Theresa Senato Edwards Returns to the Tattooed Poets Project

Today's tattooed poet is a long-time supporter and friend of the Tattooed Poets Project, Theresa Senato Edwards. Theresa first contributed back in 2010, launching our second installment of tattooed poets. Her contribution can be re-visited here.

She has graciously shared four of her "newest" tattoos:

She tells us her "calf tattoo has grown and finally has become what I had really wanted from the start," adding that "the others [below] all connect to each other and the calf tattoo in some way."

Theresa tells us about these two:

"The finger tattoo is extra special to me. My tattoo artist and I designed it on the spot, and I wanted it on my right index finger b/c it was always a bit painful to wear a ring on that finger b/c of an infection I got after minor surgery when I was a teen. Now I wear something simple, one-of-a-kind, beautiful, and permanent on that finger--pain free!"

She also shared this lovely piece:

Theresa is a huge fan of her tattoo artist, Kelly Torres (@kellytorrestattoos) from Black Cherry Tattoo Studio (@blackcherrytattoostudios) in Lagrangeville, New York. She raves:

"Kelly is extremely talented, empathetic, and KICK ASS. It took me years to find the right tattoo artist for me (my son Richard recommended her), and I wouldn't go to anyone else now--love her-especially that she doesn't mind if I ask to come back for touch ups! She gets it and gets me."

Theresa also sent us the following poem, originally published in Amethyst Arsenic, and is in her newest manuscript:

Beauty

He had never considered just how exquisite a vein could be until he looked at dying plants, studied the fast absorption of drugs.

You remembered virtuosity in a workshop on John Cage    the beauty of repetition chance the importance of milk for the boxer in Cinderella Man.  It was something about milk then repetition or milk then cum or milk and family.  

Or milk and milk and milk and family and milk and importance and milk and chance.  And mi

                       

There’s fear in indeterminacy, when time becomes vague / unspecified / undiscovered.  But he protects love’s limbo with science. Safe delivery systems to contain time’s hazardous gases.

 

He knows you want to regenerate.  Visual harmony distracts reflective linear movement / your disorder    and ghosts.

You remember absorption, water a clear slab of glass.  

~ ~ ~

Theresa Senato Edwards has published two full-length poetry books, one, with painter Lori Schreiner, which won The Tacenda Literary Award for Best Book, and two chapbooks. Her first chapbook, The Music of Hands, was recently published in a revised second print edition by Seven CirclePress. Poems from her newest manuscript titled “Wing Bones” can be found in Stirring, Gargoyle, The Nervous Breakdown, Thrush, Diode, Rogue Agent, Mom Egg Review, Menacing Hedge, and forthcoming in MOIRA. Edwards was nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, received creative writing residencies from Drop Forge & Tool (2015 and 2018) and Craigardan (2019), and is Editor in Chief of The American Poetry Journal (APJ). Her website is here.

A hearty thanks to Theresa for returning to 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.

Yvonne's Tiny Tattoo: Carpe This Diem

Last weekend in Miami, I was talking to Yvonne, a dear friend of one of my wife's cousins and now, my friend too. I just had to ask her about this tattoo on her ring finger:

That's "Carpe Diem," Latin for "seize the day" on her ring finger.

When I asked her about it, she explained that, twenty years ago, she was married and was exasperated with her husband, because she felt that he rarely paid attention to her.

To prove a point, she removed her wedding ring and went out and got the tattoo, just to see if he would notice.

Not surprisingly, she said it took months before he asked her what was on her hand. Her suspicions had already long been confirmed, but the fact that it took him so long to notice only solidified her concerns.

Needless to say, the marriage ended. But, as they say, tattoos are forever. Yvonne has a constant reminder to seize the day and a cautionary tale for men everywhere - better pay attention, guys!

Thanks to Yvonne for sharing her 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Kirsten Smith

It is astonishing to realize that this is the start of our fifth annual Tattooed Poets Project! When we first started, I was worried I'd be able to assemble a month's worth of poets, and here we are, about to embark on another group of the inked and talented. What's more, the interest this year has been unprecedented, and readers will be getting more for their National Poetry Month - there will be days when we feature not one, but two, tattooed poets.

We're launching our fifth annual installment with a small tattoo on an accomplished hand - that of Kirsten Smith, who is not only a wonderful poet, but a talented novelist and screenwriter. Check out her tattoo:

Kirtsen explains: 

"I got it in 1991 ... back when it was illegal in NYC! My friend Brigitte Sullivan and I designed matching rings on the train ride uptown to Darren Rosa's apartment; it was pretty last minute. It was the early 90's and we became best friends studying film at NYU. We modeled the design after some actual rings we always wore. Hers' had a heart in it, since her birthday is Valentine's Day. Life took us on different paths, but I always feel connected to her, thanks to this ring."

Darren Rosa has been a fixture in the New York City tattoo scene for over 25 years and helped found Rising Dragon Tattoos, which opened on 23rd Street on the ground floor of the Chelsea Hotel, and has subsequently relocated to 14th Street.

Kirtsen was kind enough to send along her poem "Tattoo Parlor," which was originally published in The Gettysburg Review:

Tattoo Parlor

I make my living with one hand on a girl's ass
and the other on a fuse box.
Three nights a week I'm in a room
filled with soft noises
or the brittle silence of men in pain.
Like any good artist, I have a poison pen;
like any good citizen, I pay taxes.
Sometimes, though, I like it too much,
the endless carving,
the pop of certain needles,
the ink on a punk rocker's breast.

And tonight, while a skull and bones
is travelling from my fingers
into the arm of a Merchant Marine
and two girls are giggling in the hall,
I wonder what I'm doing here,
if I can take one more day
of a brunette's blood on my hands,
or my best work
walking off into the sunset.
The girls are squealing oh gross
and the Marine is grimacing hard
and I'm taking their bodies and changing them,
I am taking their lives
and making them my own.

~ ~ ~

Kirsten Smith is a poet, screenwriter and novelist. Her recent YA novel, Trinkets, was just published by Little, Brown, as was her 2006 novel-in-verse The Geography of Girlhood. She’s co-written the screenplays for Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, The House Bunny, She's the Man and The Ugly Truth.

Thanks to Kirtsen "Kiwi" Smith for helping us launch our fifth installment of the Tattooed Poets Project here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo photos 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.

Tattoos from the Blogosphere: CoccoRossie's Triple Play

I recently received an email from "Coccorossie" who blogs here.

She checks in on Tattoosday from time to time and offered to share a few of her tattoos.

Since she took the time to share them with me, I thought it was only fair to share them with you.



This "Omerta" tattoo is on her right side, on the ribcage. Omerta, traditionally understood as "Code of Silence," reflects her attitude:

"My omerta tattoo is the code of the mob. It means not to associate with authorities and not to snitch. It was my first tattoo. I got it when I was fifteen."

The photo at the top of the post is Cocorossie showing off her tear tattoo. She had this inked for an ex-boyfriend who was shot.

And her final submission was this finger tattoo:


In her words, the " 'love' on [the] middle finger means fuck love." She added, "That one hurt the most."

All of these tattoos were inked by a friend of hers out of his home. As a result, she chose to not give me any further details on the work.

Tattoo purists may turn their noses up at these tattoos. They may not be the most artistic, or most original, but I chose to post them because they clearly carry a lot of meaning for our inked friend and fan of the blog.

For every spectacular sleeve or elaborate back piece, there are a dozen samples of basic, rudimentary tattoos that carry with them vast emotional meaning.

Thanks to Cocorossie for sharing these photos with us here on Tattoosday.

These Are a Few of Her Favorite Things

This is a continuation, of sorts, from a previous post here.

Claire showed me the above trio of tiny tattoos on her left hand. She explained that they represented her three favorite things.

A strict literalist would interpret this as diamonds, martinis, and cash, but one could be more general and call them alcohol, jewelery, and money. Or, if one wants to be alliterative and hip, "booze, bucks, and bling".

She doesn't remember the shop, but she had these three tattoos inked somewhere in Jersey City, NJ.

Thanks again to Claire for participating in Tattoosday!