Justin's Pokémon Go Tattoos

It was about a year ago when the Pokémon Go! game took to the streets, and everywhere you looked, people were walking around looking at their smartphones trying to catch a Snorlax.

Earlier this month, among the mermaids and pirates, I met Justin, who wears his passion for Pokémon Go for all to see:

Yes, those are Pokémon creatures tattooed on his arm, from top to bottom you can see a Golbat, and Exeggutor, a Weezing and a Koffing,

Here's a closer look at the Golbat:

Justin got these tattooed at Addiction NYC (@addictionnyc) in New York City.

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

This entry is ©2017 Tattoosday.

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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.

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.

A Monday Mermaid from Mandy

Back in July, I met a woman in Penn Station named Mandy. She has a lot of ink, estimating between 16 and 17, but surprised me when she revealed this cool mermaid on her back:

Mandy explained that the original artist of this piece was the late Jason Guilbault, who worked at Addiction NYC, Their friend Eric finished the piece, adding the color and Guilbault's name at the bottom of the piece. Jason's MySpace is still active here, where you can see some of his work and see messages left in memory of him.

"Why the mermaid?" I asked.

"I've always wanted to be a mermaid," Mandy told me, "and now I'm going to be a professional mermaid." I asked if she was going to Florida to live out this dream, but she said she is going to stay in New York, since there are no professional mermaids in New York City.

Thanks to Mandy for sharing her mermaid with us here on Tattoosday, and helping us keep the memory of Jason Guilbault alive!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading 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.

Jason's Two Stars Lead the Way

Last week, I spotted Jason walking through Penn Station and took the opportunity to ask him about some of his tattoos. He says he has about twenty-four in all, so I took a picture of his forearms, from the photo here you can see six of them, including a Celtic knot and the phrase "Let it be...".

However, Jason drew my attention to the two stars, which were his first two tattoos. I'll let Jason explain, in his own words:

"The crumbling star was originally meant for my broken aspirations, something I dreamt up when I was a kid. And then, the outline of the green star ... the green, for me, it means rejuvenation, you know, new ideas, new paths, just different things to inspire me."

The two stars were not done at the same time, but the crumbling star was inked at Addiction NYC in the East Village. The green star followed a couple weeks later and was completed in Brooklyn, at Inkman Tattoo Studio.

Jason told me he likes to get new tattoos when he travels, what I like to call a "tattoorist," if you will. New ink is always a great way to commemorate places one has visited.

Thanks to Jason for sharing these two stars with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

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. 

Kate Reminds Us: Two Calves Are Better than One

I met Kate last month and she shared these two, of her eleven tattoos:

Kate says these don't have specific meanings behind them, she "just liked the art". Nothing wrong with that at all.

On the left calf, Kate has an exquisite black and grey piece by Benjamin Moss at Apocalypse Tattoo in Seattle.

The romantically morbid idea of two skeletons sharing an eternity in the same coffin is a haunting image.

On her right calf is this dagger:

The phrase "MORTE PRIMA DI DISONORE" translates to the expression "Death Before Dishonor". This tattoo was created at Addiction NYC on St. Mark's Place in Manhattan.

Thanks to Kate for sharing these great tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

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.

Robbie's Red Balloon, with a Nod to Seattle

Here it is December and I have all these loose ends, tattoos I photographed in the summer and, for some reason or other, never wrote about.

One such example belongs to Robbie, who is originally from Seattle. I stopped to talk to him at the corner of 34th Street and 7th Avenue, and he was kind enough to share this tattoo on his upper right arm:

Robbie explained that the red balloon is a family reminder about his grandmother, and that in addition to his own tattoo, his mother, brother, cousin and aunt all have tattoos that contain a red balloon, as a nod to the family matriarch.

The skyline depicted is punctuated by the Space Needle, Seattle's most recognizable landmark. Robbie is from Washington State, and the addition of this famous structure to a metropolitan cluster of buildings, which includes a scaled-down replica of the Empire State Building to its right, is a nod to his home town, while also recognizing New York City, his current home.


Robbie credited the tattoo to Liz at Addiction NYC, although he noted she tattoos somewhere out on Long Island now.

Thanks to Robbie for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Happy Halloween from Tattoosday!

Here at Tattoosday, we're celebrating Halloween by posting the spookiest tattoo seen in the last month or so. Well, maybe not the spookiest, but certainly the most holiday-related tattoo:

This was offered up by Robert, who I met in Borders Penn Plaza last month. And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, that is Frankenstein driving a Chevy (that's the stick shift he's gripping). Robert credits Adel at Addiction NYC with this tattoo.

Thanks to Robert for helping us celebrate Halloween here on Tattoosday!