Out with the Old, In with the New

Nothing new to share today, other than this link to Buzzfeed's "Top Tattoo Designs Of 2013 According To Pinterest"

via Buzzfeed via Flickr: whitneyarlene

A great way to start 2014!

"Awesome Minimalist" Harry Potter Tattoos (via Buzzfeed)

A few weeks back, my lovely wife sent me a link to another fabulous Buzzfeed list. The subject this time was Harry Potter tattoos.

via Buzzfeed

Check out the whole list here, along with a link to a Tumblr dedicated to Potter ink.

And here you will link to several Potter tattoos that have appeared previously 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.

The Intersection of Fine Art and Tattoo

A couple of days ago, The New York Times posted a special report under the heading of "the art of collecting." The article (here) was called "Tattooing Makes Transition From Cult to Fine Art."

After my obligatory eye-rolls (Cult? Really?), I perused the article and was pleasantly surprised.

I normally throw such things up in link lists, but I was intrigued by the fact that model Kate Moss was tattooed by the late artist Lucien Feud:

from Tattoosday UK via the Daily Mail

The discussion touched on the value of body art as a legitimate art form ("Fine" art, if you will) and Ms. Moss even joked about the value of these Freud tattoos if they were grafted off of her skin. A shocking idea, but certainly worth wondering about, hypothetically.

It's a great read and I was also pleased to see Duke Riley's name pop up, along with a photo of one of his tattoos:

from The New York Times, courtesy of Duke Riley

I am honored to say that we have featured work from Duke previously here and here.

Work on Daisy by Duke Riley

I always like to share stories in the media that features some of the talented artists whose work I've had the pleasure to come across in my travels.

If you like what you see, Duke's shop is East River Tattoo and, if he's busy, check out Sue Jeiven's work, as well.

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.

The Return of Saturday Links

It has been a while since we posted about the tattoo-related items we browsed on the web over the last week, so here's a few to whet your weekend appetite.

One of those not-so-often-discussed benefits for getting tattooed?

It's easier for the authorities to identify your body, like this John Doe whose ink helped the powers-that-be identify him. Full story here.

The Department of the Medical Examiner (Hawaii) released a photo of an eagle or phoenix tattoo found on the body of a man recovered from the ocean off Sand Island Thursday morning. (Courtesy Department of the Medical Examiner)

~ ~ ~

On the flip side, if you get a unicorn tattooed on your butt, you might still be regretting it thirty+ years later, as this writer recounts in the New York Times here. Thanks to Marisa at Needles and Sins for pointing that gem out to me. There's no photo, but if you're jonesing for one, it might look like this:

Or perhaps not, but you can see more like that one on Holy Taco's gallery of 30 Awesomely Bad Unicorn Tattoos.

Then again, Buzzfeed always rocks out with their awesome lists, like this one I saw late Friday: "47 Cringeworthy Tattoos Being Regretted As We Speak" here.

~ ~ ~

The big news this week in New York was Rapid Realty's promise to give significant raises to any employee who got their logo tattooed on them. 

via CBS

Read about the deal here (among others).

~ ~ ~

And my favorite link of the week came from those mammoth sources of all thing tattoo, Inked Magazine.

Among other goodies, they feature "The Best Tattoos in Movies Ever" in three parts. One of my favorites:

Gotta love those Blues Brothers!

That should whet your appetites for the weekend!

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.

We've Made Another List!

What can I say?

We were recently honored in a post over on Boar Skull, a site that sells plugs, body jewelry and organics.

We made their list of "Six Tattoo and Body Modification Blogs You Should be Reading".

I'm sure the six are not in any particular order, but we're #2 and, anytime Tattoosday is spoken in the same breath with the good people over at Needles & Sins, we're in damn fine company.

Hold on to your tattoo-loving hats, people. Spring is in the air, and the Tattooed Poets Project, Volume V, is a week away!

The February Links Go Marching On ...

Now some links for your weekend consumption:

Friend Brian Grosz appeared on Fox 411 on Tuesday (February 12) here. As a contributor writer for Needles and Sins, Brian chimed in on the subject at hand, "Are Reality TV and Pro Sports Helping Tattoos Go Mainstream?"

Sure enough, Colin Kaepernick makes another appearance.....

[Note: I meant to post that two weekends ago when I was in Los Angeles, but it never went live. Better late than never....].

People who follow UFC should know who Ronda Rousey is. Last weekend she made history by defending her title as the first UFC Women's Bantamweight champion (as reported here, among many places). Why do I even care? We here at Tattoosday are fans, ever since meeting Ronda in Penn Station and interviewing her about her Olympic-inspired ink (here) back in 2009. Congrats Ronda!

One of my friends from college alerted me to this interview of Baba Austin, at Vintage Tattoo Art Parlor. The interviewer is senior at my alma mater, Occidental College, which is in close proximity to the Highland Park neighborhood where the shop is located.

More Links for Your Weekend Consumption

This will be the third Saturday in a row that I've posted links of a tattoo-related nature. No one's complained yet, so we'll keep doing this until  we don't.

On Sunday, a few of us were watching a football game. The tattoo gag in one spot was one of the brighter moments of the advertising that broke out during the game:



Long live Goldblatt!

On Monday, I finally clicked on a Facebook link to a site called Angry Ink. I'd seen it a few times and figured, well, if everyone is sharing it, it must have some merit. Yeah, some. The post is called The Four Tattoos You Need to Stop Getting Right Now.

On Tuesday, I saw CBS New York's News list (here) of "NYC's 5 Best Tattoo Parlors".  This ran originally last month and, like all lists, is subject to scrutiny. The fab five are all shops whose work I have featured here over the years, and I've been inked personally in two of the five, but it seems odd that perennial favorites like NY Adorned and East Side Ink were left off of the list.

Also on Tuesday, I was happy to see my friend Brian Grosz' article on the Daily Dot: Your Instagram Needs Some Ink: 8 Tattooists You Should be Following.

On Friday, I saw a post about Colin Kaepernick's new tattoo (here).

That's all for the links this week, everyone have fun at the Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention this weekend!


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.

Saturday Links: Hello February!

I posted a bunch of links last Saturday and it seemed like the thing to do. So I started this last Sunday and added to it as the week progressed, giving you a snapshot of what interested me in the world of tattoos this past week, as we left January behind, and headed into February.

On Sunday, Artist Joe Capobianco updated us on a back piece he was working on here.

On Monday, "Shanghai" Kate Hellenbrand, one of the longest-tattooing female artists, alerted me to a Kickstarter campaign (here) to raise money for a documentary about her career called "From Voodoo to Vogue".

On Friday, I spotted this piece on xoJane about getting matching tattoos.

On Saturday (today), I looked back and said, "Really, only three things?" It's a little misleading, as I have a lot of cool stuff in the works, including a great contest next week for readers.Y'all come back now, ya' hear?

I Link, Therefore I Am

Modeling this after one of my favorite poetry blogs (Thank you, Ron Silliman), here's my attempt to share some links....

Photo by Michael Short/special to the Chronicle (via SF Gate)

Saturday morning, while standing in line for Brooklyn bagels that, as they say in Hawai'i, broke da mouth, I spotted an item ("Tatt-tle Tales") on the cover of the New York Post: Read about San Francisco '49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's tattoos.

Speaking of the 49ers, a Vallejo tattoo shop is offering 49er logo tattoos for, you guessed it, $49.

Yesterday, my lovely friends over at the Needles and Sins blog alerted me to the existence of a new online explosion of awesomeness called Tattoo Culture Magazine. I envision hours of time lost in these digital pages.

Ok, that's not a really impressive list of links, but the Tattoo Culture Magazine should keep you busy for a while.

Maybe I'll be back next Saturday with more links, maybe not.

Fun Tattoo Links for a Friday!

With my backlog nearly eliminated, and the bone-chilling temperatures of the northeast making exposed skin a rare and unusual sight, we here at Tattoosday are always looking for new ways to entertain our vast international audience of tattoo connoisseurs.

Earlier this week, my lovely wife Melanie sent me a couple of iVillage links that featured slideshows of tattoos. I'd be remiss if I didn't pass these goodies along.

First up is this slideshow of fifty-plus "tattoos for mom and dad". My favorite is below.

“I chose a drawing that my son had done of his cat, Peter Parker to go on top of the Braille when he was 3-years-old. I love it and it makes me very happy.”

-- Jessica of Dallas, Texas

The link is here.

Note that, as tattoos go, a significant amount of these would not meet Tattoosday's standard of "high quality" body art. The reality is, most Americans can't afford (or choose not to pay) high-end artist prices. A lot of these entries, reader-submitted, are evidence that people love their ink, often regardless of quality.

Which brings us to link #2, "What to Know Before Getting a Tattoo: 8 Awful Mistakes". That link is here. No slide show, but some practical advice.

If anyone wants advice, or has a question, feel free to e-mail me at Tattoosday@gmail.com. I will do my best to answer your inquiries.