Taylor's Undersea Tattoo

Last month, I spotted Taylor shopping at a local drug store in Brooklyn, on a particularly warm day. She had this cool thigh tattoo and was kind enough to share it with us: 

Taylor explained, "I've just always loved fish, mermaids, the ocean," noting that the mermaid  is "purple for my grandma, because that's her favorite color." She also added, "we've got Hank from Finding Dory up in there." Those unfamiliar with the film should not Hank is the octopus.

Taylor credited the work to Erica Flannes (@ericaflannes) at Red Rocket Tattoo (@redrockettattoo) in Manhattan.

Thanks to Taylor for sharing her cool undersea thigh 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.

Catherine's Marine Life Leg (Tattoosday Goes to Philly)

Last month, at the 20th Annual Philadelphia Tattoo Arts Convention (@villainarts), I met Catherine, who had an amazingly colorful right leg:

That's a sea turtle and a jellyfish and, on the back of her calf, is this blue-ringed octopus:

Catherine credited the work to Steve De Los Reyes (@stevedelosreyes) from Ink Kings Tattoo in Otsego, Minnesota.

She explained that the blue-ringed octopus and the jellyfish are two of the most poisonous creatures in the ocean. However, she pointed out, the sea turtle can withstand these animals dangerous venom. She transplants that fact to her own life, and pulls strength from the image of the sea turtle.

Thanks to Catherine for sharing her cool tattoos 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.

Daniela's Memento of San Francisco

Yesterday we featured a tattoo on Arnold (here) but neglected to mention the young lady with him when we met. Her name was Daniela, and she also hailed from Baia Mare, in northern Romania.

Daniela also shared a tattoo with us, this whimsical piece that sheds warmth on a winter's day:

Daniela told me she got this in San Francisco, and the simple symbols for sunshine, palm trees, and the ocean serve as memories from a lovely vacation. Every time she looks at this, she said, "I am going to remember I went to San Francisco, the month that I spent there, the memories ... I just go back in time, the people you meet, the things you do."

Unfortunately, she did not tell me who did the tattoo, but it is a lovely, whimsical tribute to her time in California.

Thanks to Daniela for sharing this cool 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Mlekoday

Our first Monday poet in this year's Tattooed Poets Project is Michael Mlekoday, who shared a few pretty cool pieces.

Before sharing them, I want to thank Tara Betts (appearing later this month), who referred me to Michael last year, after spotting his ink at the 2014 Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Seattle:

Photo by Tara Betts

I reached out to Michael to get some clearer shots and some background about his work. He credited his work to one shop:

"All of my tattoos are designed and inked by my fam Ryan & Naama at Lucky Bear Tattoo. They used to run their queer, family-operated business in Brooklyn, but recently moved to Northern California and will start tattooing in San Francisco soon. They’ve got an Instagram @luckybeartattoo."

Let's take a closer look:

Photo by Doug Paul Case

Michael explains:

"The fish/skyline tattoo is a drawing Ryan made called 'Big Fish / Big Pond.' I had him change it to my home skyline, Minneapolis. I grew up fishing, and even living in the city proper there were plenty of lakes and water (Minnesota has more shoreline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined! sort of…), so it seemed fitting. The fish & skyline is a way of marking where my body comes from—August Wilson, after all, says that 'art is beholden to the kiln in which the artist was fired.' "

On his other arm:

Photo by Doug Paul Case

Photo by Doug Paul Case

Michael tells us:

"The other arm has a Mason jar with fireflies inside it, another homage to the Midwest, and a bear skull, which is an image from my first book of poems—The Dead Eat Everything. Though I’m a Midwest kid, born and raised, I’ve felt pulled towards the coasts for the past few years, which is the subject of my second poetry manuscript, currently titled Junk Turquoise, hence the oceanic background on my left arm."

Here's a poem Michael sent us:

HOME REMEDIES

Baba once cast a demon out of my brother.
She slapped him hard across the face
and left a glass of vodka
on the kitchen table overnight.
By morning, the glass was empty
and the rainclouds hung fat and fanged
over our block. Whenever it stormed,
she tongued her dentures out of her mouth
and sucked them back in, staring
out the window, and crossed herself,
cursing under her breath in Polish.

She taught us the old curses and the blessings,
brought us to the cemetery to practice both.
I was always better with the curses.
The way they had to be dragged
from the body, the odor
of sea salt stuck to the breath,
how they kicked the heart
like the pop of a burnt out bulb.

~ ~ ~

Michael Mlekoday is the author of The Dead Eat Everything (Kent State University Press, 2014). Mlekoday is a National Poetry Slam Champion, serves as Editor & Publisher of Button Poetry / Exploding Pinecone Press, and has poems in Verse Daily, Ploughshares, Ninth Letter, The BreakBeat Poets, and other venues. More poems and stuff at michaelmlekoday.com.

Thanks to Michael Mlekoday for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2015 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.

Tom Shares His Escher and Hokusai-Inspired Sleeves

Back in June, I rode my bike out to the Coney Island boardwalk and did a little inkspotting. One of the several tattooed individuals I met was Tom, who had some cool work to share.

It was his M.C. Escher-inspired sleeve that first caught my attention:

Among the designs from which Tom drew inspiration were Escher's "12 Birds"

and his "Lizard."

Tom credited his artist Haun Duong, located in Queens, with this work.

His other arm has a compilation of the works of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai:

This is based primarily on his most recognizable work, The Great Wave of Kanagawa:

Tom told me that the koi fish represent the fact that he is a Pisces and that he has a twin sister. And there are additional elements from the Japanese master lower on the arm that represent him and his wife, along with three turtles (not pictured) which represent his kids. And inside the bicep:

The falcon and the snake represent the good and the bad within him.

Thanks to Tom for sharing his great work 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.

Gatsie Shares an Undersea Half-Sleeve and Some Additional Work from Royal Street Tattoo

Back in June, I met Gatsie on the West 4th Street subway platform in Manhattan. It was this, her undersea half-sleeve, that first caught my eye:

Gatsie told me that this work featuring sea turtles, jellyfish and a shark, was originally a cover-up and it was done by Matt Skinner at Royal Street Tattoo in Mobile, Alabama.

Gatsie was kind enough to send me some other pieces she's had done at Royal Street, as well. Needless to say, she's a huge supporter of the shop.

Her other arm hosts this phoenix by Kelly "Pony" Stephenson:

She also sent me this piece from her back:

This literary tattoo features Edgar Allan Poe and some ravens. This was done at Royal Street, as well, by Pete Anderson.

Thanks to Gatsie for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! We'll be sure to check out Royal Street Tattoo if we're ever in Mobile!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Kimberly Mahler

Today's tattooed poet is Kimberly Mahler, who sent along this tattoo:

Kimberly credits this bright colorful work to artist Erik Rieth, co-owner of Seventh Son Tattoo in San Francisco. The poem below is an unpublished work she is including in a manuscript centered around her raising her 11-year old autistic son, seen in this photo with the tattoo above.

Kimberly included a small photo of the piece in question, as well:

She elaborates:

"The iris was my first tattoo completed in 2007. It was a one session--four hour odyssey of sorts. I had never seen someone get tattooed, and was pondering why Erik was using so much red ink for a purple flower... yep, that was my blood, not ink. Over the years Erik and I developed a friendship and continued work on my shoulder in 2008 and the cherries February 2011.

I know the next one is going to be a large hip/thigh sea dragon piece, but that's a ways off. 

For me to be ready to get a tattoo, three elements have to be in line: my artist Erik has to want and like the idea, I have to be ready (both financially and emotionally) and the time commitment and passion for the design have to be there. When all are in line, it's a magical sort of experience. I give him ideas, he designs the piece and then we get down to work. I couldn't have anyone else do my work now; it just wouldn't be the same. [...] He co-owns a shop in San Francisco that just did a benefit for Japan, raising $7,000. Cool place. http://www.seventhsontattoo.com. Erik and the shop Seven Son Tattoo are both also on Facebook. 

There's definitely a connection between tattooing and writing for me. This is the only poem that I've written that is about tattooing (at least on the surface). However, both writing and getting a tattoo require a leap of sorts: a stepping off of the known. Both require a loss of control which lay the foundation for original art both on the body and the page."

Kimberly Mahler’s recent work has appeared in, 5AM, DMQ Review, My Baby Rides the Short Bus anthology, Naugatuck River Review, The International Psychoanalysis Poetry Monday and Cimarron Review.  She recently received a residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Chicago. Kimberly has taught college-level writing and literature in the San Francisco Bay Area for 17 years and is the director of The International Poetry Library of San Francisco.  She lives on the coast, a few miles north Half Moon Bay, CA with her son Harrison.

Thanks to Kimberly for sharing her tattoos, poetry and photos with us 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.

Brazilian Butterfly

It was a long week and I was heading home. I had just hit the subway station at 34th Street/Herald Square. The entrance I was using, by chance, was the Southwest exit into the Manhattan Mall. A woman walked by me with this tattoo:

I couldn't help it. I had to stop and ask her what the story was. Butterflies are pretty common as tattoo matter, but this was the most unusual and stunning one I had seen. This butterfly is unique in that she designed it herself and then worked with the tattoo artist in Nyack over a three month period to perfect the design.

The butterfly body consists of the symbol for infinity, which I thought was a cool touch to represent the eternal.

She was totally open to me taking closer shots of each of the four quadrants of the wings, each of which was a slightly different size, by design, so that no two aspects of her life were the same.

Renata is originally from Brazil, and the two bottom sections have ocean elements because she grew up in São Paulo, near the sea. The left and right bottom sections each bear the first initials of her parents, M & A.



The top sections are beautifully-rendered representations of the sun and the moon, completing the worldly representations in the wings of the butterfly.


Thanks to Renata for her time as she explained this marvelous tattoo to me. I gave her my e-mail address so she can send me the information on the artist, so he can get credit for this lovely piece of body art.