An Award-Winning Crane by CJ Tattoo

This past weekend I went to the Summer Vibe tattoo show at the Nassau Coliseum and saw a lot of amazing tattoos. One of the most impressive ones was this gigantic thigh/hip piece on Ling (@lingjin_tattoo):

This stunning crane with peonies won "Best Color Tattoo" on day 2 of the show. I was fortunate enough to get to take a photo and meet the artist, CJ (@cj.tattoo), of CJ Tattoo in the East Village, NYC.

Definitely check out CJ Tattoo's site and follow him in Instagram. His work is amazing!

Thanks to Ling and CJ for sharing this incredible artwork with us here on Tattoosday!

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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.

Herke's Heads (at the NY Empire State Tattoo Expo 2016)

Last summer at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo), I met Herke (@tsurujo_irezuki), who had a couple of really interesting tattoos to share.

First up is this crane on his head:

Herke is a tattooer from Brig, Switzerland, and he owns the The Flying Dutchman Tattoo & Piercing Shop in nearby Naters, Switzerland.

He explained that his last name, Kranenborg, translates in Japanese to "Crane Castle." He is a traditional Japanese artists and he also has a kamon, which is a Japanese family crest, that includes a crane in the design. This piece was done in Japan by his tattoo master, Jess Yen (@jessyentattoo), who works out of the Los Angeles area at My Tattoo (@mytattooandpiercing), a shop he founded. Herke counts himself as one of Jess Yen's disciples.

He also shared this tattoo on his inner arm:

Herke explained that he received this to commemorate his 40th birthday. The artist is Jack Mosher (@jackmosher_horimuja) who works out of Hold Fast Tattoo in Prescott, Arizona.

Herke explained that in old Japan, after a battle was fought, the women from the victorious village would go to the battlefield, collect the chopped off heads of the slain enemies, clean them up and placed them around the village to commemorate the victories and warn people "if you mess with us, this is what happens to you." In a sense, it is a good luck symbol. It was actually the first tattoo that Herke showed me before I noticed the crane on his head.

Thanks to Herke for sharing his fantastic tattoos 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.

Kristina Shares Two Stunning Virginia Elwood Tattoos

One of my favorite Tattoosday encounters involves Kristina, who I featured here back in 2010. As I recall in the post, I had originally met Kristina in Manhattan a couple years earlier, and had run into her again in my neighborhood when we were both picking up our kids from camp.

We've since become friends and I've kept up to date on some new tattoos she has had inked since we last featured her on Tattoosday.

Over the summer, we finally had a moment to stop, talk, and take pictures of her newer tattoos, both of which were tattooed by the fantastically awesome Virginia Elwood of New York Adorned.

This is the larger piece on her shoulder and upper chest:

She loves birds and the emblem on the chain was Elwood's idea. Kristina had wanted a compass but, as she put it "Virginia-ized." She added, "she [Elwood] does these beautiful geometric flowers like a spyrograph - I wanted it in that style."

Kristina also has this crane on her right ankle:

Kristina's son Oscar told her to get a crane, "which originally scared me," she said, "because he was little and I thought he meant a construction vehicle."

Clicking here will show you all the work I've featured by Virginia before on Tattoosday. Some day, I hope to get work from her, as well.

Thanks to Kristina for sharing her birds with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Sasha's Cranes

I spotted this tattoo on the upper right arm of a Sasha in the Bay Ridge Century 21 store:

I love the dark colors in the piece and wanted to hear more about it.

Sasha explained that it is a cover-up of a moon tattoo, and that the design is Japanese in origin. The birds in the design are cranes, which have immense cultural and mythological significance. Among other valuable characteristics, cranes symbolize honor and loyalty.

This is one of "at least eight" tattoos that Sasha has. The tattoo was inked by Maya at Third Eye Tattoo in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We've seen a lot of work by Lou at Third Eye here, but this is the first piece, I believe, that we've featured from Maya.

Thanks to Sasha for sharing her cranes with us here on Tattoosday!