Tattoosday Goes to Vegas .... And Beyond!

Last month in Las Vegas I snapped a bunch of random tattoo pictures at the Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival. Here's another:

This guy's sleeve was, literally, out of this world!

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Nicole McCarthy's View of Space (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Nicole McCarthy, who sent us this photo:

Nicole explains:

"This tattoo came about from a night spent at the top of a crater on Maui. I had been peering into a telescope all night, spotting globular clusters and the rings around Saturn, when our guide asked us to look up. And there it was: part of the Milky Way rising over us. I felt so cosmically insignificant and it was such a beautiful feeling. It reminds me that nothing truly matters, so my writing and my art will always be what I want it to be, not something dictated by others. I got the Earth's moon and a collection of abstract nebulas tattooed on my shoulder 3 years later.

The artist for this tattoo is Sara Kay (@thesarakay) who owns her own shop called Parlour in Seattle."

You should definitely check out Sara Kay's Instagram and see more of her amazing work.

Nicole sent us this poem:

do you ever imagine your life as a peach?


the anticipation of fingers grazing the skin
someone to nuzzle softness
smell the delectable potential
and pluck you straight from the tree
with a palpable hunger
juices dripping down their chin
emboldening their tongue into action
a gesture of consumption
leaving their lips sugared & fingers sticky

i think about that peach
that was plucked
when ripe
and left
without being bitten
on the fencepost
in an august heat.

~ ~ ~

Nicole McCarthy earned her MFA from the University of Washington. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Offing, Redivider, Glass: a Journal of Poetry, The Shallow Ends, Dream Pop Press, Crab Fat Magazine, Ghost Proposal, Tinderbox Poetry, The Fem, Memoir Mixtapes, Civil Coping Mechanism's A Shadow Map anthology, FIVE:2:ONE Magazine,and the 2018 Best American Experimental Writing anthology from Wesleyan University Press. Her work has also been performed and encountered as projection installation pieces throughout Tacoma and Seattle and her written work can be found at nicolemccarthypoet.com. She is a 2018 Artist Trust GAP grant recipient.

Thanks to Nicole for sharing her cool tattoo and lovely poem with us here on 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.

Space on the Z Train (The Alphabet Game Concludes)

This is the final post of The 2018 Alphabet Game. Last year, I only made it through the R, but this year, if you've been following along (the full recap post is here), you will know I took a detour after the W train and knocked out the 1, 2 and 3, because I was so efficient, and had to wait for the rush-hour Z train to start running.

So here, we go....

Already done above and beyond what I had hoped, except for the mighty Z train, Debating whether to go back for the 4/5/6/7. I'm beat. FitBit says 12,787 steps. There's little chance I can get those four done and the Z, when the Z runs only for an hour.

Most amazing is that I approached 20 people and only 1 declined.

I just stayed on the 3 and passed Fulton, so I will just take a break and chill at Broad, grab the first Z and hope and pray.

4:32 Back at Broad. Such a different approach from last year. The Z is now the prize and I have a small window to snag t. I have to get the first one and hope I get something right quick, or I will be plying for a miracle. The countdown clock now says 20 minutes for a Z. My worry is that it will be all business-folks, but I am going to try and get it before we leave Manhattan so I can make it back at a reasonable time.

Success! I get on the Z and meet Josh, who shares his space sleeve:

Josh got this work done in three sessions from Dustin Horan (@dustinhoran) at The Dead President's Lounge (@thedeadpresidentslounge)in Albany, New York.

And we're done!

Thanks to Josh for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

And this concludes the 2018 Alphabet Game. This was my route over 9 hours: j-A-A-A-B-C-C-D-E-F-G-G-f-J-4-L-M-d-N-Q-Q-R-R-w-S-W-j-1-2-3-3-3-Z. My best estimate places the journey at 33 separate trains, including the 16 lettered trains and 3 of the numbered trains.

Looking forward to upping the challenge again in 2019! Thanks to everyone who participated and shared their 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.

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.

Michael's Space Odyssey

I met Michael at a deli down near the New York Stock Exchange at the beginning of the summer.
He had this cool tattoo that he was nice enough to share:

He wanted a space theme on his arm and this is the first part of it. He says it will merge with a time theme on his other arm.

He credits this great work to Jon Mesa (@jonmesa) at No Idols Tattoo (@noidolsnyc) in Manhattan.

Thanks to Michael 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.

Josh Herman on The Guest Spot

Our friends over at United Ink Productions (@united_ink) recently reached out to us to share a cool tattoo. Every week they have an artist come to their offices and tattoo in a segment they call "The Guest Spot," which is sponsored by Ultimate Tattoo Supply and Inked Magazine.

Check out this cool tattoo:

This was done on The Guest Spot by artist Josh Herman (@JoshHermanTattoo) on Carolyn Elaine (@carolyn_elaine_tattoo), a contestant on season 8 of Ink Master. Josh will be attending the New York Tattoo Convention coming up March 31 through April 2.

Josh and Carolyn both work out of Mayday Tattoo Co in Chicago.

Josh Herman at work tattooing Carolyn Elaine

We hope to feature more tattoos from the Guest Spot in the future!

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.

Riding the Flamingo - Lacey Chooses Her Own Path (at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade)

I met Lacey at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and her tattoo really jumped out at me. I was happy when she agreed to share her work with us here:

The bottom of the tattoo reads "We are made of Star Stuff," and the image is a stylized version of herself, riding her flamingo through outer space,

The quote is from Cosmos, and is an allusion to the fact that we are all products of The Big Bang, and that there is elements of the vast universe inside of each of us. It also represents, in Lacey's words, "being able to choose my own path."

The flamingo is also a nod to her home in Baltimore, especially the "kitschy" side of Baltimore. The Baltimore of John Waters.

The tattoo was created and inked by Andrea Vitale-Lathe at Have Fun Be Lucky Tattoo (@havefunbelucky). in Baltimore. Lacey said she "connected immediately" with Andrea and that this made getting tattooed by her all the more meaningful.

Thanks to Lacey for sharing this cool 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.

A Sliver of Gustavo's Sleeve

Earlier this month, in what seemed like Tattoosday kismet, a tattooed gentleman got on the A train and sat down next to me. When the inkspotting gods treat me so kindly, I almost always follow their lead and start up a conversation.

And so I did, meeting Gustavo, who was rushing for a bus back to New Jersey. I snapped a shot of his arm, slightly off-kilter due the movement of the express train, and handed him my card. He promised to reach out to me.

Maybe he will, but it's not uncommon for me to never see or hear from someone I meet randomly. That said, here's the photo:

If Gustavo ever reaches out, he'll get a proper post. In the mean time, this will do.

Thanks, Gustavo, for sharing this with us 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.

Phoenix's Sleeve is Out of This World

Back on August, I met a man named Phoenix in Penn Station who shared the sleeve on his right arm.

The work starts near his shoulder, with a traditional-style pin-up girl straddling a rocket in an outer space motif:

The cat perched on the rocket in front of the woman represents Phoenix's love of animals.

The centerpiece of the sleeve, however, is lower on the arm and represents his love of astrology:

From a practical purpose, he had his natal astrological chart wrapping around his limb. In theory, he told me, anyone who knows astrology could come up and read his arm and gain insight into his astrological makeup.

Phoenix was born with the Sun in Aries rising in Leo and with his moon in Gemini.

This work was done by Lou at Third Eye Tattoo in Park Slope, Brooklyn, about six years ago. Lou's handiwork has been featured many times over the years here on the site and can be seen here.

Thanks to Phoenix for sharing his spectacular sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

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.

John's Tattoo Identity (With a Bonus Vendetta)

I met John recently in a local drug store in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

I had actually seen John once previously in the store, but had been unable to speak to him at the time, so I was happy when I ran into him again.

His upper right arm is a Star Wars tribute, but I shot the left arm instead. He was laughing because he had just been questioned by several people at a nearby department store and now that he had escaped to a different shop, here I was questioning him about his work.

This is a shot of his left arm:

Like the Star Wars theme on his right arm, the left arm embraces outer space, what John called his "tattoo identity".

He did note that this had been reworked and represented the repairing  of a much smaller piece. He sung high praise to Alex Franklin of Brooklyn Ink, who did the majority of this work and made the piece what it is today. Alex and Brooklyn Ink are no strangers to Tattoosday. This link takes the reader to all posts tagged "Brooklyn Ink".

Before explaining that tattoo to me, however,  he had shown me something that had not been visible in the department store. He pulled up his shirt to reveal this awesome V for Vendetta tattoo in the top center section of his back:

John loved the graphic novel and the movie as well.

The character of V makes a striking tattoo. This was inked by the incomparable Designs by Michael Angelo in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Work from his shop has appeared previously here on the blog.

Thanks to John for sharing his incredible tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! We hope to bring his Star Wars sleeve to the site some time in the future.

Frankie and Her Brother, Forever in Ink

Frankie designed this cartoon portrait of herself with her brother holding hands. The tattoo is on her left bicep. That's her on the right, with the red hair.

She had this inked at Village Pop Inc. on West 4th Street in Manhattan. I caught Frankie on the R train and took the photo on the 95th Street platform in Bay Ridge.

Thanks to Frankie for sharing this poignant tattoo here with us at Tattoosday!

Damien's Pistol Star Nebula Tattoo is Out of this World

Sorry. Couldn't resist that title.

I ran into Damien near Fashion Institute of Technology earlier in the week, and her bright, colorful tattoo just jumped right off of her in the sunlight.

She explained to me that it is based on a photograph of the Pistol Star Nebula, as seen from the Hubble telescope:
She stumbled upon the photo on the NASA website and loved the shape of it. Anyone who has seen the photos from the Hubble, which are in the public domain, should agree that they are spectacular visions from beyond our world.

The book designer and novelist Chip Kidd coincidentally posted this past week, on his website about a new book for which he had designed the cover (here), the images on which were from the Hubble eye on the universe.

This piece was inked by Chris Kowalski, a tattooist in Toronto at Abstract Arts Tattoo and Body Piercing, and is one of seven tattoos that Damien has.

I noticed after the fact, while glancing at her website, that the tattoo is inked above a pre-existing piece, as evidenced in this photo from her site:


Aside from the symbol for infinity and the arrows pointing out from all directions, I cannot speculate on the meaning of this earlier tattoo, but am hoping she will offer up an explanation at a later date.

Thanks to Damien for sharing her galactic ink with us here on Tattoosday!