Well, apparently those 80s cyberpunk films were correct; in the future, abstract tribal facepaint will totally be in. A student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program of New York University, Adam Harvey, has been experimenting with methods of fooling facial detection software. He’s found that abstract, asymmetrical designs work best; he then posits that, as privacy concerns increase, people will then start adapting such patterns into their personal style as a matter of habit. I like where this is going, personally.

That facial tribal tattoo still makes you look like a fucking idiot though. Seriously, what were you thinking?

Abstract, Cyber Warrior Makeup May Hide Your Face From Surveillance [Switched.Com]

Lovely picture, isn’t it? I think it looks nice, personally, but the young lady pictured seems to disagree. Kimberley Vlaeminck, an 18 year old Belgian girl, went into the Tattoo Box studio in Kortrijk to get a tattoo done. Her story is:

“I wanted him to tattoo on just three little points but he suggested three stars, saying it would look prettier.

“When he started the tattooing I didn’t want to feel the pain and so I went to sleep. I had got up at five in the morning.”

“I woke up when he was starting to tattoo my nose and I saw what he had already done. I counted 56 stars, it’s frightening.”

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a tattoo done, but let me tell you, those thing sting like a son-of-a-bitch. The closer you are to the bone, the more it hurts too; it’s easier to get a tattoo on your ass than on your sternum, for example. The mere thought that this young lady could pass out cold while getting facial tattoos is so absurd as to be laughable. The artist in question offers a much more reasonable assertion:

“She was awake and looked in the mirror several times as the procedure was being done… She agreed, but when her father saw it, the trouble started…”

I’ve no doubt that daddy freaked when he saw his little angel all marked up like a sparkle-princess street hood, so she made up this bullshit story. The lack of personal accountability in modern day society is truly sickening; the worst part is, the artist is going to find up paying stupid amounts of money to lawyers to defend himself from her claims. Tres lame.

Belgian girl’s tattoo ‘nightmare’ [BBC News]

What a sweet tattoo, eh? Nothing like great comic book tattoos on cute young ladies, no indeed.