Tattoos

Selasa, 01 September 2015

Mike and Harley Quinn at the NYC Poetry Festival

I met Mike in late July at the NYC Poetry Festival on Governor's Island. He shared this cool tattoo by Christine Nelson from No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo in Philadelphia:

"This is the character Harley Quinn," Mike explained. "She's the Joker's girlfriend ... my favorite comic book character," he added, "and it's every girl I shouldn't date."

Thanks to Mike for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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Senin, 31 Agustus 2015

Christina's Incredible Sideshow

A couple weeks ago, I was on the C train early in the morning, headed to Penn Station, when a woman got on with incredible tattoos.

We didn't have much time to talk, and it was rush hour, but I did pass her my card, inviting her to send me photos.

A few hours later, on Amtrak to Albany, my email pinged and I was delighted to receive an email from Christine, not only sending me pictures of the tattoo I had admired on the subway, but some work that I wouldn't have been able to appreciate in person.

First off, the tattoo on her lower leg:

This tattoo of a snake charmer was done earlier this year at Kings Avenue Tattoo on the Bowery in Manhattan. The artist was the visiting Xam the Spaniard (Instagram here), who is based out of London.

Christina's other work was also done at Kings Avenue by other amazing artists. Behold:

I'll let Christina explain:

"My most significant tattoo is probably the bearded lady from Sarah Carter (she actually went by Sarah Schor then, was living in the States at the time, and started at the Kings Ave shop just after it opened its second location on the Bowery).

I was extremely naive about tattooing (as most people generally are when they nervously walk into a shop for the first time). I think I sent a really long, meaningful letter to Kings Ave before going in. Pretty cutesy/embarrassing stuff. Anyway, the reason this tattoo is the most significant one I have is because Sarah's work made me fall in love with tattooing. I admired her as an artist so much (serious girl crush—pretty sure she thought I was insane because I couldn't even respond to her in complete sentences) (part of this, honestly, is more about the whole tattoo-on-the-ribs thing though) (and people say it all the time, but that shit is no joke).

Before seeing her portfolio and getting tattooed by her, I had no connection to tattooing. None of my friends were into it, and I think we all know how difficult it can be finding artists and just generally knowing what you're looking at if nobody is there to show you. After, I was hooked. Especially since humble yet grossly talented artists like Mike [Rubendall] and Grez also added to my first real experience in a shop and made it a positive one. Grez in particular has become one of my favorite people just generally ever. Collecting from different artists is important to me, but if every single one of my tattoos were done by him, I'd be totally fine with it.

Sarah's bearded lady was the first of many black and grey sideshow performers I have on my body. My entire right leg will be a cohesive piece in time, with different girl head performers from different artists. So far, it's Sarah, Grez, Xam, and Rose Hardy. In time, I'm hoping for Val Vargas, Chris Conn, Jack Rudy, and Tim Hendricks. We'll see how that all pans out."

Grez is responsible for the sword swallower and fire eater, which he tattooed in 2013.

Thanks to Christina for sending along her phenomenal sideshow tattoos!

Minggu, 23 Agustus 2015

Lana's Wedding Flowers

Last week I met Lana on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets and she shared this lovely half sleeve of her wedding flowers:

The mixture of English roses and peonies was tattooed by Kevin Cly at Stay True Tattoo in Mentor, Ohio.

Thanks to Lana for sharing her wedding flowers with us here on Tattoosday!

Jumat, 21 Agustus 2015

Adam from Cleveland Wears His City on His Sleeve

Last night I was at Yankee Stadium and saw the Cleveland Indians defeat the home team. Seems fitting that I post this tattoo that I spotted earlier in the week:

That tattoo is on Adam, who didn't mind sharing his Cleveland pride.

He got it inked at All Tattoos in Mentor, Ohio.

Thanks to Adam for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Kamis, 20 Agustus 2015

Two from Ana

Back in June, I met Ana down by Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. She shared two tattoos, starting with this one:

Ana is from Brazil, and her English wasn't great (although much better than my Spanish and Portuguese), so she didn't say much about this, other than "I just picked her [the design] because she's a blonde like me."

She credited this to Marcelo from Marcelo from Marcelo Tattoo in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

She also had this cute pig tattoo on her neck:

"I find it cute," she told me, explaining that she drew it and Marcelo tattooed it. The words "Para Você Guardei o Amor" are translated as "I kept my love for you."

Thanks to Ana for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Rabu, 19 Agustus 2015

Antoine and His Miyazaki-Inspired Tattoo

Yesterday we featured a tattoo on Paul-Emil, done by the artist Fusay at Addiction Tattoo in Strasbourg, France. Paul-Emil and his friends were visiting New York City and Antoine, another in the group, had work by Fusay as well:

Antoine explained this dotwork tattoo:

"This is a symbol ... from my favorite movie, and I just gave [Fusay] the symbol told him, 'you are free to do something you like with that and he came to me with that and I loved it ...[Fusay] is a specialist of dotwork."

The movie in question is Howl's Moving Castle, one of the masterworks of the Japanese animation director Hayao Myazaki.

Thanks to Antoine for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Selasa, 18 Agustus 2015

Paul-Emil and the French Panther

During the warmer months, when you can't throw a rock and not hit someone with a visible tattoo, I tend to get much more selective when finding people to interview. I'll hang out across from Federal Hall on Wall Street and wait for a cool tattoo to show up.

Generally, if I can't "read" a tattoo from a distance, I won't bother. But a few weeks back, I saw a guy with a tattoo on the back of his calf and, from a distance, I couldn't tell what it was. Up close, however, it was spectacular, and ultimately I am glad that curiosity got the better of me and I approached the group of French tourists.

Paul-Emil is the owner of this tattoo:

Paul-Emil credited this to an artist named Fusay at Addiction Tattoo in Strasbourg, France.

"The first time I saw the pic on the web," he told me, "I saw it was leopard ... some of my friends see a tiger, he [his friend Antoine] sees a panther."

We'll see Antoine's tattoo tomorrow.

Regardless of what one sees, it's a pretty cool tattoo.

Thanks to Paul-Emil for sharing his awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!