Ashley's Incredible Eye Tattoo

This past fall, I met Ashley near Wall Street in lower Manhattan. Not everyone I meet lets me photograph their work on the spot. Some folks, like Ashley, send me pictures after they've checked out the site.

This is the amazing tattoo Ashley shared with me:

She wanted to share this piece because she thinks the artist "deserves a tremendous amount of credit."

Indeed he does!

This is the handiwork of Christian Lucca (@christian_lucca), who inked this at Starlight Tattoo (@starlighttattoo17) in Rochelle Park, New Jersey. He's now at Silk City Tattoo (@silkcitytattoo) in Hawthorne, New Jersey.

Ashley tells us her tattoo

"... is an eye with a customized clock in the center.

I have always loved Christian’s work as an artist and he’s great at customizing a grungy feel. I wanted an eye to be the start of my sleeve because I wanted something in the center to really pop. Eyes are the window to the soul which I’ve always believed to be true. I wanted the arms on the clock to be off the roman numerals because as they say, time isn’t real. It’s supposed to have more of a reflection affect."

Thanks to Ashley for sharing her amazing 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.

Sean's Stunning Sleeve

Earlier this month, I met Sean outside of a store on Broadway in lower Manhattan.

I generally don't like to post full sleeves on Tattoosday because it is, in my opinion, really hard to do them proper justice.

Once in a while, however, the work is exceptional, and I can't help but try and capture some segments of the sleeve.

I mean, look how great this is:

Sean explained that segments of the sleeve are in memory of a neighbor who was a mother figure for him when growing up. She succumbed to complications from lupus, and the clock and roman numerals link to the date of her death.

We didn't have time to discuss all the elements of this sleeve, but he did credit the work to Tazz (@Tazz_Tatts) who works out of Aztec Ink (@aztecinkbrooklyn) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. We've featured work by Tazz at least once before, like this piece which appeared in 2011.

Thanks to Sean for sharing his cool sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2016 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.

Three for Tattoosday - A Trio of Teachers Share Their Ink

Last summer, I was biding my time near work, at the corner of Wall Street and Broad, when a group of tattooed people walked past. Like many of the visitors to that section of the city, they were travelers from elsewhere. I learned that these three friends were also educators, enjoying their summer with a trip to NYC.

All three of them were open and friendly, allowing me to take photos of their tattoos and to get the stories behind them.

The first person I spoke to was Amie, who shared this Wizard of Oz tattoo from her upper right arm:

It's a really cool Emerald City image, encompassed in a snow globe, with a flying witch, a yellow brick road and a rainbow. Dorothy's ruby slippers are poised in front of the snow globe.

Amie credited the work to "Little" Jen Small from 510 Expert Tattoo in Charlotte, North Carolina. "I'd been wanting something Wizard of Oz because it's my all-time favorite movie," Amie told me, "and I mentioned it to her [the artist] and she ran with the idea and did exactly what I was hoping for."

This piece, so colorful, was only two weeks old at the time, so it still had that fresh tattoo sheen.

Next up was Chad, who shared this tattoo "in the ditch" for me to see:

Chad explained, "My tattoo was done by Nate Hudak at Flying Tiger Tattoo in Norwood, Ohio." Norwood is an enclave of Cincinnati. He added, "It's an all-seeing eye ... I'm ... into traditional tattooing and I like the idea of a higher being seeing over, you know, everything."

And last up was Tom, a retired school teacher who shared this exploding apple:

He summed it up succinctly in telling me, "I had mine done by Tommy Partin at Aces High [in Mt. Orab, just east of Cincinnati, Ohio] and mine was just a way to represent being done with teaching."

Thanks to Amie, Chad and Tom, this trio of friends, who were all so generous in sharing their ink with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2015 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.

Three Views of Byron's Leg (from the 4th Annual Urban Tattoo Convention)

Yes, we're still working on summer posts, like this one from Byron, who shared some work done on his leg:

Byron told me that the section of teeth and eyes was done freehand.

He also told me that the skull with tentacles was based on his own sketch.

All of this incredible work was done at Inked City Tattoo in Trenton, New Jersey. The artist is Marco Rodriguez, and it took about a year to complete.

Thanks to Byron for sharing this incredible work with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Cat's Eyes and More!

Back in March, on a particularly warm end-of-winter day, I ran into two young ladies in Penn Station, one of whom was named Cat. I spotted three of her tattoos almost immediately, and we had a nice discussion about her ink.

Cat explains:

"the eyes were my first [tattoos] ... on my eighteenth birthday ... I thought it would be cool to base it on my best friend's cat ... I got it just because, I'm Cat ... get cat eyes on my back, why not? It was a birthday present..."

And the name of her friend's cat? Sushi. You know I just had to ask.

The next tattoo she got was this piece on her left arm:

This is based on the art by Kurt Halsey. Cat elaborates:

"It's just always been a favorite of mine. I saw [Halsey] down in Philly and that one was my favorite print." Of course, it helps that the girl in the illustration is holding a cat.

On her opposite arm is this tattoo:

This is based on the work of Garance Doré, a fashion photographer. She's just a huige fan and loves this illustration in particular.


All of the tattoos were done by Nick Trammel at Transcend Tattoo in Branford, Connecticut


Of course, when I was looking back at the photos I took of Cat's tattoos, I noticed in the Kurt Halsey-illustrated piece that the word "saying" was inked on her ribs. It was peeking out from under her top. Of course, I had to ask and Cat obliged by sending me a photo of the whole tattoo:

I'll let Cat explain in her own words:

"The one on my ribs is from the Christopher Isherwood book A Single Man. The quote is 'waking up begins with saying am and now.' It's my favorite book and for me it's just a reminder to live in the moment and not get caught up with the little things. It sounds cheesy but when I got the tattoo I was in a weird place so I like having the reminder close to me."

Thanks to Cat for sharing all of these tattoos with us 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.

Nigel from the Dirty Thirty Shares Some Traditional Ink

I met Nigel on the Upper West Side last month, across the street from Verdi Square. I spotted some tattoos on his arms and asked if he wouldn't mind sharing some of them. He was happy to oblige.

The first piece is a gypsy, inked by Dan Santoro of Smith Street Tattoo in Brooklyn:

"The gypsy," Nigel said, "is pretty much from travelling and bouncing."

He also shared two pieces done by a friend of his from Richmond, Virginia, Gerald M.

"The eyeball here on my right arm is ... blood sweat and tears," he told me. "It represents a lot of different endings and beginnings, as far as work and life and whatnot."

I particularly like this tattoo, on Nigel's upper left arm:

"The train is," Nigel explained, "more or less a story of how my art finished and started." Also by Gerald M., Nigel had nothing but praise for his work:

"His specialty is roses. He won an award in Las Vegas for doing the best rose last year, so that's kind of his thing.  His little trademark is an eyeball, as well, so you'll see an eye in most of his pieces."

The banner identifies "The Dirty 30," a nationwide art collective of which Nigel is a part.

Thanks to Nigel for sharing his 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.

Two Tattoos from Taylor

I met Taylor where she works at Kaleidoscope, a toy store in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

I gave her a flier after admiring her really cool feather tattoo that was inked behind her right ear.


A week later, I was zipping by on my bike and saw her on a break outside the store. That was when I had a chance to speak to her about her tattoos and take the photos for this post.

This is one of her nine tattoos, and was done by an artist named Chris who works out of Puncture Tattoo in neighboring Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.


Taylor says the tattoo is inspired by the fact that she feels free-spirited, like a bird, and that her aunt, who died in a plane crash, used to call her a "little Indian girl". The dangling feathers behind her ear seem to capture both sentiments nicely.

Unlike the first time I met Taylor, on this occasion she was wearing a shirt that showed off this cool tattoo at the top of her back:


Taylor explained that she loves cats and her sister's gray cat Dusty passed away from breast cancer, which has also been a disease that has run in her family, as well. She had the tattoo artist, Peter Cavorsi, of Body Art Studios, model this piece based on Dusty's eyes.

As always, Peter did a superb job. He is no stranger to Tattoosday, having inked one of my tattoos (seen at the bottom of the page) and several of my wife, Melanie's. This link will show you all of Peter Cavorsi's work that has appeared on the site over the last two-and-a-half years.

Thanks again to Taylor for sharing her two beautiful tattoos on Tattoosday!

Tattoos I Know: Marc's Eye

On Monday, I had the day off and hit J.J. Carty Park with the kids, where we ran into one of the girls' camp friends and her father.

I had met Marc, who is a programmer, only a couple of times and the last time I saw him, when Tattoosday was still an infant once-a-week sensation over on BillyBlog, I had noticed a tattoo on Marc's right forearm, above his wrist. For some reason, I didn't ask him then about it, but Monday seemed like a good time as ever, plus my 11-year old broached the subject:

Jolee (ever the model of subtlety): Is that a tattoo?

Marc: Yes.

Jolee (see parenthesis above): Dad, you should tell him about your blog!

The rest is history, I guess. I gave Marc a printout to check out the site while I ran off and played ball with the tomboy.

By the end of the day, I asked him if he wanted to be on Tattoosday. "Sure," he shrugged, "why not?"

He lowered a sock on his left leg to show me the tattoo he had done when he was going to marry his wife, Marina. "I wanted to show my commitment to her," Marc said.



And the same day he got the eye:


The eye represents good luck. It is a protective talisman, of sorts, against the evil eye. Marc referred to its ancient use as a device to ward off evil. Wikipedia states:

Disks or balls, consisting of concentric blue and white circles (usually, from inside to outside, dark blue, light blue, white, dark blue) representing an evil eye are common apotropaic talismans in the Middle East, found on the prows of Mediterranean boats and elsewhere; in some forms of the folklore, the staring eyes are supposed to bend the malicious gaze back to the sorcerer.

Read the whole entry here.

Marc credited these two tattoos (of three in all) to a friend with whom he lost touch named Maya (sp?). She did both pieces free-hand.

Thanks to Marc for his participation on Tattoosday! You can check out his website here.