Eric Machan Howd's Musical Hands (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Today's tattooed poet is Eric Machan Howd, who shared these cool tattoos:

Eric explained

"The tattoos above are some of my most recent work. I’ve since gotten one new tattoo on the back of my neck. Music and poetry are two of the most important aspects of my life.; I cannot live without either.

I have been a professional pianist/organist for over 35 years and have played on instruments from New Jersey to the Czech Republic. I saw this design as a laptop sticker and loved how the G (Treble) and F (Bass) clefs were designed to make a heart. So, I walked to my local tattoo shop, where I have gotten almost all of my work done, and shared the design with my artist (Cesar) at Medusa Tattoo. Cesar Enciso (@cesarenciso) owns and operates this parlour with his glorious spouse, Carol Oddy (@carolthealien). Both are amazing artists; my newest tattoo was done by Carol, so that I could say both spouses worked on me.

Eric correctly noted that "hands sometime reject ink," and that he has "had to go back for a few touch-ups so that the clefs are fully inked."

Eric was also kind enough to share the following tattoo-related poem, a version of which first appeared  in Nostalgia Press’ Heart (No. 12, 2017) where it received an honorable mention, and publication, in their national contest:

Edison’s Electric Pen Vibrating

The feel of the itch for ink,

the need to be stretched canvas,

illustrated, illuminated, annotated

to have life marked,

stamped, and stained on skin.

Thomas Edison’s electric pen

repurposed into coil machine

sings about the young woman's

design: an angel cradling

a grayscale baby-boy,

centered on her back;

her brother's ashes swirled

with black ink; needles

that bury and sew siblings together.

Nations become seamless in

the full-body skins of the Yakuza,

koi and dragons constricting muscles,

the dusty green anchors that weigh

on the forearms of retired sailors,

the black skulls cupped by curvy

Betties undulating on biker biceps.

The tattooed know what’s behind

Maori masks and understand the secrets on

the inked lips of single Ainu women,

the meaning of lines carved into Borneo face.

They understand the Tong, Samoans, Polynesians, 

Celts, Scythians, all those who memorialize

life in flesh, who suffer to remember

loved ones, who brand themselves freak

and make themselves a living book, opened

to the world, wanting to be read, wanting

to be inked over and over.

~ ~ ~

Eric Machan Howd (Ithaca, NY) is an Assistant Professor of Professional and Technical Writing (Department of Writing) at Ithaca College. He is also a professional organist, pianist, and choir director in the Ithaca area. Eric’s poetry has appeared in River City, Nimrod, Yankee Magazine, and The Healing Muse (selected). He is currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) with the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His lives, loves, and writes with his glorious spouse and poet, Katharyn Howd Machan, and their two cats, Footnote and Byron.

Thanks to Eric for sharing his tattoos and poem with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

To see our entire list of poets over the last ten years, please visit www.tattooedpoets.com.

This entry is ©2018 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.

Jessi's Musical Bird

I met Jessi at the beginning of the month, while walking up 8th Avenue.

She shared this really cool tattoo on her forearm:

Yes, it's a bird, but it is a design created entirely out of musical notations and dynamic markings. The sharp symbol (hashtag/pound sign) represent the feet. The forte marking (the f) is the wing. The crescendo (the < shape) is the beak. The head and eye are created by the symbol for fermata, or pause. Finally,  the slur, which forms the underbelly, is represented by an arc.

"I'm not a music major, I'm just a music fan," Jessi explained, adding that she saw the design online and "stole" the idea for her own tattoo.

Jessi had this done at Neptune Tattooville (@neptunetattoo), but does not recall which artist did the work.

Thanks to Jessi for sharing this cool 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.

Simply The Beth

Everyone's reeling from a year that took so many celebrities from us. 2016 will be remembered as a devastating year from that perspective, and yet there are many of us who lost people near and dear to us - family members that left our lives too soon.

Last June, we attended a family event in New Jersey, and spent some time catching up with cousins. One of those cousins, Beth, has always been interested in Tattoosday, and we always talk about ink, inevitably, when we get together. She even appeared in these pages five years ago, here.

Anyway, at this latest gathering, Beth shared one of her new tattoos:

It's a simple tattoo, but Beth was very proud of it. The open hearts form a type of infinity sign. She summarized it saying that the open parts of the symbol allow "the good shit to come in, and the bad shit to go out." It was a marked note of optimism from her, as she elaborated that she was not letting the bad things in life bother her, and she was welcoming in the good. The musical notes are a nod to her love of music, and the paw is a tribute to her dog, Tiki. Beth loved animals and dedicated a lot of her time to dogs, even fostering puppies in her own home.

The piece was tattooed by Thomas "Thomi Hawk" Hickey at K&B Tattooing and Piercing in Hightstown, New Jersey.

Like a lot of Tattoosday encounters, I didn't post this tattoo right away. I hung on to it as the summer started and I had loads of material. This is a normal part of our "organic" process at Tattoosday. Looking back, I wish I hadn't waited.

My wife woke me up early one morning in August, in tears. Beth had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly overnight in her home. She was way too young and our hearts were broken. The photo of her tattoo sat on my phone. I had recently thought about messaging her to tell her I hadn't forgotten about it, that I was going to get to it soon.

That's an apt metaphor that we all know too well. We often take for granted that the people in our lives will be with us for a long time, and then, in a moment, they're gone.

Beth's funeral was heart-breaking, but it did afford our family the opportunity to start healing. We also got to meet Thomas Hickey and my wife and I chatted with him and his wife about Beth and her love of tattoos.

It is easy to forget in the midst of the wave of "celebrity" passings in 2016 that so many of us lost people near and dear to us. Cherish those memories. Remember the message in Beth's tattoo - let go of the bad shit in your life and allow the good shit in. We remembered Beth knowing that when she was taken from us, she was happier than she had been in years.

Thank you Beth, for your love and for your tattoos, and for being part of the Tattoosday family, always.

Beth was a huge supporter of Southern Paws Inc., a non-profit animal rescue group that rescues dogs and finds them new homes. Learn more about the organization here.

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.

Toby's Tattoo is Fin-Tastic!

Back in October, I met Toby in Bowling Green Park in Lower Manhattan:

He shared this cool tattoo:

Toby hails from Switzerland. "I lived in New York for one year, but I moved back in February," he told me.

Toby's hobbies include scuba diving and music, so he incorporated both into his body art.

He described this as "a whale shark fin, as imagined by the artist."

He elaborated, telling me it is a "Maori, Polynesian, tribal-style whale shark fin, ending in a [musical] note key … because I’m a musician, as well … combination of both hobbies.”

He credited the work to Edwin at Royal Flush Tattoo in Thun, Switzerland.

Thanks to Toby for sharing this great tattoo 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Erica Dawson

Our next tattooed poet is Erica Dawson, who sent along this image of her ink:

Erica explains:

“I got this in December 2010. When I walked into 1603 Tattoo & Piercing, Co. in Ybor City, and met Shawn Chalk, the best tattoo artist ever, I had no clue what I wanted. It ended up being perfect: we talked the whole time; and, even better, we ate chicken wings during a break."

Shawn Chalk is now working out of Tabernacle Tattoo in Tampa.

Erica also shared the following poem:

La Revue Nègre

The curtain’s up? Hey now! Away I go.
La vie en rose (ah hem), Bonjour et O,
Au Cabaret! (Look out!) Puccini’s O
Mio bambino caro….I’ll know
The other words then, too; sing Nina’s woe
In her sultry old blue mood indigo;
With Johnny Cash, go make an Alamo
In Reno: we’ll up and kill a man; I’ll sow
Jimmy’s cracked corn; and, then, Pinocchio
It: wish upon a star; I’ll row row row
A boat; and, fit the battle of Jericho—

But, then, (Bravo!) I’ll give it up and throw
It to my sidekick with the fine trousseau:
Ms. Josephine Baker—two woman show,
Expatriates, banana dances, “whoa,”
Revue Negre, Nature’s Black Pearls, “Moi ‘lo,’”
“Don’t Touch Our Four Tomatoes.” We would tow
The audience to our private chateau
Brimming with leopards, liquor, curio-
Toucans, and every latest Romeo.

I’ve got to get a dog first, though, and grow
Pin-curled sideburns and learn to pose, tableau
Of taut breasts and the navel apropos
Of Paris nightlife, drop it hot, slow, low
As bass, tell Daddy Rice to tell Jim Crow
To take his minstrel smile and o-
pen up real wide to suck our titties. Lo,

How a rose e’er bloomed when you sang out, Sweet Jo.
You are our voice. Sing louder. Oui. Hello
And Enchanté. The bistro’s spotlight glow
Will turn into a dusked seraglio
And crown us sultans. Yes, Madame Tussaud
Could wax us. Yes, we’ll get some more Merlot,
Black Gypsy Rose. Don’t stop your do-si-do.
Please flaunt your gold-chained hips. Work that bon mot
Banter. I’ll make a keepsake video;
And, if you stop singing, I’ll lip-synch, blow
A kiss to our United States below
The smoke that hovered with the mistletoe.

~ ~ ~

Erica Dawson is the author of two collections of poetry: The Small Blades Hurt (Measure Press) and Big-Eyed Afraid (Waywiser Press). She teaches at The University of Tampa.

Thanks to Erica for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2014 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.