Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog)

Friday, April 1, 2016

The Eighth Annual Tattooed Poets Project Celebration Begins with Lee Sharkey!

We're kicking off the 8th annual installment of the Tattooed Poets Project with this tattoo from Lee Sharkey:

Lee tells us:

"The late, great sax player and tattoo artist Richie Slamm inscribed this band of roses and poppies around my left wrist in 1981. Since I lived with him for fourteen years, it’s a mark of great restraint that I have only two other tattoos."

Lee sent us the following poem:

Gifts

The nib of the pen in his mind writes a poem each night he is imprisoned

Each night he recites all the poems he has written

On the thousandth night he writes no poem but recites 999

In exile, he draws down the shade and begins transcribing

Remembering, he lets up the shade to a land of strangers

I will never forget the press of his hands on my ribcage

He carries the sear in his chest to the ocean bottom

So he can bear the weight of the death of the future

Fish eat his once-ravenous eyes

He abandons himself to their kisses

Only then, only then when he is nothing can it begin

Speaking through bones, his tears washing our cheeks

All he says is

In the atomic ruins

one tree

came into bud

Nine times slowly he repeats this

His is the kindest voice

At night I imagine the long wait of the prisoner, pride of his father, the scholarly boy

Memory’s black-backed mirror reflects the heat of his longing

His father stares down darkness, letters not received

Before the prisoner, words are nothing

The hours ride by on the backs of the abducted

Slip through with me to what might have been

—from A Darker, Sweeter String

~ ~ ~

Lee Sharkey is the author of nine poetry chapbooks and full-length collections, most recently Calendars of Fire. Tupelo will publish her new manuscript, Walking Backwards, in September, 2016.

Thanks to Lee Sharkey for helping us launch our eighth consecutive celebration of National Poetry Month, here on 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.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Natalie's Midwest Tiger

Back in September, I met Natalie, a Vegan baker, in lower Manhattan. She has over ~~twenty~~ sixty tattoos, and we decided to look at her hands. Check out this cool piece on her left hand:

Natalie credited Silje Røe Hagland from Scapegoat Tattoo in Portland, Oregon. Hagland has since moved to Invictus Tattoo in Norway.

Natalie also has these knuckle tattoos, in homage to her Midwest roots:

Natalie runs the Bake and Destroy website, so head on over and see all the cool stuff this vegan baker is doing.

Thanks to Natalie for sharing her cool hand and knuckle tattoos with us here on 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.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Kylie's Lobster Welcomes in Spring

We here at Tattoosday have been clinging to a dwindling backlog of 2015 tattoos, so it was a true delight when the thermometer cracked 60 degrees yesterday in New York City.

Aside from the obvious comfort factor, for the inkspotter, there is the added bonus of seeing everyone's tattoos return to visibility after several months of hiding under winter jackets.

Our first spring offering was spotted on Kylie, on the Whitehall Street subway platform. Behold this fantastic tattoo:

This spectacular lobster was inked by Rob Banks out of East River Tattoo in Brooklyn. East River never disappoints with the work their talented artists produce and this lobster is really beautifully done.

Kylie seemed to have a nautical theme going around her upper left arm and I am gratefully she shared this with us. She grew up near the beach, so this tattoo helps embrace that upbringing.

Thank you, Kylie, for sharing your lobster tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Sarah's Cool Peacock

Back in September, after a great night out in Manhattan at a poetry reading, followed by some good beer at West Village watering hole, I stumbled on this lovely tattoo on the West 4th Street subway platform:

This lovely watercolor peacock belongs to Sarah, and I didn't have a chance to ask her about the tattoo, as her train was rolling in after I took the photo. Fortunately for us, she emailed a few days later and filled me in:

My tattooist is Paul Ciaravino, an independent artist and friend of
mine based out of Prospect Heights.

The tattoo is based on a piece of art that was generated for a music
festival I attended several years ago in Tennessee. The festival was
one of the most enriching experiences of my life, and affirmed my love
affair with music.

I believe she is referring to this My Morning Jacket poster from the 2011 Bonnaroo Festival:

Here's another angle of the tattoo:

Thanks to Sarah for sharing her lovely and cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, March 21, 2016

Gangsta Mary Poppins

I spotted this cool tattoo on David over by Federal Hall late last summer:

He called her his "Gangsta Mary Poppins." Note the umbrella teardrop tattoo and neck ink peaking out from under her clothes:

She also has a wickedly cool parrot umbrella:

David explained that he got this because his husband was in the cast of Mary Poppins on Broadway.

The artist was Mimi Wunsch from Sea Wolf Tattoo Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Julius and Jeff Share Some Ink

Last fall, after a reading at the New School for the launch of The Best American Poetry 2015, I met Julius and Jeff. They were leaning against the stage in Tishman Auditorium and, despite my fervent requests that they do so, they never e-mailed me their details, so all we have is some basic information on their tattoos.

Julius shared this literary tattoo:

The phrase "Darkness falls from the air" is a quote from James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Jeff shared this tattoo:

That is from the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, and he got this at Daredevil Tattoo in Manhattan. He makes horror films and Nosferatu is one of the all-time early classics.

Thanks to Jeff and Julius for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Netty and Huey (at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention)

Seeing as Black History Month is winding down, and I still have some leftover 2015 photos to share, this tattoo seems appropriate as February comes to a close:

I spotted this tattoo of Huey Freeman, from the comic strip The Boondocks, on the arm of Netty, at last June's Urban Tattoo Convention in Brooklyn.

What's remarkable about this tattoo is that it's not all tattoo. Netty explained that she had the tattoo inked around her birthmark. Look again:

Huey's hair is mostly birthmark. She credited Nelly, a travelling artist from L.A. (Instagram here), with skillfully blending Huey's hair into the pre-existing mark on her arm. Pretty nifty job.

Why Huey Freeman? Netty explained, "I love him and what he represents."

Thanks to Netty for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!