New York City in Black and Gray

Last Friday I was coming up out of the subway, only to discover the skies had opened up, and a fierce thunderstorm was dumping water in buckets in Bay Ridge. A handful of people stood one level down at 95th Street, waiting for the torrents to subside. I struck up a conversation with one guy (whose name now escapes me...Johnny? I can't be certain) who had this fantastic tattoo running the length of his arm:

The distinctive twin towers of the World Trade Center rise majestically on his arm, as the Brooklyn Bridge comes toward the viewer and a Coney Island-bound F train curves out of the tunnel, following the contours of this gentleman's arm.

Here's a closer shot of the NYC skyline:

Some nice touches on this piece are the subway car of the F train, which is based on a 1930's version of the subway and the graffiti over the tunnel which reads "Vive Tus Sueños," or "Live Your Dreams."

This work is credited to Eric Rignall from Ink Stop Tattoo NYC.

Thanks to my fellow commuter who shared this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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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!