Tattoos

In my business, there are few sounds more ominous than that of a good friend's book landing on your desk. When that friend isn't a professional writer, the desire to run can be almost irresistible: "Your book? No, I never saw it. You know I've been in Costa Rica. Beautiful place, but I lost my sight to a rare tropical parasite." Father Greg Boyle, the Jesuit priest who founded Homeboy Industries -- Los Angeles' most successful effort to fruitfully engage young men and women caught up in the gang life -- has been my friend for more than two decades.

Who hasn't seen a lost child, with tear-stained cheeks, wandering at an amusement park or airport? Parents might feel less anxious with a product called Safetytat ( www.safetytat.com ), a temporary, stick-on tattoo on which you can write a phone number. They come six to a pack, with a marker (about $10). Or they are sold customized, with warnings about allergies or other information (about $20 for 24). The package suggests that caregivers write a cellphone number on the tattoo and don't include the child's name.

Every time Luis Moncada blinks, he curses, thanks to the unprintable expletive tattooed onto his eyelids at age 18. A gang member at the time, he was convinced he wouldn't make it to 21 and wanted to deliver this angry message to the world when he was gone. Fourteen years later, Moncada is telling a different kind of story with his eyes. He and his brother Daniel have recurring roles on AMC's "Breaking Bad," where they've spent much of this third season playing silent-assassin types — cartel members from Mexico who've come to kill Walter White ( Bryan Cranston)

A neck tattoo on Caleb McGillvary, also known as Kai, was what helped a New Jersey resident lead police to the animated hitchhiker wanted in connection with a slaying, New Jersey prosecutors said Friday. McGillvary, 24, the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker of “Smash, smash, suh-mash!” fame, was arrested in Philadelphia on Thursday night at a Greyhound Bus stop. Authorities in Union County, New Jersey, named the couch-crashing drifter as a suspect in the death of New Jersey attorney Joseph Galfy.

Seven Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have been notified that the department intends to fire them for belonging to a secret law enforcement clique that allegedly celebrated shootings and branded its members with matching tattoos, officials said. The Times reported last year about the existence of the clique, dubbed the Jump Out Boys, and the discovery of a pamphlet that described the group's creed, which required aggressive policing and awarded tattoo modifications for police shootings.

GIFU, Japan - Hidden away in the backroom of a modest apartment in this central Japanese city, one of Japan's last remaining hand-tattoo masters is preparing his tools. Over the last four decades Oguri Kazuo has tattooed notable geisha and countless yakuza , members of Japan's notorious mafia. Today, the 79-year-old artist, known professionally as Horihide (derived from " hori ," meaning "to carve"), is working on a client who is a little more subdued. Motoyama Tetsuro has spent hundreds of dollars, traveled thousands of miles and waited more than three decades for a session with Horihide.

Even the most diligent parent can lose a kid now and then - mostly now. A new product may help take some of the angst and desperation out of such an event. SafetyTats are temporary tattoos that read “If Lost, Please Call” and list a parent or guardian's cell number. They were invented by a mom named Michele Welsh, who as a precaution would write her cell number on her children's arms in crowded public venues, like theme parks.  She explained to her three active boys to stay with Mommy and Daddy, but they were told that if they did get separated, they could show the numbers to an adult.

Who hasn't seen a lost child, with tear-stained cheeks, wandering at an amusement park or airport? Parents might feel less anxious with a product called Safetytat ( www.safetytat.com ), a temporary, stick-on tattoo on which you can write a phone number. They come six to a pack, with a marker (about $10). Or they are sold customized, with warnings about allergies or other information (about $20 for 24). The package suggests that caregivers write a cellphone number on the tattoo and don't include the child's name.

Michael Voltaggio has no idea how many tattoos he has. The question makes him laugh. The wise-cracking 33-year-old chef is pretty well covered. The name of his restaurant, after all, is Ink. Before dinner service on a recent Friday, Voltaggio plays around with an insulated bucket of liquid nitrogen, dipping his hand in it and tossing the residue on the floor where it morphs, CGI-like, into little rolling marbles of chemistry before dissolving into wisps...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Netflix has a genuine fan boy in Myron Robinson, the first person we know of to make that fervor a permanent addition to his body. Robinson, a college student and aspiring fashion designer from Indiana, says he admired the company and its founder Reed Hastings so much, he tattooed "Netflix" on his stomach. (For all you skeptics out there, he swears it's "definitely real. ") Robinson couldn't keep the tattoo under wraps (or under his shirt) for long. He tweeted his tattoo to Netflix,  which gave him a shout out and a subscription . Even Hastings took notice on his Facebook page.

Demi Lovato says she's a warrior, and she got herself a tattoo to prove it. The 20-year-old "Heart Attack" singer posted a pic Wednesday of her new ink, which emblazons the lyric "Now I'm a warrior" on her back left shoulder, referring to a song on her newly released fourth album, "Demi. " "Thanks @BangBang! Album release day!!! #DEMI," she wrote , posting the pic on Twitter and linking off to her iTunes page. The tat came from Bang Bang Tattoos in New York City. The former "Sonny With a Chance" star also got tats on her wrists to honor her fans' support during her stint in an Illinois rehab facility in 2010.

Now here's a headline that probably has folks at companies like Qualcomm quaking: “Company offers raises to employees who get tattooed with its logo.” My colleague Ricardo Lopez reported Thursday on Rapid Realty, a New York real estate firm that is offering its workers a 15% raise if they get a tattoo of the company's logo, which is a double-R. Seems one over-eager employee (there's always one, right?) did it on his own; the boss liked it (of course!) and now it's everyone into the inkwell, so to speak -- about 40 employees taking the plunge so far. If I may be honest, I'm not that keen on having “Tribune” inked across my anatomy, though I confess that would be better than our previous owner, Times-Mirror.

A New York real estate company is rewarding employees who make a very personal -- and permanent -- display of their loyalty to the firm. The company, Rapid Realty, is offering its employees a 15% pay raise if they get the company's logo tattooed on their body.    The branding effort began when one employee, acting on his own, got a tattoo showing the firm's double-R logo, Anthony Lolli, the company's owner, told WCBS in New York. Ten craziest excuses employees have used to call in sick "So he calls me up and says 'Hey, Anthony, I'm getting a logo on me.' I show up at the shop, and I'm like, this is cool, how can I repay you?"

Forget about the thrill of hoisting a national championship trophy or cutting down the nets. The players on the Louisville basketball team wanted to win an NCAA title to make their coach, Rick Pitino, follow through on a promise: The 60-year-old known for his dapper suits had vowed to get a tattoo if his squad finished on top. Pitino got inked on Friday morning, according to  a Darren Rovell story for ESPN . The simple design featured an...

The documentary "Tattoo Nation" deftly chronicles the journey of modern tattoo artistry in the United States as it moved from the margins to the mainstream. Director Eric Schwartz, aided by writer-producer John Corry, writer-editor Marco Jakubowicz and narrator Corey Miller (TLC's "L.A. Ink"), has crafted a vivid portrait that should satisfy aficionados and intrigue the curious. Ink-averse viewers, however, may remain unsold. Once mainly the province of servicemen, gang members, drug addicts and convicts, tattoos are now de rigueur (an estimated 45 million Americans have at least one)

David Beckham fell on his enviously sculpted bottom over the weekend after showing off some of his "Bend It Like Beckham" moves in China. The British soccer star, who recently left the L.A. Galaxy for the Paris-St. Germain football club, was visiting the country to promote his sport. He has been named China's first international ambassador and was invited by the China Football Association for a five-day trip.  On Saturday, Beckham was demonstrating a kick to the Wuhan Zall Football Club while he was dressed to the nines - suit, tie and dress shoes.

I read "The Secret Society Among Lawmen" (March 24) with interest. I am a law enforcement supervisor with 23 years on the job and still working "the street." I think I am probably more in touch with young line officers than the senior management quoted. In your article tattoos are given a sinister meaning that is out of touch with today's realities. Using the presence of tattooing by young deputies as evidence of secret societies without more explanation about tattoos is unfair. I supervise young police officers and notice that many of them, as well as many young adults, have tattoos.

In his column on tattoos, Dan Neil stated, "I worry the tattoo craze is part of something bigger, a sort of fatalism that keeps people from imagining the future because, somehow, they expect not to see it" ("Britney Forever," 800 Words, Aug. 14). This opinion would be more appropriate in relation to reality television and Social Security, not the desire to possess an eternal work of art. The bigger picture will never be overshadowed by even the largest tattoo. Christopher Rodriguez South Pasadena

That temporary henna tattoo may leave a longer-lasting physical effect than you had hoped for, and it may not be pretty, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.    That's because an extra ingredient included in the longer-lasting “black henna” tattoos in wide use today - hair dye including p-phenylenediamine, or PPD - can cause nasty allergic reactions in some people, including redness, blisters, oozing lesions, increased sensitivity to...

According to Miley Cyrus, her engagement ring was at the shop. Or something like that. Cyrus dropped a clue Thursday on Twitter after one of her backup singers complained Thursday about sending her own engagement ring off to get fixed, because one of the little diamonds had fallen out. "ugh that's the worst!," Miley replied . "I just had a similar situation except when it happens to me then everyone says my wedding is off. " The former "Hannah Montana" star (don't tell her we called her that)