CJ's Nostalgic Ghoul

Earlier this month, I attended New York Winter Con out at Resorts World in Queens.

I met a lot of really cool people and saw some great tattoos, like this one, on CJ:

CJ explained that this is an image from the horror film Night of the Living Dead, the 1968 horror classic by George Romero.

CJ loves the movie, so the tattoo taps into his nostalgia.

The work was done by Rebecca Fiduccia (@fire_flew) from No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo (@nokaoitikitattoo) in Philadelphia.

Incidentally, CJ plays guitar for a band called Behind the Facade (@behindthefacadeband). Check them out here.

Thanks to CJ for sharing his 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.

Jenn McCreary's Owl (The Tattooed Poet's Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Jenn McCreary:

Jenn explains how her owl came to perch on her arm:

"This tattoo was done by Anna Paige, owner of & artist at No Ka Oi Tiki in Philadelphia. It was in part a cover-up job— concealing my first tattoo, a woman’s face in a crescent moon on my shoulder—which I’d gotten around my 21^st birthday.

I’d been thinking about this piece for over a year & had collected a folder of images of Athena’s owl, including the Athenian owl on the Greek drachma, which I turned over to Paige during our consult. 

When I went back for the ink appointment & Paige showed me her design I told her it was way too big. She countered that it was exactly the size it needed to be to fit the musculature of my shoulder/arm & look properly anchored, & was still high enough to be covered by a short sleeve, should I ever need to hide it. She drew it on a piece of saran wrap & held it to my arm to prove the point. She was right. 

It took about four hours. We talked about cooking & listened to country music. Paige let me watch until it was almost finished& then instructed me to turn away while she finished, particularly the eyes, which she’d saved for last.​"​

Jenn sent us the following poem, as well:

owls do cry

o on the bats’s back       on a night in summer    a

night like now        on the lawn       or in the grotto

or by  the japonica     or under the tamarind

&  after summer            &  the  creases will come

out in    the air        &  o kind air  that could never

fulfill any promise

o air that is a green & violet & silver thought     is

a shiny thing    is equal parts vinegar & glitter   is

glitter-bright     is vinegar-sharp

& now in this hush     & now we shall have broken

clouds         &  now  snow           &  now  a  cozy

feather      & now sleeping does opens secrets

o faultless hiding place      o moon swallowed by

owl’s   wing            o   moon   that   sends   you

back     o seized again

& with a burning one of its million hands         &

struggle does begin again    & again       & goes

on      & on       & does never finish

~ ~ ~

Jenn McCreary’s most recent full-length collection, & now my feet are maps, is available from Dusie Press; sections were adapted for stage with the playwright Kathy Vinogradoff for performances at Small Press Traffic’s Poets Theater in the East Bay, CA, & at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. Other ​books include The Dark Mouth of Living (Horse Less Press), :ab ovo: (Dusie Press), a doctrine of signatures (Singing Horse Press), & Odyssey & Oracle (Least Weasel Press).

A 2013 Pew Fellow in the Arts for poetry, she lives in Philadelphia with her family where she edits ixnay press.

Thanks to Jenn for sharing her cool tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2016 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.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

Mike and Harley Quinn at the NYC Poetry Festival

I met Mike in late July at the NYC Poetry Festival on Governor's Island. He shared this cool tattoo by Christine Nelson from No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo in Philadelphia:

"This is the character Harley Quinn," Mike explained. "She's the Joker's girlfriend ... my favorite comic book character," he added, "and it's every girl I shouldn't date."

Thanks to Mike for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2015 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 Poet's Project: Alice Ladrick

Our next tattooed poet is Alice Ladrick:

Alice tells us:

"I got this little guy done at No Ka Oi in Philly. It was something I'd be thinking about for awhile but the actual plan was hatched just a little before I went out there. I got the crow (his name is Corbin) because crows had kinda been following me around for awhile and became a symbol of comfort for me, plus I like the multiplicity of meanings crows carry in various mythologies."

Alice also sent along a poem from a series called "ISOTOPE":

from ISOTOPE

Everybody’s moving in with their boyfriend and I

decided to get a tattoo: “ME”

all caps on my ring finger,

call my artist my jeweler

when I go in for touchups. Get it

sized up (cuz I’ll gain weight). I’m watching

my figure. The way I figure it

I’ll be that sprinter-poet. Shit.

Spinster poet. Write it all at once

like once is a place you’ve been and can

go back to it.

My boyfriend dumped me on

my birthday. I’m not bitter

but I am a liar.

Never going back there

(lie) where boys are

appealing. Fights with myself

always end in sex. 

~ ~ ~

Alice Ladrick writes poems about lots of things. She also likes making books and isn't here to make friends (only she could probably use some). Alice tried having a website one time but never updated it so...

Thanks to Alice for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Li's Tattoo Recalls Saint Exupéry

A tattoo means the most to the person who has endured the process.

A tattoo often represents more than what meets the eye.

I met Li along the New Jersey Transit corridor of Penn Station.

She has five tattoos, and chose this one to share with us here on Tattoosday:


What I find intriguing about this piece is that it is not abundantly clear to a stranger what it is.

Li had this tattoo based on, she said, a drawing by Jean Piaget, that depicts the author Antoine de Saint Exupéry rolling an orange along the keys of a piano.

Saint Exupéry, most notably the author of The Little Prince, is Li's favorite author.

Li told me that the writer rolled the orange over the keys, which produced a soothing noise which helped his wife sleep at night,

I could not find the drawing to which Li refers, but I did find this reference, in Saint-Exupery: A Biography, by Stacey Schiff:

At Silvia's he devised a game he called "des oranges sur le piano." By rolling one orange up and down the black keys and a second over the white he was able to produce what sounded to most ears like honest Debussy.

This tattoo was inked by Rachel, formerly of No Ka Oi Tiki Tattoo, in Philadelphia.

Thanks to Li for sharing her fascinating tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!