Emily Wolahan on the Tattooed Poets Project

Our next tattooed poet is Emily Wolahan, who shared her ink with us:

Emily tells us:

"My first tattoo was one of the birds in the flock I've got on my arm (the one at the bottom). They are all swallows and this first one I had done immediately after my daughter was born. I was living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England—the first time I'd lived permanently outside the US in over 10 years. As a kid who grew up moving around internationally, I never felt like I had a home and when I relocated to England, the sense of being unmoored hit me again. I chose the swallow because sailors would get a swallow for each 5,000 nautical miles traveled. I felt I'd earned at least one. Later, I liked the idea of having a swarm. The swallow can also symbolize a successful journey and when I had the other swallows done, I was on my way out of Newcastle and headed back to the US."

She also shared the following photo with a couple additional pieces:

Emily added:

"My next tattoos are for my family. On my wrist is an ornate "S & F," my kids Sylvie and Franklin. The band further up that arm is the same design as on my wedding band. This tattoo was done by Greg Rojas at Ed Hardy's Tattoo City in San Francisco. Greg was recommended to me, but I hadn't really put the whole 'Ed Hardy' thing together until I was at the studio. Ed Hardy himself came in while I was on the table for a chat. Greg's since moved up to Petaluma, but I hope I can have him do my next, as-yet-undecided tattoo—he's incredible."

In addition to her tattoos, Emily shared " old poem, in honor of when the tattoos happened," noting that "the title is from Thomas Hardy—the 'sly and unseen' day is the one when death comes:

SLY AND UNSEEN

The infant cannot stop laughing. 

In the white gallery, his mother inspects 

where concrete meets a burst of dirt feeding 

blades. Freshly painted walls abut 

the grass line guttering. 

She watches it fed synthetic sun.  

Exhibit: new air, new cycle. 

The infant laughing. 

Below a flat gallery of clouds, the city pigeon 

must rise, beating against the volume 

of empty space, its intricate layer, 

feather moving air.  

Hollow bones espouse its inaccessible landscape, 

push higher, higher, until pressure changes, 

oxygen changes and turn then to

plummet in an open marriage to the core.  

The backward pump of a bird landing 

in the full sway of pregnant trees, 

their acknowledgement of captive air. 

To step barefoot on the grass,

to change limbs' mobility, lightness in bones, 

coolness between toes and tickled ankle. 

The infant, laughing, 

bids goodbye to the room. The room collapses.  

It seems phenomenal an animal 

can hold still in that air.  

That some solutions 

become answers, their spatial disclosure 

a forklift of readiness. And the rest: 

our unseen day 

carried on and up and away.

~ ~ ~

Emily Wolahan is the author of HINGE, published by the National Poetry Review Press. Her poems have been published in Oversound, Boston Review, Volt, DIAGRAM, Tinderbox, and other places. Her poems have won the Georgia Review Loraine Williams Poetry Prize and the Arts & Letters Unclassifiables Contest. She is Senior Editor at Two Lines Press, Editor of JERRY, and lives in San Francisco. She is currently an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts.

Thanks to Emily for sharing her poem and tattoos with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2018 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.net 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.

Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos, by Ed Hardy - The Tattoosday Book Review

Ten years ago, only tattoo aficionados knew who Ed Hardy was.

I still remember the moment I saw an Ed Hardy shirt for the first time. On Sixth Avenue in Manhattan on a hot, sunny day. Within months, it seemed they were everywhere.

Honestly, my introduction to Hardy was an amazing volume he edited that was based on his correspondence with Sailor Jerry. As an up-and-coming tattoo blogger, I learned more from that volume, than any other.

When all is said and done, there are two Ed Hardys - the great tattooer who learned from the legendary Sailor Jerry (and others), and the brand. The Brand turns any self-respecting tattoo artist's smile into a frown, but the wave of Hardy clothing and paraphernalia cannot drown out the artist's contribution to the craft.

That said, when I got my copy of Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos, Ed Hardy's  autobiography, I wondered how he would address this vast disconnect. He didn't waste any time. The first line of the book reveals:

"Today there have been nearly one billion Ed Hardy retail items unleashed on an unsuspecting but highly receptive public. That staggering sum makes no more sense to me than it does to you."

What follows is a veritable feast of tattoo history. As one would expect from a biography, we watch Hardy grow up from a school boy in Southern California with a makeshift tattoo shop for his friends where he would draw designs om classmates, to his days as an aspiring art student heading to Yale, up to the present day, where Ed Hardy is known to more people as a brand.

I'm always fascinated by the stories of tattoo artists and their craft, back before the "reality" show mentality crashed into our culture in the last twenty years. You really don't get the sense of the hard work and difficulties faced by artists nowadays, where a contestant spot on Inkmaster gives one more recognition than true masters of the art form, who have been slaving away, somewhat anonymously, for decades.

It only seems fitting that we are getting the Ed Hardy story now, as tattooing is an industry that continues to grow by leaps and bounds. It's a way for people who are truly interested in the history of the modern American tattoo to discover how pivotal this one artist is.

The book is a great read. Hardy's narration, with Joel Selvin, is matter-of-fact and delivered poignantly. He just tells it like it is, and the reader is rewarded with a narrative of an amazing life, from humble beginnings to the last tattoo. I particularly liked the tales of Hardy's early days, working with Sailor Jerry, his interaction with Phil Sparrow, and his experiences tattooing yakuza in Japan.

Not only can you grab Wear Your Dreams, which is officially released today, but Hardy is on a modest tour, starting tonight in New York, popping over to California, and ending in Honolulu next month. You can see the full schedule with venue details here.

This entry is ©2013 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.

Ed Hardy - Tattoo the World: Contest Winner!

Congratulations to reader Adam, who won the Ed Hardy DVD!

I know this is a flyer for an event last February, but it's cool and worth sharing.

Entrants were input into Randomized.com and Adam got the nod.

Lacking a review here (it will be forthcoming, I promise), check out this blurb over on the L.A.Times.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats again to Adam!

Tattoosday Giveaway! Ed Hardy - Tattoo the World

[This Contest is Now Closed]

We here at Tattoosday have in our hot little hands, a brand-spanking new DVD copy of Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World.

It's yours for the taking. All you need to do to win is leave a comment on this post, or on the post on the Tattoosday Facebook page, sometime this week and a winner will be selected from among those entries.



The winner will be announced Saturday along with my review of the movie.

More information about the film, including additional clips, can be found on its website here.

Negative comments will disqualify entries. You are certainly entitled to your opinions, but we want to keep things positive, folks!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. Video clip ©2011 Wabi Sabi Productions, LLC.

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.