Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): Paul Booth's Last Rites

Showing posts with label Paul Booth's Last Rites. Show all posts

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Lost Sheep from the 2016 NY Empire State Tattoo Expo

This post almost never made it to Tattoosday. It's a long complicated story that involves lost recordings of my interview with a New Jersey-based artist, who I met at the 2016 Empire State Tattoo Convention (@nyempirestatetattooexpo). You read that right, this is from a year-and-a-half ago, and I unfortunately lost the name of the woman who shared this with me, but I do have some details salvaged.

First off, these amazing sheep totally caught my attention:

The woman who shared this explained that her adoptive mom was born in the year of the sheep. And the black sheep represents natural mother, whose name was "Ping." She joked that getting the sheep was a better tribute than just getting "Mom." Just below the sheep is a goose:

The tattoos were done by a couple of amazing artists - Paul Booth (@paulbooth) did the sheep and Nick Baxter (@burningxhope) did the goose and the rest of the arm.

Thanks to my unnamed contributor, who I will hopefully run into one day again, so I can properly thank her for sharing these amazing tattoos with us here on 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.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Vito's Back in Memory of Mom

I met Vito at the NYC Tattoo Convention last month.

He shared this amazing back piece:

This was done in memory of Vito's mother by Megan Jean Morris from Painted Soul Tattoos in Wallingford, Connecticut, although he noted she did this while doing a guest spot at Paul Booth's Last Rites Gallery.

Thanks to Vito for sharing this with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, June 14, 2015

The 2015 New York City Tattoo Convention, a Brief Recap

In 2014, when the NYC Tattoo Convention moved it's event to March, it was because the traditional home of the show, the Roseland Ballroom, was slated for closure and demolition.

This year, the convention has moved to the Metropolitan Pavillion on West 18th Street. People may miss the character of Roseland, but the new space is brighter and bigger (which means more artists and booths). I headed over to day one after an early departure from work and checked the new space out.

This is one of multiple posts that will feature work I spotted at the show.

In total, I went all three days and had a great time. It was a festive mood and the bright space was abuzz with machines. I'm already looking forward to next year!

The old banners from previous years lent the new space a familiar feeling.

And of course, it's awesome to see work from Paul Booth:

And to see New York staples like Rich Fie (Instagram @RichFie) at work is always exciting.

It's also great to see the hand tattooing masters, like Shunho, from the famed Horitoshi Tattoo Family:

I interviewed many more people in years past and even got inked myself!

Stay tuned for days, nay, weeks to come, as I share the work from people I spotted at the convention.

It is a daunting task to name all the old friends and artists I spotted, spoke to, and hung out with over the three days at the show.

But a quick shout out to Marisa from Needles & Sins, Michael McCabe, Becca Roach, Adam from Th'Ink Tank in Colorado, Gunny and Kevin from Sacred Tattoo in Manhattan, Vanessa from Mindzai Creative (more on them later!), The Crew at Brooklyn Tattoo, and countless others. Plus, my friend Ginger, who went back to back with two different artists at Dare Devil Tattoo.

And of course, Jamie Delzel for giving me a kick-ass tattoo, and Matt Amey, also from Independent Ink, who were just plain awesome.

And finally, the good people who run the NYC Convention, for bringing it back bigger and better, even after losing their home at Roseland!

If you missed it this past weekend, don't worry. There's always next year!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Ryan's Lion, and Time on His Mind

Last week I ran into Ryan, a prior contributor to Tattoosday, who appeared on the site originally here.

It was an unseasonably warm day, for January in Brooklyn, and he showed me one of his newest tattoos:

Ryan told me that he wanted a skull, but with a time theme - so you have the gears of a clock running where the brain is held.

He credited the work to Alvin Chong (see his Instagram here) who is an artist from Kuala Lumpur. He got this on a recent stint by Chong at Last Rites in New York City.

He also showed me a new piece he got from Chad Koeplinger on a recent stop at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn:

Ryan got this because he is a Leo, and wanted a lion to represent his Zodiac sign.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing his cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, January 18, 2013

John's Incredible Art-Themed Sleeve by Stefano Alcantara

If you go back to the beginnings of Tattoosday, one of our earliest contributors was John Sorezza, a friend of the neighborhood who I see quite often. He shared his first work, the beginning of a leg piece, here.

In the years that have passed since I first met him, John has taken up work as a tattoo artist and tattoos out of Brooklyn Made Tattoo.

Over last summer I ran into him down the block and he shared some of his latest ink, all inspired by his new vocation:

As I've said before, sleeves are always a challenge to capture on a web page, especially when the photos are taken out on the street, where natural light differs, depending on the angle. Despite my amazing photo editing skills, the collage above is marred by totally different tones, but you can still see the gist of the tattoo - the phrase "ART IS PAIN" carved from the inside with an X-Acto knife, with a dripping paintbrush, pen and pencil, all tools of the artist's trade, poking through the letters in the flesh.

And if you weren't impressed by that, check out this phenomenal tattoo machine on the inner part of John's forearm:

And all of this is punctuated by this mask on the back of his hand:

John pointed out that the eyes are fashioned with pen quills, to keep with the theme of this art-inspired sleeve.

This amazing work is the product of the great Stefano Alcantara, who hails from Lima, Peru, and tattoos out of world-famous Paul Booth's Last Rites Tattoo Theater here in New York City. You can also check out Alcantara's Facebook fan page here.

Thanks again to John for continuing to share his work with us here on Tattoosday! You can find John at Brooklyn Made Tattoo in Bay Ridge.

See John's other tattoos here, here, here, and here.

This entry is ©2013 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.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Faces Staring Out at Me

Confounded by poor timing and fluctuating temperatures, I have slumped lately getting new material up here. However, I sense a shift in the tide, and have this latest encounter to relate, with photos to boot.

It was turning a little chilly on a Friday afternoon when I walked by a guy eating his lunch on the plaza outside of the Borders above Penn Station. This has been a bread and butter spot for me: plenty of sun and people not in a hurry to go anywhere fast.

I noticed he had ink on his neck but I couldn’t tell what it was and it looked interesting. Turns out, this was Brian Murphy, a tattooist from Pennsylvania who is doing a guest artist gig from April 10-13, 2008 at Paul Booth’s Last Rites “Tattoo Theatre” nearby. Brian works out of Third Dimension Tattoo in Marshalls Creek (in the Poconos, north of Philadelphia in the Eastern end of the state).

First a production note: people are always giving me advice on where to find tattoos. “Go to shops,” they say, “hang out in front and get people as they are coming and going.” Great idea, really, but not in the spirit of Tattoosday. A lot of the fun is meeting people by chance and interesting them in the blog enough for them to want to contribute. Going to a shop and asking people about their tattoos seems a little easy. Not to knock the idea, but it takes some of the fun out of it. Similarly, I wouldn’t want to bother an artist in shop with my little venture. But to find one randomly on the street. That’s good fortune shining down on Tattoosday, especially when the individual is as friendly as Brian Murphy is.

Brian offered me two pieces, the more recent ones on his corporeal tapestry. First up is this amazing piece by Kyle Cotterman on Brian’s inner left biceps:

Brian said that Kyle, who is a friend of his, gave him this tattoo in exchange for one from Brian. The image is that of a homeless man. It represents a life that Brian once had, when he was homeless for a brief time. He is no longer in that situation, so the dichotomy of the piece lies in the half that represents the past, as it is disintegrating, and falling away from the foreground, where the new self is represented. The present and future are represented by the expression in the face, showing happiness of getting one’s life back. I’ve asked Brian to ask Kyle for a photo of the piece that he received in exchange for inking this one on Brian. They would certainly be interesting to see together.

Brian also wanted to show me a piece on his left leg designed and tattooed by the world-renowned artist Robert Hernandez, who works out of Vittamin Tattoo Studio in Madrid.

There’s no significance to it, he told me, “that’s just what he does”. Indeed, an amazing piece.

Brian also told me about a cool tattoo site called TattooNow.com, which I have added to the blogroll.

Thanks to Brian for sharing these two amazing pieces with Tattoosday!

Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog)