Ray Massey is one hell of a talented artist. How he does his hand paintings and body-art is more than incredible. Just check the Finger Pen illusion on your right! It took me ages before I understood the illusion completely, but once I did – my mind literally exploded. Inside this post you can find few more hand paintings (some of which are even better in style than finger pen), yet the illusions aren’t as strong if you ask me.
I was pointed to these magnificent photos by Brad Honeycutt, one of our fans who just published a book of illusions titled “The Art of the Illusion: Deceptions to Challenge the Eye and the Mind“. I believe there are many more awesome illusions to be found in it, so be sure to check it out if you like this sort of stuff.
Yayoi Kusama has certainly been upholding her moniker as the polka-dotted queen as of late, imposing her reign of fantastical dots on New York these past few months. She has a retrospective currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a collaborative fashion line with Marc Jacobs selling at NYC's Louis Vuitton boutique, and now one of her bespeckled paintings is set for the auction block at Christie's, poised to fetch an estimated $400,000 to $600,000.
Tattoo artists first congregated in Brooklyn's Williamsburg area seeking a refuge with low rents and ink-friendly clientele. But as rents multiplied and the area became more polished, these businesses have actually thrived.
Here’s another great optical illusion puzzle by Donald Rust: Can you find the King
in this painting below? When you’re done, just please don’t tell!
Instead, comment you found him and share this post further. Let’s see
how long does it take before you see him! BTW: don’t forget to check
other illusions by Rusty (just in case you missed any). I assure you – it’s well worth your time. Enjoy!
This poor Sphinx cat was anesthetized for three hours to have a design inked onto his chest at a tattoo parlor.
It’s actually not the first time we have seen animals with tattoos.
Quite rightly, there was uproar over the last tattooed pets post on
Trend Hunter, with the general consensus most of the images were
(thankfully) computer generated. However, I was really upset to find
that this Tutankhamen tattooed cat is 100% confirmed as real.
Tatooed Pig at Frieze Art Fair
We’ve covered Wim Delvoye’s tattooed pigs before here at Trend
Hunter. Wim Delvoye, otherwise known as the ‘artist with the pigs,’ has
attracted even more attention at this week’s opening of Frieze Art Fair
in London. Not only does he love to tattoo himself, he also loves
tattooing pigs. He has them stuffed and exhibited, too.
With tattoos that depict everything from guns, skulls, hearts, roses
and Harley logos, these pigs and their skins have been under the needle
for hours to be adorned like proper sailors. Some of them even look more
tattooed than your average Hell’s Angels biker.
With Delvoye’s tattooed and stuffed pig shown at Frieze, this is
bound to be a bizarre new trend in livestock. But will it also become a
fast-selling piece of art?
STREET ART MEETS STREET RACING The "Sharpie Lamborghini".......Nice if you can afford it! This tattooed supercar has a most unusual paint job and is known as the ‘Sharpie Lamborghini.’ The Sharpie Lamborghini is owned by Prestige Imports/Lamborghini Miami, where it hangs out and takes hot pictures all day like those in the gallery above. There’s even a Flickr set from the photo shootImports/Lamborghini Miami, where it hangs out and takes hot pictures all day like those in the gallery above. There’s even a Flickr set from the photo shoot.
The Sharpie Lamborghini features artwork done entirely in Sharpie permanent marker and covered with a clear coat to preserve the artwork.
Although the Sharpie Lamborghini has been on the scene for awhile, it’s one of the more prominent examples of taking extreme design chances with an expensive, rare automobile to achieve the ultimate in luxury personalization. Since then, we’ve seen streetwear brand A Bathing Ape and Christian Audigier customize paint jobs for a Bugatti and Lamborghini, respectively. Check out their designs below.
Animal instincts: Photographer's exhibit sees naked models painted to look uncannily like wild creatures
By Chris Parsons UPDATED: 07:04 GMT, 7 September 2011
A photographer has created a bizarre exhibit featuring naked models being covered with body paint to look just like wild animals.
Lennette Newell's daring pictures show models posing covered in paint as zebras, elephants, baboons and cheetahs next to their real life counterparts.
The San Francisco photographer's display, called 'Anti-Human' was devised out of Lennette's childhood desire to become one of the animals her father used to treat as a vet.
Black and white: Photographer Lennette captures a model painted with stripes to give her the appearance of a zebra
Spot the difference: Another model is painted in brown and white to look just like her cheetah counterpart
Newell's pictures are born out of her childhood dream to actually become one of the animals her vet father used to treat
Her strikingly colourful set aims to mark the difference between humans and wild animals
All of Lennette's 'Anti-Human' collection pictures were taken in Los Angeles, California.
One of her eye-catching pictures shows a female model, Jasmina, painted in black and white next to a zebra, complete with black and white hair to accurately mimmick the majestic animal.
Monkeying around: A male model is painted in brown with dramatic eye paint to make him take on the appearance of a baboon
Daring: Lennette's picture of a model with an elephant is one of the collection's more provocative images
Another image shows another willing model, Kaela, posing in grey and brown paint, with a trunk painted down the centre of her body to replicate the appearance of Susie the African elephant next to her.
Her collection is completed with model Jasmina painted in snakeskin style print while Daisy the 12ft Burmese phython is wrapped around her.
Meanwhile the same model later covers herself in a bronzed light brown paint with black spots while sat behind Tango the beautiful cheetah.
Model Jasmina poses with Daisy, a Burmese python, part of renowned photographer Lennette Newell's remarkable 'Anti-Human' series of portraits
Tourist Adam Crowe from Liverpool, England, has his photo taken with a 10-foot (3.05m) statue created and modelled after English soccer player star David Beckham wearing underwear that is displayed in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, Friday, Aug 17, 2012. -- PHOTO: AP
This undated product photo provided by H&M shows a look from an underwear collection created and modelled by soccer star David Beckham. -- PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) - David Beckham, sporting designer underwear, is making appearances around New York City - in the form of 10-foot-tall (3.05m) metallic statues, that is.
The massive sculptures have gone up as part of a promotion for the soccer player's new underwear line for H&M.
The Daily News says three of the larger-than-life statues have been placed inside H&M's midtown-Manhattan store. There's also one in Central Park and another at the South Street Seaport.
There are also two statues in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco.
Staten Island Boat Graveyard
One of the spookiest places in town is the Staten Island Boat Graveyard. Located far from the urban bustle in Rossville, Staten Island, this swampy patch of the Arthur Kill Road waterway is the final resting place for dozens of rusting, decomposing and abandoned boats of all sizes. The rotting ship hulls, protruding from the watery depths, are oddly majestic and beautiful (but also kind of gross; we recommend wearing long pants, not shorts, and sturdy shoes if you go). The gravesite can be found via a makeshift path off Arthur Kill Road near Rossville Avenue, about 13 miles by bike or car from the ferry terminal. It's a truly forgotten corner of the City. —AB
Photo: Alex Lopez
Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church Slave Galleries
Within the simple walls of Saint Augustine's Episcopal Church on the Lower East Side lies an unlikely reminder of racial segregation in New York. Cramped staircases lead to two concealed rooms, located behind the balcony, where African-American worshippers could hear church services without being seen. The rooms were informally known as the "slave gallery," even though slavery was outlawed in New York by the time they were built in 1828. Fugitive 19th-century politician Boss Tweed reportedly hid in the gallery to attend his mother's funeral. Ignored and branded for decades as a shameful part of Saint Augustine's past, the space was recently restored and opened to the public in 2009. —AB
Photo: John Marshall Mantel
Cold War Bomb Shelter in the Brooklyn Bridge
In 2006, City inspectors stumbled upon a hidden chamber inside the Brooklyn Bridge, located just under the bridge's Lower Manhattan entrance ramp. The room was stockpiled with decades-old military provisions for surviving a nuclear bomb attack: blankets, medicine, water containers and around 352,000 crackers. Supply boxes stamped with the dates 1957 and 1962 indicate that the bunker was used during the height of the Cold War, then later sealed up and forgotten. For security reasons, City officials have kept the exact location of the chamber a secret—most of the 150,000 pedestrians who cross the bridge each day have no idea that it even exists. —AB
And that's not the only secret space inside the belly of the bridge; located within its base, a series of vast rooms known as the Brooklyn Anchorage was used for music and theater performances, readings and art exhibitions for nearly 20 years. Each of the eight impressive rooms has brick walls and a 50-foot-high ceiling. The space was closed for business after 9/11 for security reasons and, unfortunately, will not be open again anytime soon. —EO
Here are 10 animals known for getting drunk or high on intoxicating wild plants.
Some animals, like elephants are known for getting drunk in the wild. (Credit: Getty Images)
MIND-ALTERING BUZZES, whether from sweet fermenting fruit, magic mushrooms or coca leaves, have existed since the beginning of plant and animal life. Many species deliberately seek out intoxication and natural highs, and they know where to look to experience them.
"The capacity to enjoy alcohol or inebriation of any kind is not a unique product of humans," says Professor Gisela Kaplan, an animal behaviour expert at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. "In fact it's quite possible that humans discovered it because of animals."
It is sometimes claimed that thanks to our early observations of animal behaviour, we happened upon caffeine, alcohol, cocaine, and other medicinal substances in the wild. Tracing how different species relate and respond to these properties, by choice, obligation or need, is a fascinating area of study.
In Australia, 'drunken parrot season' in Darwin produces dozens of apparently intoxicated red-collared lorikeets each year. Most of the birds can't fly, have trouble walking straight, and can be sick for days. Local vets are at a loss to explain what's making them so ill, but one likely factor is the abundance of fleshy fermenting fruit in northern Australia at this time of year.
While these birds can be adversely affected by alcohol, Malaysia's pen-tailed tree shrew depends on the intoxicating nectar of the local bertam palm to such an extent that they've developed a resistance to it. Here are some more examples from around the world of intoxication in animals:
1. Wallabies on opium
Wallabies in Tasmania have been seen falling around and hopping in circles, apparently high after feeding in local poppy fields. In 2009, the then-state attorney general, now premier, Lara Giddings, told a parliamentary estimates hearing, "We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles." Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally grown opium for the pharmaceutical industry, and when food is scarce, the wallabies survive by eating the plant's intoxicating heads.
2. Monkeys at St Kitts
Vervet monkeys on the Caribbean island of St Kitts have a long history with alcohol. They once devoured fermented sugar cane grown by the rum industry, but now they're known for cheekily scavenging cocktails from tourists along the beaches. Studies of their behaviour have found the monkeys' drinking habits are similar to those of people. Most drink in moderation, but around 12 per cent drink heavily, five per cent drink excessively, and a small group reject alcohol altogether. Juvenile monkeys also tend to drink more than adults.
ANIMAL VIDEO: drunk vervet monkeys
3. Elephants and the Marula tree
It's long been believed that African elephants got drunk off the fermenting fruit of the Marula tree. The 1974 documentary Animals are Beautiful People showed the 3t mammals swaying and falling over after binging on the fruit. But a 2004 study by biologists from the University of Bristol in the UK argued that while elephants clearly have a soft spot for alcohol - in India, herds of drunken elephants have trampled people to death after binging on locally produced vats rice beer - it was unlikely the Marula tree was potent enough to make them drunk. The researchers did suggest another intoxicant associated with the tree could be making the elephants tipsy.
4. Reindeer and magic mushrooms
Reindeer in eastern Europe deliberately forage for, and have been known to fight over, the hallucinogenic and highly toxic Amanita muscaria mushroom. "[The reindeer] have a desire to experience altered states of consciousness," wrote scientist Andrew Haynes in the Pharmaceutical Journal. The bright red mushrooms are considered poisonous and can cause dizziness in humans, so to avoid any nasty side effects, Siberian natives would get high by feeding the fungi to the reindeer, then drinking the animal's urine.
5. Bighorn sheep and narcotic lichen
Wild bighorn sheep in the Canadian Rockies will go to great lengths to find a rare narcotic lichen that grows in green and yellow patches on uncovered rock surfaces. After scraping the rock with their teeth to remove and eat the stuff, they appear ill or a bit mad. Ronald Siegel, a California-based psycho-pharmacologist, wrote in his book Intoxication: the universal drive for mind-altering substances, that the sheep, usually a social species that doesn't stray far from the herd, will "negotiate narrow ledges, knife-edged outcrops, and dangerous talus slides" just to get a hit.
6. Songbirds in Vienna
Feasting on fermenting berries and then flying can be very dangerous for birds. In 2006, 40 songbirds were found dead in Vienna, Austria. Post mortems showed their bellies were full of rotting berries and their necks were broken after crashing into windows. According to Sonja Wehsely, a spokesperson for Vienna's veterinary authority, their livers were so badly damaged "they looked like they were chronic alcoholics."
7. Bats can hold their liquor
Bats in Central and South America regularly eat fermenting fruits (with up to 4.5 per cent ethanol), but unlike most animal species, they have the good fortune of being able to withstand the effects. People often slur, sway and stagger when drunk, but a 2009 study by Canadian biologists found bats in Belize could fly and use their built-in sonar with unimpaired coordination whilst drunk. They tested 106 bats, some sober, some with blood-alcohol contents that would exceed legal limits for people, but found little difference in their performance.
8. Jaguars and the hallucinogenic Yage vine
Jaguars in the Amazon rainforest sometimes part from their meat-eating ways to gnaw on the bark of the hallucinogenic Yage vine (banisteriopsis caapi). It causes them to act strangely, similar to the way cats behave after they've had a taste of catnip. The vine is also used by Tukano Indians in a narcotic brew, which induces what they describe as 'jaguar eyes.'
9. Pen-tailed tree shrew and the bertam palm
The Malaysian pen-tailed tree shrew (Ptilocercus lowii) has evolved to survive on the fermented nectar of the bertam palm, which can reach around 3.8 per cent ethanol. The rat-sized creature can drink as much alcohol for their weight as a human knocking back nine beers in one sitting, without showing any signs of drunkenness. Frank Wiens, a German biologist, put the palms under 24hr surveillance and found the animals spent about two hours per night guzzling the alcoholic nectar.
10. Caterpillars and their coca
The caterpillar larvae of the Eloria noyesi moth, found in Peru and Colombia, feeds exclusively on coca plants, eating as many as 50 leaves each day. Most insects avoid the bush, which is the raw ingredient of cocaine, because it can make them severely ill or kill them. But US studies comparing the dopamine receptors of silkworms and caterpillars have shown the latter are completely resistant to the drug. Colombian researchers have argued this quality could make the caterpillars a valuable asset in the struggle to destroy illegal coca plantations.
Rapa das Bestas: Spain’s Insane Horse Wrestling Festival
The sound of neighs and whinnies fills the jam-packed corral, a
centuries-old stone amphitheater. Dust flies through the air as men
grapple to keep control of what seems like a sea of horses – a seething
mass of animals numbering in their hundreds. There are not many activities that pit man against beast in such
visceral fashion, but Rapa das Bestas (meaning "cropping the beasts") is
certainly one of them. In this 400-year-old Spanish tradition, men
wrestle horses to the ground with nothing more than their bare hands in
many cases. First, however, they must catch the animals. Wild horses roam the mountains of Galicia, the northwestern region of
Spain, but each year local villagers and visitors fetch them down from
the higher ground, rounding them up so that the locals can clip their
manes and tails and brand the foals.
The most famous event is the three-day festival held in the village of
San Lorenzo de Sabucedo, where the use of nothing but hands – no tools
or ropes – is permitted. Muscles bulge as men (and some women) grapple
with the untamed horses so as to subdue them, often barely hanging on
with their fingers.
There are plenty of people who consider Rapa das Bestas cruel and
condemn the festival, but others point out that it offers the
opportunity to see to the needs of animals that are ill or infected by
parasites.
It takes three men (known as "aloitadores") to manage each horse: one
who gets on the horse's back, another who takes hold of the neck, and a
third to take the tail. They then wrestle the horse to the floor in
order to shear its hair – apparently to stop it from overheating during
the hotter months – or brand it if it is a younger horse that has not
previously been tagged.
The origins of this horse wrestling festival are the stuff of legend. In
the mid-16th century, a plague hit Sabucedo, and two sisters prayed to
San Lorenzo, the patron saint of the village, for deliverance. When the
village was saved, the sisters gave two horses as an offering, setting
them free in the hills above the town. Supposedly, the horses are the
ancestors of the hundreds that live wild in the various herds today.
Myth notwithstanding, the Sabucedo Rapa festival was first documented at
the start of the 18th century when it was held with two purposes in
mind: the first, simply the hygiene of the horses; the second, to keep
tabs on the herds. Once the wrestlers had pitted their strength against
the horses, they were treated to wine and food. And just as the reasons
behind the event stand to this day, so too do the festivities, which
take place each night.
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This poor Sphinx cat was anesthetized for three hours to have a design inked onto his chest at a tattoo parlor. 
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