Surreal body art that will give you the creeps!

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho
3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

Hikaru Cho is the artist responsible for the surrealist body art I’m bringing to you today. To date, Cho’s mind-altering art has been featured in ad campaigns for Amnesty International and tech giant Samsung. According to an article on Cho from 2012 when she was just nineteen, she took to using acrylic paint to create hyper realistic images directly onto her subjects skin because she was “bored” with technologically enhanced artwork.

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

Based in Tokyo, the now 22-year-old has amassed a rather large and impressive catalog of three-dimensional body paintings. There are even a few Halloween-themed ones that I’ve included in this post because, why not? Perhaps they will help inspire you for whatever Halloween festivities you will be participating in this weekend.

Body art created for the campaign ”My Body, My Rights,” by Amnesty International
Body art by Hikaru Cho created for the campaign ”My Body, My Rights,” by Amnesty International

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

Juicy Girls 3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

Face to Face 3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

A banana painted to look like a fish by Hikaru Cho
A banana painted to look like a fish

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho

3-D body art by Hikaru Cho
 

TEN RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM DENNIS WALSH



1.    Instead of getting a watch dog, why not just put a chalk outline of a guy in your driveway?

2.   A sure fire way to deter Jehovah Witnesses is to ask, “May I have this dance?”

3.   Before ordering the pulled pork, always insist on knowing who pulled it.

4.   Some shampoos promise “more volume.” I was completely unaware that people were having trouble hearing their hair. 

5.    Be careful what you say. A woman asked me if I would like to have kids. I told her someday. Two weeks later she dropped her kids off at my house for the weekend.

6.    Fat mean never having to say you’re full.

7.   What’s the deal with that ‘Siri’ woman? I was leaving the house and she sarcastically asked, “You’re wearing that?”

8.    Hospitals and courthouses are two places in serious need of cocktail lounges.

9.   You have way too much money if you have a Gucci colostomy bag.

10.  A boy does not become a man until such time as he comes to value peace of mind over piece of ass.

Vatican reeling as DNA tests show communion wafers contain 0% Christ [via John Reid]

Although clearly a spoof, the spoof illustrates the divide between mystical and literal Christianity. In the mystical tradition it means nothing that there'd be no real DNA in the communion host; in the literal tradition they'd be stymied by it and would probably simply reject the entire history of science.



Communion wafer DNA test

The Vatican is this morning facing a further crisis after routine DNA tests revealed that the communion wafers used in Sunday mass contain 0% of the body and blood of Christ.

The findings are sure to pile further pressure on the ailing religious organization, just days after their Chief Executive resigned citing ‘personal reasons’ and ‘being a bit old’.

The news will concern billions of Catholic consumers, previously led to believe they were consuming Christ himself each Sunday morning during mass.

Catholic Simon Williams told us, “So what have I been eating all these years? It’s not horse again is it?”

“It’s always had a funny taste that I couldn’t quite place. But having been a choir boy in the catholic church I grew up being told by priests that putting strange things in my mouth was the done thing.”

“That said, with the amount of cash I’m encouraged to put in the collection plate on a Sunday morning I can’t believe they’re scrimping on the ingredients.”

“You’ll be telling me next that the stuff they dip the wafer in isn’t actually blood.”
Catholic crisis

A spokesperson for the Vatican explained that the DNA test results merely highlight the incompatibility of science and religion.

They told us, “Where is your faith that the wafer is the body of Christ? Science can’t tell you everything, and just as it can’t prove God doesn’t exist, it can’t prove the wafer ISN’T the body of Christ.”

“Oh, it has done exactly that? Right. Well.  There’s probably something in the Bible about that. I’ll have to go and look.”

More Those Crazy Monks [via Nina Reznick]

The Hanging Temple or Hanging Monastery in China.
 





Built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) in Shanxi province , the Hanging Monastery was built more than 1,500 years ago.
The temple was constructed by drilling holes into the cliff side and inserting crossbeams halfway to serve as the foundation.  How did they do this 1,500 years ago?


















 

If you look carefully above, you will see somebody walking on this uninviting stairway.


 

Those Crazy Monks [via Nina Reznick]



Tiger’s Nest Monastery in Bhutan
 
This temple complex was first built in 1692, around a cave where a revered  Guru Padmansambhanva is said to have meditated for three months in the 8th century.  Padmasambhava is credited with introducing Buddhism to Bhutan.

The monastery buildings consist of four main temples and residential shelters designed by adapting to the rock (granite) ledges and eight caves.  All the buildings are interconnected through steps and stairways made in rocks. There are a few rickety wooden bridges along the paths and stairways also to cross over.



 


The temple at the highest level has a frieze of Buddha. Each building has a balcony, which provides lovely views of the scenic Paro valley down below.



Special permission is required for non-Bhutanese to visit the monastery, usually granted only to practicing Buddhists on a religious retreat.





Young monk peeks out of temple.


More Excellent Old Photos via Cacciatore

London in                                                          the 1920's ~                                                          Telephone                                                          Engin


A Strongwoman balances a piano and the pianist on her chest.  1920

London, in the 1920s, this was a telephone engineer.  What a job!

Two young girls in a West Germans street chat with their grandparents in the window of their home in the Eastern sector, separated only by a barbed wire barricade.
It was a common occurrence for families, who had once only lived on the opposite side of the street from one another, to become separated by the ever growing Berlin Wall.


A Gibson Girl in her corset in the early 1900s.  This was one fad that really hurt a lot of women for life.