A Lovely Citrus on Kristina (at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade)

Back in June, at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (@mermaidparade), I met Kristina, who shared this lovely tattoo on her inner arm:

Kristina explained that this is a stylized cross section of an orange, a satsuma mandarin orange, to be exact. She told me that this is her favorite fruit and that, when she worked in a juice bar, she and her colleagues all got fruit tattoos.

Kristina credited Julia Hayes (@JHayesTattoos) with inking this piece when she was at Evil & Love Tattoo (@EvilandLove) in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Julia is now working out of Trinity Tattoo Collective (@Trinity_Tattoo_Collective) in Ridgewood, Queens.

Thanks to Kristina for sharing this beautiful tattoo 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.

A Few of Chelsea's Tattoos

Back in September, I met Chelsea in the lobby of 30 Broad Street in the Financial District.

She was sporting quite a few tattoos and she was kind enough to share some of her work with me and chat about it.

Check out this lovely neck tattoo:

Chelsea explains:

"The bird itself kind of resembles a robin, with the orange belly. But holds no particular meaning to me personally. My mother always grew peonies when I was growing up, so I wanted that flower. Originally planned to be a partner piece, with a nesting bird and different color peony on my left collar, but has been delayed as I am having work done on an extensive leg sleeve."

And also from her left arm:

There's a lot going on here, from the dominating chrysanthemum, to the knuckle tattoos, to the astronaut and the small lemon near her thumb.

Thankfully, Chelsea sorted it all out for me:

"The astronaut and the lemon were already on my hand [before the flower was added]. The lemon being one of my first tattoos about 8 years ago (Jacy Skelton, Jaded Angel, Ames IA) and the astronaut was a Friday the 13th tattoo from about 3 years ago (Kati Vaughn, Magic Cobra, Williamsburg Brooklyn). I asked Jeb to draw up a rose to fit around them. When I showed up for the appointment he said 'I know you wanted a rose, but I drew up this chrysanthemum instead.' I was in love and immediately trusted him. I loved that he took the initiative to draw up something that, although I had not asked for, he knew it would be a better fit. And it was!! The tattoo is now almost 2 years old and the color is still fresh and vibrant. My knuckles were designed by a friend, but tattooed by Jeb Maykut. They spell thirsty, TH,I,RS,TY."

Jeb Maykut (@jeb_maykut) is currently part of the amazing team at Saved Tattoo (@saved_tattoo) in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Chelsea for sharing her beautiful 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.

Bigfoot and a Bowl of Fruit

I stopped Tony and Emily, an Australian couple, as they were crossing 33rd Street near Eighth Avenue late last month. No offense to Tony, but Emily's half-sleeve really jumped out at me from across the street, so I was thrilled when they agreed to stop and talk tattoos with me.

First, here's a collage of Emily's upper right arm:

Emily explained she wanted a colorful tattoo, and she loves fruit, so this was the path she chose. What I like is that, since she is Australian, we get some more exotic fruit here, like dragon fruit and passion fruit in the culinary collage.

This is one of seven tattoos Emily has and was inked by Josh Plum at Yakuza Tattoo in Sydney, Australia.

When I showed the photos to my wife, Melanie, she wanted to know more. Aside from being colorful, why the fruit basket? I e-mailed Tony and he sent the following reply:

"...She said she wanted fruit for a few other reasons other than colourfullness....1) she is really into nutrition and a healthy living style; 2) she had never seen anybody else with a fruit basket tattoo; 3) fish, flowers, etc. are way too common (which is true when you think about it, everyone has koi fish..."

Speaking of Tony, let's not forget him. He had nine tattoos when I met him. He may have another now from New York, I'm not sure. SO, of course I asked him if he would share, as well. He offered up this rendition of Bigfoot on his right forearm:

This tattoo was the artist's rendering of Bigfoot, as interpreted by Sanchez at Steel Lotus Body Arts in Darlinghurst, in Eastern Sydney.

Why Bigfoot? Tony is a huge fan of cryptozoology.The tattoo took about four and a half hours to complete.

Thanks to both Tony and Emily for taking the time to share their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!