Martin's Tattoos Are Out of This World

I met Martin in Union Square last fall and he shared a couple of really cool tattoos:

This piece was done by David Côté at Imperial Tattoo Connexion (@imperialtattooconnexion) in Montreal. "I really just liked this guy's work," Martin told me, "he does really cool spaceships and stuff."

Martin also had this really neat take on Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Martin explained the origin of this piece:

"I was raised in a Catholic household, but I'm not necessarily believing in it now. I still like the imagery and being really into aliens and stuff, I just kind of like tried to combine [the two] to make it my own."

He credited the artist Ross Jones (@rosskjones) with this cool tattoo. Ross works out of Idle Hand Tattoo (@idlehandsf) in San Francisco, but Martin got the tattoo here on the East Coast when Ross did a guest spot at a local shop.

Thanks to Martin for sharing his tattoos 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project Welcomes Back Izzy Oneiric

Izzy Oneiric first appeared on The Tattooed Poets Project three years ago in this post. The piece she shared is phenomenal, and her post was re-tweeted by Neil Gaiman, upon whose work the tattoo was based. It remains one of the most-viewed Tattoosday posts in our eight-year history.That said, when Izzy emailed me earlier this year about submitting some new work, I was definitely excited to see what she was sharing. I was not disappointed. Check it out:

Here's a different perspective:

Izzy calls this her "Flowering Outerspace Kudzu with Alien Burroughs Quote". She elaborates:

"The tattoo on my chest celebrates the life and spirit of Nathan Breitling, a dear friend and fellow poet. We met in the Poetry MFA program at Columbia College Chicago in 2009 and remained close until his sudden death last May. Everyone who knew him was devastated. He was a wonderful person and a promising poet. He was a light. Sometimes a black light and sometimes a strobe light, but always a light. Nate's family established a poetry fellowship in his honor. His friends at Phantom Limb Press created the Breitling Open Chapbook Prize. I got a tattoo. I knew any tattoo for him had to be strange and bright. I also knew it had to be visible, so I could tell people about him when they asked.

Nate's poem 'Flowering Kudzu' encompasses so much of what I love about him and his work. He wasn't afraid to experiment. He wasn't afraid to take risks, embrace the unknown and laugh about it. 'Let's just hope this works, because I've never tried it before.' The result was always weird and beautiful. I don't use those words lightly.

Shortly after watching 'Flowering Kudzu' again, I stumbled on the Burroughs quote 'Language is a virus from outer space.' Whenever I encounter Burroughs now, I associate it with Nate, and it was just natural to connect language and kudzu as invasive aliens . . . it was actually more of a collision than a connection, and that was when the piece really coalesced. I suspected Shawn Dubin at Idle Hands was the right artist for it; confirmed after I messaged him Hey. I want a tattoo of flowering kudzu from outer space incorporated with a Burroughs quote in an alien script. It's a memorial piece for a friend. There's also serious cover work involved. What do you think? and he replied. Sure, send some pics and I'll start sketching.

I chose 'Alienese 1' from Futurama for the lettering because it's stylistically compatible with the kudzu, and I thought Nate might appreciate the irony of an alien virus transmitted via cartoon. Shawn spent hours on the design, and it took two sessions (about seven hours) of actual tattooing, not including stenciling and placement, because it also had to cover three crappy tattoos I thought were bad-ass when I was 18. Shawn was awesome the entire time, which was rough in a few places. The sternum--bony slab that shields the heart—was sore and raw after several hours. I cried--more than once. But the result was worth it. Weird. And beautiful. Like Nate".

Izzy Oneiric is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in bacon. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Raging Pelican, Source Material, South Loop Review and Women Poets Wearing Sweatpants. Her chapbook From the Bombshell Shelter was selected as Main Street Rag's Author's Choice. She currently performs with the New Orleans Poetry Brothel and is working on her third manuscript, a collage of texts published before 1940, an excerpt of which appears below.

Reunited, but Only for One is That Tragic

Two arms can openly nail the heart.

There is space provided for you here. There is a splendid panoramic view. In order to precipitate the tragedy, a gold disc by the sun, more powerful than love, will fill the whole boat and crush us like lizards.
To sink the boat.

In the picture of my thought, the freshness of the dizzying water, a fetid seagull released whipping black rocks. Most sweet consolation.

Discovered in the pocket of my jacket:

A narrow pestle.
A leather God.
Fourteen stories.
A bubbling rose.

~ ~ ~

Thanks to Izzy for coming back to us here on the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

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.

Two for Tattoosday: Some Traditional Work Imported from California

Last week I spotted a young tattooed woman chatting with a friend outside of the Chelsea Whole Foods store. I hesitated because I was running late, but doubled back across the street and introduced myself. As it turned out, Krista and her two friends, Ryan and Jake, had recently moved from San Francisco to New York. All of them had tattoos.

Her friend Jake shared his first, but I am deferring that one to a later, more appropriate date (hint: check back on Father's Day).

After seeing Jake's tattoo, I turned to Krista and Ryan. "Who's next?" I asked hopefully.
Fortunately, I didn't get the "Wasn't the one tattoo enough?" attitude.

Krista deferred to Ryan and he offered, with his friend's assistance, this amazing piece:


I was surprised, to be honest, to see such a huge, traditional sailor tattoo on a tall young man with a finely-waxed handlebar mustache, so I had to ask what was behind this amazing piece.

He had a simple answer, "I'm American." And the logic computes on different levels. The eagle is our national bird, and the art of tattoo, which was discovered by British sailors on the indigenous populations of the South Pacific, didn't really explode in popularity until American servicemen started bringing their body art home from overseas.

There is something purely American in the naval tattoos that have embedded themselves in our cultural psyches and, although other cultures may argue the uniqueness of such art to U.S. citizens, that is the perception that has been re-enforced by our society.

This amazing tattoo was completed in four four-hour sessions by Zach Johnson at Idle Hands Tattoo Studio in San Francisco. Mr. Johnson is no longer listed on staff there but, according to his MySpace page, he occasionally pops back in from time to time.

Chest tattoos are notoriously painful and Ryan concurred: the pain, he said, especially over the diaphragm, was the worst he's ever felt ("worse than that from accidents" he has been in, he insisted). And he has seven tattoos, to boot, so he is no novice.

I turned to Krista, inquiring, and smiled when it was clear she was contributing as well. I believe it was the first time I got three people together to participate, with three very different tattoos.

She offered up this unique tattoo, also by Zack Johnson:



Krista explained that Zack had drawn up a whole series of flapper-esque, gypsy-style profiles, putting his personal spin on each one. This one has a feline appearance and, as a lover of cats, she took a shine to the design. The tattoo, as a result, has a traditional feel, but with a modified spin that makes it more unique. I particularly like the collar with the bell attached to it:


Thanks to Krista and Ryan for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!