Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): anatomical heart

Showing posts with label anatomical heart. Show all posts

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Brandon's Tattoos

Last summer I met a gentleman named Brandon Latham at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo). He had just been tattooed by J.J. Ohlinger (@jjohlinger), who was working the show.

Check it out:

Photo courtesy of Brandon Latham

Brandon, who is an artist in Greenville, South Carolina, explained:

"I wanted to draw a tattoo, so I drew an octopus and shaded it and got the look that I wanted and then I gave it to a professional [Ohlinger] to make it into a stencil, to make it a cohesive piece, we kind of collaborated on it ... the octopus is a creature that adapts to its surroundings it has three hearts, and so I kinda did that to represent my wife, my daughter and myself ... it's a creative unique character .... as soon as I thought about doing it, I saw them everywhere ... I thought about it for a long time because I'm not a very impulsive person, it took me a long time to even get a tattoo."

Ohlinger did a fine job placing the tattoo and making sure it flowed with the contour of Brandon's body. It's a great piece with solid linework and excellent detail.

Brandon also has this anatomical heart on the back of his calf, which Ohlinger also tattooed, back in 2014:

Brandon explained that "the different figures on the side[s] represent different things about [his] life." For example, the cat wearing the hat is "a Russian symbol that means even if you are born in mediocrity, you san still strive above and be an aristocrat," or, in other words, "just because you're born poor doesn't mean you have to continue to be poor, you can strive above that."

He also described the crow reading the book as a steampunk image, noting that "the crow, which is the only animal that analyzes human behavior ... has decided to take care of the children" after the kids' parents have gone off to work.

Brandon is a runner (10 half marathons and a couple of marathons), which explains the cool image of the hare with a tortoise shell on its back.

And the airplane, he explained "is a piper cub airplane, the plane that my dad used to work on, and my daughter's name is Piper."

The details in and around the heart really make this a cool combination of tattoos.

Thanks to Brandon for sharing his work 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, June 28, 2016

Melanie's Owl, Melanie's Heart

I met Melanie last week on the subway platform at Broad Street. She had a couple really cool tattoos that she let me snap photos of, and she filled me in later on the details.

Fist up is this really cool owl tattoo with a sugar skull belly:

Melanie explains:

"The truth is, I have always had an obsession with owls. There is something about their quiet wisdom that intrigued me. They possess secrets and messages that are meant to be told to the right person at the right time. When my father passed, I was always searching for something, for answers. My dad had all the answers and life lessons for everything. Maybe that is why I identify with owls; because in some way, they remind me of my dad; wise with hidden knowledge. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t that young when my father died, I was 24, but I still had a lot of learning and growing up to do. I was lost for a long time and would go on random walks to think, search for things that would fill a void that was left in my life. One night, I was walking down the street when I looked up in the darkness of a tall tree and all I could see was the bright eyes on an owl. At that moment, I felt as if the owl was staring right at me and calming me in a way that my father would; making me feel as if every thing is going to be ok because he will always be there to protect me. So I decided, for protection, for wisdom, for life lessons, I could keep my wise owl close to me on my shoulder."

Then, there is this nifty tattoo on her inner arm:

Melanie told me:

"Art always gave me an outlet to express my feelings. If I felt depressed or broken, happy or loved, I would sketch, draw or paint. I never had a good way with words, but I could express feelings and things dear to my heart with art."

Both tattoos were done by Matt Huff (@matthufftattoo) from Brooklyn Ink (@OriginalBrooklynInk) in Bay Ridge. Work from Matt has appeared on Tattoosday previously here, and art from the shop has been featured numerous times over the years,as evidenced here.

Thanks to Melanie for sharing these cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, June 24, 2016

Running into Liz, Seeing Her Heart

As we approach our ninth anniversary in a little over a month, I look at Tattoosday not only as an outlet to express my admiration of tattoos, but as a finder of occasional friends. Over the years, this little blog has brought me its share of friends and acquaintances.

Take one example, a woman named Liz, who I first met in August 2010, on the West 4th Street subway platform. Her tattoo appeared a month later here. I can't say why we became social media friends, but our paths crossed again in May 2011, when we both showed up for a taping of NY Ink (recounted here). Liz got to hang out as an extra in the background of an episode, and I was one of the lucky folks who got a rooster tattoo.

I hadn't seen Liz since then, except on Facebook, as we occasionally traded messages.

So it was a nice surprise when, about a month ago, I was standing on the Whitehall Street subway platform, when I saw Liz approaching. We had a great chat on the R train into Brooklyn and she shared this tattoo that has been added to her collection since we last met:

Liz credited this cool anatomical heart on her arm to Danny Boy Smith at Let it Bleed Tattoo Parlour in San Francisco.

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

Friday, May 13, 2016

Ruby's Dagger Heart (Tattoosday at Ghost Ship Tattoo in Virginia)

A long overdue post from last August, when travels took me to Virginia Beach and, well, I just had to check out a few tattoo shops. First on the list was Ghost Ship Tattoo. It was a quiet weekday early afternoon, so there was not a lot going on, but I did snap a photo of this tattoo on Ruby, who was working the front desk when I visited:

This dagger, piercing an anatomical heart, was inked by Ghost Ship owner and tattoo artist Cliff Evans.

I also left with this totally awesome shirt:

The shop is big and spacious and the portfolios of the artists all looked top notch. I clearly piked the right shop to drop in on!

If you're ever down in Virginia Beach, do check out the shop.

Visit their website here.

Thanks to Ruby for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Thanks Ghost Ship!

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.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Katrina Shares a Pair of Audrey Kawasaki Designs in One Tattoo!

Earlier this month, I rode my bike in the Tour de Queens. At one point in the ride, all the riders had stopped in the hot sun as we waited for traffic. I looked at the person next to me and noticed she had an amazing tattoo on her right thigh. I introduced myself and she told me her name was Katrina. She told me a little about the tattoo and allowed me to take a picture of it:

I know, I know, the photo seems a little washed out. I shot it in bright sunlight and that was the best I could do. However, Katrina gave me her artist's info and I was able, with permission, to post the tattooist's photo from his online portfolio:

Photo Courtesy of Andy Pho

So, you can see, it's a pretty amazing tattoo.

Katrina later e-mailed me with her explanation of the piece:

"The whole piece on my thigh just basically gives me a representation of who I am and who I can be.

It took me 3 years to finally go with it. The artist who did it is Andy Pho (www.andypho.com) who at the time tattooed at Omni Ink in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I've always admired geishas for their perseverance and aiming to be better performers. The whole presentation of them is just beautiful and broken at the same time. Their make-up covers their whole face so you can't really tell what they're thinking or how they feel. Just a piece of mystery.

I found the geisha from one of my favorite painters, Audrey Kawasaki. I absolutely love her work. I basically combined two paintings into one. The geisha (Yuuwaka) and the anatomical heart (My Dishonest Heart) are probably my two favorite ones from her. I'm very keen on detail and Andy just did a phenomenal job for someone who had only been tattooing for a year and a half at the time."

Here are the two Kawasaki paintings in question:

"Yuuwaku" 誘惑 allure

and

My Dishonest Heart

Andy Pho, the tattoo artist responsible for this great tattoo, has since left Brooklyn and Omni Ink for his own shop in Las Vegas, called Skin Design Tattoo.

Andy adds, by way of a bio:

"We are currently undergoing a major relocation to a larger studio set to open in late August. Please follow the artists there as well (the artist roster and work will be updated for the grand opening).

I am a Brooklyn native (born in Coney Island, lived in Midwood, Flatbush, Boro Park, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, and Gravesend, before relocating to Vegas)."

For the latest on Andy and Skin Design's progress, you can follow him on Facebook here.

Thanks to Katrina for sharing her awesome Audrey Kawasaki two-in-one tattoo, and to Andy Pho, for helping us really appreciate his fine work!

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