Tattoos

Senin, 16 Maret 2015

Melanie's Birthday Rose

When my wife said she wanted a new tattoo for her birthday, which fell on Friday the 13th this year, I was eager to help. She was born on s Friday the 13th and, after her father counted all her fingers and toes and determined she had the correct amount, 13 became her lucky number.

The last time her birthday fell on Friday the 13th was back in 2009 and I documented it here. I'm guessing she will be getting another one the next time it rolls around in 2020.

Anyway, I wanted to surprise her, because spending an entire day getting one of the typical Friday the 13th specials is worth doing once (or maybe twice), but it can be tiring. I also knew that she would prefer to get inked by a good artist, one that she was familiar with, and not necessarily in the chaotic setting of a bargain flash frenzy.

So I reached out to Alex McWatt, from Three Kings Tattoo, a shop that has stopped doing these events, but had churned out some of the better Friday the 13th designs in the past.

Alex tattooed my second Friday the 13th piece back in 2012 (documented here) and I loved it. Melanie met him at the time, as well, so she was familiar with him and his top-notch work.

So I contacted Alex and he had me coordinate with Antonio, from their new Manhattan shop, and the plans were set in motion. I gave some general ideas to Antonio to pass on to Alex, and we set up a time to come by on the 13th.

After a birthday dinner with our daughter and one of her college friends on 1st Avenue, we strolled around the East Village and Melanie wondered where we were headed. Since Three Kings opened up last summer in Manhattan, she had no idea where we were headed. When we walked past East Side Ink, I said "Nope, not there."

As we neared the shop, I realized why the address was familiar - they had taken over the space where Thicker Than Water had been, Melanie and I had both been tattooed there when it was under different management.

When we reached the shop, she saw it was Three Kings, and then saw that Alex was there, she was grinning. She knew she was going to get something good, and from an artist she knew.

Alex brought out a sheet with 4 designs on it - a traditional skull with Friday the 13th themes, an osprey, a fierce tiger exhaling a 13 of smoke, and a rose.

After some wavering between two of the designs, Melanie decided on the rose for her outside left ankle (she has another flower on her right ankle).

So, Alex set to work, laying on the stencil:

and then outlining it:

Alex was great, working quickly and efficiently:

Until we had the finished product:

Wait, you may be wondering, what makes this a Friday the 13th tattoo?

This lovely rose has thirteen leaves.

Melanie was extremely pleased with her birthday rose and we loved the atmosphere in the shop. She's already talking about going back to Alex for more work, and I don't think she wants to wait until 2020.

Thanks to Alex and all the staff at Three Kings in Manhattan for helping make Melanie's tattoo birthday surprise a great one!

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.

Rabu, 04 Maret 2015

Twiggy Electric's Lines

One night back in September, I was headed home from a poetry reading (and tattooed poets), when I met a woman on the 59th Street Platform in Brooklyn. She let me photograph her tattoo:

She called herself Twiggy Electric, and this is how our conversation went:

Tattoosday (BC): Is there any significance...

Twiggy Electric (TE): There is, um, it's more about what you see, so...

BC: Okay

TE: What do you see?

BC: Well, when you say Twiggy, then I think twigs.

TE: Okay, obviously, but that has more to do with the model, so I'm actually curious what you see...

BC: Oh, lines and cracks and fissures and, there's some structure in there. Barbed wire, but not really like in that tacky, like '80s, '90s barbed wire arm band type of thing

TE: Okay

BC: Concentric circles around the lower part of the arm. Um, so I... I don't see...they're just fissures and cracks in your arm

TE: Right, okay

BC: Is that okay?

TE: Yeah, no it's cool. My vision between the entire thing [notices the phone out] You're recording, I see

BC: Is that okay? [Train pulls into station slowly, noisily]

TE: Yeah, that's cool. You didn't ask me first...

BC: Sorry, Sorry [Thinks to self, I though it was obvious, I was holding my phone out.]

TE: But I see that you are, so but my vision

BC: I don't put the recording up there

TE: is to force people to view things artistically

BC: So you force people to view things artistically?

TE: Yeah, so um, they're just lines. That's it.

BC: just lines, that's it?

TE:No other structure, that's it.

BC: Okay

TE: The way I view it is, ordered chaos, in a way.

BC: Okay

TE: The first circle is closed and all the other ones are open That's something you're gonna see if you look very closely, but the whole point behind seeing things artistically is, you pick up on your own vision.

Here's another shot of Twiggy Electric's tattoos, much more artistic, copied from a public photo on her Instagram:

Thanks to Twiggy Electric for sharing her tattoo, and for engaging me in a discussion about the work.

Minggu, 01 Maret 2015

Shayna's Docs, Inspired by Japanese Tattoo Design

We've all seen tattoo-themed clothing, led by the societal onslaught of the "Ed Hardy" clothing line, which was hijacked by fashion designers and turned the brand into a stereotypical joke.

But there's a right way to appropriate the design aesthetic and make it stylish and hip. Check out this new pair of Doc Martens my 16-year old just got for her birthday:

Photo by Melanie Cohen

Take a closer look:

The Doc Martens website says about these boots:

"Our 1460 8-Eye boot has been a counter-culture classic since it first came out in 1960. Inspired by the iconology and styling of US Hardcore bands and their fans, we've wrapped this iconic style in Japanese-influenced tattoo art-- including koi fish, cherry blossoms, peacocks and clouds (plus a red 1460 hidden away in the pattern). The intricate design is printed in muted tones on tan full grain leather, set off by a strong-and-simple black welt and grooved sole."

You can order them online here.

I'd get a pair for myself, but my teenager would kill me.

Jumat, 27 Februari 2015

Jeremy's Back With an Insane Tattoo

I recently learned my friend Jeremy has an insane back piece. Check it out:

I was dying to find out what this was all about. I recognized Charles Manson, but was that George Bush? Sigmund Freud?

Next time I had a chance to sit down and talk to Jeremy, he filled me in:

"I've had an extreme interest in serial killers since I was in high school ... I'm going back to school now ... for forensic psychology ... to do profiling ... So I've always had a huge interest in it ... Down in Puerto Rico, when I was getting tattooed down there, I was talking with my tattoo artist and he'd never seen a piece that big dedicated to that [serial killers]."

So who is in this Hall of Serial Fame? From the top left, going clockwise, we have David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, then Charles Manson, then Ted Bundy (looking a little like George W. Bush), Andrei Chikatilo, Albert Fish (the one I mistook for Freud) and Ed Gein, with a silhouette of Jack the Ripper in the middle.

Am I the only one who thinks that Ted Bundy looks like George W. Bush? "No," Jeremy told me, "I get that a lot."

He credited the work to Blen167 from 167th AllStar Tattoo in Puerto Rico. Blen167 now works at Harisumi Tattoo.

So how long did this take? Jeremy told me it was about one sitting per face, "so about 6 different sittings, 4-5 hours each, 35 hours total, not super bad."

Jeremy recognizes that this might not be the most popular subject matter for a big tattoo piece, but he's committed enough to the study of the criminal mind that it seems fitting. It's definitely not work you see every day.

I thank Jeremy for sharing this amazing back piece with us here on Tattoosday!

Senin, 16 Februari 2015

Caroline's Tattoo, Traded for a Stuffed Magpie

Last summer I met Caroline on Broad Street, one morning before I was headed into work.

She had this really cool and interesting tattoo on her arm:

Caroline explained that this tattoo was done by an artist who goes by the name Tron who lives in Portland.

Caroline explained her relationship with Tron and how this tattoo came to be:

"She's been a friend of mine for years ... we actually met on a music message board when I was in high school, like a Riot grrrl music message board ... I had seen her designs, I loved them, [and] I saw she did a page of flash for a convention that was all about the band Bikini Kill , which was one of the bands we grew up loving ... I had a taxidermy bird that I bought at a taxidermy shop years ago, I was trying to get rid of it, I could not get anyone to buy it - she [Tron] wanted to trade it for a tattoo, so it worked out perfectly, I traded her this ... I think it was a magpie, for this tattoo, and I saw the picture and I loved it and I actually emailed her about getting it a couple days later .. "Resist Psychic Death" is a Bikini Kill song and the rest of it was designed by her. I knew I wanted something, she kinda does something with those M.C. Escher-style impossible objects, and I was like 'Sure, just throw up [a] skeleton's hand, that sounds like it makes sense.' "

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

UPDATE: On March 13, 2015, I wandered into Three Kings Tattoo's new location in the East Village and discovered Tron there. Her website is www.Losingshape.com and she can be found on Instagram here.

Senin, 09 Februari 2015

Coney Island, USA (Thanks to Tommy)

Occasionally, friends text me photos of tattooed people. This is one of the benefits of celebrating people's body art.

This came to me, courtesy of my friend Tommy, who snapped this photo of an anonymous guy's Brooklyn pride:

The gentleman did not want to credit his independent artist, but was willing to share.

Thanks to Tommy for thinking of me and sharing this Brooklyn ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Selasa, 03 Februari 2015

Rochelle's Tattoos Are Powerful Reminders

Last summer, while riding my bike along the Belt Parkway Promenade, I met Rochelle, who was kind enough to talk with me and share several of her tattoos.

The first one we discussed was this one on her calf:

Rochelle explained that this is an illustration from Peter Rabbit, but not the one that is familiar to most of us. She explained that in the German version, the story spoke to her more, as Rochelle once had problems with drug abuse. She explained that the rabbit in this other version of the story took to stealing vegetables from the farmer, “but he grows fat and he is then cooked in stew by the farmer’s wife." Rochelle added, "So he’s, like, consumed by his desire, and I was consumed by my desire to do drugs ... I got the tattoo when I was becoming sober.”

This tattoo and several others Rochelle has were done by Mike Lucena from Brooklyn's Flyrite Tattoo, who she calls "a great artist and a good-hearted guy.”

She also shared this piece by Mike Lucena:

Located on her thigh, Rochelle explained, "It’s a pysanky egg, it’s a Ukrainian egg-decorating practice ... an old folk practice that my mother and I did when I was a child and I got it in memory of my mother when she passed.”

She also shared this tattoo on her upper arm:

Rochelle explained that this is Monkshood. She elaborated:

"It's a delphinium flower ... it’s like a bluebell ... almost, but they call it monkshood because, if you look at the flower it looks like a monk wearing a hood. It symbolizes usually death and ill-will, but a lot of people also use it because it symbolizes warding off evil and warding off death … I got it from Becki [Wilson] the day after my mother died, so now it has a huge amount of meaning to me ... Becki was at Greene Avenue Tattoo when this was done, but she has moved shops."

And finally, Rochelle shared a fourth tattoo, on another calf:

She explained that this was also done by Mike Lucena, and is her interpretation of The Tower Tarot Card:

"I study tarot…this is my drawing and then Mike did a complete copy and ... he had done the rabbit first, and then I was like, I want you to do it like the rabbit with my drawing … so watercolor, sort of, so he faded out the inks, the symbolism of the tower tarot card is like chaos, destruction and rebirth."

Thanks to Rochelle for sharing all of her awesome tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!