Boy this was a fun shoot. And yes, my pants would be on fire if I told you that I took no inspiration from a certain Canadian wunderkind.
Shot was lit directly above and front by an SB-900 in a DIY turkey-pan beauty dish (or maybe this was one of the reflector umbrella shots..hmmm), and off camera left and behind by a bare SB-600. Opened in camera raw and added a slight boost to contrast. Changed to Lab color and gave a strong contrast curve to the Lightness channel, and dragged down the center of the a/b curves very slightly. Converted back to RGB, made a strong b/w version of the shot (optikverve's Hollywood filter), which I then set to multiply, at 27% opacity. Used a curve to darken his ear, lighten his neck. High pass-ed version of the shot, at 4px radius, set to Hard Light and 56% fill. One more curves layer to brighten up the image and the red channel a little. Resize, sharpen, save for web.
The blood was a mixture of corn syrup, red dye, and Nesquik cocoa powder. The cocoa powder made it way darker (and made it taste like brownie batter!), which made it come off great on film.
Not sure which brown ribbon this was - but you have certainly turned it into an excellent photo. Great exposure and skin tones (I like the grungy look).
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