I love Black Milk and not a week goes by without me rocking a pair of their leggings. I also love Star Wars which explains why one of the pusses is called Darth. So you would think I’d love the Black Milk Star Wars collection. Well I do and I don’t… Really wish there had been Darth, Death Star and Artoo leggings. I am trying to resist buying any of the current items on the site as holding out for the Yoda leggings which have a preview in the video above. If I can resist the montage leggings remains to be seen.
If I am honest screen printing in blood has been in a LOT of new business pitches I have done over the past few years as a result of my fascination with the concept. Capcom being the client who had the nerve to finally go for it as part of the Resident Evil 6 human butchery campaign I headed up, working alongside Full Fat PR. We even got our Capcom client to donate some of his own blood
Despite the obvious PR benefits, my additional reasoning for using human blood was that it seemed unethical to use animal blood for such a trivial (in the big scheme of things) reason as it would mean they would have been killed in order for us to do so, taking blood from humans has no lasting effects on the donor.
First off we had to find a trained phlebotomist (obviously) and the projects ‘medical adviser’ Carla Connolly connected me with the utterly wonderful @zoe_mort who declared my veins “amazing” and “juicy”. For the first test Zoe took blood from both myself and Carla using a variety of blood tubes (such as gold tops, grey tops…) which contained different preservatives so we could experiment and see which would work best for the project. Necessary as our needs from the blood was only for ‘art’ reasons – not medical – so it was a whole new territory for all involved.
As it turned out the classic preservative free purple topped blood tube was the way to go, and needing to create around 50 prints we also bled our client, Adam Merrett of Capcom and Full Fat’s Dan Walsh (both of whom had never given blood before). After testing the blood we were then ready to rock.
So we had the blood, and my fridge looked like Dexter was a house guest (Michael C Hall can be a house guest anytime) so what next? Luckily I knew wonderful medical illustrator Emily Evans, also a Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy at Cambridge University (teaching the medical students dissection and anatomy) and a councilor of the Medical Artists Association of GB, who was up for it and fair play to her. Even holding my fresh warm blood in my hands was enough to make me feel very very sick. As it turned out only my blood was needed in the end and I recall seeing a tube containing his own blood nestling in Dan’s pen pot on his desk. Well I didn’t want it all to stay in my fridge so gave it back to it’s donor.
Emily created the screen print and began to test the right mixture – the end ratio of pigment to blood was about 20/80 – and a few hours later we had our blood screen prints to send out as part of the Resident Evil 6 press packs. The ‘human blood’ element was also clearly indicated on the poster in case anyone felt compelled to lick the prints or anything! Ironically these prints were going out as part of a pack that also included ‘human meat’ (more on that later) so these where the least disturbing part of the package. Have to say I am so impressed with Emily’s skills on this as the prints have remained blood red to this day, normally art works created using blood and paper as a medium dries a really icky brown when used in art.
If you were not lucky enough to get a screen print then here are some images of the prints below…
This is an amazing gravestone, commissioned by the spouse of Laurence Matheson, to show her love for him, after he died. There are a LOT of people online who hate this but I think it is wonderful and I am sure would have made Laurence very happy indeed.
So I got some tweets and then an email from Brave New Ventures with some confusing information on – hoping some of my geekier / clever readers can help figure it out for me. Anyone got any ideas / clues / suggestions? The video above tells me it’s something to do with Secret Cinema and erm that’s all I know… never ever been able to work out their clues.
Dear Miss Cakehead,
We are contacting you to inform you that you have been identified as an ideal candidate for a role within Brave New Ventures.
Firstly, congratulations. Our identification process relies on a number of behavioural and suitability metrics. To have reached this stage is testament to your strength of character, adaptability and ability to communicate. Very few candidates reach this stage.
The role for which we have contacted you is one of utmost importance to the continued operation of Brave New Ventures. As Chief Information Officer, your task will be to promote and assist in our current recruitment drive. Our maiden voyage is of utmost importance not only to our investors, but also to humanity. It is imperative, therefore, that we find the right candidates for each position. Your role as Chief Information Officer will be vital in helping us to source these candidates.
In order to carry out your role, we will require you to spread the word about our recruitment drive to all avenues available to you, be they fora, social networks or other online communities. We will, of course, require evidence of your work via regular reports. Failure to report will be considered failure to perform. Failure to perform will not be tolerated.
Consider that you are acting on behalf of Brave New Ventures, and that this position of power requires at all times the utmost discretion and decorum. We will be watching.
Should you need any further information on how to carry out your duties, respond to this message.
If you need to refer to an online resource, please use:
A tough one & an unsettling post which nearly didn’t make the cut (you’ll notice I have not tagged it). For the record I don’t like this design, or think it is the most tasteful thing I have ever seen, BUT as a work of art it stopped me in my tracks so thought I would post and allow my readers to decide for themselves (via Flash Glam Trash).
The work of Xoil Needles Side Tattoo is absolutely bloody incredible – ‘like’ him on Facebook here. Massively inspiring art even if you are not into tattooing as such.
