American Horror Story, a new series by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk airs tonight at 10pm on F/X. If you are a fan of the horror genre or just a fan of Tinsley’s effects be sure to tune in and don’t forget to leave your comments on our  Facebook Page.

In December 2009, Tinsley Studio began collaborations with Bill Corso (Makeup Department Head) to design and create the Martian tattoos for Andrew Stanton’s John Carter. Today the trailer for the film , set for release in 2012, hit the web and in it you can catch glimpses of our FULL BODY TATTOO work, most notably on Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). Check it out and be sure to leave your comments on our Facebook Page.

It is with great pride that we congratulate Tinsley’s leader Christien Tinsley (Prosthetic Designer) as well as our own Hiro Yada (Prosthetic Designer) and Mike Mekash (Makeup Artist) on their Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special – Glee “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle”. Hearty congratulations to Eryn Krueger Mekash (Department Head Makeup Artist) who lead the team and was supported by the talents of Jen Greenberg (Key Makeup Artist), Kelley Mitchell (Makeup Artist), Robin Luce (Makeup Artist) and Melissa Buell (Makeup Artist). It was truly a pleasure to work with these amazing artists on such an iconic television show.

Additional Congrats go out to Eryn Kruegar Mekash, Jen Greenberg, Robin Luce and Mike Mekash who are also nominated for Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) for their amazing work on Glee “The Rocky Horror Glee Show“.

In what is shaping up to be another summer blockbuster, X-Men First Class looks to deliver great makeup effects and tattoos for this mutant cast of characters. Last year (2010) when Makeup Department Head Frances Hannon contacted us to provide tattoos for the film we were very exited to jump on board! The Tinsley team had the pleasure of meeting up-and-coming starlet Zoe Kravitz and set out to create Wing tattoos for her character Angel. Tinsley designer Mike Mekash helped facilitate the design and production while Frances took the lead on application. Prosthetics were provided by Spectral Motion, Inc.

The highly anticipated X-Men First Class opens in theaters today. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed participating in its creation.

Last year Tinsley Studio was hired to supply tattoos for “The Hangover Part 2″. Being fans of the first film our thought was simply “awesome!” We set to work to recreate Mike Tyson’s tattoo for “Stu” which has been the subject of some controversy in the past weeks. In addition, we were asked to cover a “tattoo artist” originally to be played by Mel Gibson, then Liam Neeson and eventually by someone else entirely. Funny how things work sometimes. Nonetheless, our congratulations go out to the cast and crew for the huge box office opening and our thanks for being just a small part of this film. We encourage you all to check out the latest installment in the adventures of the “wolf pack” and don’t forget to keep an eye out for upcoming Tinsley Studio Projects.

Do you have a penchant for the strange and unusual? If so, you should check out Morbid Anatomy, a website dedicated to “Surveying the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture.” This aberrant site is filled with a plethora of information, links to galleries, photos and other informative websites.

“Water for Elephants” directed by Francis Lawrence, opens in theaters today. The film is set in a traveling circus and last year, make up Department Head, the fabulous Jean Black, contacted Tinsley Studio to create some tattoos for the film. We were thrilled at the opportunity and were happy to oblige. Our incomparable Jonah Hex pal, Rolf John Keppler, was Assistant Department head, Kate Biscoe served as Key make up and other special makeup effects for the film were handled by Greg Nicotero.

In other news, Yahoo just released an interactive trailer for “Fast Five” which opens in theaters next friday. Check out the trailer for more information on the film and behind the scenes looks.

The Tinsley crew is currently working on Walt Disney’s John Carter of Mars, the highly anticipated first live action feature from Director Andrew Stanton. Working in conjunction with the film’s Makeup Supervisor, Academy Award winner Bill Corso, the Tinsley team has been hard at work designing and providing Bill and his European makeup crew with distinctive and unique tattoos and tattoo body suits.

Tinsley Studio recently completed additional photography for the film Jonah Hex due in theaters June 2010. Christien Tinsley, Makeup Department Head for principle and additional photography, had the fortunate task of designing the Makeup and Special Makeup FX for the film. Having previously worked together on No Country for Old Men, this film marked the second time Christien has worked with Josh Brolin who plays the title character, Jonah Hex. This film was also the second collaboration with Producer Akiva Goldsman and Consultant Director Francis Lawrence, both with whom Christien worked on I Am Legend.

Joining Christien as Hair Department Head was the always fabulous, Beth Miller whom Christien last worked with in 2001 on Vin Diesel’s xXx. Veteran makeup artists Gerry Quist and Rolf Keppler also joined the makeup team.

“Working on a stylized western with the talented Brolin, Malkovich and Fassbender was a great experience. The makeup for Jonah Hex was a grueling task but Josh was a true professional.”

– Christien Tinsley

The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) just announced the winners of their annual awards. Our own Christien Tinsley along with the lovely and talented Dominie Till have won for their work on PAA. Released in 2009, PAA tells the story of a 12 year-old boy named Auro and his relationship with his father. Auro has progeria, a genetic condition which causes symptoms that mimic aging. The challenge for Tinsley and Till was to turn a 67 year-old Amitabh Bachchan, one of India’s most prominent and legendary actors, into a realistic looking 12 year old with the disorder. The stunning result has now been awarded by IIFA as Best Makeup 2009.

Jon Favreau is back with the latest installment of Marvel’s Iron Man 2. Last year, Tinsley Studio had the pleasure of being commissioned to create prosthetics and tattoos for the film’s villain, Whiplash (Mickey Rourke). Christien Tinsley and Mike Mekash designed and fabricated the transfers (see our services page for more information on our award winning, proprietary process) which composed most of the character’s look. Under the supervision of the films Makeup department head, John Blake and assisted by veteran artist Ken Diaz, Mekash acted as Rourke’s personal makeup artist. The end result is a dynamic look comprised of applied facial hair, prosthetic transfers and Russian themed Tattoo Transfers.

The official Jonah Hex trailer has been released and more images from the film are hitting the web. Tinsley’s work on the film was recently featured on the cover of Make-up Artists Magazine’s summer preview issue (on stands now). Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming articles and don’t forget to go see the film which hits theaters June 18^th.

High School, which premiered at this years Sundance film festival, is a comedy about a valedictorian who tries pot the same day that the school Principal institutes a no-tolerance drug policy. In order to circumvent his inevitable failing at the next days drug test, Henry Burke (Matt Bush) teams up with the school’s stoner (Sean Marquette) in order to get the entire school high. Psycho Ed, played by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody, is the local pot dealer from whom the boys steal. In 2008 Tinsley Studio was commissioned to design and create tattoos for Brody’s character, Psycho Ed. Tinsley’s talented designer Mike Mekash worked closely with Brody on the designs, incorporating the actor’s desire for specific tattoos along with a multitude of marijuana related images. Mekash applied more than 42.0 tattoos which covered Brody’s entire torso. The final result is an amazing compliment to the character’s craziness as portrayed by Brody. Directed by John Stalberg, the film has yet to set a release date but images of our work have already begun appearing on the web.

Mortal Kombat , The short is directed by Kevin Tancharoen the director of last year’s Fame and features a cast that includes name actors like Michael Jai White (Jax), Jeri Ryan (Sonya Blade), Matt Mullins (Johnny Cage), Lateef Crowder (Baraka), Richard Dorton (Reptile) and Ian Anthony Dale (Scorpion) with fight choreography by Larnell Stovall.

What you might have already guessed is that this short also includes makeup effects designed and created by the team here at Tinsley Studio. In collaboration with Director Kevin Tancharoen and VFX Producer James McQuaide the Tinsley team produced all makeups and effects in just two weeks.

Jason Hamer and Hiroshi Yada helmed the project with help in the lab from Alison Oliver and Brian Sipe. Makeup application was executed by Hamer, Yada and Oliver with assistance from Mike Mekash and Christien Tinsley.

Please stay and watch the viral video titled Mortal Kombat Rebirth.

“It’s great to have been a part of something so creative and inspirational for both us and the fans”.

-Christien Tinsley-

Tinsley’s own Mike Mekash was recently nominated for the 2010 Primetime Emmy awards for Best Makeup in a single camera series (Glee – episode Theatricality). Congratulations go out to the entire Glee makeup department for their excellent work. Eryn Krueger Mekash, Department Head Makeup Artist; Kelley Mitchell, Key Makeup Artist; Trent Cotner, Additional Makeup Artist; Jennifer Greenberg, Additional Makeup Artist; Mike Mekash, Additional Makeup Artist

Recently, Tinsley Studio has been creating both prosthetic and tattoo effects for director Brad Furman’s (The Take) The Lincoln Lawyer. Currently, our own Mike Mekash is on set applying some of these creations. The cast of this movie includes the talents of Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Philippe, John Lequizamo and Marisa Tomei.

Christien and Robin have been hard at work putting together a behind the scenes look at the make up and make up effects created for the recently released Jonah Hex. This is the first of what we hope will be many “webisodes” of our work for all you make up fans. Be sure to become our fan (“like” us) on Facebook as the link will only be made available on our Facebook page.

The Fast and Furious 5, the fifth installment in the Fast and Furious franchise has begun filming in beautiful Puerto Rico. Production has now moved to Atlanta and will be filming there until mid to late November. Christien is currently on location applying make-up for Vin Diesel. This pair has had a longstanding friendship and working relationship that spans the past decade. This is the third of the Fast franchise films that Christien and Vin have worked on together.

Last May, Tinsley Studio began work on the Coen Brother’s remake of the classic film ‘True Grit”. This week, the first trailer for the film hit the web. (click on trailer to view)

In providing effects for this film we not only had the pleasure of working  with the Coen brothers for the third time but we were also reunited with extremely talented Josh Brolin (Jonah Hex, No Country for Old Men). In addition we had the opportunity to work with accomplished actor Barry Pepper for the first time. (Mr. Pepper then went on to play Bobby in the upcoming History channel series “The Kennedy’s” for which we provided Barry/Bobby’s character makeup prosthetics).

We feel very fortunate to have been a part of what will surely be an incredible film and are looking forward to its theatrical release this December.

The 57th National Film Awards, India’s equivalent to the American Academy Awards, were announced in September. Christien Tinsley and Dominie Till were awarded Best Makeup for their work on “Paa”. Amitabh Bachchan was honored as Best Actor while Arundati Nag was named Best Actress for her supporting role in the film. Tinsley and Till created and applied the makeup for Amitab Bachchan, turning the septuagenarian into a 12 year old boy with progeria. This is the second Best Makeup award they have received for this film.

Earlier this year Tinsley Studio Created the effects for “Faster” and today the red band trailer was released. The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino, Maggie Grace and relative newcomer Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Directed by George Tillman, Jr. and featuring the talents of Makeup Artists Jean Black and John Rolf Keppler, “Faster” looks like a face paced action ride chock full of revenge. The film opens in theaters in November.

It’s that time of year again and Makeup Artist Magazine has published it’s annual Oscar watch. The article entitled “Oscar Watch Part 1: Countdown to the Makeup Award” includes Tinsley’s own Jonah Hex. Although not a box office success it does have some memorable makeups and was probably one of the few films this decade that did NOT have any digital augmentation. Christien and the crew are very excited about being included in this article that features such amazing works as Alice in Wonderland, Predators, The Wolfman and Shutter Island. We are excited (and we hope you are too) to see which makeups garner the nominations this year. C’mon Jonah!!!

Our congratulations go out to all of the nominees in this years’ Best Makeup Category; Ed Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng for “They Way Back”, Adrien Morot for “Barney’s Version and Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for “The Wolfman”. We want to encourage every make-up artist out there to watch these three amazing pieces of work representing our craft. There were seven films in this year’s bake-off, all of which we also encourage you to watch. It was a diversified and well rounded group of contenders including Donald Mowat and Johnny Villanueva for “The Fighter”, Thomas Nellen for “True Grit”, Valli O’Reilly and Patty York for “Alice in Wonderland” and our own fearless leader, Christien Tinsley, for “Jonah Hex’.

The trailer for “The Lincoln Lawyer” hit the web last week. Tinsley Studio had the pleasure of creating tattoos and prosthetics for this film, which is slated for release on March 18th. Directed by Brad Furman, the film stars Matthew McConaughey, Josh Lucas, Ryan Philippe, John Leguizamo, Marisa Tomei and William H. Macy.

The Fast 5 trailer, released a few weeks ago, is stirring excitement amongst fans of the “Fast and Furious” franchise. The film, opening April 29th, stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson and is directed by Justin Lin. Head on over to the official Fast 5 website to view the trailer and find free downloadable content as well.

The crew here at Tinsley Studio are continuing to work on several new projects while wrapping up work on “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”. Though we cannot yet divulge the names and particulars, we can tell you that we are very excited about the make-ups that are being created. We have also had the opportunity to work once again with Dominie Till on yet another challenging and fun commercial project. Recently we re-teamed with Eryn Krueger Mekash on “Glee”‘s Thriller episode which aired after the Super Bowl. 2011 has already been a very busy and exciting year… we look forward to sharing it all with you!

Thanks to comicbookmovie.com, the world can now see one of our favorite actors, Mr. Josh Brolin, playing the young Kay in MIB 3. Agent Kay, first brought to life by the enigmatic Tommy Lee Jones, returns with a twist in the latest installment of the hit franchise. Our fearless leader, Christien Tinsley, is currently working in New York with Josh and we are thrilled to see their efforts are already showing up online.