Rusty Skusa - The World's Most Tattooed Babe

Detail Images

Click image for larger version

Englishwoman Rusty Skuse of the Guiness Book of Records fame is the wife of Bill Skuse, tattooist son of Les Skuse, who apparently is also an infamous tattoo practitioner. Because human flesh decomposes very quickly after death, there is very little evidence that the art of the tattoo is as old as the art of the cave paintings. Fifty-seven tattoos were discovered on the infamous "iceman" found recently in the Italian Alps. His frozen body of some 45 years old at the time of his death and 5300 years old total, revealed tattoos placed close to joints that had suffered arthritic damage, suggesting the belief among his people that tattoos held some magic power of healing. A 4,000- year- old Egyptian mummy is probably the second oldest example of tattoo art in world history. In Southern Siberia the embalmed remains of a 25- year- old woman was discovered and found to be covered with tattoos of goats, wolves, felines and deer. She is called the "ice maiden." Ancient Greek authorities tattooed slaves and criminals. The Koran prohibits tattooing in the Muslim world. Most of the Iron Age tribes in Europe practiced in some degree the art of the tattoo. The pecking was banned by Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D., when Christianity became the Empire's official religion. His belief that the practice was an uncivilized, unchristian and barbaric institution seems to have persisted in the West right to the present time. In addition to temporary decal-type tattoos applied to the skin with water and removed fairly quickly with baby oil, Mehndi body art is becoming popular in the United States having been practiced in ancient Egypt and today in Hindu, Muslim and Jewish cultures of North Africa and India. The designs are applied using a secret mud solution of crushed henna leaves and other natural ingredients which last about two to four weeks.