Tattoos

Senin, 09 Juni 2014

Christian, Jonah and the Fish

I was at my favorite local watering hole, Lock Yard, last Wednesday night, and I approached a table of three heavily-tattooed gentlemen. One of them, Christian, generously offered up this really cool piece on his arm:

Christian explained the tattoo:

“It’s a character from The Bible. His name’s Jonah. He gets swallowed by a big fish. I really like the idea, in the New Testament, in the Gospels, Jesus says, ‘You guys want signs and wonders and miracles, but the only thing you’re going to get is the sign of Jonah….I’ll be in the ground for three days, just like he was in the fish for three days, and I’ll come out again. It’s kind of a resurrection idea. I like the idea of resurrection and that’s kind of what it means to me when I look at it. And from a human level, I like the fact that God would use Jonah to save a town and then Jonah would sulk about it, be a butthole about it, kinda see a parallel there with just how we are and how God uses people."

He credited the work to one of Tattoosday's favorite artist's Nick Caruso, from Bound for Glory Tattoo in Staten Island.

Christian added, "This is a piece of Coptic church art that I had Nick trace and embellish…so originally it was a painting and I said, you know, make the fish a little scarier."

We joked about how it was not like the big whale in Disney's Pinocchio, which is how I always envisioned the fish that swallowed Jonah when I first heard the story as a child.

Thanks to Christian for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on 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.

Minggu, 08 Juni 2014

Ashley Shares Some Dogwood and a Sailor Jerry Classic

Last week I met Ashley down on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan. She has a lot of ink and was kind enough to share some with us.

First up is some dogwood on her inner arm:

The dogwood actually runs to the other side of her arm, as well:

Ashley explained that "Mame and Ah-Ben" were the names she called her grandparents.

She also shared this traditional Sailor Jerry flash piece:

Thursday will mark the 41st anniversary of the passing of Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins.

The dogwood tattoo and the Sailor Jerry piece was done by "Bad News" Becca Roach, from North Star Tattoo in NYC. I've had the pleasure of seeing Becca work at the NYC Tattoo Convention, so I'm familiar with her work.

Ashley said, "It would probably be funnier if you ask her [Becca] about me," adding, "I'm her worst patient." So I did ask Becca about Ashley and she didn't disappoint with this reply:

"She's a pretty unique lady. Always funny and fun to tattoo. But the only one who's ever gotten up in the middle of it and left. We had to send her girlfriend out to find her. She was hiding at the bar around the corner. Left, said nothing to anyone, and didn't come back."

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

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

Jumat, 06 Juni 2014

Emily's Sleeve Seen Downtown

For many years, when I worked near Penn Station, I found that massive train nexus to be a great place to meet people with tattoos. Now that I employed near Wall Street, I'm beginning to feel that the area around Federal Hall is my new reliable spot to find Tattoosday subjects.

For example, earlier this week, I met Emily, who shared a couple sections of her right arm, including the top:

This image of Buddha, surrounded by snakes, is punctuated near the lower half of the arm with some color:

The flower is a lotus, which is commonly found along with Buddha imagery.

The sleeve is a lovely contrast of black and grey, with pops of color.

Emily credited this work to an artist in London named Nikole Lowe, owner of Good Times Tattoo.

When I asked her about the work, Emily said that there was no "big deep meaning" her tattoo. "I just love the image ... and the color," she told me, adding, "I think it's a beautiful piece of artwork"

Certainly no argument from me on that one!

Thanks to Emily for sharing her lovely tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Kamis, 05 Juni 2014

The Tattooed Poets Project: Meg Freitag

Our next Tattooed Poet o' the Week is Meg Freitag.

She sent us two tattoos, starting with this colorful scene:

Meg elaborates:

"This first tattoo, on my left arm, is of two red foxes and two bluejays all enjoying themselves together in the forest. I wouldn't say that there's much 'meaning' to it, other than I'm pretty crazy about animals, and interested quasi-philosophically in predator/prey relationships, the necessary violence of it. It is something I think about a lot, and definitely emerges as a theme in my writing. I like the idea of forcing these two animals who are at opposite ends of the food chain to exist together in this way, in a funny sort of freeze-frame harmony. And foxes and jays are two of my favorites--they are both so extraordinarily clever! I admire their trickster natures, their no-nonsenseness, their savvy. I also think they are very aesthetically beautiful, which was ultimately a large part of why I chose them for this purpose. This tattoo was done by Tina Star at Resurrection Tattoo in Austin, Texas."

She also sent us this piece:

Meg tells us:

"The second tattoo is on my left ribs, and is a simple outline of an envelope. My two close friends and I got these matching tattoos the month before I moved to Austin for grad school. We each got a different size envelope--in addition to be a symbol of connectedness, it's also sort of a vague take on the matryoshka doll. Mine is the largest of the three, for no other reason than my friends both already have quite a bit of body art and I had more space. These ones were done by Sean Perkinson at FTW Tattoo Parlor in Oakland, California."

She also sent us this poem, which was first published in the summer 2014 issue of Tin House:

What Small Death Shines Up from the Dirt

Edith, I think I’ve been trying to replace you.

Lately I’ve lit fires in my own mouth

That can only be put out with another mouth. He and I,

We found a baby rattlesnake injured

In the middle of the road. Half its body stuck

To the blacktop, the other half looping around

And around its own busted part like a busy

Signal. He said, The babies are the most dangerous.

They haven’t learned to restrict their own venom

And so they pump it all in at once.

Everyone knows that, I said. But still he had to stop me

From wrapping the leftover part of the snake up

In my T-shirt and carrying it home.

I thought that if I saved it, it would be so grateful

It wouldn’t try to hurt me. Edith, I’m afraid I can love myself only

If someone else loves me first. One time I let him have me

Against the sink in a TJ Maxx bathroom

And we didn’t even leave our merchandise outside.

One time I was so afraid of sharks I had a panic attack

In a paddleboat while my cousin yelled at me, over and over,

We’re in a goddamn lake! One time I dreamed I saw

A hundred of my own heads on wooden stakes, but they were tiny,

Like a tray of hors d’oeuvres. One time I had a dream that the dog ate you

And choked on your beak and also died.

One time I thought I loved someone

I hardly knew at all. Long ago, I saw a hawk in a tree,

Disemboweling a baby prairie dog. I was with a child and instinctively

I put my hand over his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see.

But the guts, Edith, I couldn’t take my own eyes off them.

How they shone in the dirt, like wet rubies, or like something

You didn’t know you were even looking for,

In the moment when you finally find it.

~ ~ ~

Meg Freitag was born in Brunswick, Maine, and now lives in Austin, Texas, where she's an MFA candidate at UT's Michener Center for Writers. Her work has appeared in Tin House, Narrative, and Smoking Glue Gun.

Thanks to Meg for sharing her tattoos and poem with us here on Tattoosday's 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.

Selasa, 03 Juni 2014

Krispy's Collection

Last week I ran into a guy named Krispy sitting on a bench across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.

A approached him because a lot of cool ink, and I was hoping he'd be open to talking with me. Fortunately, he was kind enough to share several pieces for Tattoosday, and he expounded on his collection.

"I look at my body as kind of an open canvas to collect art," he told me, adding "I look at tattoos as sort of like how some people look at art collections in their house, except this is kind of something I can wear on me all the time."

Krispy is co-founder/co-owner of Anonymous Mad Villainy, a clothing company based out of Philadelphia. He is an artist himself, and expounded at great length about the tattoo as art:

"I like to use tattoos as a way to connect to other artists and give them an opportunity to be creative with their work ‘cause I don’t really put a lot of restrictions on what I am getting from an artist. I usually just tell them that I like their style and give them a general idea and just let them do what they’re gonna do. I’m from Philly originally and I have a friend, Brian, that’s done about four or five of them…I have work from five different artists on me right now…. A lot of the work is just aesthetic appreciation, appreciation for well-developed art."

The tattoo above he credited to a friend of his named Dan Mugrauer, who originally tattooed one of his friends and, as he explained, "I really liked his work so I went and talked to him about getting some and he and I developed a really good relationship with each other."

When I asked what his favorite piece by Dan was he said the one above or, more likely this beetle on his ankle:

Krispy elaborated:

"I like this one particularly because it was one of the most painful pieces I’ve gotten. Going through getting that done, even though it’s really small, was a lot to handle [Ed. Note: I love how he called this ‘really small’!]. That one spent probably the smaller amount of time and is the most painful and …. I originally got it lined and waited about six months to get it colored and when it was done it looked exactly like I imagined it would. [It's] just like a scarab beetle, I’m really interested in the symmetry of different flies and moths and beetles. I plan on finishing this leg sleeve as just a bunch of different beetles and bugs then filling the negative space with some patterned wood.

This one I think I like a lot because I made a pretty long trip for it. I lived in New York since September and at the end of October I went up to the Boston Tattoo Convention to help my friend work at the convention. So he gave me this when I was there and it was one of the longest pieces I have sat for…this one was about seven hours, so I sat, like for the whole day."

Finally Krispy shared this piece on the back of his calf:

He explained:

"This one is from Justin Harris, he’s a tattoo artist out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was in Philly for a guest spot when I happened to be on break for a week so I managed to catch him at the right time and so I have the King on my one calf and the queen on my other one. I was trying to think of who I wanted to do the queen. I had my friend Dan do the king one and I like Justin's work a lot and I thought that his work with women’s faces and demonic women was really good so I thought he’d be the right person to talk to it about."

Thanks to Krispy for sharing some of his art collection with us here on Tattoosday! Be sure to check out the Anonymous Mad Villainy site here to check out their clothing line!

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.

Senin, 02 Juni 2014

Christin's Exorcism

I was standing in front of Federal Hall, at the corner of Wall Street and Broad, when I noticed two women sitting nearby. One of them had an epic tattoo on her left thigh, so I introduced myself.

The woman’s name was Christin and she was visiting from Germany. Her friend, whose name I never
caught, was very helpful as an interpreter.

Check out the tattoo:

Christin explained that this is a passage, in Latin, from the Bible. More specifically, it refers to a section concerning exorcism, how, in her words, "the blood will drive out the evil and how everything will end up good.”

You can make out the word "Exorcism" behind the written text. The scratches and blood smears are part of the tattoo design.

The artist responsible is Emrah from Lausbub Tattoo in Heilbronn, Germany. When I reached out to him about the piece, he knew exactly which one I was talking about. "I love this tatt," he said, "but I never ever would do it again ... because of the tiny lettering."

When I asked Christin why she got this huge, intricate tattoo she said (through her friend, interpreting):

"There are two stories: One, the show Supernatural kind of got her on this idea. So that’s what brought her on the general idea of looking into what it is, reading up on it. And she kind of was fucking up her life a little bit much and so this was her way of putting her life back on the proper road so when she looks at it she knows I can’t go down that route again."

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

Minggu, 01 Juni 2014

Lexy’s Chrysanthemum Sprouts from a Poem

I was leaving my office building last week on Broad Street, when a woman named Lexy walked by with this great thigh tattoo:

I caught up to her, introduced myself and she agreed to share her ink with us here.

This piece was done by Alejandro Lopez, who is based in Pasadena, California, but works out of Addiction NYC when he's in the Big Apple.

When I asked her if she originally went to Alejandro for the chrysanthemum, she said that actually, she
had gone to him for this tattoo on her ribs:

“This is a poem,” she explained, “and I told [Alejandro] the meaning of the poem, and he reached out
to me and said, You know, I really like the poem, it resonated with me and he asked if he could expand
on it … And we sat down and talked about what the meaning was for me and he created this piece [the
chrysanthemum] based on what it meant to me.”

She indicated that the poem is Korean in origin, and it is in her grandmother’s handwriting. It turns
out that Lexy’s grandma was a professional calligrapher in Korea, and the red boxes are actual
representations of her grandparent’s pen names, or signatures, in Korean. How cool is that?

She elaborated a little more on the meaning of the poem:

“The poem itself is talking about whether you live or die as a nameless wildflower or a famous rose, it’s up to you, so you basically take control of your destiny, but [should] also have compassion for those who have no control … it also says something about the day that you’re born is the day that you die.”

Lexy also told me she was born in the year of the snake, which is why she has a cobra tattoo. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I didn't see a snake here.

When I was writing up this post, however, and looked at Alejandro's Instagram page, it all made sense. After getting his permission, along with Lexy's, I am happy to share the whole work-in-progress which, for obvious reasons, I never saw on Broad Street:

Photo Courtesy of Alejandro P. Lopez via http://instagram.com/alejandropaivalopez

Thanks to Lexy for sharing her wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Thanks, as well, to Alejandro Lopez for sharing his Instagram collage so we could see his work in its full scope.