprise that she’s decided to put his initial on her body.

What does come as a surprise is that someone with the talent and creativity of Adele didn’t get something more artistic than a simple letter. We would’ve expected an angel, or maybe some other type of symbol that represents her son’s name and/or role in her life. However, it kind of makes sense for someone as elegant as her to get something really simple, so we’re not totally shocked by her choice.

We don’t really see her having much more done in the way of tattoos in her future, but maybe she’ll wind up with something on her wrist like a small tribute to her husband or something. The wrist is a popular spot for classy ladies to get ink done. Also, if she ends up with another kid, she might have to get some more ink done to keep things even in her household. Time will tell whether Adele decides to have more art put on her body, but we hope that if she does she chooses something more complex than a simple letter.

AJ McCarron is about as big a fish as there is in the sea of NCAA Football, and now he’s got a tattoo that’s just as big…well at least it is now. The Alabama Crimson Tide Quarterback is one of the few people in the history of the sport to lead his team to back to back national titles, and he’s also one of the few quarterbacks in college football history to have a gigantic tattoo on his chest, and much like his legacy as a quarterback, his chest piece just keeps on getting larger and larger, and more and more impressive…okay, the ink isn’t that impressive, but the legacy is awesome. So now, about that tattoo…

When it was first revealed to the public, the piece was a simple crying Jesus with the words “Bama Boy”, “Ma”, and “Pops” surrounding it; simple, but pretty friggin’ huge. It looked an awful lot like the J-man was trying to burst out of his chest Alien style. The placement is a little crazy for what we think is his first tattoo, and the art style is a little two soft for such a serious figure. We’re not the religious types around here, but we tend to think that major figures of religion should be inked in a more sharp and serious style. Regardless of our opinions on the original ink, the piece has just kept on growing, and in recent months the world got another look at it. The new additions to the work include a hanging cross, a smattering of stars and stripes, cloud etchings, the words “Home Team”, “God’s In Control”, and some Sailor Jerry-style doves. The new additions make for a pretty cool overall aesthetic  but the piece overall does not feature the best execution we’ve ever seen. It reminds us of some of the tats we got when we were younger…the one’ s we ended up being unhappy with as we got older. Not because we don’t like what the tattoos stand for anymore, but because we’re unhappy about how they turned out artistically.

AJ McCarron has a bright future ahead of him; one that should include a lot more ink, and probably a lot more bad tattoos, because if there’s one bad tattoo, there’s always going to be a second one coming down the pike. We’ll keep you posted on what he ends up with, and how long his “a cheap tattoo is a good tattoo” phase lasts.

Taylor Swift is…polarizing to say the least. If you ask her fans; she’s a strong young woman who oozes talent and who’s had her heart wrongfully broken time after time, and she’s persevered through these countless broken hearts by putting her feelings into song. However, if you ask the more… uhhhhh…logical of us out there, we’d say that she’s a petty young rich kid who doesn’t handle break-ups well, so instead of using her abundance of natural talent to produce true musical art, she writes barely passable songs that amount to nothing more than lyrically slashing the tires of her exes. So with that said, we really like that “Love Story” song, and we get a kick out of all the bad tattoo ideas that she’s inspired, so let’s take a look at some of them

First up, we have the ill advised ink on “The A Team” singer Ed Sheeran’s arm that Swift had to have been the catalyst for. While the two Grammy darlings collaborated on “Everything Has Changed”, they clearly hit it off, with an obviously strong friendship being formed and a rumored love affair (if rumors about Swift are true, this “Love Affair” was mostly hand holding and sharing of milk shakes) coming from their time together. Also from their time together, it seems that Sheeran was inspired to have some ink done, getting the title of her album “RED” placed on his left arm in the exact font as the album’s cover. It’s not a bad tattoo, but it’s also not a great idea to get someone else’s album inked on your arm.

Next up, we have One Direction’s Harry Styles, who recently dated the “Our Story” singer until he dumped her for being “prude”. During their time together, Styles appeared in the video for her song “I Knew You Were Trouble”; in that video he rocked a tattoo of a big ship, a tattoo that he ended with in real life shortly after shooting the clip. Swift apparently went with him to get the ink done, so we can only assume that she also took part in the brain storming that led to the body art. So we have another piece of ink on a guy who isn’t dating the young country star, but this one pales in comparison to our final subject.

We’re not really sure who this guy is, but he seems to be really into Taylor Swift, and also really into saving money on his tattoos. The piece looks like her…if she fell into a mud pit and sustained bruising during the incident. Having someone whom you’ve never met inked on your body is pretty out there; at least when it’s a real person. This isn’t a tattoo of Yoda, it’s a real person, and it’s real weird.

We can only hope that this epidemic of Taylor Swift tattoos stops before it’s too late; it’s like the zombie outbreak, but with teen pop idols and such.

That’s some anchor tattoo Josh! Wow…that’s just a whole lot of nautical themed ink on the body of “Hunger Games” star Josh Hutcherson, and we’re not quite sure why. The pictures that we have show him on the set of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”, looking pretty ripped and doing some sort of scuba work or surfing…or just wearing a wet suit because he’s feeling frisky  Whatever reason he’s dressed like a seal, he still rocking a very serious anchor piece of his side; even co-star Jennifer Lawrence seems to be surprised by the mass of his ink. The Academy Award nominated actress doesn’t have any known ink of her own, but she doesn’t seem like the type to give Josh any guff about his choice of body art. However, Hutcherson himself seems to have mixed feelings about his life in ink.

The “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” star currently has three tattoos on his body. He has the aforementioned giant anchor with red tips on his side, a Libra symbol on his wrist, and a ship on his back; he planned on getting more, but now it seems like that idea has been taken off the table. In May of 2012, Hutcherson did an interview in which he stated that he loved body art and that he was going to get a whole lot more of it put on his body. Being only 19 at the time and having gotten his first work done when he was just 16, it seemed like the sky was the limit for his body as a canvas. However, weeks later he went on record as saying that he was going to cut it out with the ink until he was a more established star. Citing mega-star Angelina Jolie as his prime example of a star who waited until she was established to get crazy with the needle (that doesn’t sound good, but you know what we’re talking about), the “Red Dawn” actor said that he wasn’t going to give casting directors an excuse to excuse him from considerations.

So with all of that said, we can’t tell you what the future holds for Josh Hutcherson’s body art, but we can speculate. He’s a pretty talented kid, and he’s making a fortune off his work in the “Hunger Games”, so we expect that he’ll find himself not too worried about his career within a few years, and he’ll start getting inked up again. Time will tell, and we’ll keep you posted!

Last year Rapper 50 Cent started undergoing laser treatments to remove his tattoos. In interviews 50 has said he felt he had out grown the look of being covered in tattoos and he wanted to have them removed. He also said he wanted to expand his acting career and that having a lot of tattoos was something hindering him from pursuing roles.

The process of removing tattoos is extremely painful and often occurs over many sessions for completion. The laser penetrates the layer of skin where the ink sits. After several treatments the ink starts to slowly break down and get absorbed by the body. Sessions can last anywhere from 15 to 90 minutes. 

Recently 50 was featured in some new ad campaigns with his now inkless skin. The results are pretty dramatic. While you can faintly make out some of the lines, his tattoos are virtually gone. 50 says he still has a ways to go but he has been happy with the results. Take a look at the before and after pictures of 50 Cent tattoos removed.

A hilarious fart filled performace by an all star celebrity trio! This rendition of Jingle Bells should get you right into the Holiday spirit and bring a smile to your face.