Willie Nelson

I’m not sure of the provenance of few of these images. The artist’s name is clearly signed on one image (good ol’ Willie), but otherwise I came up empty-handed. Even a reverse Google image search led me nowhere. Are some of these from an old Playboy spread celebrating pubic hair? I simply don’t know.

What I am pretty certain of though is that a few of these are definitely not tattoos but body paintings incorporating the nether region hair. Every website I go to says they’re tattoos, but I’m not buying it. That being said, the bird’s nest and Willie Nelson coiff are quite creative. Next up? Kenny Rogers. I demand to see that.

 

 
More after the jump…

Willie Nelson “hobo nickel” by Aleksey Saburov
 
The origins of using coins as an artistic medium can be traced back to the late 1700s. Sometime around 1850, artists started altering the half-dime Seated Liberty coin to make it appear as though the “Goddess Liberty” (a title that was used as far back as ancient Rome, who knew) clad in a flowing dress seated upon a rock, was actually sitting on a toilet. Classy.
 

Hobo nickel by George Washington ‘Bo’ Hughes, early 1900s
 

 
In 1913, the “Buffalo nickel” (or “Indian Head”), became popular for coin carvers as it provided a larger, thicker canvas to work on - enabling artists to create more detailed pieces. Around that same time, two teenage transients (or “hobos”) Bertram ‘Bert’ Wiegand and George Washington ‘Bo’ Hughes met in a “jungle” (or a “hobo camp”) and quickly rose to prominence as masters in the trade.

Using chisels to alter coins, solid currency was easily had within the transient community who were then enabled to make money selling their carved coins (something that was especially useful during The Great Depression). Thus the adoption of the common reference for these defaced coins—“hobo nickles”—came to be. I’m sure some Dangerous Minds readers more enlightened with Americana than I, have heard this phrase before, but it was new to me and I suspect the artform for which it is named, will be new to many of you as well.
 

 

Jack Torrance hobo nickel by Mr. The
 
More ‘hobo nickels’ after the jump…

 
It doesn’t get any better than watching Willie Nelson working some fancy card wizardry on his sister, Bobbie Lee Nelson.

I’ve watched this video twice now, and I still can’t figure out how in the hell he’s able to do this.

What can’t Willie Nelson do? Amazing!

 
via The World’s Best Ever