Erika's Hyena Skull

Last summer, I met Erika, a graphic designer, at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo. She was working in a artisan's booth, helping friends sell jewelry. Her website, here, has the subtitle "illustration ~ animal photos ~ dead things." Needless to say, she has some cool tattoos, and I had a great time chatting with her about them.

One, in particular, jumped out:

This is a hyena skull inked at the top of her chest, on her left side. She explained that the hyena is one of her favorite animals and that

"I had traveled to South Africa a little while before I got the tattoo. I was trying to sleep in a tent and felt a vibration, a rustling, outside of the tent. There were a clan of hyenas (five or six of them) - I heard them crunching bones, it was all I could hear. I could smell them - it was an amazing experience ... I needed something to commemorate that."

This was tattooed by Jon Clue (@jonclue) at East Side Ink (@eastsideinktattoo), although he has recently moved to Sacred Tattoo (@sacredtattoonyc). Both are top-notch shops in Manhattan.

Here's another look at the tattoo from Clue's on-line portfolio:

Thanks to Erika for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2017 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.