Three for Thursday: Hamsas All Around

Late last year and, at the beginning of this year, three very dear and close people to me got hamsa tattoos. Hamsas are talismans that span cultures and religions and are thought, in some cases, to ward off the evil eye. The symbol has great significance in some aspects of Jewish culture and thus, when my wife, my younger daughter, and one of our closest friends all wanted a hamsa, it happened, one could say almost mystically, in threes.

What's cool about these three hamsas is that they are so different - they are not "matching" tattoos, yet each one is a companion to the others, as they were all crafted and tattooed by the talented Alex McWatt (@alexthreekings) and Three Kings Tattoo (@threekingstattoo) in the East Village.

First up is our dear friend Felicia's, above her inner ankle:

Most hamsas include an eye, and other design elements are included. In Felicia's case, she had Alex add a branch, representing the Tree of Life, the Hebrew word "Chai," and a red heart. Chai also has a lot of meaning in Judaism - it literally means life. Felicia's hamsa is symbolic and has the outline of the traditional protective hand.

My wife Melanie got her hamsa on her inner left forearm: 

Alex McWatt at work on Melanie's hamsa

One of the cool things about hamsas is that, as designs, they can be interpreted in so many different ways. Melanie's is oriented differently than Felicia's and consists solely of the traditional eye and a full Tree of Life, whose branches extend throughout the tattoo:

Last up is my daughter Shayna, whose hamsa is on the outer part of her leg, above the ankle:

Shayna's hamsa has no tree, but holds a "Chai" in its palm, in the middle of a six-sided star, the Jewish Star of David. It is purposely unshaded, except for the blue in the eye, and the three fish on the fingers. Alex used bold thick lines to create a really striking tattoo.

Three women, three hamsas, three different tattoos that hold deep personal meaning to their wearers.

Note I do not have any direct quotes from Felicia, Melanie, or Shayna. Meaning is interpreted differently, and it is hard to say "this means this" and "that means that," when the tattoos possess a higher spiritual significance.

You can see a half-dozen or so other hamsas featured on Tattoosday over the years here.

Thanks to Melanie, Shayna and Felicia for sharing, and to Alex McWatt, who continues to amaze us with his work!

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.

Rachel's Hamsa

Last summer, at a family gathering after the funeral of our cousin Beth, I had a chance to take this picture of a hamsa tattoo belonging to another cousin, Rachel:

This hamsa is on Rachel's inner arm, and was tattooed by Eric Lao (@biggetatz), who currently works out of Sub Q Tattoo in Middletown, New York.

The hamsa is a symbol, popular in the Middle East, that is used to ward off the evil eye. This protective amulet is often found in Jewish and Muslim culture. You'll see that the star of David figures prominently in the piece. Rachel says she "saw [the design] on his wall the first time [she] went in for a tattoo." She remembers telling Eric she was going to come back and get it, and she did.

Check out other hamsas we have featured on Tattoosday here

Thanks to Rachel for sharing her cool hamsa 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.

Lynne DeSilva-Johnson's Body of Work on the Tattooed Poets Project

Our final tattooed poet in April is Lynne DeSilva-Johnson.

I've been talking to Lynne about contributing for over four years, and I finally met her last summer at the annual NYC Poetry Festival on Governor's Island.

Here are some of Lynne's tattoos:

Lynne explains:

"The hand tattoos are from 2007. On my left hand is an eye, radiating out -- the all seeing eye combined with the classic symbolism of eye-in-hand, familiar via the Hamsa in particular, and ancient to both Jews and Arabs in the middle east. The all seeing eye, unfortunately connecting us too frequently to illuminati or other ridiculousness, is actually an ancient esoteric visual symbolizing divine light and our connection to it as divine beings. It is consistent in all ancient religions/sacred imagery, predating organized religion but carrying into all faiths. On the right hand is a human heart, similarly radiant. In energy work and healing, it is believed that the left hand receives energy/is negatively charged, 'allows things to happen,' and that the right hand is positively charged/emits energy, 'makes things happen.' My hands symbolize (and stand as a constant reminder to me, and a point of public dialogue) that while we receive light and information via our minds eye/senses, that it must be translated in the body and find a home in the heart, that decisions and actions should come in through the eye but channel out, to the world, through the heart. In keeping with this, I used the following image, (ceremonial rattlesnake disk, found in Moundsville, Alabama) on the cover of my first chapbook, Ground. (2012)"

Lynne also gave us a view of her body of work:

Lynne elaborates:

"All the tattoos you see are from the same artist! Alex Sherker. He is amazing. You can find him at Wizard Mountain Tattoo, and often as a visiting artist at shops all over the US, and NZ. Oh wait, not the split star on the wrists...  They're from around 2004 - and were done at Flyrite, 3 blocks from my childhood home and 1 block from my family's old house in Brooklyn. My old partner (now deceased) had the same split stars. They were slightly altered in scale for our different wrists but you couldn't tell when we put them together. The thinking was that you are never a half -- you are always a whole by yourself (complete your own star), but when you join in partnership with another person, you create a new whole. The totally anti-ownership/tagging version of a relationship tattoo. We always said that our future partners, or children, or friends could in fact also get the same piece (still a possibility!) to indicate the new wholes created with our knowing and sharing with each other.

On my back, in the plaque area, in white (hard to see, this tattoo is pretty old at this point) is a quote from Sartre, in French, but which translates to 'have no illusions and do only what you can' -- a bit of a mantra of sorts for many years about balance and duality in life and work , which I always took to mean, boiled down, 'give yourself a break while kicking your own ass.' I got this as I was in a bit of a divorce with the illusions I'd had about academia and the relationship of disciplinary scholarship to ontology and enlightenment, as well as to a necessary distancing from the former partner, who battled opiate and alcohol addictions. It was a bittersweet reclaiming the core of my intentions/desires, as well as a leaving behind a lot of what I thought my life would hold. The female figures are not angels, a common confusion, but rather are from two paintings of Alphonse Mucha -- the left is from his panel representing 'the arts,' this figure being 'Dance' (from 1898) and the right representing 'spring,' from another panel painting of the seasons. I was always very entranced by art nouveau, its marriage of biological/botanical forms and the new technologies of the modern moment -- steel and glass and concrete. As with most back tattoos, and the ceiling of the UN, this is perennially unfinished -- there was a whole plan for botanical and architectural elements surrounding what you see now...!

Somewhere, on the neck, near the nautical star, on a ribbon it also reads 'to thine own self be true,' gotten the day I left a job I felt I had shrunk down and diminished myself to stay at -- a reminder to never do that again (and, by and large, I've kept to that promise!)
On my biceps are tattoos for my daughter, Beckett -- Love Always, on my right, Beckett Rose, on my left. From 2010. My daughter was born in February 2010, conceived manually in a room by myself, the daughter of me and a gay couple, Matthew and Dan, long time friends of a good friend of mine. She was adopted by them fully (the only legal option) in May of 2010. On the day of her adoption I sat for 8 or more hours in Carnegie Hall listening to the Dalai Lama talk about the Bodhisattva path, non attachment, duality, and enlightenment, what I seek here in every way. I do not believe that this legal document controls or defines our relationship, and I continue to be very much her 'Mama Lynne,' a constant part in her life. These tattoos are a reminder for me that I carry her with me every day, and that love is never about ownership or title, love is never about volume of time but quality of that time, of intention and attention and consciousness and being a model for her of the possibilities of family, parenthood, self-hood. 

Shoulders, most recent, are my design in collaboration with Alex - lotus based epaulets, traditionally a military symbol, here transformed with lotus -- symbol of peace, enlightenment, and our path through the mud into bloom -- I call them my spirit warrior epaulets, because indeed I am fighting a battle everyday here, not only of my own but in my community, humbly hoping to improve this place." 

Lynne also shared the following poem:

NOVENA

two swing in unison, one opposing;

the sun's warmth a surprise

amongst fallen leaves, so that

every arm is graced by

unnecessary jacket, armor

for what we thought was coming.

their dog will not pose

for the camera, her every hair on its end,

her nose an antenna for the infinite scents

alit on the wind, on whispers

from the sky's million and one mouths.

look up: that blue is bigger

than anything you can imagine.

why can you feel this wind

on your face, why hear the insistent

caw of unseen birds? the grace

of these mathematics, demurring

behind the face of the mundane --

this is divinity.

I'll write this poem whenever I can,

over and over again

until I die

and what I see before me

will never grow old, will

never cease to be

miracle.

~ ~ ~

Lynne DeSilva-Johnson is a willful subject feminist killjoy queer official-narrative battler making her way through image, text, and code in the world, currently stationed in Brooklyn, NY. She runs the self-hacking arts organization/press The Operating System, and is an Assistant Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute.

You can find her on the web in these various locales:

http://lynne-desilva-johnson.strikingly.com
http://theoperatingsystem.org
twitter.com/@onlywhatican
twitter.com/@the_OS_
instagram: @thetroublewithbartleby, @the_operating_system

You can also enjoy this recent interview with her: http://culturedesigners.com/the-operating-system-detournement-radical-documentation-with-lynne-desilva-johnson/

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

This entry is ©2017 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.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.

Donna's Hamsa at Max's Bar Mitzvah

You'd think a bar mitzvah would be the last place I'd see interesting tattoos but, over the years, I've posted photos from work that I have encountered at such events. Today we have the third, from my friend Max's bar mitzvah, earlier this month in Brooklyn.

I was at the reception in the evening when I met Donna, who shared this, one of her many tattoos:

Donna credited this to Brian Paul, who works at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massapequa. He splits his time between Kings Avenue's Long Island and Manhattan locations.

For those unfamiliar with this design, it's called a hamsa, and it is a popular talisman in Middle Eastern cultures, as well as in Judaism.

Donna explained a little bit more about the tattoo:

"By nature I am not a religious person but I am however a touch superstitious. I think it comes from growing up with a Jewish mother and a Jewish grandmother ... I felt like I really wanted something to help keep the 'evil' eye away. I really like the look of a cross but because I am not Christian I felt like it wouldn't be appropriate to get it tattooed on me. I like the clean lines of the hand and the tattoo artist and I personalized the inside of the hand. It took me a few months to get used to having it on my wrist but I absolutely LOVE it now!!! I get a lot of compliments on it." 

Indeed, it's not a huge piece, but it's very well done. I'd expect no less from an artist working at Kings Avenue - they're a top-notch custom shop.

Thanks to Donna for sharing her hamsa with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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.

Two from Samanatha, Including a Tattoo for Bubbie

I met Samanatha last month in Penn Station and asked her about her many tattoos. She's 26, and has been getting inked since she was 18, and appears to be going at a steady clip, because she has a lot of great work.

She was kind enough to share two of her tattoos, both from her right arm. The first piece is this hamsa:

Samantha explained that she got this tattoo in memory of her grandmother, or "bubbie," as they're known among many Jewish grandchildren. Samanthha's bubbie passed away a few months ago. I asked her what she thought of her tattoos and she replied, "Well, being a Jewish bubbie, I don't think she was too excited about them, but I always asked her if, as long as she still loved me, then it was okay; and she always said, "ach, yeah."

This hamsa, a symbol often associated with luck and warding off the "evil eye," was inked by Josh Schlageter at Hand of Doom Tattoo in Buffalo.

Samantha also offered up this dragon tattoo:

She got this from Steve Boltz at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn, explaining:

"It's called a  spaulding dragon - it's old sailor flash ... I just wanted to go to one of the guys that could do one really, really well. Everybody in the tattoo community up in Buffalo that I know said, 'you gotta go to Steve Boltz', so I traveled down here to got see him."

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

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Karla Linden

Today's tattooed poet just missed the boat last year, contacting me after the month had already filled up. So, technically, Karla Linden, has waited the longest to see her contribution make it into the Tattooed Poets Project. Check out what she has offered up:

Well worth the wait, if you ask me!

Karla explains:

"This tattoo is a sacred symbol called a 'Hamsa' or 'Hand of Miriam' - it is traditionally for protection and also as a reminder of the five senses, melding in to a Sixth Sense.  Richie Castillo of Time Bomb Tattoo in San Antonio, Texas did it for me in June of 2010, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I live."

We've had several hamsa on Tattoosday before, but this one is certainly the most colorful and vibrant!

Karla also contributed this poem:

For the Further Progression of Literary Domination

* * * * * *

"Bind her wrists with
typewriter ribbons

and

tattoo
Anais Nin
quotes on
her thighs."

Blindfolded,
they pull you down
on the bed

newsprint laid out
underneath you

and

the needle
buzzes.

Words form on flesh in between the silence:

Dreams are necessary to life.

then

Each contact with a human being is so rare,
so precious,
one should preserve it. 

in Courier typeface,
letter by letter

You wish this dream would never end,
that
the pressure of her hands,
her mouth on yours
and
the hot tattoo needle
raising a welt
with each stroke
would go on 'til dawn.

~ ~ ~

Karla Linden, NMT, LMT (www.KarlaLinden.com) is a writer and massage therapist, living in New Mexico. She has over 130 hours "under the needle" and is both a tattoo and poetry enthusiast.

 
"Grinding Ink" and "Which Makes Me Love Her Even More", 2 of her poetry books, came out in 2010.  She always has plans for more poems, and more tattoos.

Thanks so much to Karla for her patience, her poetry, and her tattoo! We appreciate your contribution here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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.

Stevie's Tattoo Calms and Inspires

Last Wednesday marked the official end to the veritable tattoo drought this winter in New York has afforded us here on Tattoosday.

In addition to the three people I met at lunch, my train ride home and, subsequently, my day, was punctuated by a fleeting encounter with a woman named Stevie on the R train.

I had just plopped down in one of the seats after having moved car-to-car between stops, in an effort to get toward the back of the train. I mention this to illustrate how fortunate I was to be where I was, when Stevie boarded the train.

She got on at one stop and, by the time she had exited two stations later, I had had just enough time to take a picture of the wonderful tattoo on the back of her right calf, and pass her the blog info so she could contact me with more details.


Stevie has seven tattoos and this one came from the incomparable New York Adorned at the talented hands of Virginia Elwood. Stevie worked over several sessions with Virginia, ironing out the details of the piece, which was completed in one sitting.

There are three elements to the tattoo: the lotus, the hamsa, and the peacock feathers.

Via e-mail, Stevie explained:

I moved out here from the West Coast to teach in inner-city schools. When I first started teaching and things would get nerve-wracking I'd tap on this hamsa hand necklace I always wore. For whatever reason it calmed me down and reminded me that I was here to infuse some change and to do some awesome work. When I became an NYC Public School teacher I decided I'd like it on me permanently. The hamsa hand is a symbol of faith and clarity and that's what I think I found in myself, like my calling. The lotus flower goes along with this idea of rising to the surface and blossoming while the peacock feathers were an aesthetic touch.

Work from New York Adorned has appeared previously on the site here.

Thanks so much to Stevie for sharing her amazing work with us here on Tattoosday!

Tehila's Amazing Tattoos Rest Deep in Her Faith

After my wife got her "13" tattoo (story here), we had some time to kill before our dinner reservations at 7:00 pm. So, we headed to Chelsea, then walked down 23rd Street to the Housing Works Thrift Shop.

It was there, while browsing, that I met Tehila, who was visiting from Washington, D.C. It was this tattoo that jumped out at me:


Quite an elaborate neck tattoo, which was in part designed by her mother, from her birth announcement. The quote, "Do justly, walk humbly, love mercy," is from the book of Micah (Chapter 6, Verse 8) in the Old Testament.

The complete passage from the King James Version is

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Tehila, however, had another tattoo to show me. She took off her jacket and rolled up her right sleeve.

On her inner forearm was this amazing hamsa tattoo:


Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do the piece justice, as the prayers, in Hebrew, circle the arm completely. One of the prayers is from the Amidah. I generally shy away from taking pictures of pieces that wrap around the arms, for fear of not being able to capture the full spirit of the tattoo. But in this case, the work was so lovely, I couldn't resist.



Tattoos with Hebrew writing have appeared previously on Tattoosday here. I have featured a hamsa tattoo previously here.

The pieces are credited to Imaani K. Brown and Chris Menhah at Pinz-N-Needlez in D.C. Chris inked the Hamsah and Imaani is responsible for the neck piece and the Hebrew text the wraps around the forearm.


Wondrous thanks to Tehila for sharing these beautiful tattoos here on Tattoosday!

Alvin's Hamsa Honors His Grandfather, a Holocaust Survivor

I appreciate irony, but please note that I submit this post on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calender, with the utmost respect. If I somehow offend, please forgive me.

I met Alvin on Penn Plaza, my favorite inkspotting locale, and noticed he had several visible tattoos. Had it been summer, and warm, perhaps I would have seen his Jack Skellington tattoo (sorry googlers, none here!), but he has promised to send it to me.

Rather, he offered up this hamsa tattoo, located on the back of his neck.

The hamsa is a traditional Arabic and Jewish symbol that is an emblem for warding off the evil eye.

This piece is particularly special because it was inked in honor of Alvin's grandfather, after he passed away. He was a Holocaust survivor (2 years in Auschwitz) and had been very outspoken about people with tattoos and piercings. Yet, Alvin's grandfather was okay with such things on his grandson, and Alvin had even discussed with him the idea of getting a memorial tattoo after he was gone.

The Hebrew word for life, "chai" is in the palm of the hamsa as a celebration of his grandfather's life.

Alvin is the other form of "tattoorist," one who gets tattoos when he is visiting other cities (when he has the time and wherewithal). This one was inked in Boston, but he doesn't remember the name of the shop or the artist.

Thanks to Alvin for sharing his hamsa and the story behind it!