Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): May 2018

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Belle and Dan from Birmingham

Back in February, on an unseasonably warm winter afternoon, I met Belle and Dan outside of Grand Central Station. They were visiting from Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and they shared some of their amazing black and gray work:

Belle's patterns were complimented by this Beauty and the Beast tattoo:

Dan shared this skull/wolf combination:

Belle credited her and Dan's work to Jay Price at Inkskin Tattoo Studio in Tipton, just northeast of Birmingham.

Thanks to Belle and Dan for sharing their work with us here on Tattoosday!

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Sunday, May 27, 2018

John and Sharon Share Some Cool Tattoos

I met John and Sharon last September in lower Manhattan, near Bowling Green.

Sharon had this cool face inked on her leg:

Both Sharon and John hailed from the Czech Republic, and Sharon credited this tattoo to an artist in Prague named Richard.

John had this mythical creature tattooed on him:

My noted indicate this was from the Gummi Bears animation.

He also likes Germanic and Norse mythologies, and pagan symbolism, which was evident in these other tattoos:

Thanks to John and Sharon for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Murphy and the Jackalope

I met Richelle last fall near Bowling Green in lower Manhattan. She had some really cool black and gay work, like this portrait of her dog, Murphy:

She referred to Murphy as her "little soulmate" and was happy to wear him on her arm.

She also shared this cool creature:

That is a Jackalope, which is a "mythical creature" that she associates with her childhood. Richelle added that she always "hoped [it] was real" and that it was "my version of a unicorn."

Richelle credited her artist, Anka Lavriv (@anka.tattoo) from Black Iris Tattoo (@black_iris_tattoo) in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, with her work.

I love how the myth of the Jackalope lives on in her ink!

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

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Kayleigh's Chamomile

Last fall, while riding up in the elevator at work, I struck up a conversation with Kayleigh, who was sporting this cool tattoo:

Kayleigh identified it as lavender chamomile and credited her sister Megan (@stackofpancake), telling me it was only Megan's second official tattoo.

Thanks to Kayleigh for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Vanessa's Wise Headdress

Back in October, I met Vanessa, across from Federal Hall, in lower Manhattan.

She shared this cool tattoo on the back of her leg:

Occasionally, dear Readers, I interview people and lose all my information, or I snap a photo with the person, who promises to email me with details, and then I never hear from them again.

This is the case with Vanessa's cool tattoo. All I know is that Vanessa hails from Pennsylvania and comes into New York occasionally for roller derby events in which she participates.

I have no artist to credit, as much as this pains me. I hope that by putting this out in the world, I may be able to connect the dots in the future.

Thanks to Vanessa, wherever you are, for sharing this great tattoo!

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Stephanie and Benzaiten

Last summer, while shopping at a Cost Plus World Market in Brooklyn, I met Stephanie, who shared this lovely tattoo:

Stephanie explained that this is a depiction of Benzaiten, a Japanese Buddhist goddess, who evolved from the Hindu goddess Saraswati. Stephanie was a liberal arts major and Benzaiten is a guardian of poetry and music. She has eight arms, each with a weapon. Benzaiten stares out from her left arm powerfully.

Stephanie credited the tattoo to the great Darren Rosa (@darrenthedude_tattoos) at Rising Dragon Tattoo (@risingdragontattoos) in Manhattan.

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

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Martin's Tattoos Are Out of This World

I met Martin in Union Square last fall and he shared a couple of really cool tattoos:

This piece was done by David Côté at Imperial Tattoo Connexion (@imperialtattooconnexion) in Montreal. "I really just liked this guy's work," Martin told me, "he does really cool spaceships and stuff."

Martin also had this really neat take on Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Martin explained the origin of this piece:

"I was raised in a Catholic household, but I'm not necessarily believing in it now. I still like the imagery and being really into aliens and stuff, I just kind of like tried to combine [the two] to make it my own."

He credited the artist Ross Jones (@rosskjones) with this cool tattoo. Ross works out of Idle Hand Tattoo (@idlehandsf) in San Francisco, but Martin got the tattoo here on the East Coast when Ross did a guest spot at a local shop.

Thanks to Martin for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Mel's Tattoo and Her Mother

I thought this would be a good post for Mother's Day, as will be self-evident. It started, however, with a father-daughter outing. My eldest and I were seeing a play in Manhattan back in December. The show never went off, however, due to some staging difficulties. While we were waiting in the lobby, we were standing next to a woman with the following tattoo, and we got to talking:

This tattoo is on Mel (interestingly enough, a name my wife and mother of my children goes by) who told us how this tattoo came to be:

"My mom had been talking about getting a tattoo after my parents got divorced along time ago, but she was always kind of opposed to tattoos. So I told her if she ever wanted to get one, I'd get one with her. [She] never took me up on it for about ten years and then, two summers ago now, she just called me up one day in August, and was like, you're coming home at the end of October, right? We're getting tattoos and I know what we're getting. And I was like, okay. Two months is not a lot of warning, and so, she had seen on Facebook people getting semi-colon tattoos as a response to dealing with depression and my mom has dealt with depression her whole life. She was like, I just don't want a semi colon I want to do something better and so we put a lot of thought into it and figured out you can make the body of a dragonfly, which is my mom's favorite animal, into a semi-colon ... it's really subtle and you would never know it's there unless I tell you that it's in there and it's got a water lily because that's her favorite flower ... she has a version of this on her wrist and I have mine on my arm."

Interestingly, a woman standing nearby had overheard Mel telling me this and chimed in that the semi-colon is "a little more specifically related to survivors of suicide, because the semi-colon could have stopped their life but didn't."

Considering how suicide and depression are intrinsically linked, the semi-colon for depression still makes sense and Mel seemed unphased by the stranger's clarification. Tattoos mean what they mean to the possessor and, even if they mean something to others, it shouldn't detract from their power to the person who has chosen to mark themselves permanently.

Mel credited Jake Phillips (@twistedskullstudios) from Twisted Skull Tattoo Studio in La Crosse, Wisconsin with the tattoo.

Thanks to Mel for sharing her tattoo with us! Wishing Mel's mom and all mother's out there a happy Mother's Day!

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Paul and Ian from the UK Share Some Tattoos

Back in October, I met a couple of guys from Britain, on Wall Street, who were heavily tattooed and kind enough to share their work with me.

Paul shared quite several pieces, including this stunning Marilyn Monroe tattoo on his ribs:

He also shared what he called his "Dead Sid Vicious" tattoo on his leg:

In addition, this small piece on his chest:

And this punk tattoo on his torso:

Paul credited a lot of his work to an artist with the moniker "Kaney."

His friend Ian grabbed my attention with this tribal work on the back of his calves:

And he also had a Marilyn Monroe tattoo:

Ian credited the tribal work to an artist in Newcastle named Sharon, who is no longer tattooing.

Cheers to Paul and Ian for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, May 7, 2018

Richard's Samurai

When warm weather finally hit New York City, after an interminably long winter, inkspotters were rewarded with some great work, including this sleeve-in-progress on Richard:

Richard, who has wanted a samurai-themed sleeve for a long time, is already three sessions in on this arm, with some upcoming work anticipated on his inner forearm.

He credits Nha Nguyen (@nhaomkaratattoo) from Omkara Tattoo (@omkaratattoo) in Philadelphia, with this stunning work.

Thanks to Richard for sharing his samurai sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, May 4, 2018

May the 4th Be With You, Courtesy of Ben (Tattoosday Goes to Philly)

Back in February, at the 20th Annual Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention (@villainarts), I met Ben, who has some amazing work that I saved posting for today, May the Fourth:

Today, of course, is Star Wars day, and Ben (@jedijunkie) has dedicated his canvas to Star Wars imagery, including that amazing Millennium Falcon on his back.

He's working on a full suit and credits artist Phil Morgan at RLMG Tattoos of Orlando (@RLMGTattoos) with his work.

Thanks to Ben for sharing his amazing Star Wars tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! May the Fourth be with you!

Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog)