The Tattooed Poets Project: Jackie Sheeler's Swirling Tribal Tattoos

Today's tattooed poet is Jackie Sheeler. The photos she sent me were taken by one of her friend's daughters, who utilized Jackie as one of her subjects in a photography project about tattooed New Yorkers.

Jackie explains:

"I have just two pieces, if by “piece” you mean connected & thematic. I didn’t get them all at once, though.

The big one on my left shoulder was done all at once by an artist named Carlos Alfonso at the 23rd street tattoo shop [Rising Dragon Tattoos]. I told him I wanted a “wing”, and pointed out about half a dozen pieces of flash that were kinda-sorta but not quite what I wanted. he told me to come back in a week, and he had created the amazing design that you see.






The tattoo on the right has come about in stages.


The first bit is the somewhat intricate tribal abstraction on the top back of the shoulder. I got that one around 1993, when tribal was just starting to become popular, and it’s a funny story.

I went to an illegal flash parlor in Brooklyn [tattooing in New York City was illegal until 1997], a basement filled with all guys except for me, and just one artist, a big old guy named Tony, who looked like somebody you’d meet on The Jackie Gleason Show. I had a copy of a tribal piece that I’d Xeroxed out of a tattoo magazine, and I told him I wanted that only bigger. He seemed pretty shocked – “you want THAT?” – and said sure he’d do it for $60, which was a lot cheaper than I’d expected. He ran it through that mimeo machine or whatever it is that they use, enlarged it and stenciled it onto me...

...But then I had to wait. Why? Because a drug dealer came in with his falling-down drunk girlfriend, gold teeth, handfuls of cash, and a gun pretty obviously stuck in his waistband, and needed immediate service. His girlfriend was getting a tattoo “for him." He picked out the flash – a big, ugly bulldog, snarling and all – and had Tony put it on the girl’s abdomen. It was pretty horrible. She was gorgeous, and I knew how she was going to feel when she woke up with a hangover and THAT on her belly. Anyway, my turn was next and tony got the piece done in like half an hour.

I didn’t get another tattoo for 9 years, which is when I got the big one that Carlos did on my left shoulder.


I went back to Carlos (by then he was working at MacDougal Street Tattoo Company [since closed] ... in 2004 and got my “wing and a prayer” tattoo, which is the feathery wing with a peace sign emerging from it that’s just above the crook of my arm. I actually got this piece on July 6, which is George Fucking Bush’s birthday, and I got it in honor of him being about to be thrown out of the White House. (My band also released a single related to that, so it was a big thing for me – though obviously things didn’t turn out the way we’d hoped!) That piece was a standalone for a while, then I went back and asked Carlos to do a few more curlicues up my arm to attach it to the tribal on my shoulder, which he did.

Two years after that, I went back to MacDougal tattoo to get the curlicues extended down to my left wrist, and asked for Carlos. They said he was “no longer practicing” but it was a very strange moment, and the two people at the counter had these looks on their faces. By that time I’d gotten to know Carlos a bit. He was always having girlfriend problems and talking about moving back to Florida, so I asked if he had done that. So sad. No, he had committed suicide a couple months before. He was only 31.

It was very strange for me, all of a sudden my art seemed different. I felt like I was wearing his suicide note, in a way. But that (rather absurd) feeling passed, and I went back to MacDougal in a couple of weeks and had Carlos’ friend, Patrick Conlon, put on the curlicues in Carlos’ style. That session was like in honor and memory of Carlos, and we talked fondly about him while Patrick worked."

Thanks to Jackie Sheeler for sharing her detailed recollections of her tattoo stories.

Please be sure to head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems here.

You can also read her blog, Get Angry With Me, here, or visit her band, Talk Engine, on MySpace Music here.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Gina Myers and Her Colorful Gypsy

Today's Tattooed Poet is Gina Myers, who offered up this beautiful traditional gypsy piece:


Gina provided me the following commentary to accompany the tattoo:

"Sharing tattoos in this public forum is a little strange for me. I used to keep my tattoos covered when visiting family or working, and have only recently felt comfortable in the office at my current job letting them show. I tell my friends when I am going to get something new done, and I show them pictures afterward. However, I rarely, if ever, talk about the reason behind the tattoos.

I get tattoos for very personal reasons and the tattoos are for me, not for others. Strangers in public will often ask me about my tattoos or even go as far as touching my arm, moving my hair, or pulling up my shirt sleeve to see my work. What shocks me is that they often do not see anything wrong with their behavior. How often do people walk up behind strangers and rub their arms or ask them intensely personal questions? Someone once actually lifted my friend's skirt to see the tattoo on her thigh that stuck out some below her hemline. It would seem to go
without saying that what is beneath her skirt is not public. A tattoo is not public.

Sometimes when people ask me what a particular tattoo means, I ask them what they think it means. Usually people are able to put together a string of adjectives to which I respond, "That sounds pretty good to me."

I got this tattoo in September 2007 by Chad Koeplinger at Tattoo Paradise in Washington, DC. Chad is from my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan, and we grew up with the same people. I find this important. I kind of believe people who have a lot of tattoos are damaged in some way, and Chad, being from Saginaw, kind of gets my damage with no explanation. In 2006, I got a piece by Chad on the outside of my right arm, a fully-rigged ship, and then this piece, a gypsy, is on the inside of the same arm. To me, the pieces are related. They both represent people. This gypsy represents a particular person but can stand in for many as I have been lucky to have been surrounded by many strong women in my life. When I ask people what they think a gypsy means, aside from the occasional "stealing babies" comment, I often get strong-willed, mischievous, and free-spirited. To which I respond: "Yes, that sounds pretty good."

Thanks to Gina for sharing one of her amazing tattoos with us here at Tattoosday!

Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of Gina's poems.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Kat Zemmel's Twisted Clock

Kat Zemmel is a poet and Master's candidate at the University of Tennessee.

Her amazing "twisted clock tattoo" is on the right side of her torso.

Kat explains the story behind this time piece:

"The design is the work of the tattoo artist--I came in one day, and said that I'd recently been enamored with antique clocks, antique watches. I love old mechanical things, the care with which they are put together is something that is hidden in the everyday present American culture. We buy computers, coffee makers, cars, and watches expecting them to work, and for the workings to be concealed. I think that there is something vulnerable and exposed about antique watches--their need to be daily wound, the care one puts into having such an object.

Sheri Matlack is the tattoo artist who drew the design--at the time she was working at Lone Wolf Body Art in Nashville, but since has opened her own tattoo shop: Electric Athena Tattoos (also in Nashville). We had discussed the placement of the tattoo--I wanted it on the ribs, and she thought to twist the watch/clock to fit the contour of my body. The number 8, featured prominently in the lower square, is a favorite number, a good number for me. The design, overall--the shape of the twisted watch-face, the way that the watch itself is segmented, everything--was Sheri's work. I only directed the theme, and she executed it, perfectly. I think that when I first saw the design, I was hesitant and unsure--it was too strange to my eyes; since I've had it done, I've loved Sheri's work, and have come back to her faithfully, for almost every tattoo. I still think it's the best damn black and grey work I've ever seen.

The tattoo was done over two 2.5 hour sessions in December of 2006.

Kat sends along some additional biographical information, including how the art of tattoo influences some of the classes she teaches as a graduate student:

"...As in many programs, graduate students are assigned to teach some sections of first-year composition; second-semester composition courses, while still courses in writing, can be centered around a theme chosen by the instructor. Thus, I am presently teaching a course called "Inquiry into Body Modification." I had some doubts about being able to sustain students' interest in the subject matter, but have had little trouble so far. With this course, I wanted to make students aware that body modification is something people do every day, that it also includes the likes of plastic surgery, body building, dieting, as well as piercing and tattooing. I hope to teach my students to look at every body critically, to read the argument a body makes, to be able to understand a body's stance within culture. Presently, they are working on a paper assignment (Historical Inquiry unit) that asks them to trace the changes in a body modification practice over time, or to study a body modification practice that has been transplanted from another culture... In either case, I ask them to make an argument about the nature of the appropriation or change--for example: how is Chinese foot-binding similar to the Western practice of wearing high-heeled shoes? or: how do Western tattoos differ in meaning from their earlier ancestors? These, and many other questions, are important, I think, to consider--especially in a culture that takes body modification for granted.

I am presently teaching a composition course at UT, but it's a little different because the second semester freshman comp (102) is a theme-based course. The theme of the course that I'm teaching is Inquiry into Body Modification, so my students and I talk a lot about tattoos, and the way they are viewed--the way that tattoos change the surface of the skin into a thing to be viewed differently. It almost gives people permission to look at a body, to enact a weird kind of voyeurism.

Kat is also part of Shelley Jackson's Skin project:

I am a word in her story, and that has also has changed my perspective of tattoos. Having a tattoo means that I am a part of a community, but one in which the members don't necessarily know each other...

I want to thank Kat for sharing her incredible tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and telling us a little about the courses she's involved with at the University of Tennessee.

Be sure to check out one of Kat's poems over on BillyBlog.

Abbey Nex Contemplates Transforming an Iconic Tattoo Image

Just a brief note...despite the Tattooed Poets Project for National Poetry Month, I still plan on spotting ink on the streets of New York, and posting it here.

This is one of those posts....

Back on April 1, I spotted a very distinct-looking individual at the Amtrak terminal in Penn Station. It's a great inkspotting locale, as people are usually standing (or sitting) around, waiting. Those folks are more amenable to chatting about their tattoos than their counterparts who are rushing for the train, or are running back from lunch.

I mention that he was distinct looking, because he stood out in the normally conservative Amtrak crowd. He looked the part: performing under the name Abbey Nex, the gentleman was headed back to Baltimore after a tour of Europe with his band, Psyclon Nine. He primarily plays bass for the band, although Psyclon Nine's MySpace page credits him with broken mirrors and scabbed knees, as well. The band is classified as metal/black metal/industrial.

Abbey Nex has ten tattoos in all, but we decided to share the one that I saw first, an old Jack Skellington piece that his friend Emily did about 8 years ago on his inner left forearm:


Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos are among the more popular movie-themed pieces in our society, primarily because the stop-action animation classic has such a huge following, but also because the main characters make such great designs for big tattoo pieces. He also has one of Jack's girlfriend Sally on his inner right bicep.

Abbey admits that he has come to regret this piece a bit, having outgrown it to some extent. However, he plans to alter it to bring it more in line with his aesthetic sensibilities. The plan is to leave the majority of the tattoo intact, but to replace Jack's trademark head with a less childish,
more macabre and elongated animal skull. The piece directly above the Skellington tattoo is an elaborate bat skeleton.

I want to thank Abbey Nex for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and for giving me a pen, liberated from the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin, since I ventured out lacking a writing instrument to scribble my notes.

Here's a video of the band's song "Parasitic":

The Tattooed Poets Project: Alex Grant's Totemic Tattoos

Alex Grant is one of the many writers I have met through Facebook via the poet Dorianne Laux. Originally from Scotland, he lives in North Carolina, and sent me the following photos of his tattoos:


The top piece is “a variation on a Celtic totemic symbol …which…suggests totality - Sun, Moon, Stars and sky - and the celebration of all that implies...”.


The banded tattoo below the Celtic piece is a series of Mayan totem symbols. He interprets them as representations of “the cycle of sleep (as in having no awareness), through awakening, through full consciousness”.




These tattoos date back to the early 1990’s (circa 1994-1996) and were inked in Berkeley, California, at Zebra Tattoo & Body Piercing.

These are not the only tattoos Alex has He told me, “I have some others that I don't love so much - including some I did myself with a needle and ink at age 16!”

Thanks to Alex for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

Please be sure to head on over to BillyBlog to read one of Alex's poems, or you can explore more of his work on his web page here.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Caroline Malone's Trio of Intimate Tattoos

Today's tattooed poet is Caroline Malone. She was kind enough to offer not one, but three, of her tattoos for our enjoyment.

Here they are, in her own words:

"Alien cat was my first tattoo in 2006.


I had always told myself I would never get a tattoo, but then I met someone, someone who turned out to be my sweetheart, who had a tattoo for each of her three novels, and I thought, what a great way to celebrate one’s published work. Since I don’t have a book of poems published, I became concerned that to honor each of my published poems, I would end of up with a substantial part of my body tattooed. So, I opted for a tattoo that would be a tribute to my sweetheart. Also, I love felines as does my sweetheart. I wanted to steer clear of clichés because I do consider myself a decent writer. It took me a few months to find the right design and choose a spot for the tattoo. I’m happy with the location [the upper right side of the chest, near the shoulder], but I probably picked one of the tenderest areas of the body for a needle to repeatedly pierce. The tail of the cat is in the shape of an inverted letter “J,” the first initial of my love, and it’s red because my sweetheart’s hair is red.

I had this tattoo done, as I did the other two, by Anna McClain at Saint Tattoo in Knoxville, Tennessee. Saint has won all sorts of awards. It’s THE place to go for quality, creative work. Anna’s work is distinctive, but you can’t really tell from the Alien cat. If you show your Anna-tattoo to tattoo people around Knoxville, they always recognize it as Anna’s work. My other tattoos show her talent. Anna is quiet and sweet, so even though I was practically shaking with fear over what was about to be done to my body, I went through with it because Anna gave me the confidence. The entire process took about 20 minutes – the tattoo is about as small as she could make it – and the only pain resulted from when the needle was close to the bone (I’m bony).

That first tattoo I gave to myself as a birthday present and the second was a year later, another birthday gift. My sweetheart and I had become close enough that I had a pet name for her, Mermaid, so I decided to have a mermaid tattoo as a kind of promise ring or something. It took me several months to find a design that wasn’t Disney’s The Little Mermaid or a fantasy-style mermaid. I took the design to Anna, and she worked for about 20 minutes to come up with a custom design.


I loved and love the tattoo running down my left hip, like a mermaid floating under the water. Also, I can see the tattoo without having to use a mirror, just like the alien cat. I personalized further by having my sweetheart’s first and last initials lettered in one of the air bubbles surrounding the mermaid. This one took about an hour and a half, and it hurt like hell because again, I’m bony, and the only relief came when Anna worked, briefly, on the small part of the design that extended to my ass. I think Anna was almost as excited about the final product as I was. I knew she liked working with color, and the alien cat was 95% solid black, and then just the snippet of red tail. This tattoo is so sensual and feminine.

My last tattoo came on December 22, my birthday, of last year. My relationship with JW had progressed, and so the moon tattoo is a testament to our growing intimacy.


The moon is symbolic for me in many ways, one of which is that one of my favorite novels by my sweetheart has the word “moon” in the title and is an important symbol in the book. I came up with the design by taking a sort of standard shape crescent moon, adding the flowing purple hair, and then asking Anna to add her special touch to it. She nixed my initial request for red hair because she said the moon would not be red, plus it would make it look angry, which is not what I was going for. She was skeptical about my desire to have the entire first name “Julia” in script as part of the moon’s hair, but she found a way to make it work. Anna did the perfect job of choosing colors, again creating such a sensual, dreamy image. My right hip isn’t any tougher than my left one; for some reason, this one hurt worse than the mermaid, and during the last thirty minutes of the process, I could feel my nails (and my nails are nothing to speak of in length) sinking into the little black leather pillow I was cradling. Luckily, I could then concentrate on worrying I was tearing up her pillow instead of the needle.

Before the tattoos, I wrote a poem for my sweetheart, trying to use tattoo as metaphor in a fresh way. I’ve been told the poem works because of its sensual qualities, which is different from other tattoo poems."

Head over here to read Caroline's poem, "Body Art".

A hearty thank you to Caroline Malone, not only for participating in the Tattooed Poet's Project, but for providing such a close, intimate look at her tattoos and the process behind them!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Tess. Lotta's Tree Has Her Back

Today's tattoo comes to us from Tess. Lotta, a poet and editor of Media Cake eMagazine. She was referred to me by Rick Lupert over at the Poetry Super Highway:


Ms. Lotta had this piece tattooed "around 1998-99". She noted that, "it took awhile, as it was painful along the spine".

She continues explaining the piece:

"...Most of my work, including this back piece, is done by my dear friend Owen Connell. His shop, Parlor F, is located in Seattle ... At the same time I was coming through some heavy shit in my life, our neighbor was chopping down a very healthy, fabulous oak tree. She left it a stump. By the next spring, the stump had sprouted fresh twigs, each waving tiny, green flags at the ends as if to say 'I’m here.' It was a deep lesson for me. I’m lucky to have two trees in my life now: a skittish but big-hearted lemon tree (it was mutilated by an untrained tree trimmer) and a scrappy peach tree that is cranky as hell."

Thanks to Tess. for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Be sure to head over to BillyBlog and read one of her poems!