Tattoos: birds

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Senin, 17 Agustus 2015

Lauren's Floral Tattoo, with a Bluebird

At the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in June, I met Lauren, who was parading with a squadron of Roller Derby women.

She let me take this photo of her cool tattoo and promised to email me with details.

Her Roller Derby name was "Laurena Bob-it" and she credited this to Kati Vaughn from Magic Cobra Tattoo Society in Brooklyn.

I don't have any further details, but maybe one day, Lauren will find my card and email me.

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.

Kamis, 06 Agustus 2015

Colorless Robins at the Mermaid Parade

I met Jodie at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in June and she shared this fascinating and beautiful tattoo:

Jodie credited thew tattoo to Brian Mullen at Art Freek Tattoo in Rhode Island, describing it as a collaborative design effort:

"The Secret Garden was my favorite book when I was a kid. And so they're robins, even though they're not colored. And I'm a little bit obsessed with Charlie Harper who was an illustrator from the 50's and 60's and Japanese bird and flower prints, so we kinda mashed bird and flower prints from the Floating World Era .... Hiroshige ...so we kinda mashed all that up and designed it together."

I totally love tattoos that take are unusual in design and appearance and, frankly, this one is exquisite and knocks it out of the park. The simplicity of the solid line work and the beauty of the design create a phenomenal tattoo.

Thanks to Jodie for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Kamis, 28 Mei 2015

Vulnerable, But Capable of Flight - Sara Henning's Dove (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Today we have another tattooed poet, Sara Henning, in our ongoing Tattooed Poet of the Week series. Sometimes tattoos are not always colorful and elaborate, yet they still still are full of powerful meaning and symbolism. This is Sara's tattoo:

She explains:

"I got this tattoo when I was 24 and on a visit home (to Athens, Georgia) while I was pursuing an M.F.A. in Poetry at George Mason University. I had wanted to get the tattoo for a long time, because the tattoo, a recreation of a dove in flight hovering around my kidney area, functioned as an effigy for the life I wish I could have been living. I was in a relationship at the time that had turned physically violent, and my partner had been arrested and banned from our apartment for acts of physical violence against me. I recall often going to school to work in the Writing Center or attending classes covered in bruises from where he would take out his aggression on me. I felt trapped, and I wanted this dove on my body because it depicts the animal's belly, breast, underside of its wing: all of the places most vulnerable and violable. Nonetheless, the creature is able to wing its way out of crisis. I felt that the dove represented to me the dichotomy of the abused woman: vulnerable but capable of flight. Whether she would fly or not was up to her. I'm proud to say I flew."

Sara sent us the following poem, which was previously published in Conte:

AUBADE WITH YOUR HANDS AROUND MY NECK

“Even though I have been out of psychiatric hospital for two years, I am still a missing person for the public who have heard of me. I am neither alive nor dead and, though I have not been buried, I am ‘bodiless.’”

--Louis Althusser, The Future Lasts Forever

My neck like

a shattered mare’s.

But not before

you’re St. Thomas

the Apostle, provoking

the dove-grey specter

of your grandfather’s

tobacco smoke.

My mane unfurling a loamy

intoxication as though

you’re scything barley.

But not before

you only trust what you

can hold

in your hands.

The fertile spikelets

urging you to hold harder.

The blue-black berries

divulging under

the honey-scented folds.

But not before

you learn that after

hours of sheaving,

even chestnut branches

are smooth

and plundered

as a sheared ewe.

My body falling forward,

creamy cluster of elder flower.

But not before

you learn to burn

the chaff you can’t

plough.

And when the empire moth

pauses to tongue

the languor, she is only

pleasuring herself

with an empurpled secret

that left raw,

would poison

most men.

~ ~ ~

Sara Henning is the author of A Sweeter Water (Lavender Ink, 2013), as well as two chapbooks, Garden Effigies (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) and To Speak of Dahlias (Finishing Line Press, 2012). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Quarterly West, Green Mountains Review, Crab Orchard Review, Greensboro Review, and RHINO, and anthologies such as Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (2013). She holds an M.F.A. from George Mason University, and she is currently a doctoral student in English and Creative Writing at the University of South Dakota, where she serves as Assistant Managing Editor for the South Dakota Review and on the Editorial Board at Sundress Publications.

Thanks to Sara for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here at Tattoosday on the Tattooed Poets Project!

If you are reading this on another web site 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.

Kamis, 30 April 2015

Amy Glynn's Wreath Wraps Up National Poetry Month (The Tattooed Poets Project)

I am proud and honored to end National Poetry Month 2015 with the amazing work of Amy Glynn.

When we first started discussing tattoos several years ago, Amy was un-inked, and gave me the impression that tattoos were not for her. Not only did she change her opinion, she went big and startlingly beautiful.

For a while, it was doubtful that Amy would contribute, because of the location of her tattoo, and the desire to showcase it only if it was photographed artistically. Finally, this year, the stars aligned, and Amy sent me some wonderful shots of her tattoo in all its glory. Enjoy:

Photo by Vincent Louis Carrella

And a different, closer perspective:

Photo by Vincent Louis Carrella

What makes Amy's ink even more remarkable is how it ties in with her work as a poet. I'll let Amy explain:

"The botanical images in the tattoo reference poems in [my] book 'A Modern Herbal' (Measure Press, 2013). The white-throated swifts reference a poem published in Poetry Northwest in 2009 which will appear in a subsequent publication.

The wreath of interwoven fruits and flowers echo the primary preoccupations of the book – morning glory and salvia divinorum are powerful entheogens; brugmansia is a hallucinogen with a tendency to induce the belief that you can fly. The wine grapes represent alchemy and nod to a lifelong fascination with Sufi imagery. Ginkgo biloba represents tenacity; opium poppies are of course common tropes for oblivion. The pomegranate represents mortality and fertility; the apple, cultivation and waywardness. Sunflowers are an expression of the Golden Mean and represent order and design. Walnuts stand for memory. The white-throated swift is believed to be the fastest animal on earth with air speeds of up to 200mph."

Karen Roze of Sacred Rose Tattoo in Berkeley, California is responsible for the botanical images. Her work appeared yesterday here on another poet. Danny Chong of Black and Blue in San Francisco did the birds.

Amy sent me several poems from the collection and asked me to choose. I selected two that I thought most wonderful:

Opium Poppy

Papaver somniferum

You would’ve loved this moonrise: creepy

orange-on-purple, swollen, cloud-

occluded. It’s October’s last

gasp, litanies of rattling stuff

and the dry rain of bloodied leaves

and air a grassfire’s ghost has haunted

all day. And all of it

echoes so, darling. Quit

hanging around. Yes, I said I wanted

you always with me. But love’s

cruelly shortsighted. No, enough:

bring on the narcolepsy: vast

figureless rivers, a cold, loud,

sedating rush. I’m just so sleepy.

Last season’s stands of double poppies

still stand here, though by now the lavish

silk petals are mere memory. Not

so fragile as they looked, I guess,

and somehow more themselves like this,

as if the blossoms always were

a smokescreen for

a darker, truer, more

essential form, the cynosure,

the censer, the ripe cicatrice

sleep wells from, black and bottomless.

Go. I’ll be all right when the thought

of you no longer wants to ravish

me with its endless, morphing copies.

~ ~ ~

Apple

Malus domestica

Where do desire and fulfilment meet?

It’s here. The place where one bite makes you need

the next. Sweet. Sweet: desire’s prototype;

sweet meaning perfect, meaning ideal. It’s

a feedback loop, look: lick the sugar from

my lip, see for yourself if it’s satiety

or lust for more. Or both, a branching, each

leaf-tip light-bathed and glaucous, reaching, and

at last at last we taste it, or at least

are so lost in the dream of it we never

detect the molecule of cyanide

at the center of the thing. This is forever.

Bitter unkillable seed. Eternal return

with a twist.

~ ~ ~

Amy Glynn’s poems and essays appear widely in journals and anthologies including The Best American Poetry. She has been a James Merrill House Fellow, a six time alum of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the inaugural recipient of Poetry Northwest’s Carolyn Kizer Award. Most recently her essay “Apples” (northeast quadrant of the tattoo) won Literal Latte’s 2014 Essay Award.

I always thank the poets who have contributed here but, in Amy's case, to do so in a single line doesn't sit well with me.

It has been a journey working with Amy on this submission and, even though I have never met her face-to-face, I feel that I have. We've had many conversations over the years and I am eternally grateful not only for the beauty of her submission (the tattoo and the poems), but for the whole process.

I offer up my profound gratitude to Amy Glynn for her amazing contribution and for her entrusting me with sharing her tattoo and words with all of my readers.

Senin, 06 April 2015

The Tattooed Poets Project: Brianna Pike

Our next tattooed poet is Brianna Pike, who sent this photo of her tattoo:

Brianna explained:

"I've wanted a tattoo for sometime, so last year for my 33rd birthday, I decided to take the plunge. I got my tattoo done at Metamorphosis [by artist Matt Carrel] in Indianapolis, which is where I currently live. The quote, 'Love is feathered like a bird,' is from an Elizabeth Bishop poem Three Valentines. Elizabeth Bishop is my touchstone poet. She's the first poet I read (as a student) who really resonated with me and she's the reason I wanted to be a poet. I return to her work again and again and I share her poetry with my creative writing classes every semester. The quote is also important to me because my family has always been fascinated by song birds. I have countless memories of listening to my grandmother talk about the birds that came to her feeders, of my mother going out in three feet of snow to feed the birds in the dead of winter, and of my uncle making birdhouses out of birch bark. There are five birds: one for my husband, one for my sister, one for my parents, one for my grandparents and one for my aunt. I plan to add another small bird when my son is born in June."

Brianna sent us this poem, which first appeared in New Plans Review, Fall 2013:

Starling

For Roger and Beth Young

This morning I shot a starling straight from the sky.

The shiny, black bastard drove the sparrows and wrens

from your carefully kept feeders, then strutted

about the branches of our old apple tree.

You do not approve, Beth. Your gentle soul gives grace

to all creatures, even your sisters who just arrived.

You are pouring tea as I walk around the front of our house,

shotgun resting over my right shoulder.

Three sisters swoop down on your small

frame, pulling at your arms, pressing against your back.

Their cackling disrupts our quiet home, dark

eyes move over our stone floors,

pine paneled walls, and the small, cast iron stove

smoking away in the corner. You look away,

your eyes light, but your mouth a thin, rigid

line slicing your face in two.

As the youngest you bear their burden, the blame

for lost children and broken husbands. With each passing

summer they move farther from you,

carrying their judgment in packed bags,

buried beneath silk stockings and picture frames.

Their misery will grow like your carefully tended

lilies, and you, my love, will suffer.

But for now, you will serve sweet tea and yellow

cake. You will forgive, slip me a quick smile as

all four of you come round back, talking peonies,

and oriental poppies, just in time to watch me

string the starling up high, a warning

to his flock. As I descend from our tree,

three sets of eyes meet mine, uncertain

in the harsh summer sun. They move to bird’s

broken black body, swaying.

My warning is also clear.

~ ~ ~

Brianna Pike is an Associate Professor of English at Ivy Tech Community College. She received her MA from the University of North Texas and her MFA from Murray State University. Her poems have appeared in Glassworks, Gravel, Heron Tree, and Mojave River Review among others. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband. She blogs at https://briannajaepike.wordpress.com/.

Thanks to Brianna for her contribution to this year's Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

Kamis, 24 April 2014

The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Stutzman

Our next tattooed poet is Michael Stutzman, who shares this colorful piece:

Michael gives us the background of this piece:

"This tattoo by Luis Martins at Lovecraft (Hamden, CT) is inspired by a Pennsylvania Dutch hex motif. Distelfinks ("thistle-finches") and the tulips are talismans for luck, but it’s also in tribute to my paternal grandparents, who had deep Penn-Dutch roots. I go back and forth on if the birds directly represent them or if it’s a more nebulous image.

Luis took the original image and had an idea to translate it into a Norwegian rosemaling style, which turned out nicely. Different people have seen aspects of their own heritage’s folk art in the piece, and I think the clean lines and the limited palette contribute to that perception. I find it hard to write with formal restraints while still connecting the reader to larger ideas, so I have tremendous respect for Luis’ process and craft doing it in ink."

Michael offered up this poem:

Bridge

After the sherry is poured
and the little women tuck
the roast into its Tupperware,
nothing polite stays behind

to be said. The pretty words
all grab their furs from the bed
and swerve onto the freeway.
You’re left with ethnic jokes, the news

and its body bags, a simmering want
to kiss the wrong person once,
sudden, roughly. Nothing but mistakes
waiting to choke you like slices

of canned pear shuddering
in the silent, red Jell-O. But a deck
of cards, pulled from some secret
apron pocket: There’s the girl you married

too soon, building a span of tricks,
bids, contracts. Safe passage
for good people over the depths ahead.

~ ~ ~

Mike Stutzman is a writer and teacher from southern Connecticut. He currently teaches healthcare computing for physicians and operative staff. His most recent works are short prose pieces for Proto and Altered Scale. His poetry has appeared in The Chattahoochee Review, Tablet, The Northville Review, and as a month-long daily feature in The Miami Herald as a project of the O, Miami festival, under the pseudonym “Herald Bloom.” Mike posts occasional poetry at http://bittering.blogspot.com (including a poem each day in April.)

Thanks to Mike for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

Senin, 21 April 2014

The Tattooed Poets Project: Senia Hardwick

Our next tattooed poet is Senia Hardwick:

Senia explained that her "tattoo relates to a lot of similar themes and feelings to that of my work, though in and of itself it is not literary." She adds, "I tend to write poetry that explores the transmutation of feelings and experience into landscapes and vice versa."

She elaborated more:

"I got this done at [Dare] Devil Tattoo in SoHo. I had been wanting to get a tattoo of a raven for a while, and volunteered at a book store around the corner. I saw a handcrafted notebook we were selling with a depiction or a raven on it and I had an intrinsic sense that today would be the day I got my tattoo. I texted my girlfriend at the time and told her to meet me when my shift ended. I looked through a few pages of raven pictures and picked one whose shape spoke to me. I wanted it to be a bit more stylized but mostly realistic. The most important detail to me though was the eye, a spiral.

I chose the raven as a symbol of intelligence and wisdom. Ravens as creatures are smart enough to open velcro and buttons, mimic speech, and play pranks on each other. Metaphysically, ravens are thought to be omens, messengers, and purveyors of hard truths. They are a symbol of Odin, who hung from Yggdrasil and gained knowledge of the runes and enlightenment in exchange. The spiral within its eye is both an infinite void and a sign of its magical acumen."

Senia sent us the following poem, as well:

No Life King

In the land of princes I was the no life king.
In the land of shadows I was the tangled tree roots.
In the land of churches I was the raven

perched atop steeples that cried into the night.
I was there and the darkness eddied around me.
In the land of stars I was a burned out candle.

I'm sorry that the riddles have empty answers.
I could reach through the earth and feel every heartbeat.
When I exhaled, fog rolled forth. The winds cut through me

like no sword ever could. In the land of drowning
I was a swamp. The darkness eddied around me.
When I screamed trees shot from the ground. Past the hills

men watched from iron houses as I laid waste to their lands.
When I ate their horses none of them found the strength to cry.
I'm sorry the gristle ran down my face. I'm sorry the birds

never let you get close. In the land of desire I was a pear tree.
When I laughed moths turned from the moon. The sea
was hungry and it was the only option.

When I was young, life was as short as my excuses.
I'm sorry everything turns back to dirt.
I'm sorry there's more meat than reasons.

I'm sorry the dead only talk in a whisper. I'm sorry their secrets all end the same way.
I knew the graveyard was no place for oak trees. Wherever I land
everyone cries. I'm sorry apologies are never enough.

~ ~ ~

Senia Hardwick is a young poet living out of the NY metro area. They have been previously
published in Collective Fallout (Volume 5 No 1) which is available for free online at
http://collectivefallout.net/.

Thanks to Senia for sharing the poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Leigh Ann Hornfeldt

Our next tattooed poet is Leigh Ann Hornfeldt, who sent us two tattoos. First, this Northern mockingbird:

Leigh Ann explains:

"I chose this tattoo as I was writing my first collection of poems, East Main Aviary. During this time I became very interested in birding. I can remember the first mockingbird I ever saw: He was walking the rail of our wooden deck during a light rain. From that point on it seemed like mockingbirds were everywhere for me, with one even following me around the inside of a home improvement store. I believe in animal guides and mockingbirds remind me of the power of my voice, to protect my nest, and to always be brave. This tattoo was done by a dear friend, Kevin Hamilton of Bleed Blue Tattoo [in Lexington, Kentucky]."

Her second tattoo was part of the Lexington Tattoo Project, which was referenced in yesterday's post from Bianca Spriggs.

Leigh Ann elaborates:

"This tattoo was part of The Lexington Tattoo Project by Kremena Todorova & Kurt Gohde. A local poet (Bianca Spriggs) wrote a poem for Lexington and over 253 residents of the city had a word or phrase from the tattoo inked on their body. I was lucky to choose the phrase 'they'd have enough' which came at a time when my husband and I were simplifying our lives through purging possessions and focusing on more time with each other and our children. For me this phrase says it all: if we have one another, we have enough. This tattoo was done by Charmed Life Tattoo."

Leigh Ann sent us this poem, as well, which was first published in Spry Literary Journal:

Strays

i.

Let’s call him something she said
bent over the veranda, breeze
lifting the silk baby-doll
nightgown above her ass.
He sees all he wants now and then.
The steel in her jawline, the fractured
lily nestled under her panties.
We’ll just call him something, anything really —
you can’t name a thing you’re gonna leave
she said and he agreed and the palm trees
nodded their heads and that night they made love
on rough cotton sheets while the cat tightroped
the deck’s banister and the ocean worried
at the door’s wooden slats. Morning she let him
in again. Took the little loaf of his body
to her chest and breathed in that smell,
that island smell she could never name
even though she knew all the right words.

ii.

This one’s paws craved necks,
    warmth of jugular, vulnerable pulse.
This one came and went as she pleased,
    afternoons bawled till she bloomed herself
inside out. How could anyone say no to this one?
    A tortie, a mink coiled around anonymous shoulders,
a needy biscuit-kneader, claws searching for a warm tit.

iii.

Oh, she loved him.
She loved him, his face
gouged like the bottom
of a cast iron skillet. She loved
him. Pigeon-toed slink, low bee-hive
growl. She loved him. Litters
of crying kittens all over
the neighborhood. Vagabond.
No good drifter. She
loved him. Half-an ear missing
kind of love. Born out of pity.
I won’t leave you
no matter what you do
desperate kind that keeps
a woman in dark glasses
even at night, the kind
that makes a woman go
weak, weaker, weaker, gone.

iv.

Swore she wouldn’t keep him.
Each night tip-toed cold
stone to driveway’s edge,
packaged pink salmon in hand
Here, kitty, kitty
His soupy mew
from the storm drain,
her hands wringing themselves
dry, the sky’s pursed lips
and the dogs whining, always
whining through the window cracks,
eyes rolling in their thick, meaty skulls.

~ ~ ~

Leigh Anne Hornfeldt, a Kentucky native, is the author of East Main Aviary (Flutter Press, 2012) & The Intimacy Archive (ELJ Publications, 2013) and the editor at Two of Cups Press. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, as well as the recipient of a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. In 2013 her poem “Laika” placed 2nd in the Argos Prize competition (Dorianne Laux, judge) and in 2012 she received the Kudzu Prize in Poetry. Her work has appeared in journals such as Spry, Lunch Ticket, Foundling Review, and The Journal of Kentucky Studies.

Thanks to Leigh Ann for contributing her poem and tattoos to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

Jumat, 18 April 2014

The Tattooed Poet's Project: Alice Ladrick

Our next tattooed poet is Alice Ladrick:

Alice tells us:

"I got this little guy done at No Ka Oi in Philly. It was something I'd be thinking about for awhile but the actual plan was hatched just a little before I went out there. I got the crow (his name is Corbin) because crows had kinda been following me around for awhile and became a symbol of comfort for me, plus I like the multiplicity of meanings crows carry in various mythologies."

Alice also sent along a poem from a series called "ISOTOPE":

from ISOTOPE

Everybody’s moving in with their boyfriend and I

decided to get a tattoo: “ME”

all caps on my ring finger,

call my artist my jeweler

when I go in for touchups. Get it

sized up (cuz I’ll gain weight). I’m watching

my figure. The way I figure it

I’ll be that sprinter-poet. Shit.

Spinster poet. Write it all at once

like once is a place you’ve been and can

go back to it.

My boyfriend dumped me on

my birthday. I’m not bitter

but I am a liar.

Never going back there

(lie) where boys are

appealing. Fights with myself

always end in sex.

~ ~ ~

Alice Ladrick writes poems about lots of things. She also likes making books and isn't here to make friends (only she could probably use some). Alice tried having a website one time but never updated it so...

Thanks to Alice for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Kamis, 03 April 2014

The Tattooed Poets Project: Justin Bigos and His Grackle

Today's tattooed poet is Justin Bigos, who sent us this image of a huge bird on his arm:

Justin explains:

"I wanted a big grackle on my arm. I had just survived my first year of doctoral studies in English at the University of North Texas, and my first year living in a state I found brutally hot and (sorry, Texans) pretty ugly. In north Texas, grackles are everywhere, and like pigeons in NYC (and I guess all major cities), the grackle doesn't get much love from humans. I chose this photo (which I found online) because it's beautiful, and it shows the splendor of the grackle when caught in certain light, at certain angles. I also like that the bird seems to be conspiratorial, confessing something to itself. I got the tattoo at Denton Tattoo Company. Josh Hurst rendered and tattooed the grackle beautifully. Josh now owns his own parlor, Victory Tattoos."

Justin also shared the title poem to his chapbook:

TWENTY THOUSAND PIGEONS

In my dream last night, back again on the corner
of Avenue J and 14th, a rabbinical student stops me

to ask if I’m Jewish. I show him the framed photo
I carry: a family of nine. Pale faces, strong noses; black hair

parted or pulled back; the children dressed like the parents.
He says, They, are they Jewish? I don’t know, I say.

In my dream last night, Hungaria. The baker of small rolls
says, Can I help you? He means, Are you Jewish?

A loaf of rye, I say. He looks behind him, racks and racks
of loaves, buns, bagels, twists. We have something that is not rye?

he says. And, Why are you saying Hungaria,
Mr. America? I take the steamship to Prague

and all the statues salute me. The young women blow out
kisses like candles, their hair wheat against the scythes

of their cheekbones. No one will let me finish saying,
Will you marry me, or Please, only a sip of your blackberry brandy.

In my dream the twenty thousand pigeons killed in the war
rise thunderous as waterfalls. And so I walk the suspension bridge

from Austria to Niagara and my father and his father
and the crowd of fathers behind them

greet me with a simple pair of shoes, a jar of herring in dill,
a Cherokee headdress, one black potato, a wine glass

to crush under which foot they will not say.

~ ~ ~

Justin Bigos is the author of the poetry chapbook Twenty Thousand Pigeons (iO Books, 2014). His poems have appeared in magazines such as New England Review, Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, The Collagist, and Crazyhorse. His fiction is forthcoming in McSweeney's issue 47. He co-edits the literary magazine Waxwing and teaches creative writing at Northern Arizona University.

Thanks to Justin for sharing his grackle with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

Rabu, 26 Februari 2014

Sean Shares Two Circular Tattoos

As we patiently wait for this forsaken winter to end and for the city's tattoos to come out of hiding, my new friend Sean and I were talking about the site recently and he offered up his two tattoos for us here on the site.

First up is this piece on his upper left arm:

The tattoo reads "Blackbird singing in the dead of night...take these sunken eyes and learn to see... all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free ...". This is, for those who don't know, a fragment of lyrics from The Beatles classic "Blackbird."

Sean explains how he came by this, his first tattoo:

"I had my Blackbird tattoo done in honor of my dad whom like myself, loved The Beatles. At the risk of sounding like a weirdo, it started from a dream I had that included the lyrics, 'All you need is love' in the shape of a peace sign. When I woke up, I tried sketching what I dreamt about (I still have the sketch that I drew with my finger on my phone), but it came out looking like shit. However, I was inspired to get a tattoo if I could perfect the design. After playing around with some of the lyrics to Instant Karma! (not the Beatles, but still Lennon!), Blackbird and All You Need Is Love, I settled on Blackbird, since that was supposedly one of my dad's favorites. Anyway, I literally spent months working on the design with my best friend, Darryll Brandwine who is great with graphic art, as he owns his own architecture firm in Las Vegas (D3 Design Studios). During this time, I stumbled upon a 'John Lennon' font which we were able to use in Photoshop. I liked this touch a lot because I felt it gave the tattoo a more 'authentic' feel. After a few different revisions, I brought it into Will [Sheldon at Saved Tattoo in Williamsburg]. Soon after he applied the template to my shoulder, I went out to my wife, Madeline to see how she liked it. Her eyes said it all, which meant a lot since while she was supportive of my decision, she was not really a big tattoo fan. I went back in, Will finished it up and I was very happy with my decision to get my first tattoo."

Sean also has this piece, which I think is really cool, on his inner right wrist:

I'll let Sean describe this Ensō, or Zen circle, tattoo, as well:

"Religion was never something that I felt very comfortable with. However, as I got older, I began to see the value of having one. Coincidentally, over the past few years, a friend of mine has been urging me to try meditation as well as learn about some of the Buddhist teachings. I took to it almost immediately, as it didn't seem as 'restrictive' and 'invasive' as the religions I had come to know. I still joke around with people and tell them that you're not going to see me walking around in a red robe and a shaved head, but Buddhism has taught me a lot and I continue to read books and watch videos on it. Somewhere along the way, I came across the 'Zen Circle' and it seemed like it would make for a simple, nice-looking tattoo. Naturally, people always ask what does it mean and why did I get it. They have no idea what it is or even if it's complete. Like most people who have tattoos, I got it because I like what it represents (strength and enlightenment, for starters) and it IS done...haha. Anyway, Bella [Kozyreva] from Brooklyn Made [in Bay Ridge] did this one and while I envisioned it being smaller on my wrist, I really like how it came out."

Thanks to Sean for sharing his circular tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! Will we see more from him? Sean's final words on the subject were, "I'd say I am done with tattoos, but I said that after my first one too."

I'd add, every tattoo is your last tattoo, until you get the next one!

Selasa, 28 Januari 2014

Two Birds for Tuesday, Celebrating Ten Years in New York City

Back in September, I met Daniel on Broad Street in downtown Manhattan. It was his New York City pigeon that first grabbed my eye:

Daniel explained, “It’s my ten-years-in-New York Tattoo. It’s my New York bird."

Representing his country of birth, he added, "I have a Mexican bird on the other side:”

That is the quetzal.

Every once in a while, I am fortunate enough to stumble on the work of simply amazing artists. Both of these phenomenal tattoos were done by the talented Regino Gonzales from Invisible NYC. Work from Regino has appeared previously on Tattoosday here, here, here, and here.

Thanks to Daniel for sharing his two awesome bird tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Minggu, 05 Januari 2014

Familiar Ink: Meister Returns to Tattoosday with an Awesome NYC Tattoo

There's something therapeutic about running posts of work I spotted over the summer. The warmth from these encounters is brightening these winter days.

Case in point, on a bike ride out to Coney Island, I was cruising along the boardwalk when I spotted a woman on a bench, reading a book. She had tattoos so, naturally, I stopped.

It was after I introduced myself that she recognized me, and I saw the sparrows on the backs of her calves. This was Meister, who had contributed back in January 2012 here.

Meister blogs at The Nervous Cook and is a food writer and coffee columnist. Now, she is a repeat subject on Tattoosday. I first met her in December 2011 on 23rd Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan. Here we were, 19 months later, in another borough and another season.

What would have been impossible to see in the winter, was now visible in the summer, and Meister rolled up her shorts and shared this awesome tattoo on her thigh:

This is, if you look at it closely, an aerial view of world-famous Central Park. Meister explained:

"It's a map of Central Park, with some birds, and a little squirrely-o ... I love Central Park, it's my favorite part of New York City and I wanted to honor it ...it's my home. And on the other [thigh] I plan to get a lake in my husband's home town, which is Oklahoma City, to finish it off, my last piece, but I've been hesitating because it will be my last piece of work..."

In addition to the red-tailed hawk and the New York City pigeon, there's a peacock because, as Meister explained, "I was running past the park the day that the peacock escaped" from the Central Park Zoo. You can re-visit that newsworthy event here.

Like her previous work featured here, Meister had this done by Myles Karr. If you're going to stick with one artist, Myles is among the best to choose from. He's currently with the amazing shop Three Kings Tattoo, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Myles and the good people at Three Kings have had work featured on Tattoosday many times before. Click here to see everything from Myles on Tattoosday and here to see all the work from Three Kings we've showcased.

Sabtu, 03 Agustus 2013

Krystal Shares a Tattoo That Speaks of Life and Death

I met Krystal at the end of June while passing by Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. I spotted a tattoo on her upper left arm and had to stop and ask about it:

Krystal credited this work to a friend of hers that tattoos freelance under the moniker Shane White Trash.

The design on top with the bird, the rose, and the girl crying blood, is based on Shane's artwork, which she really liked. Krystal added the quote, because she felt it went with the design. It reads:

life asked death,
"WHY DO PEOPLE LOVE ME,
BUT HATE YOU?"
death responded,
"BECAUSE YOU ARE A
BEAUTIFUL LIE
AND I AM A
PAINFUL TRUTH".

Krystal found the quote online, and it appears to be unattributed, one of those sayings with an unknown origin that resonates so profoundly with people.

Thanks to Krystal for sharing this, one of her eleven tattoos, with us here on Tattoosday!