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.

Brewsday Tuesday on Tattoosday - Ninkasi Edition

We're launching a new feature here on Tattoosday - "Brewsday Tuesday"!

From time to time, we'll be checking out the tattoos of someone at a brewery and talking about their product. Beer and tattoos are two of my favorite things, and I'm happy to celebrate them together!

Our first partner in the series is Ninkasi Brewing Company (@ninkasibrewing) in Eugene, Oregon.

Meet Nick Yarger, Creative Director at Ninkasi:

Photo by Rob Sydor

After seeing this photo, I was eager to talk to Nick and had the opportunity to have a little chat with him about his tattoos, as well as his role in Ninkasi. Not to mention the glass of Ninkasi's Helles Belles he's enjoying in the photo.

First of all, let's look at the black and grey tattoo on Nick's upper arm:

Nick explained that this piece depicts "a ship going out to sea, and there's a kraken grabbing at it as it goes out to a stormy sea ... but it's also an image of a skull, so when you stand back, the back of the ship is its teeth and the eyes are the sails and the storm in the background is the back of the skulls's head."

Nick added that it was inspired by original art by Phil Roberts. Roberts is a well-known surf artist that Nick had the pleasure of working with in Southern California. Here is the Roberts piece that inspired the tattoo:

The tattoo was translated from Roberts' concept to Nick's skin by Tim Mcalary (@tim_mcportcity) at Gold Rush Tattoo (@goldrushtattoo) in Costa Mesa, California. Tim currently works out of Port City Tattoo in Costa Mesa.

When I asked Nick if he saw a relationship between tattoos and what he does for Ninkasi, he responded:

"Oh, absolutely. Some of the brands embody that tattoo feel. If you look at our Helles Belles, that one is specifically geared toward that culture, that tattoo style. That one is more my style than any of our other brands...

If you look at [the label] it's got the traditional sparrows in it, the lettering, all the elements are taken from traditional tattoo style."

Now, let's talk about the beer.

In the photo above, Nick's holding a Helles Belles, a truly magnificent lager, and he acknowledged in our conversation that this particular brew is the favorite Ninkasi crafts. Before compiling this post, I was mostly familiar with the brewery's stronger and darker brews (Vanilla Oatis, Tricerahops, and Total Domination) but, after talking to Nick, I sought out, and found, a few bottles of Helles Belles to enjoy, and enjoy them I did.

Over the years I have tended to drift to the dark side, dismissing lagers because I prefer bolder and thicker brews. Of course, when you have a good, well-crafted lager, that viewpoint shifts, and I was really blown away by how flavorful Helles Belles is. Crisp, light, yet deeply delicious, I was reminded how tasty lagers can be when they're just done right.

As part of this inaugural Brewsday Tuesday post, Ninkasi has generously offered to give away a Helles Belles t-shirt (like the one Nick is wearing in the photo above) to one lucky Tattoosday reader. All you have to do to win, is "like" this post on social media, or post a comment below. We will randomly select a winner in a week and announce it on Tattoosday.

Thanks to Nick Yarger at Ninkasi for being our inaugural tattooed Brewsday subject, as well as to Ali AAsum, Ninkasi's Communications Director. They really were a joy to work with and made this post a lot of fun to compile!

You can check out all Ninkasi has to offer at their website here: www.NinkasiBrewing.com.

This entry is ©2016 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: David Jonathan Newman

We have another returning Tattooed Poets Project alumnus today, David.Jonathan Newman.

David's previous contribution appeared two years ago, here.

This is a collage of a work-in-progress that David sent along for 2013:

David explains that this is:

"...a three-quarter sleeve on my left arm by none other than the famous Bruce Kaplan, owner of Lark Tattoo in Wesbury NY and Albany NY. We've both been very excited about this project and it's been in progress for over a year now; excited to be getting well into the color portion of it. Essentially, the tattoo is Bruce's take on a wicked thunderstorm; tidal waves, thunder and lightning, intimidating clouds and fire. Towards the end of the tattoo down by my forearms, the sun's rays come out through the cloud cover and the storm breaks. I've been through a lot in my life (just like many people) and this tattoo, like many of mine, is meant to remind me that I can get through every hardship I have coming; and that I was able to get through everything that's been thrown at me so far.

The quote in script was a previous tattoo that Bruce has been going around... it was done years ago by Chris Koutsis at DaVinci Tattoo in Wantagh NY. It says It's What You Love, Not What Loves You and was inspired by the Charlie Kaufman movie Adaptation."

David sent in this recent poem of his called "the night":

the night.

night comes

night comes exhaled in
casually flourishing in the expanse as if we acquiesced to its maturation
planting its flag among the corpses of our plans for the day, unaccomplished
and the cold
glacial, numbing wind searing across flesh and foliage
air in your lungs like an icestorm
liquid nitrogen eventide

the night is isolation
abandonment and abated breath
a brilliant abattoir of allegiances meant only to separate us and conquer hearts
colonize your capillaries with Cimmerian shade
circumventing circulation

I poured out a little of my drink for her, it froze instantly as it hit the permafrost
exhaled into slow smoke, dancing in the lantern light
frustrated that something so inanimate could take on such life
such alluring life in this ruination and gloom
I miss you
god, I miss you
the way your teeth always backdrop for your smile
the way we interlock perfectly before dreams take us
the way you shuddershake when you climax

you left me

and I go unaccompanied into the night
with this drink and these thoughts
and this lantern
and this love

~ ~ ~

David Jonathan Newman has been a poet and vocalist/lyricist in bands, both on Long Island, NY and in Miami, FL. He is working on a collection of poetry, writes music as a solo artist and has a blog (http://captainselfdestruct.blogspot.com) where he posts both his solid works and stream of consciousness ideas. He's been winning poetry contests since 6th grade, but recently he's been featured in online publications including Haggard & Halloo Publications, quite a few times - and even the Tattooed Poets Project, back in 2011. He's currently floundering back and forth between wanting to pursue his poetry pseudo-career to get more of his work out there, and the soul-crushing hopelessness that any poet feels, wanting to pursue their medium in the year 2013.

Thanks to David for once again contributing to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

©2013 The Tattooed Poets Project 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.

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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Christine Hamm

Today's tattooed poet is Christine Hamm:


Christine, a fellow Brooklynite, explained her tattoo as follows:

"Why my tattoo? Is it a museum on my arm? Is it some kind of message from outerspace? Children run to me just to touch it: ask me what the words mean, what I'm trying to spell. There are no words, only water.

For many years, I had been thinking about getting matching tattoos of waves splashing up my calves to my knees, as if I were wading in the ocean, perpetually. I thought about the cost, I thought about how the tattoos would look with a miniskirt -- I realized that if I got them, I'd always want to be wearing jeans rolled up to my knees and salt-stained t-shirt. I can't carry seashells all the time in my pockets, I can't be brushing the sand out of my hair every five minutes. So I decided to take less of a plunge, enter the water one arm at a time. It started off quite slow. Are you sure you don't want a fish, the artist kept asking me as we mapped out my image on tracing paper. Everybody else gets a fish. Just water, I said, just waves. The tattoo was to celebrate --- some kind of new awakening, finally going back to grad school to get my PhD in Lit like I always wanted, finally believing I could achieve something more. The waves are Asian-inspired; many who see my arm mention Hokusai, but the water is not taken directly from him. I was thinking of Zen when I finally decided on these particular waves; I was thinking that if I could just be in the water, neither sinking nor floating above, if I could just be. Water has always suggested to me some kind of slower, purer imitation of our world, something more real and less sharp. Not just amniotic fluid, not just rain, but the color, the there-not there texture, the kiss of it."

And that explanation, my friends, is one of the many reasons I love the Tattooed Poets Project.

She credits the work to Mike Bakaty at Fineline Tattoo NYC on 1st Avenue in Manhattan, who inked this about three years ago.

Christine is a PhD candidate in English Literature, teaches at CUNY in New York City, and was runner-up to the Queens Poet Laureate. Her second book of poetry, Saints & Cannibals, is coming out this spring. For more about her, go to her blog here.

To read a poem from Christine, as part of the Tattooed Poets Project, head over to BillyBlog here.

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.