Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): Head Tattoos

Showing posts with label Head Tattoos. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Bonnie's Tattoos (Tattoosday Goes to Oklahoma City)

This past March, Tattoosday took a road trip, traversing the nation, driving from Virginia to California. There were some sunny days, but the chill of spring was still in the air, so I didn't get to meet a lot of folks with tattoos, but we had one encounter in Oklahoma City where it ll came together.

We had stopped for lunch at The Loaded Bowl, when Melanie spotted a heavily-tattooed woman with a Beavis and Butthead tattoo. This provided an excellent opportunity to strike up a conversation with Bonnie Blackwolf (@heavymetalhousewife), who shared several of her pieces, including this, the most noticeable one:

Bonnie told us that she got this band of wolves teeth in Portland, Oregon. She told us that the strings of teeth actually run to the sides of her head, that she had the sides shaved at the time, so the tattoo is not just the front of her head.

Here's the Beavis and Butthead tattoo that, she told us, got her more free drinks in bars than you could imagine:

That piece reads "Thrashin' Since '87."

Bonnie, who plays bass in a Death Metal band called Death Squad, also shared this cool burning church tattoo on her upper back and neck:

Uhellig translates to unholy in Norwegian.

Last among the tattoos Bonnie shared with us was this piece on her leg:

Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Bonnie told me, is one of her favorite movies, and August 29, 1997 is listed as the day that a nuclear holocaust led to the rise of the machines. She got this on August 29, 2017, on the twentieth anniversary of Judgment Day.

Thanks to Bonnie for sharing her cool tattoos with us back in March at The Loaded Bowl in Oklahoma City!

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.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Philly to the Bone (Tattoosday at the Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention)

Last weekend at the 20th Annual Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention (@villainarts), I met Lucas, who approached me and my bald head and suggested I should ink my dome like he had:

Lucas, like many of the folks in attendance at the convention, was still on a Super Bowl high, as the Eagles had brought home the championship just six days earlier. You know someone's a fan when they're proudly inked with the team's logo, and there is no greater commitment than to slap that baby right on the side of your head, like the design on a helmet.

He credited the work to Doug Hand (@thughand) from Northern Liberty Tattoo (@northernlibertytattoo) in Philadelphia.

Lest one doubt the commitment to his local teams, Lucas had, a few years back, had the baseball logo of the beloved Philadelphia Phillies emblazoned on the other side of his dome:

Doug Hand also did this piece.

I'm assuming the back of his skull is reserved for a 76'ers logo, but I forgot to ask.

Thanks to Lucas for sharing these tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! Fly, Eagles, fly!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Bear in Mind (Tattoosday Goes to Philly)

Philadelphia may be the home of the Eagles, but this Bear caught my eye last weekend at the 20th Annual Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention (@villainarts):

That's on the back of the head of Brian Vaillancourt (@brianvaillancourt) from Inkslingers Studio (@inkslingers_studio) in Alhambra, California. Brian credited Frank Sanchez (@frank310) with creating this piece.

Thanks to Brian for sharing this bad ass tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Some Belgian Ink in Manhattan

Back in September, I met a couple on the steps of Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. They were visiting from Belgium and, between them, had quite a few tattoos. Kenny and Ineke were kind enough to share their work.

First up is this shot of Ineke's head:

Ineke credited the patterns on her scalp to Erik El Santo (@erik_el_santo) at Dagger Moon Tattoo (@daggermoontattoo) in Hasselt, Belgium.

Kenny shared this amazing work on his chest:

The skull and cobra were done by Don Porto (@tattoodonporto), from Inkhouse in Geel, Belgium.

Thanks to Kenny and Ineke for sharing their amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, March 27, 2017

Herke's Heads (at the NY Empire State Tattoo Expo 2016)

Last summer at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo), I met Herke (@tsurujo_irezuki), who had a couple of really interesting tattoos to share.

First up is this crane on his head:

Herke is a tattooer from Brig, Switzerland, and he owns the The Flying Dutchman Tattoo & Piercing Shop in nearby Naters, Switzerland.

He explained that his last name, Kranenborg, translates in Japanese to "Crane Castle." He is a traditional Japanese artists and he also has a kamon, which is a Japanese family crest, that includes a crane in the design. This piece was done in Japan by his tattoo master, Jess Yen (@jessyentattoo), who works out of the Los Angeles area at My Tattoo (@mytattooandpiercing), a shop he founded. Herke counts himself as one of Jess Yen's disciples.

He also shared this tattoo on his inner arm:

Herke explained that he received this to commemorate his 40th birthday. The artist is Jack Mosher (@jackmosher_horimuja) who works out of Hold Fast Tattoo in Prescott, Arizona.

Herke explained that in old Japan, after a battle was fought, the women from the victorious village would go to the battlefield, collect the chopped off heads of the slain enemies, clean them up and placed them around the village to commemorate the victories and warn people "if you mess with us, this is what happens to you." In a sense, it is a good luck symbol. It was actually the first tattoo that Herke showed me before I noticed the crane on his head.

Thanks to Herke for sharing his fantastic tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, March 30, 2015

Not a Tattooed Poet, But a Poet's Tattooed Daughter

In our pre-April anticipation of the Tattooed Poet's Project, I look to Rebecca Foust.

"I don't have any tattoos," she informed me in response to my inquiry about her ink status, "but my daughter Finlay has the name of my book (and its titular poem), All That Gorgeous Pitiless Song tattooed on her head, shaved in order to raise money for research for childhood cancers."

Well, that suits me just fine, so check out Finlay's head tattoo:

Rebecca also shared the poem from which the title and, hence, the tattoo, originated:

Altoona to anywhere

Go ahead, aspire to transcend

your hardscrabble roots, bootstrap

the life you dream on,

escape the small-minded tyranny

of your small-minded Midwestern

coalmining town.

But when you’ve left it behind, you

may find it still there, in your dreams,

your syntax, the smell of your hair,

its real smell, under the shampoo.

Beware DNA; it will out or be outed,

and you’ll find yourself back

where you started, back home,

unable to refute the logic of blood and bone

you’ll slip, and pick up Velveeta

instead of brie. It’s inexorable.

Kansas one day will turn out to be Oz

and Oz Kansas,

with the same back porch weeping,

the same husbands sleeping around,

addiction, cancer, babies born wrong;

the same siren nights pierced

with stars seeping light, all that

gorgeous, pitiless song.

[first published in Margie, nominated for a 2008 Pushcart Prize.)

~ ~ ~

Rebecca Foust was the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence and is the recipient of fellowships from the Frost Place and the MacDowell Colony. New poems are in the HudsonReview, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, North American Review, Omniverse, and other journals, and an essay that won the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award in the Winter 2015 issue of the Malahat Review. Foust’s most recent book, Paradise Drive, won the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry and can be ordered at http://www.press53.com/Award_for_Poetry.html. For more information visit http://rebeccafoust.com/.

Thanks to Rebecca for sharing her poem and to Finlay for sharing her tattoo!

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.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Four Tattoos by Eon (at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention)

On Saturday at the 5th annual NYC Urban Tattoo Convention, I asked a guy about his back piece and who his artist was. The artist was Eon, owner of Mr. Tank's Tattoos in Denver, Colorado, and he happened to be standing right there. In fact, Eon was with four of his clients, so I just snapped away.

This is the back piece that first caught my eye:

This is a variation on the Hear No Evil, See No evil, Speak No Evil motif. I commended Eon on his style and he proudly showed off the work that was around him, like this Voodoo-themed "Black Magic" calk piece:

And this rib piece that celebrates the legalization of marijuana in his home state of Colorado:

And, finally, this killer "Money on My Mind" head tattoo. Eon explained how he used the white highlights on the darker skin to really make Ben Franklin jump off of the skull:

Thanks to Eon and his friends from Denver for sharing their ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Head Cross by Needles

There's a guy I've seen around for the past couple of years who I've been dying to ask about his tattoo.

I finally inquired last week and he agreed to share the tattoo, but wished to remain anonymous:

He credited this Celtic cross to Needles at East Side Ink, in New York City.

We'll have something else later in the week by Needles, as well.

Thanks to the gentleman above for sharing his head tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Dispatch from the 2011 New York City Tattoo Convention (A Recap)

Yesterday I spent a half dozen hours at the Roseland Ballroom, where the New York City Tattoo Convention was holding court. This was my third trip to the show, and each year, I have a different experience, as Tattoosday has evolved as a site (read about 2009 here and 2010 here).

In years past, I have only highlighted one or two pieces, as I go into sensory overload. What, outside of a convention's setting, would normally pique my interest, seems commonplace and ordinary. This year, however, I took many more photos, and actually interviewed four people, so this will be Convention Recap Week.

I do want to say the best part of the show was hanging and chatting with Marisa and Brian from Needles and Sins, as well as with Nathan from Knuckle Tattoos. It's not a portrait of future world domination, yet, but here's the three of us, masterminds of three of the best tattoo sites around, and hands and above, the best three inkbloggers at the show:

Nathan, Marisa and Me (photo by Brian Grosz)

That moment of self-adulation aside, I spent the first few hours talking to vendors about advertising, chatting with colleagues, and saying hello to people I've met in years past, like Greg who was the high point of last year's show for me.

I also like to introduce myself to artists whose work has appeared on the Site before, so I said hi to Adam Rosenthal of Th'Ink Tank in Denver, and Vinny Romanelli at Red Rocket in NYC.

I also took a slew of photos of people I didn't interview, so I will just throw them up here. Unfortunately I can't credit any of the amazing artists responsible. However, if you see your work here, shoot me an email and I can give you your proper due. Many of these shots were taken during the first round of the contest, which centered around black and gray work:

This one was one of my favorites, especially considering the woman's reflection in the blade of the knife:

And this Star Wars leg was totally cool:

Finally, through social media, my friend Ben in Hawai'i requested a shot of "80s West Coast punk rock logos." I thought I had failed in my quest until, as I was leaving, I captured this tiny Black Flag tattoo on a guy named Crash, who works for Tattoo Artist Magazine:

Mini-Black Flag Bars Tattoo by Oliver Peck

and this incredible Misfits piece to boot:

Tattoo by Frank Lee at Tattoo Blues in Ft. Lauderdale

Yes, we know, Misfits are an East Coast band. But it was too nice a tattoo to not photograph. Can you blame me?

Check out the Tattoo Artist Magazine blog here.

Check back throughout the week to see what four tattoos I found most blogworthy for us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog)