Apollo, Dionysus, and Cody Wilson (The Tattooed Poets Project)

We are a launching our eleventh annual Tattooed Poets Project with Cody Wilson, who shared these amazing tattoos:

Cody explained:

"I’m a big fan of Nietzsche’s thoughts on the role of art, especially in The Birth of Tragedy. Nietzsche argues that we need a balance of order and disorder, and that these things compliment one another. Apollo, on my right leg, represents this as a patron of art: he was a symbol of reason and pragmatism for the Greeks. Dionysus, on my left, was also a patron of the arts, the god of wine and theater, and often represented disorder or a detachment from reason. I think in writing poetry, there’s a liminal space that we have to balance when we commit ourselves to the poem while also detaching ourselves from it in order to let it do its own thing. So often in life have I been Dionysian and craved the Apollonian, and vice versa. Having each god face each other on each leg was a sort of tribute to this. These pieces are modeled after Greek pottery from the 5th Century. Shoutout to Nigel Hirschi (@nergent) at High Noon Tattoo (@highnoontattoo) in Phoenix, who loves the weird, Greek-influenced art of Aubrey Beardsley, for tattooing these, along with at least 10 other pieces on my body. Some of my tattoos mean something. Some of them mean I just liked Nigel’s art. Order and disorder!"

Cody also sent us this tattoo-themed poem:

Admiring Japanese Flash While Getting Tattooed

A cupped hummingbird
in a palm chatters its beak
into flesh. Plasma
like nectar seeps to spittle.
Flowers get under my skin.

The sudden needles:
ADHD. My mind fires
its nociceptors
like bulbs breaking for photos.
The photographer stays hunched.

For lines, needles like
spines. For shades, needles like combs.
Needles fracking flesh.
My native skin protesting
unfair trespass of pigment.

Memento Mori:
Yorick’s grin is in my skin.
His mooned forehead wanes
behind my shirt—epitaph
engraved on my collar bone.

~ ~ ~

Cody Wilson teaches English and Creative Writing in Arizona. He has an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. His chapbook, Nobody is Ever Missing, was published by Tolsun Books. Some of his work appears at Juxtaprose, The Southampton Review, Juked, Emrys, New Ohio Review and Arc Poetry Magazine.

Thanks to Cody Wilson for sharing his tattoos and poem, helping us launch our eleventh year of the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2019 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.

Poseidon on Mark (Tattoosday Goes to Philly)

Earlier this month, at the 20th Annual Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention (@villainarts), I met Mark, who had traveled all the way from Manchester, in the United Kingdom, to obtain this awesome tattoo:

This portrait of Poseidon was inked by Henrique Carmo (@hcarmo_tattoo) out of Revival Tattoo Studio (@revivaltattoostudio) in Blackpool, England.

See an Instagram video of the tattoo in greater detail here.

Thanks to Mark for sharing this great 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.

Jennifer's Sculpted Arm

Back in September, I met Jennifer, whose stunning tattoo stopped me in my tracks. Fortunately, she generously shared her work:

Jennifer told me this was inspired by a sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This is the artwork that provided the basis for the tattoo:

The work in question, Latona and Her Children, Apollo and Diana is a work by American sculptor William Henry Rinehart, and features a mother looking down lovingly on her two children. The work spoke to Jennifer, who was inspired to use this as a basis for her tattoo that reminds her of her own love of her two sons.

This artwork was translated into a tattoo by Ronen Bichado (@ronentat) from Inkstop Tattoo (@inkstoptattoonyc) in Manhattan.

Here's another perspective from the artist's Instagram:

via @ronentat

Thanks to Jennifer for sharing her 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Abby E. Murray's Hippocampus

I often find tattooed poets from other non-tattooed poets. When I asked Jessy Randall if she had tattoos, she said she only had the temporary kind, but she did send me to Abby E. Murray, who was happy to share some of her work.

"I have a full sleeve on my left arm that comes over my shoulder, and a 1/4 sleeve on the right," Abby told me, adding, "Plus a small, blurry Star Wars tattoo in the center of shoulder blades that I got when I was eighteen."

Take a look:

Abby explains:

"The hippocampus (Poseidon's horse) featured is by Tracy Zumwalt from Anchor Tattoo in Seattle (2006). He's awesome - very particular and honest, true to his art. He also did the peacock feathers (Hera's signature bird) you can only sort of see under my sweater sleeve (2007). The owls near my elbow and purple dress of Athena below are by Joe Vegas at 13 Roses in Atlanta (2009). Joe, too, is a great guy. I used to work as a vet tech down the street from 13 Roses and I once helped his dog get through an eye infection. Joe has a coyote head on his wall that I once sent a pipe as a gift. Said pipe is still mounted to said coyote's mouth. 

My first tattoo was actually a Star Wars symbol (Rebel Alliance, to be specific) on my back. I was young and well-convinced I was tough. My sleeves are mostly based on Greek mythology, which I find, simply put, pretty. Greek mythology is brimming with powerful gods and animals. I wouldn't necessarily say that my tattoos mean anything other than I like cool drawings though, which usually disappoints people who want to know some deeper reason for my getting them."

Incidentally, Tracy Zumwalt is also responsible for this and this tattoo on poet Rebecca Loudon.

Abby sent us this poem:

About Tattoos

When we eat chicken patties in the dining room

we keep our forearms on the table like good Germans,

hands where we can see them. I move my fingertips

on your bare arm from wrist to elbow and say,

look at all this space. You move away from me

as if I proposed cold coffee or yard work,

as if to remind me of that time I met the general’s wife

and I shook her hand with my Pegasus arm,

my Athena elbow, Poseidon’s chariot on my shoulder.

Long white gloves do little for me in the receiving line,

my lotus flowers and storm clouds and blue

and purple stars, the barn owls and cherry blossoms,

the rebel insignia of youth essentially flipping

a ballroom full of army wives the bird.

I’m still angry about the time we went to Hawaii

the week before Iraq, and a coupon for a tattoo parlor

wrapped around bread crusts rolled across your beach towel.

I’ve seen you change your mind as often

as I’ve watched turtles extend cherimoya legs

from the dark windows of their bellies,

which is to say I’ve seen turtles do this once,

at a carnival, and it made me glad I was smooth.

We took the bus across Honolulu and let a retired monk

shave your arm, drill an enormous sparrow into it,

let him slap your back and say good luck over there

like the difference between blood drawn on vacation

and blood drawn in the desert is little more

than a matter of timing, of words between men.

~ ~ ~

Abby E. Murray is the director of the Binghamton Poetry Project and poetry editor for Harpur Palate. She's a big fan of tattoos done by Tracy Zumwalt in Seattle and Joe Vegas in Atlanta.

Thanks to Abby for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2015 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.