Max at the Mermaid Parade - Where the Wild Things Are

It may be December, but I've been spreading out all the tattoos I spotted at last June's Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, and I'm sharing the last in the 2012 series, which also happens to be the last piece I photographed on that wonderful day at the beginning of the summer.

When I saw this guy's tattoo, I just had to stop and ask him about it:

Appropriately, the owner of this tattoo is Max, which is also the name of the boy at the center of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, the book upon which this tattoo is based. Mr. Sendak, a Brooklyn native, passed away earlier this year, in May.

Max explained why he got this tattoo:

"I'd been thinking about getting inked for a long time, like for a good five years and no idea stuck for more than six months. And I have, actually, an original printing of the book from 1963. I grew up with a stuffed Max in my crib and it's always been a part of my life. And one day I was just flipping through and for no particular reason came across this image and locked my finger on it: That's going on me. And I let the thought sit for a little while and a little while later got it, that was three or four years ago and never looked back ... The most exciting part of it, oddly enough for a tattoo, was showing it to my mom because in the book the illustration stops right here [at inside of arm] ... I showed her just this inside and just from recognizing the style, she jumped up in her seat and started clapping and yelled out 'Oh I hope it's that I think it is!' It's a very rare mother-tattoo story."

Max had this done by Alex Dawes who works at Skin Deep Tattoo in Lahaina, Maui.

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

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