Three for Thursday, Part 3: Molly Raynor on the Tattooed Poets Project

As mentioned in two earlier posts today (here and here), this Thursday we are celebrating three poets with three linked tattoos:

We already celebrated Lauuren Whitehead and Mariama Lockington's poems (and tattoos) in the previous posts, so last, but not least is Molly Raynor.

In case you missed them, the tattoos were inspired by Mariama's pose during sunset on Venice Beach in L.A.:

This image, burned in the sunset, was inked on these friends' wrists, exemplifying their connection and friendship.

That's Molly in the Middle

Molly's poem follows:

>>>>>> sisterchurch <<<<<<

for mari & lauren

in the temple of your cracking laugh i bend / praise the way poetry penned us kin freshman year /
when you borrowed my magenta pants & i wrote you a note after the slam / asking you to be my
friend / how bold we were / how unbroken / open as summer windows

>>>

in our dingy ann arbor apartment we watched sex and the city & played egyptian ratscrew / scratching
each other with acrylic nails / rhinestones glittering like nightsky / in our first apartment in oakland
we watched america’s next top model / fridge full of faded poems / chorizo & avocado / kitchen walls
stained red with mole from the day we smashed 16 peppers to paste with bittersweet chocolate &
lard from frida’s cookbook / proud / candles lit on spell-soaked altars / draped in gold & lavender /
we found faith / peeled off our skinny jeans & pulled on our fat pants / flung our bras across the
room under the wise eyes of billie, badu & gwendolyn / ghosts of madwomen insulating our walls
in winter / when the sun sunk we’d blast beyonce & dig through each other’s closets / line our eyes
with black kohl / because friday night in oakland was like the first time a boy kissed me with his
tongue / we’d head to lukas where we became other women / all ginger rum & slow wine & eyes
like baited fishhooks / trying to reclaim that which was taken from us / we, our own best dreams

>>>

in the gospel of your gossip / in the pews of your pep talks i kneel / praise the way i am seen by
you / so many secrets stitched into seams of our lips / hips thickening with each other’s
heartbreak / came home for holidays & parents wondered if we’d been eating or fucking too much
when it’s the weight of bearing witness women carry round our waists / you archivists of my
darkest days / how you lifted the garland of grief / slashed the sash of shame to scarlet scraps of
laughter & fuck him & mint-laced hookah smoke curling up to god / the darksugar of your love
lifting me / so many times you saved me from myself

>>>

lil’ wayne & alanis morissette echoing down the 1 / the sweat & shimmer of girlbodies unfurling like
jasmine buds in teapot / steam rising from our thirsty, sturdy hearts / we made pilgrimage to
ocean / greyed lip of froth & foam / made fort of sunbleached wood / carved our names into the
sand beneath the setting sun / took a picture of mari dancing / bird body silhouetted against burnt
persimmon sky / dusky croon of gulls flocking above us / then on a whim, went to the tattoo shop
in la & inked that frozen moment into our wrists / three of her spread into us: bracelet of chosen
blood / my madwomen, you gather me / my kindest mirrors / my sweetest marrow / you are the
salvaged shine of this heavy country / the glory cake in my tattered mouth / you unsorry my
tongue / ease the violence from my tired body

>>>

in the scripture of our group text i press palms together /
                        psalms of sisterchurch blooming from our fenty fuchsia lips /
                                                                                                       you are the holiest thing i know

~ ~ ~

Molly Pershin Raynor is a poet and educator. She has facilitated poetry workshops in prisons, halfway houses, high schools and teen centers, and traveled coast to coast performing spoken word. Molly co-founded RAW Talent (now the RYSE Performing Arts Program) in Richmond, California. Her work is highlighted in the documentary film on Netflix, "Romeo Is Bleeding," which follows her co-founder Donte Clark and their students as they fight to address gun violence through spoken word and theater. She won a Jefferson Award for Public Service and a Teachers 4 Social Justice Award. Molly just moved back to her hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, to serve as the Literary Arts Program Manager at the Neutral Zone Teen Center. Her poetry has been featured on NPR and published in several literary magazines including Vinyl, The Rumpus and Porkbelly Press.

Thanks to Molly (and Mariama and Lauren) for sharing their poems and tattoos with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2018 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoos 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.

Three for Thursday, Part 2 - Lauren Whitehead on the Tattooed Poets Project

As mentioned in an earlier post today (here), today we are celebrating three poets with three linked tattoos:

We already celebrated Mariama Lockington's poem (and tattoo) in the previous post, and Molly Raymor's will appear later today.

In case you missed the previous post, the tattoo was inspired by this photo of Mariama on Vencie Beach in L.A.:

The three poets are inextricably linked by their friendship and shared tattoo.

This post features the poem from Lauren Whitehead (pictured on the right, above):

we three bitches

three cheers for my bad bitches, spread out wide

at the public library table with books & pens & bold

patterned pencil skirts split up the back, spines

stretched long, fully reading for the gods. holy

& holy & holy, amen for my bottom bitches, writing

it all down right now, stacking shelf after shelf

with palm sized notebooks, thick with pretty wisdoms

& perfect elegies for the women we should have been.

three battle stars for these sergeants, crafting in chaos,

reciting her saints, pulling through like prayer beads

after hauling all her baggage back & forth across

landmass, skirting whirlpools & mantraps, unlearning

over & again all the petty wishes of a dying class.

three survivals in a winter place for each one

of my madwomen, making mistakes & keeping

receipts. cussing out when cussed at. throwing hands

at whoever hands need be thrown at, a thoroughbred

stance in grey patent leather slingbacks. clap it back

for my bridesmaids. my believe me bitches. my loyalists

& keepsake queens with their pressed petals & wind

chimes & precious stones grabbed up at low tide, hung

like armor around their wrists & necks. rare jewels

for all my heavies. just jewels upon jewels upon glitter

upon gleam, draped over each titty in every color

of her flag, shine for these bitches, fluent in multiple

Englishes, translating tarot cards & star charts & every

brand of fuck shit some fool might think to speak

into her yard. three charms for these hungry witches,

my seal a spell with a salt bath bitties, old poem

on a postcard hoes, old open palm in the dark ass tricks,

sipping tea & reading leaves & sitting back sometimes,

just not saying shit. keep it quiet for my humble woes,

slinking through a dance floor like snakes in high grass,

untouchable bitches, thrifty chicks making earrings

out of everything, every bad lover, every bad look,

every unforgivable intention. a wash, a wash, a wash

on all your houses. three rings for all your fingers. three

orisha in the morning singing sweet songs outside

your window. oh wonders, oh royals, you imperfect

gods, three burnings for your birthdays. three alters

facing west. three mantras of your names in every river

when i arrive. three Frida’s holding hands. three gardenia

for each ear. three wishes for you sisterfriends: all your

worries ribbon tied to the foot of a black bird flown

away, away, away. every unworthy out through

one well earned door. & these two hands. these only

two hands i have to offer. two hands & two wrists

at your back, by your side, skin to skin, for always.

~ ~ ~

Lauren Whitehead is a writer, performer, and MFA recipient in dramaturgy (Columbia University). She writes in several forms including poetry, nonfiction, and drama. Her work has been published in Apogee, Winter Tangerine, HEArt Online, and in selected anthologies. She has performed in venues around the country, notably: The Apollo Theater and The Kennedy Center. She is a Sundance Theater Lab Fellow and she teaches advanced playwriting and dramaturgy at The New School. More info: laurenawhitehead.com

Thanks to Lauren (and Molly and Mariama) for sharing their poems and tattoos with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2018 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoos 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.

Three for Thursday, Part 1- Mariama Lockington on the Tattooed Poets Project

I reached out to our next tattooed poet, Mariama Lockington, back in February and she responded with an intriguing story and photo:

As one can see, those are three tattoos on three wrists. And, yes, one is Mariama's, and the other two belong to poets, as well! The three tattoos are inspired by the following photo of Mariama dancing on Venice Beach during sunset:

She explained, "it's the image we decided best represents our friendship," and, to her personally, "it symbolizes freedom, friendship, and curiosity."

So, today, we will be celebrating three tattooed poets, all with linked tattoos. The other poets, Lauren Whitehead and Molly Raynor, will have posts appearing later today.

(left to right) Mariama Lockington, Lauren Whitehead and Molly Raynor

Here's Mariama's poetic contribution:

so we never

for molly and lauren

here is a prayer for the bottoms of our feet

worn tough from neon colored sandals bought for

9.99 at the superstore on e. 14th  that also sold

leggings in every sexy girl pattern you could imagine

fake eyelashes and nail jewels & don’t forget

the banana hoop earrings as big a circus rings

we hung from our ears like ornaments, even though

our mamas warned of stretched lobes & infections

here is a prayer for how thick we were in those first months

our thighs rubbing together, making church songs

as we walked the lake eating breakfast sandwiches

stuffed with bacon & avocado

ignoring the thirty-something year olds

sweat-faced & out of breath passing us on either side

here is a prayer for short skirts & thai iced tea

the shady corner of an empty baseball field

where we stacked books of poetry next to half filled journals

smoked blunts or snuck sips of warm mimosas

while we scribbled urgent love letters to ourselves

along with the rhythm of shirtless men

playing basketball on the courts behind us

here is a prayer for our twenty-three year old bodies

for our self-assured yet searching hips

for the hands that attempted to guide our movement

into sticky corners of sound at kittys, lukas, or baobabs

for our dances that could not be contained or predicted

for standing on speakers & whispering into the ear of a DJ

for the wild-yell in our throats when our song came on

for the fake numbers & secret kisses & quick fucks

we owned because we were curious, because we wanted

here is a prayer for how we flung ourselves into lonely

our new womanhood all wrapped up in the mouth of the bay

for the dinosaurs stretching their necks out to us in greeting

as we emerged from the West Oakland tunnel at 1am

our heads slammed full of dizzy visions while our arms

swayed at our sides with the kick & kink of the train

here is a prayer for driving in a minivan along the 1

the coast moving next to us like a great whale

for the cliffs we dangled our legs from

the beaches we carved our names into

for the jade & driftwood & crab shells we gathered

all our evidence of being lost & broken & still free

   

here is a prayer for us, my hearts  

so we never forget how to return

~ ~ ~

Mariama J. Lockington is the author of the poetry chapbook The Lucky Daughter (Damaged Goods Press, 2017), and her novel-in-verse Questions I Have For Black Girls Like Me is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux— Books for Young Readers in 2019. Mariama calls many places home, but currently lives in Lexington, KY. You can find more of her work at www.mariamajlockington.com.

Thanks to Mariama (and Molly and and Lauren, in advance) for sharing their poems and tattoos with us here on The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday! Be sure to come back later today to see Molly and Lauren's poems!

This entry is ©2018 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoos 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.

Vanessa's Lion

About a month after seeing Ben's lion, I spotted another lion at the City Hall subway station:

This lion is on the side of the leg of Vanessa, in a spot where you don't normally see a tattoo.

She told me that this was tattooed by Oba (@omoori) at Push Tattoo Studio (@pushtattoos) in Wilmington, Delaware.

Vanessa explained that this was part of a set of matching tattoos she got with her best friend. As she tells it, the lion matched her friend's personality, and this leonine friend designed the art.

I asked Vanessa what her friend got. She explained that her nickname was Goldfish, so that's what her friend got to compliment her lion.

Thanks to Vanessa 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.

Scott and His Friends with Their Spirit Animals

I met Scott while he was having a sandwich in Bowling Green Park last week in lower Manhattan. He had this cool tattoo on his forearm:

Scott explained that the three heads on his forearm represent him and two of his friends. They each got the same tattoo, but with their animal totem in the middle, with the other friends above and below them. He was kind enough to send me a shot of all three together:

Scott elaborated for me:

"This tattoo represents the bond that myself and 2 others share. The three of us actually met online playing video games like Counter-Strike about 12 years ago. It was complete luck that we even met. We spent those 12 years just talking and playing games over the internet from miles away.

Dima (on the left) and Ethan (right) live in NY. I have been in Wisconsin for my whole life up until 2 months ago when I moved here for a job upon Dima's referral.

We spent a good few months discussing how we could signify this bond..and we ended up on spirit animals essentially. I chose the lion because it represents pride and I, too a fault at times, have a great sense of pride. Dima has the bear because his last name is Medved which is Russian for bear. Ethan has the wolf because of how strong they can be individually.

So I took a plane to Albany and Dima came up from Brooklyn and we met Ethan and we all got our tattoos together. It was mine and Dima's first (of many) tattoos."

Scott credited the work to Dan Belcher at the Dead President's Lounge in Albany, New York.

On the other side of his forearm, Dan also had this pretty incredible tattoo:

Or, for a different view:

"This one," Scott told me, "is an interpretation of an album cover." It's based on the work of a band called Protest the Hero. He credited the tattoo to Mark Mansavage at Old Salt Tattooers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "I gave him the album cover," Scott said, "and he did a loose interpretation of it." Here's the original artwork:

Thanks to Scott for sharing his cool tattoos with us here 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.

Steven and Melissa's Friendship Tattoos

This summer outside of Penn Station, on the corner of 8th Avenue and 33rd Street, I met Steven & Melissa, who marked their friendship with matching tattoos:

This is how our discussion went:

Tattoosday: "So what's the story with that tattoo?"

Melissa: "It's a friendship tattoo..."

Steven: "Yeah, I'm a Cancer, so that's a moon, and it kind of describes our relationship, because she's an Aquarius and the moon controls water, it's a push and a pull, we balance each other out."

Melissa: "But he doesn't control me though...our first thing was that we found out that the moon controlled insanity and stuff, and we think we're really weird and crazy...that's what we were going with..."

Steven: "So a little of everything..."

Melissa: "Yeah."

You could tell they are close friends because their sentences overlapped and they seemed to be finishing each other's thoughts.

They credited the design and tattoo to an artist at NYC Kulture on St. Mark's Place in the East Village.

Thanks to Steven and Melissa for sharing their friendship tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Tommy's Card Represents Birth and Death

Back in June, I ran into Tommy, in Penn Station, who shared this tattoo:

Tommy told me this is based on a Tarot Card, and that it represents a message.

"I got it the same day one of my best friends passed away. I actually didn't know that happened that day. A friend of mine has a book of birthdays ... and every birthday has its own card and this is my card and I went to go get it and then later that night I found out one of my really close friends passed away. So, it's kinda like represents a whole lot more to me now." 

The piece was inked at Philadelphia Eddie's Tattoo Haven.

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

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Julie Kantor

As we wind up the Tattooed Poets Project on this, the home stretch of April, we are double-posting to accommodate the record number of submissions we received this year.

Our second tattooed poet of the day is Julie Kantor.

Julie sent us these photos:

Julie explains:

"It was a very early morning in Portland, OR. I picked up my best friend, Jess, to get breakfast. On the way to the cafe, we saw two guys, each had a shopping cart packed to the brim. They were laughing with each other, smiling these huge smiles. Jess turned to me and said, 'If we were bums, we would still be best friends. Bum friends.' I suggested, strongly, that we get matching shopping cart tattoos. After breakfast we found this small tattoo shop with no name off Glisan that just opened. Inside, we made a deal with the shop's very green apprentice to do both tattoos for $40. The 'bf' in the tattoos stands for bum friends." 

Here is one of Julie's poems:

From the series: Land 

12)
Waters flush north under concrete & steel, rods down
planted, now dry cracks through road we drive over, see
red lines run lengthen out from sky blue & darkening,
say “let's trace this back to where the sun doesn't even
want us w/it,” beam bridge can't take us across all the way
w/out drop before we stand safely or span the land’s
end to its own mirrored opposite. Those could be our feet
on the ground, but we ride this straight across the dividing
line where trains’ tracks alongside plains lead away from
& hear the river call us down, would one body’s dead
weight be enough to pull us into, first think we tie our-
selves w/knots we won't learn the names of, but tangle is
thick w/width, & water's feel enough for loss of, & if we can’t
sustain w/just us then we shouldn’t have to begin with.

~ ~ ~

Julie Kantor just completed her first manuscript, the currently unpublished, The Beautiful West. She is a M.F.A. candidate in poetry at Columbia University where she teaches in the Undergraduate Writing Program. She is also a musician and plays in the new band, Cycles. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Thanks to Julie for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo 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 I Know: A Medley from Maida

It's safe to say that Maida has been a fan of Tattoosday from its earliest days.

Over the last three years, a day generally doesn't go by without our discussing ink. As a co-worker, and a friend, she's a regular visitor to the site.

Which is why one might wonder why her tattoos have taken this long to appear on Tattoosday. I even recall discussing with her potential designs as she researched new ideas.

We always talked about me taking pictures, but it never came to fruition.

However, yesterday the stars aligned and we got our collective acts together. Let's take a look, shall we?

I'm starting with my favorite pair of the three she is sharing (out of four, in all):

These two are pretty cool, and the top one. a triquetra, I remember her spending a lot of time thinking about.
She feels that it also acts as protection, warding off the evil eye:

Below that is a butterfly that is not your standard design. The wings' patterns resemble skulls:

Maida says this dual image, the softness of the butterfly and the roughness of the skulls, represents the two sides of life, and is a double-edged sword. The kanji represent the symbols for power (top) and strength (bottom).

Maida also shared this tattoo on the outside of her right calf, above the ankle:

Maida got this, along with her friend Kathy, as a testament to "the strong bond and love between two best friends". They each have it on the same spot, although Kathy's butterfly has lavender wings, whereas Maida's are turquoise.

All of Maida's tattoos above were inked by an artist named JStar, whose website is here. The site includes photos of more of her work and is well worth a look.

Thanks to Maida for sharing her tattoos with us here, finally, on Tattoosday! We look forward to seeing more in the future!

Ashley Displays the Mark of Friendship

I met Ashley when I approached Becky (her post here) about her work. Unlike Becky, who is inked 27 times, Ashley has just four pieces, none of which are immediately visible.

However, after talking with her friend Becky, I queried Ashley about any tattoos she might have, she offered up the small piece above.

Ashley's friend Turner Walker is an aspiring tattooist who is learning the art form. Turner, with whom she had gone to school, asked if he could practice on her and, when she assented, he placed two small red hearts on either side of the middle finger on her right hand.

She laughs about it, thinking it's cool that wherever she goes, she'll have a piece of him inked on her body.

Personally, I like the fact that she has a couple of hearts inked on a finger that is often misused by humans to make an unpleasant gesture.

Thanks to Ashley for sharing her small heart with us. True friends let their friends practice tattooing them!