Dale's Legs (at the NYC Tattoo Convention)

Last month at the NYC Tattoo Convention, I met Dale, whose colorful calves jumped out across the room:

That Day of the Dead sugar skull is pretty darn spectacular. And the Day of the Dead art on the back of the left calf is equally awesome:

Dale said she loves olorful work and just happened to be in the company of her daughter, Mandy Fabrizi, the artist "who did most of [the work]." Mandy works out of Clockwork Tattoo in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

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

This entry is ©2015 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Some of Amanda's Ink at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade

I met Amanda at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade back in June. She shared a bunch of her tattoos, like these on her right arm:

A little more detail:

The peacock and the gypsy are really lovely.

Amanda also has this sugar skull:

And this super cat and fiddle on her left arm:

She credited all of the work shown here to her artist Eric Edward from Hudson River Tattoo in Hudson, New York.

Amanda's tattoos are art for art's sake. As for the cat and the fiddle, she told me, ""It was just a fantastic piece that was just pretty unique and then we just fine-tuned him and then just worked on integrating everything."

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

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Natalie's Sugar Skull

I was exiting a bank at the corner of Broadway and Beaver yesterday, when I bumped into Natalie, who was kind enough to share this black and gray sugar skull she designed:

Natalie drew up this design and had it inked by Leo at Torres Tattoos in Brooklyn (at their South Slope location).

Thanks to Natalie for sharing this cool sugar skull with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Kerry's Owl for Gavin (at the NYC Tattoo Convention)

Another one of my favorite tattoos spotted at last weekend's NYC Tattoo Convention was this owl on the thigh of Kerry:

Kerry explained that this owl is for her son, Gavin. It was done by her husband, Kris Geer, who works out of Victorian Ink in Oxford, Massachusetts.

I love how he merges the popular owl motif with the style of sugar skulls.

Thanks to Kerry and Kris for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Kimberly's Flowering Sugar Skull

It may be 9 degrees today in New York, but I'm thinking about last July, when I was basking in the warmth of the New York City Poetry Festival on Governor's Island.

And inkspotting, of course!

I met a woman named Kimberly, who shared this sugar skull:

Kimberly got this about six years ago at Addiction Ink in the East Village.

There's a lot of symbolism in this piece, and Kimberly elaborated for me:

"The flowers in the eye are for my grandmother, and then every flower around the edge is a favorite flower of a female member of my family. Left eye is a rose, right eye is a mum, pink one is prairie rose, gerber daisy , cherry blossom, daisy, and then roses [at the bottom]."

"What's the significance of the gold tooth?" I asked.

Kimberly laughed, "I really liked it - if I really want to mess with somebody, I say it's how many men I've killed!"

This is one of four tattoos that she has.

Thanks to Kimberly for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tattoosday Goes to L.A. - Vanessa's Sugar Skull by Joe Truck

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, even though I was in town for only a few days, I wanted to find some time to visit a tattoo shop. Of course, with L.A. being one of the "most tattooed cities in America," the challenge wasn't finding a shop, but deciding from among several to visit nearby. I was staying on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and there are a host of establishments in the Hermosa Beach/Redondo Beach/Gardena/San Pedro/Torrance.

Out of respect to shop owners and the artists, I didn't want to just drop in unannounced, so I reached out ahead of time to see if anyone would be open to coming in for a visit. Fortunately, I found one shop with a New York City connection, Ace of Hearts Tattoo in San Pedro. It's proprietor, Joe Truck, is from the Big Apple and he was open to me stopping by.

Last Monday afternoon, I stopped in the shop, only to discover that my timing was off. Joe wasn't in. The shop was impressive, however. It was well-lit, clean, and very spacious. And not only were the staff friendly,  they each shared some of their own ink with me for Tattoosday.

For example, the piercer, Vanessa, offered up this sugar skull on her forearm that was tattooed by Joe Truck:

Vanessa said that she got this from Joe after she started working at the shop. As I've said many times before on Tattoosday, sugar skulls are a lot like snowflakes, even though they're basically the same, there are never any two exactly alike, and it's always cool to see how many different ways they can be done.

In addition to Vanessa, I also spoke to two of the tattoo artists in the shop, but you'll have to wait for future posts to see what they had to share.

Thanks to Vanessa for sharing her sugar skull with us on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Brian Shares a Freddy Corbin Sugar Skull

As snow was falling on the Northeast Friday evening, I was gathered with friends at 5 Ninth in the Meatpacking District in Manhattan, celebrating our friend Nadyne's birthday.

It didn't take me long to notice that our bartender, Brian, had quite a few tattoos and it was only a matter of time before I drummed up a conversation.

Brian indicated that he has twenty-two tattoos, and when I told him about Tattoosday, he was happy to share.

He turned his arm to reveal this cool sugar skull on his outer left forearm:

Not only do I love sugar skulls (click the tag at the bottom of the post to see how many I've featured over the years), but this particular piece was tattooed on the west coast by the legendary Freddy Corbin at Temple Tattoo in Oakland. Freddy has been interviewed as an "Inked icon" here and has been featured on Vice's Tattoo Age series here.

Needless to say, I always feel fortunate to encounter a tattoo by one of the legends of tattooing.

A big thanks to Brian for sharing his awesome tattoo and to the good people at 5 Ninth for wonderful service as we celebrated Nadyne's birthday in the blizzard!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Emily's Sugar Skull Butterfly

At the end of July 2012, I bumped into Emily on the West 4th Street subway platform in Manhattan.

By her estimates, she has "about twenty" tattoos.

She offered up this stunning piece that wraps around her forearm:

Best to click on the image to see it in greater detail.

This hybrid sugar skull butterfly is a custom piece designed and tattooed by Brad Stevens at New York Adorned.

A piece by Brad appeared previously on Tattoosday here, back in August 2010.

Emily blogs over at Rougetheday.com.

Thanks to Emily for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.