Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): Trees

Showing posts with label Trees. Show all posts

Monday, July 1, 2019

Jessyca's Awesome Family Tree

A couple of summers ago, I met Jessyca near the New York Stock Exchange, and she shared this amazing tree on the back of her leg:

She called this her "family tree," as it is inhabited by creatures representing members of her family. The raccoon peering out from the center of the tree symbolizes her father.

The cardinal is one of her brothers and the fox represents her mother.

The husky at the bottom of the tree represents another brother, the heron is her sister, and she is the iguana.

She credited the work to an artist named Stephanie, who did this at Brass Anchor Tattoo Lounge (@brassanchortattoolounge) in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Thanks to Jessyca for sharing her awesome family tree 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.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

A Texas Tree on the R Train (Tattoosday Plays the Alphabet Game)

Last year, when I played the Alphabet Game for the first time, I finished on the R train. I was beat, it was the end of the day, and I called it quits having run through a dozen other train lines. If you want to know what I'm referring to, head to the "master post" here.

This year, I was much more efficient. So, when I hopped off the Q at Union Square at 1:15 PM, I was way ahead of last year, and quite pleased with myself.

And then it took twelve minutes for a northbound R to arrive.

And then the R train was not offering up much in terms of tattoos. At 1:40, I was at 57th Street, looking to reverse directions.

At 1:42 PM, I hopped on a southbound R and finally, between 34th and 23rd, I met Nicole, who shared this unusual-looking tree tattoo:

Nicole hails from Texas and explained that this is a representative of a tree from the Lone Star state, she couldn't recall the name but gave me a couple of clues. It's a tree indigenous to Texas and, she explained, her mother's ashes are buried underneath one in Odessa.

I am going to go out on a limb (intended) and call this a Disospyros texana, or a Texas persimmon tree. I could be wrong, but the point is, it's tattooed on Nicole and it reminds of her home.

The tattoo was done by an artist named Jason at True Blue Tattoo in Austin.

Thanks to Nicole for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Solo's Tattoo on the First Day of Autumn

A little less than a month ago, I met Solo, in lower Manhattan, near Zuccotti Park. I was struck by the tattoo on her back and was happy when she agreed to let me share it here:

This cool tattoo depicts a tree, half flush with leaves, the other half bare branches, with a pile of fallen leaves at the base of its trunk.

It seemed an appropriate tattoo to share on the first day of autumn.

Solo got the tattoo from a small shop in Fujian Province, in China, after she graduated from college.

She elaborated a little about what was going through her mind when she got it done:

"It’s like seasons, changes in life, ups and downs in life. So when I got it, I was sort of going through a little bit of a crisis in my life … for me personally it was like a whirlwind experience ... so I needed to give myself time and the mindset to accept the changes and not just to take things for granted ... things are going to move the way I want them to move forward."

Thanks to Solo for sharing this tattoo with us as we celebrate the autumnal equinox!

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Cristina's Heart of Palm

I spotted this tattoo on Cristina back in June while attending the 2018 Coney Island Mermaid Parade (@mermaidparade):

These two palm trees make a perfect heart shape. Nothing fancy, just a cool design and a positive message.

Cristina credited the work to Josh Arseneau (@josharseneau) at Electric Anvil Tattoo (@electricanviltattoo) in Brooklyn.

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

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Jennifer MacBain-Stephens and Her Crows (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Jennifer MacBain-Stephens, who shared this tattoo:

Jennifer gives us a little background on this work:

"I recently had this tattoo redone and colored in. The first time I got a tattoo, it was of a burgundy tree on my back with my now ex-husband in Kyoto, Japan nine years ago. We were divorced this year and, as a Valentine's Day present to myself, I had the tree colored in with black shading, and added the sunset colors and the escaping crows onto my shoulder. This touch-up represented rebirth and freedom to me and I couldn’t be happier with it."

Jennifer credited an artist named "Jay" in Manassas, Virginia, for the updating of the original tattoo.

She also sent us two poems, with the following introduction:

"[The poems] were inspired by meeting a new person in my life. At the time that I met this person I noticed what seemed like a lot of crows in my neighborhood and near my house. I’ve always loved crows but at this particular time, they seemed downright magical to me."

Opposites

boy, muscle deliberate / sketches a body with eyes first / purpose precise as a prescription / a sliced birch tree / multitasking through the shredder / no emotion / no insecurity / he loops the black rope around and around her shoulder blades / her scapulae / the top of her rib cage / breath and focus and forward / no / no questions / no what if she this / or I don’t know if that / invigorating loop, tie, swoop, knot / again shows / makes / undone / repeat when he feels like it /

girl, a shivering bird cat / white skin in the alcove / not wanting to need / in her torso where the rope is present / like a shock blanket / he does not know he created this need in her / he works in this lab / always this hunger / need to fill / but with what / it’s this, no / it’s breath / no / no / calm waters / a flit a flat and a rage song / fury energy explodes / rises to what / never wanting to undo / it’s this unbalance in the ocean / that keeps her moving forward / but stops her breath /

On Crow Number Symbolism (first published in Entropy)

The day that she thought it was over, the day she did not hear from him but could not reach out because her mouth was tied to itself, it was mid-morning and she looked for crows in the sky. If she saw a murder (a decision yet to be made) or two crows flying together, (a birth) she made herself believe it was a sign, (one girl) that she would see him again, (one boy) that he was in her future (her authentic, clairvoyant self.) But on this particular day, (foreboding rain) there was one crow, (death) a young one, (trickster) far from the forest, (journey) high up in a lone tree on a quiet street, calling the same caw pattern over and over again. (opening the door to the netherworld) Three caws. Stop. Three caws. Repeat.

No bird came.

~ ~ ~

Jennifer MacBain-Stephens is the author of three full-length poetry collections: Your Best Asset is a White Lace Dress, (Yellow Chair Press, 2016) "The Messenger is Already Dead," (Stalking Horse Press, March 2017,) and We’re Going to Need a Higher Fence, tied for first place in the 2017 Lit Fest Book Competition. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She is also the author of nine chapbooks. Her chapbook She Came Out From Under the Bed, (Poems Inspired by the Films of Guillermo del Toro) recently came out from Dancing Girl Press. Recent work can be seen at or is forthcoming from Prelude, Kestrel, Yalobusha Review, decomP, and Inter/rupture. Visit: http://jennifermacbainstephens.wordpress.com/.

Thanks to Jennifer for sharing her tattoo and poems with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project!

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

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.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

A Healing Tree

In the fall, I met "A" at the Union Square green market. I had noticed her tattoo and was fascinated by its simplicity and how it appeared to have been designed and inked around a scar. She was kind enough to share the piece and tell me a little about it:

"A" explained how this tattoo of a tree with roots came into being:

"I was trying to go on a solo week-long bike trip around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and I was gonna bike around, put my gear on the back of my bike ... I was on this stretch of really gravelly highway by myself ... I had gone fifty miles that day and was two miles from my campsite and the bike hit some gravel. It slid out from under me and I fell right on my elbow, completely shattered it and when they stitched me back up and put me together I wanted to get something around the scar ... it was kind of traumatic and I knew I was going to have to get used to talking about it, so the tattoo was kind of a good way to get used to talking about it with people and not being traumatized."

"A" credited the work to Tony Silva (@tonysilvatattoo) at Electric Arrow Tattoo in Ronkonkoma, New York.

Thanks to "A" for sharing her cool healing tattoo 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.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Jennie's Pear Tree Blossom

Over the summer, when my older daughter and her friends were back home from college, they occasionally joined us for our weekly trivia nights at the local beer garden. Two of them got new tattoos recently and Jennie shared this lovely piece on her inner arm:

Jennie explained that this is a pear tree blossom, noting that when her parents moved into the house where she grew up, they planted a pear tree in the back yard. When she left for her first year of school in Chicago, the tree fell down. She wanted to commemorate the pear tree, which entered and exited her life at very significant points in her journey.

She credited this beautiful tattoo to Jason Hoodrich (@JasonHoodrich) at Family Tattoo (@FamilyTattoo) in Chicago.

Thanks to Jennie for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, October 22, 2017

A New York Cate of Mind

I met Cate by Bowling Green park over the summer and she shared this cool tattoo:

Cate explained that she was born and raised in western New York and that she wanted a scene that was a tribute to the Empire State. Thus, we have a tattoo with a variety of species found in the state.

The animal is a red fox, standing with birch trees, red clover and purple oxalis, or purple woodsorrel.

Cate credited the work to Brian Faulk at Hand of Glory Tattoo (@handofglorytattoo) in Brooklyn. I'm familiar with Brian, as he has tattooed me as well (recounted here and here).

Thanks to Cate for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Melanie's Jacaranda-monium

Anyone familiar with the jacaranda tree knows how beautiful they can be. It is this time of year in Southern California, in the months of May and June, when they explode into bursts of purple blossoms that are simply breathtaking.

It only seemed fitting that my wife Melanie, who loves jacarandas, feature them in her next tattoo, and this was the end result:

Here's a closer look:

Melanie elaborated a little more on what inspired her to fill her arm with jacarandas:

"First of all, I love purple. And when I got the purple flower tattooed on my ankle, I realized purple looks really good on my skin.

Also, they remind me of our time in California where we met, the college campus where I met my husband, and so many of my friends, and Pasadena, the only place I really liked living in California.

It was on my list, there were two or three other ideas I really wanted. I knew I wanted this one.

Since I've gotten this, talking to people who were familiar with jacarandas from South Africa, which we only discovered was a place they grew while researching them. This makes me want to go there and visit."

One of the sources for inspiration was this street in Pasadena, Del Mar Boulevard:

This lovely tattoo was done by the incomparable Alex McWatt (@alexthreekings) at Three Kings Tattoo (@threekingstattoo) in Manhattan.

He met with Melanie to discuss the concept and just ran with it, turning this:

into the explosion of purple on Melanie's arm, with the finest attention to details:

Thanks to Alex at Three Kings for another great tattoo, and to Melanie for sharing her jacarandas with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Where Gabe Johnson Comes From (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Gabe Johnson, who sent us this photo of a very interesting tattoo:

Gabe explains:

"This tattoo represents how where I come from influences my being and writing, as well as my relationship with writing. The ink flowing into my veins is a metaphor I’ve often thought about as a young writer – feeling like my poems were something coming out of me that had laid dormant inside. Within the ink are two symbols of where I come from. The Viking ship represents my Icelandic heritage, which seems to me like my poetic lineage. The Icelandic people value poetry incredibly highly, and most of my direct relatives along that part of my family are or were involved in poetry in some fashion, whether as writers, publishers or teachers. The oak tree represents Northern California in general, where I grew up and where I have spent all of my life. The landscape, flora, and fauna of oak grasslands especially feel like home to me, and influence my writing greatly. I chose the specific design because I wanted a very simple look of a pen and ink drawing, which a friend of mine drew, and the tattoo artist (Sam McWilliams @sammcwilliams of Mermaids Tattoo @mermaidstattoo in SF) reproduced beautifully."

Gabe also sent us this short poem:

Rehabilitation

Begin again with all your breath. Trace the coast’s soft shoulders, the fogless cove and columbine. Your knee will follow, kiss the sand—shards like nettles on new skin. The highway lined by tiger-lily, oak like moss on slumping hills becomes sequoia, thimbleberry trails. You know each river rock was named, saw scaled bodies leap against the flow. You’ll set your newest scar against lost particles.

~ ~ ~

Gabe Johnson lives in Oakland, teaching English and US History to 8th graders. He is a graduate of the MFA program at Saint Mary’s College of California and his work can be found in Switchback, Philadelphia Stories, White Stag, and Poecology.

Thanks to Gabe for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

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.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Kevin's Tree of Gondor

Over the summer, I met Kevin on Wall Street, and he shared this tattoo:

Kevin explained:

"This is the tree of Gondor from The Lord of the Rings ... A lot of people are like, 'Is that a tree of life' and I'm like, 'no no no.' It's blossoming so that means the king has returned. [The stars represent] the seven kingdoms of man ... and [the crown at the top of the tree] is the king and the tree is like, in Tolkien literature ... a mythical tree ... I got it because I was failing high school, I was doing bullshit teenage stuff and my teacher bet me if I could write a 20-page paper with the primary source of The Lord of the Rings (because at that time [the movie] was coming out), she would pass me for the whole year in English class. And I found a primary source, and I got the paper, twenty pages, very concise, very collegiate for a high school kid and she reluctantly had to give me an A, she was like, 'this is actually one of the best things I've seen in like five years."

He had this done at Chicago Tattoo in Chicago, Illinois.

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

Sunday, May 1, 2016

The Tattooed Poets Project: Jen Karetnick

I know, it's May 1, National Poetry Month is over, but I ran out of days!

We received one late submission and just wanted to share this and wrap up the 8th annual Tattooed Poets Project.

Thanks to all of the poets who have contributed in the last month!

Our tattooed poet for the first day of May is Jen Karetnick.

Jen tells us:

I have seven collections of poetry and five tattoos, two of which specifically relate to mangoes. That is because I live in Miami Shores, a small suburban village that was formerly comprised of mango, avocado and pineapple groves. My house, the former picker's cottage, is on the last remaining acre of a mango plantation. We have 14 mango trees, comprising 8 different varieties, and various other tropical fruit trees. For the past 16 years that I've lived here, mangoes have figured prominently into my work. One of my chapbooks, Bud Break at Mango House (Portlandia Press, 2008), won the Portlandia Chapbook Award in 2008, and my first full-length book, Brie Season (White Violet Press, 2014), features several poems about mangoes. I've also written a mango cookbook, entitled -- appropriately enough -- Mango (University Press of Florida, 2014).

That said, here are Jen's mango-nificent tattoos:

Mango "tree" on the front of Jen's right ankle

Mango "mama" on Jen's left hip

Both tattoos were inked at Handcrafted Tattoo in Miami.

Jen also shared the following mango-related poem:

The First Mango of the Season

The first mango of the season is in

miniature, precise down to its blush

but smaller than a peach, skin and flesh

hinged to a pit the heft of an almond,

and like furniture crafted for a doll house

it is on scale with the blue jay who flies

with it, clamped in his beak, to the ficus

hedge, where he lets loose the fruit to peruse

it with an eye as practiced as a chef’s.

Propped just so on the twisted crop of bush

that serves as counter for the mise en place,

the jay sharpens his beak on the bark to his left

while the mango waits like a grape for the crush,

the chief of tense change from is to was.

~ ~ ~

Jen Karetnick is the author of three full-length books of poetry, including the forthcoming books American Sentencing (Winter Goose Publishing, May 2016) and The Treasures That Prevail (Whitepoint Press, September 2016), as well as four poetry chapbooks. She is the winner of the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize for Poetry and runner-up for the 2015 Atlantis Prize and 2016 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize. Her work has been published recently or is forthcoming in TheAtlantic.com, december, Guernica, Negative Capability, Prairie Schooner and Spillway. She works as the Creative Writing Director for Miami Arts Charter School and as a freelance dining critic, lifestyle journalist and cookbook author.

Thanks to Jen for sharing her tattoos and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

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.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Maddie's Japanese Elm

Earlier this month, I met Maddie in downtown Manhattan on Broad Street after I spotted her foot tattoo:

Maddie got this about eight years ago and doesn't remember the artist's name. She also did not remember the name of the shop, although based on her description of the location, it was most likely The Chicago Tattooing Company.

The tattoo depicts a Japanese Maple tree. "I went in wanting to get an oak," she explained, "but I was sort of convinced by the artist [to get the maple] and I'm really happy with it, with the green on it and everything."
She also told me that the tree pertains to her grandmother, and chose not to elaborate, as it is a family thing.

We don't always get a story, but at least we get to appreciate the tattoo!

Thanks to Maddie for sharing her lovely tree tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, April 24, 2015

The Tattooed Poets Project: Kirsten Imani Kasai

As we enter into the final weekend of yet another successful month of tattooed poets, take a look at the back of Kirsten Imani Kasai:

Kirsten tells us:

"My work is three separate pieces. The first, on the back of my neck, is a Byzantine monogram of 'Mary,' for the Virgin Mary. I had this done in 1993 at Erno Tattoo in San Francisco.

The raven tree and stars were done by in 2011 and 2013. My friend Keith Greene, at Federation Ink in San Diego, did both based on some clip art paste-ups I brought him. The bird tattoo has a double meaning. I’m rather Poe-obsessed, and so here are the Raven and the Tell-Tale Heart. At least that’s what I tell strangers…for me, this piece recognizes a really dreadful, difficult year of loss, transition and heartbreak. (I wrote about it here. Additionally, I wrote the poem 'a murder of crows' about this imagery of the raven and the gift of a human heart, which was incorporated into the prose/poetry piece 'mice' published in the summer 2014 issue of the Existere Journal of Arts & Literature.)

The third tattoo is my 'mother line' and features blue and pink stars for my son and daughter. The dead or shadow stars represent pregnancies I've lost."

Kirsten sent us the following poem:

process aestivation

she had forgotten all of it

too long

had she lain sleeping

snow white

knew the apple tainted

bit deeply

seeking poison like nectar

sleeping beauty

summoned the spindle’s

narcotic draught

milk teeth madly grinning

blood beading on her finger

she swallowed

the magicked bread

despite the warnings

—never eat from fey hands—

let the fisherman

steal her selkie skin

to keep her from the deep

and salted sea

buried undreaming

apple rotting in her throat

blood clotting in her veins

watching

night’s noiseless apocalypse

descend

awakened

she is ravenous

~ ~ ~

Kirsten Imani Kasai is the author of three novels: Ice Song, Tattoo and Private Pleasures; a short fiction/poetry collection Rhapsody in Snakeskin and a poetry chapbook The Atmospheric Mysteries of a Steaming Corpse. Kirsten is the co-founder and editor of Body Parts Magazine, a journal of provocative horror, spec fiction and erotica. She earned her MFA from Antioch University and lives in California with her family. Visit her online at www.IceSong.com and on Facebook here.

Some bonus footage includes this Google chat interview & reading with Pretty Owl Poetry:

Thanks to Kirsten for sharing her tattoos and poetry with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project!

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.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Rachel and Her Tree of Life

I met Rachel after work one day on Wall Street and asked her about this tattoo gracing her right arm:

It's a pretty cool concept with our solar system swirling above a tree bordered by an embryo and a skull.

She credited the work to Rich from High Roller Tattoo in Hicksville, New York.

"It was like six or seven years ago," she told me, "it was just something I came up with artistically and he [Rich] cleaned it up ... it's basically the tree of life."

Rachel even went so far as to send me a side-by-side comparison of the tattoo, then and now, as an interesting illustration on how the tattoo has aged over six years:

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

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Olga Shares Two Incredible Tattoos

A couple weeks ago on the subway, I spotted a pretty floral tattoo on a woman's arm. When she turned around to get off the train to transfer, I saw she had another tattoo on her other arm, which prompted me to get off the train as well, so I could find out more about this amazing tattoo:

The owner of this amazing tattoo is Olga, who was very friendly and happy to share her work. She explained that this is a memorial piece for her father, Wolf, that embraces her family's Russian heritage. She credited the work to Mikhail at White Rabbit Tattoo Studio on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Olga added:

"I gave Mikhail a very rough sketch of what I wanted, a wolf under birch trees, and he came up with this beautiful piece. I was honestly speechless when it was done, it's exactly what I wanted and so much more. It's very special."

She told me that birch trees reminded her of her old home in Russia.

Oh, and remember the cool floral piece that I initially spotted on Olga's arm?

That piece was done by the phenomenal Amanda Wachob, an amazingly talented artist who is worth researching, just to appreciate her skills as a unique tattooist. The work on Olga's arm looked painted on and I didn't take a photo because it wrapped all the way onto her back. Olga did me a courtesy by sending a photo of her back after it was initially finished:

Olga told me:

"This started as a few cherry blossoms on my arm which I wanted to extend over my shoulder onto my back with a few magnolias. Working with Amanda was amazing and I'm grateful we were able to work on this amazing piece together."

It's always an honor to highlight Amanda Wachob's work.

Thank to Olga for sharing her wonderful tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Sharmeen Has No Regrets About This Beautiful Tattoo (at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade)

Last month at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, I met Sharmeen briefly and snapped a photo of this amazing tattoo on her upper back:

Sharmeen tells us about this incredible work:

"My tattoo was done by Jed from Vintage Tattoo in Pequannok, NJ. It is a Van Gogh painting that was changed a little bit. Instead of one path like the original painting, it has 2 paths and the one is a windy road. That is to symbolize the windy road in the Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken. In the path it says nullum desiderium which in Latin means no regrets."

Thanks to Sharmeen for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Esther's Tattoo of Patience

I met Esther last month at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.

I found her tattoo intriguing and asked her about it.

Esther explained:

"I designed it myself. I got it right when I turned 18. I got it in Hawai'i ... I was going through a tough time, so I was kinda like, you know, strength and wisdom and patience. The kanji itself means patience."

She credited it to an artist named Lee.

Thanks to Esther for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Vince's Half-Sleeve: One Dragon, Lots of Skulls

I met Vince last month on Broadway in Lower Manhattan last month and I asked him about his half sleeve. He was more than willing to share it:

The sleeve includes an old gnarled tree, a dragon clutching a skull, a rose, smoke additional skulls and a moon and stars.

Vince also has this section on his inner bicep:

The playing card, aflame with a skull-faced suicide king, is bright in the center of the inner arm. You also can see another flower with a skull peeking out.

Vince had the dragon inked twenty years ago at The Tattoo Shoppe in Carlstadt, New Jersey, but all of the surrounding work was done by Charlie at Lola's Tattoos in Bogota, New Jersey.

"There's a lot of skulls in there," he told me, "I just like skulls."

Thanks to Vince for taking the time to stop and share his cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!