You Get What You Get For Your Birthday

Last summer on my birthday, my family and I headed to Crown Hieights, Brooklyn, and celebrated the day, in part, at Electic Anvil Tattoo:

My daughters, Jolee and Shayna, had decided to treat their old dad to a new tattoo. What was I getting? It was still undetermined:

What's this? To those who aren't familiar with the concept, a customer pays for a token that they drop in the gumball machine. A little plastic ball drops after twisting the handle, and inside the bulb is a drawing. That's what you've just selected for your new tattoo. What happens if you don't like it? You can pay extra for a second chance, but you can also walk away. This rarely happens, I am told. Most people who are game enough to take the chance, are not going to walk away.

Needless to say, I liked my design and, as a bonus, the tattooer available to me was none other than Jason Monroe (@jason_monroe), who had tattooed me eight years earlier at a special Sailor Jerry event (read about it here).

The design I got it was this cool little Reaper, which now graces my left leg, just above the ankle. 

When Jason asked if I wanted color, I deferred to him, so he was able to add the red he thought was best for the design. I thought getting a grim reaper tattoo on my birthday was pretty iconic, and the fact that it was a gift from my kiddos made it all the more special.

I should add that my daughter Shayna also "got what she got" - the family concluded she got a better design (although I was 100% happy with the outcome):

This tattoo, on Shayna's inner left forearm, was done by Josh Arseneau (@josharseneau) and was also a "Get What You Get" special.

Thanks to my kids for this awesome birthday gift and to Jason Monroe and the rest of the Electric Anvil crew for making it a memorable birthday!

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A Snake and Kali, on Sasha

Last month in Lower Manhattan, at the Whitehall Street post office, I met Sasha, who shared a couple of her tattoos with me, including this awesome snake on her arm:

Sasha credited her artist Vova Bydin (@vladimirbydin) from Electric Anvil Tattoo (@electricanviltattoo) in Brooklyn.

She told me "it was a cover up and we had to come up with a shape that would allow to cover my previous tattoo, which was an anchor with a rope around my arm ... I love the power and fierceness of the animal so I was happy with the idea."

Sasha also surprised me with this stunning tattoo on her thigh:

She explained that this is the Hindu goddess Kali, and the tattoo was also done by Vova Bydin and that he "really wanted to do something like that for his portfolio and I was open to it, so we went for it."

Thanks to Sasha for sharing her two awesome tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2019 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.

Cristina's Heart of Palm

I spotted this tattoo on Cristina back in June while attending the 2018 Coney Island Mermaid Parade (@mermaidparade):

These two palm trees make a perfect heart shape. Nothing fancy, just a cool design and a positive message.

Cristina credited the work to Josh Arseneau (@josharseneau) at Electric Anvil Tattoo (@electricanviltattoo) in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Cristina for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2018 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.

Diana Shares Some Cool Tattoos on Her Birthday

I want to wish Diana a happy birthday today! I met Diana last month while walking in lower Manhattan. She had, at the time, "about 13" tattoos, and she was kind enough to share them with us.

Her newest piece at the time was this cool one on her forearm:

This was inked by Zoe Bean (@zoebeantattoo) from Eight of Swords Tattoo (@8ofswordstattoo) in Brooklyn. Diana explained:

"It's just supposed to be a graceful representation of Lilith ... kind of a feminist symbol ... [Zoe] is a wonderful artist to do this. I love her dotwork style but also, we were talking as I was getting the tattoo, she used to be a professor and she kind of made her way as a tattoo artist. She just had an amazing story ... male-dominated field, moving up in her career, it was great of her to do this and to make this feminist symbol on my arm ... It means a lot for me because ... we looked into the story behind Lilith and we have a couple of the flowers that represent her and then the snake, of course... it was really great to go on this journey with Zoe to like get it right."

Diana also has this cool pair of tattoos on her upper arm:

Diana elaborated about the moth:

"I volunteer at a butterfly conservatory at the Museum of Natural History ... I thought this would be a really nice touch I got this because for that reason but also because 8 of Swords was doing a charity benefit for an LGBTQ homeless center in Arkansas [Lucie's Place in Little Rock] ... they raised over 10 thousand dollars in that event and this was one of the designs. Stella [Vlad] (@stellamayvlad) ... made this and did a really great job."

Stella was one of the visiting artists who joined Eight of Swords for the fundraiser. She works at Speakeasy Tattoo (@nyspeakeasytattoo) in Peekskill, New York.

Diana also told me about the woman's head below the moth:

"I got this from Ashley (@ol_ash), she used to work at Magic Cobra Tattoo Society (@magiccobratattoo) [in Brooklyn] ... I'm a Gemini, so there's two different faces in the woman's eyes, so one is kinda happy and the other one is ... kind of sad looking, so it's like the different personalities."

The artist, Ashley Strout, now works at Electric Anvil Tattoo (@electricanviltattoo) in Brooklyn.

And last, but not least, Diana shared this amazing tattoo on her thigh:

Diana explains this wonderful tattoo of the goddess Athena:

"I got this in San Francisco ... on my last day [there] and it took hours to do ... I sat for one very long session... The artist I went to, he does really good portrait tattoos ... my mother loved mythology and she passed away when I was a teenager, so I was like oh this would be a really really cool tattoo." 

The artist is Brian Jones (@brianjonestattoos), who did this at One Shot Tattoo (@one_shot_tattoo), but he is now based out of Gold Stripe Tattoo (@goldstripetattoo) in San Diego.

Thanks to Diana for sharing all of these cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! It was great meeting you and happy birthday!

Photo by Diana

This entry is ©2018 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.