Thursday, June 30, 2016

Lauren Shares Dylan at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade

Earlier this month, at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (@mermaidparade), I met Lauren, who was kind enough to share this cool tattoo with us:


Lauren explained that this tattoo is a "conceptual representation" her son Dylan. The name Dylan means "from the sea."

She had this done at the Wildwood Tattoo Beach Bash by artist Jake Punzalan (@jakepunz), who is the owner-operator of Veritas Tattoo (@veritas_tattoo) in Hartford, Connecticut.

Incidentally, Lauren (@laurenhadams) is a photographer, whose work can be seen here.

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


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. 

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Nina's Phenomenal Pin-Up Chef

I met Nina earlier this month outside of Federal Hall in lower Manhattan. She was kind enough to share this really awesome tattoo:


Nina explained, "It's a pin-up chef girl, because I own a restaurant ... Johnny D's in Vero Beach, Florida ... I got the roses added on later."

She credited Isaac Serrano (@tattooartbyisaac), formerly of Scooter's Skin Art in Vero Beach, Florida. He has since moved on to Gypsie Soul Tattoo (@gypsie_soultattooslc) in Salt Lake City.

Thanks to Nina for sharing this great pin-up tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Melanie's Owl, Melanie's Heart

I met Melanie last week on the subway platform at Broad Street. She had a couple really cool tattoos that she let me snap photos of, and she filled me in later on the details.

Fist up is this really cool owl tattoo with a sugar skull belly:


Melanie explains:
"The truth is, I have always had an obsession with owls. There is something about their quiet wisdom that intrigued me. They possess secrets and messages that are meant to be told to the right person at the right time. When my father passed, I was always searching for something, for answers. My dad had all the answers and life lessons for everything. Maybe that is why I identify with owls; because in some way, they remind me of my dad; wise with hidden knowledge. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t that young when my father died, I was 24, but I still had a lot of learning and growing up to do. I was lost for a long time and would go on random walks to think, search for things that would fill a void that was left in my life. One night, I was walking down the street when I looked up in the darkness of a tall tree and all I could see was the bright eyes on an owl. At that moment, I felt as if the owl was staring right at me and calming me in a way that my father would; making me feel as if every thing is going to be ok because he will always be there to protect me. So I decided, for protection, for wisdom, for life lessons, I could keep my wise owl close to me on my shoulder."
Then, there is this nifty tattoo on her inner arm:


Melanie told me:
"Art always gave me an outlet to express my feelings. If I felt depressed or broken, happy or loved, I would sketch, draw or paint. I never had a good way with words, but I could express feelings and things dear to my heart with art."
Both tattoos were done by Matt Huff (@matthufftattoo) from Brooklyn Ink  (@OriginalBrooklynInk) in Bay Ridge. Work from Matt has appeared on Tattoosday previously here, and art from the shop has been featured numerous times over the years,as evidenced here.

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

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.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

In Memoriam: Cody Todd, Tattooed Poet

I learned this weekend, through social media, that Cody Todd had passed away.

Not many people may have heard of Cody. As far as I can tell, he published only one title. But he was much loved by those that knew him. We met virtually, through the ether, back when I was assembling the first group of tattooed poets for the Tattooed Poets Project. And, a year later, he sent me more work, which appeared in 2010.

Whether or not the contributors feel it, I regard Tattoosday's ledger of poets (287 and counting) as comrades and friends. They have opened up to me and, when one of them leaves us, I feel like I've lost a friend.

In that spirit, then, do I offer up a composite of Cody's contributions. These appeared on April 22, 2009, and May 1, 2010, respectively, back when I was cross-posting the poems on my old site, BillyBlog.

***

Today's tattoos come from Cody Todd, who was referred to me by Carol Muske-Dukes:

The first one is a back piece, still in progress:



Cody explains this as "a Star Wars mural--the Millenium Falcon in front of a meteor pursued by a TIE Fighter, from The Empire Strikes Back with the specter of Boba Fett looming above the chase." He credits an artist named Skip (since retired) at Old World Tattoo in Arvada, Colorado (North Denver). This was primarily done in 1996.

Cody expands on the piece:
...the one on my back is still in progress--I foresee at least 5-6 more sessions and touch-ups before I can say it is certainly complete. I like visual collages and pastiche, just as I like the poetic collage of Eliot's Prufrock and The Waste Land, Marianne Moore's Poetry, or Frank Stanford's "The Battlefield where the Moon Says I Love You" and Joshua Clover's The Totality for Kids, are other examples. Poetry that synthesizes subject matter, speaking voices, speaking subjects, and stitch together otherwise independent and unlike things--unified by the mode of collage.

Why a Star Wars tattoo? Well, I guess I buy the argument lent forth in Joseph Campbell's The Hero with A Thousand Faces, that the mythical embodiments of the epic, the quest, and the hero are not just culturally shared, but I think each generation has their own embodiment as well. Hokey, cheesy, and melodramatic --yes, but I still watch Empire... with great nostalgia, and I don't think enough credit goes to [George] Lucas and his literary homage paid to Aquinas, Emerson, Plato, and Homer, to name a few. However, the revisions of Star Wars Episodes 1-3 are so bad I cannot watch them without getting sick. Maybe I am old now, but I just don't get them at all. Nevertheless, my parents still joke about the fact that I was conceived in the backseat of a Ford Pinto while they were "watching" Star Wars at a south Denver drive-in in the summer of 77."
The second piece is a "tribal-esque mural," of sorts, and was tattooed by a friend of Cody's named Bryan in 1997, at Your Flesh Grappling (now known as Your Flesh Tattoo) in Durango, Colorado. This piece was drawn by Cody and wraps around his left thigh:

Cody added:
"The leg tattoo was a personalized redefinition of the "Tribal" tattoos that were the craze when tattoos were no longer isolated to deviancy. Loosely quoting Mike Ness of Social Distortion, in the 1990's, kids could go to a mall and get their little "parts" pierced or walk out of there with a barbed wire tribal band around their biceps. I took a one-page graffiti collage from a notebook that I penciled of hooks, circles, ovoids, anemone-shaped and flame-shaped patterns with tentacles--my first name is actually on the upper left, and a small skyline of Denver with that wacky cash-register shaped building [The Wells Fargo Center] is just 1:00 o'clock from the family of bubbles or spheres centered in the band. I am going to amend this tat with another piece of similar solid black-ink graffiti to wrap a 4-inch band around my knee. That is the thing about tattoos--they are addictive; they beg to grow new limbs, and in that sense they are like little monsters."
Cody generously contributed several poems:

Tattooed on the Backs of Eight Fireflies:

Under a dark loam of night,
pure barbed wire.
*
Apparitions dancing
dancing and dancing.
*
Some of us just might bite
the apple those cursed birds already did.
*
Old story: cat bats us away
to reanimate or destroy.
*
Words are the ruse, flight
is the guise, and we are the fakers.
*
Return the favor: grace for
sex or salvation for dust.
*
Time is the knife. Gods the size
of thumbs. Men with bloody hands.
*
We captured our god, the sun,
and feasted on him by torchlight.

~~~


Two additional poems follow:

-->
Boba Fett

Bad-Ass is as Bad-Ass does. I tilled earth
before the war and knew nothing of greed
or vanity. There once was a woman’s face
I looked forward to after my labor. Her shadow
burns in my helmet, chaffed and singed
as a dead clown’s skull. Pigs are cleaner
than humans, but all deserve to be
on the spit. Any woman can be a wife
for a night. I’ve got more weapons
than my life’s got chances. Money talks,
and the thief and priest abides.
Fire is as humble as a man’s pride
minutes before he begs: sweet hell,
sweet lion’s mouth, headfirst. Mute law
enforcement. Mute victims shot
in the back. Mute tombs kicked in half.
I’d barter light for a necklace of dried eyeballs.
Hell, I’ll trade in that hot-spurred devil himself.
~~~
Currency

Watercolor paintings on the refrigerator.
Watercolor painting of dinner on my plate.
The eyes were flashlights and black holes.
The political party with fire-eaters and acrobats
won the prize.
Mainly, laughter was swept gravel in the street drain.
You could see it the way you see it
eat its cheese: the moon
destroying two heads of glass.
My watch never stopped: spiraling
a miniature tornado atop my wrist.
The beautiful angel adorned with tattoos
from head to toe—plumes of smoke,
the neighborhoods became tears,
in and out of my windshield,
it is a currency between thought and motion.
Thanks to Cody for not only sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday, but for expounding on them at such length. It's always fascinating to hear people go beyond the literal meanings of the tattoos themselves, and explore the deeper significance of the art form as it pertains to themselves and society.

His bio appeared, in 2009, as such:

Cody Todd is the author of To Frankenstein, My Father (2007, Proem Press). His poems have appeared in Hunger Mountain, Faultline, Bat City Review, Salt Hill, The Pedestal and are forthcoming in the Konundrum Engine Literary Review the Columbia Review and the Georgetown Review. He was born and raised in Denver and received an MFA from Western Michigan University. He currently lives in Los Angeles and is a Virginia Middleton Fellow in the PhD program in English-Literature/Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.






In 2010, we extended the Tattooed Poets Project into May.

On May 1, we announced that we are being visited by an old friend, Cody Todd, whose tattoos appeared here last year.[2009]

This is his latest tattoo, four weeks old, inked at Purple Panther Tattoos off of Sunset in Los Angeles:


Cody provided this explanation:
Not too much of a story behind this. It is Marv and Goldie from the "The Hard Goodbye" of Frank Miller's Sin City. The artist who did this is from Tokyo, and her name is Koko Ainai. I admire the precision of her work in copying Miller's extremely elaborate sketching. As Marv and Goldie embrace, he is holding a gun he apparently took away from her and a bullet hole is smoldering in his right shoulder as he lifts her off the ground. That tattoo is the first of what is going to be a kind of sleeve in parts in which I take different scenes from noir films or works and decorate my whole left arm with. Upon seeing Farewell My Lovely with my girlfriend last week, I decided to get the front end of a 1934 or 1936 Buick as my next tattoo.

...I am doing my critical work for my PhD at USC on the "western noir," which is a term I sort of coined for a specific genre of film and literature concerned with elements that typically comprise classical film noir, except they take place in cities in the western part of the United States. As we see in the film, Sin City, it has a "Gothic City" feel to it, but it is most certainly somewhere out in western Nevada, or California. I think the motifs of lawlessness, street and vigilante justice, and the disillusionment with the American Dream are all at work in this kind of genre, and that it also borrows many elements from the Western as a genre as well. If anyone wants to read good literary western noir, I would direct them, promptly, to read Daniel Woodrell, who takes the noir theme and brings it to the Ozarks and southwest Missouri. If Chandler and Faulkner had a love-child, it most certainly would be Woodrell.
Cody expounded on his poetic contribution as well:
"Sadly, I don't have any noir poems. I'd love one to explore a relationship between noir and poetry, even though I doubt it is possible. The early work of Larry Levis is noir-ish (e.g. "L.A. Loiterings" or "Fish") but I don't think it was his conceit to explore that relationship, even if it exists. The work of Bukowski, voluminous as it may be, comes from a kind of noir persona that the poet created for himself, but again, not really an attempt to explore the poetics, if any exist, of noir. I do have a weird poem here that I wrote in a woman's persona, and she came to me one night as a rather desperate and dark soul."
~~~
Portrait

Portrait of child swinging on an old tire, tied to a tree. Portrait
of man hammering a stake into the earth. Portrait of wedding:
the space-eyes of everyone, happy as hell. Welcome to hell. Oh
portraits ringing in our memories like unanswerable telephones
in abandoned offices. Hello portrait, it’s me. I’m alone and still
thinking about you, portrait. Getting drunk alone. Lipstick has
to be refreshed after each glass. Don’t leave me alone, portrait.
I am almost dead, almost smoking another night away, almost
admiring the stars, wanting to eat the their own cold smiles.
~~~

Reading back on these old posts, I marvel at how interesting Cody's discussion of his tattoos were. Not everyone is as expressive with their contributions.

Cody Todd will be missed, in more ways that I can even fathom, I would guess. We never met, and hadn't spoken in years. Still, his loss seems deeply tragic.

This is the best way I can pay tribute to one of our contributors, one thread in the fabric that makes Tattoosday and the Tattooed Poets Project.

Farewell, Cody, on behalf of the Tattoosday community. Condolences to your friends, loved ones, and family.

This entry is ©2009, 2010, 2016 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoos were 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.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Running into Liz, Seeing Her Heart

As we approach our ninth anniversary in a little over a month, I look at Tattoosday not only as an outlet to express my admiration of tattoos, but as a finder of occasional friends. Over the years, this little blog has brought me its share of friends and acquaintances.

Take one example, a woman named Liz, who I first met in August 2010, on the West 4th Street subway platform. Her tattoo appeared a month later here. I can't say why we became social media friends, but our paths crossed again in May 2011, when we both showed up for a taping of NY Ink (recounted here). Liz got to hang out as an extra in the background of an episode, and I was one of the lucky folks who got a rooster tattoo.

I hadn't seen Liz since then, except on Facebook, as we occasionally traded messages.

So it was a nice surprise when, about a month ago, I was standing on the Whitehall Street subway platform, when I saw Liz approaching. We had a great chat on the R train into Brooklyn and she shared this tattoo that has been added to her collection since we last met:


Liz credited this cool anatomical heart on her arm to Danny Boy Smith at Let it Bleed Tattoo Parlour in San Francisco.

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

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.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

"No Big Story" for Tanya's Lovely Tattoo

Earlier this week I met Tanya outside of Bowling Green in lower Manhattan.

She shared this beautiful tattoo:


Tanya told me this was done by a friend of hers in Slovenia. "No big story," she told me.

Thanks to Tanya for sharing this with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Christina's Rooster at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade

Last Saturday at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (@MermaidParade) I met quite a few people with cool tattoos. Christina was one of these folks, and this was one of my favorites from the day:


Full disclosure, having a rooster tattoo myself, I have a tendency to like other people's as well.

Christina explained that her grandmother collected roosters, so this drawing she did is an homage to her.

She credited Derek Mullins from Metamorph Tattoo Studios (@metamorphtattoo) in Chicago.

You can see some of Christina's own artwork on her website here.

Thanks to Christina for sharing her rooster with us here on Tattoosday!

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.


Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Amanda's Gentleman Cat

Earlier this month, I met Amanda, who hails from Texas, near the corner of Broad and Wall Streets in lower Manhattan. I spotted her with numerous tattoos and she kindly offered to share this cool piece:


She credited this work to Jay Joree (@jayjoree) from Last Angels Tattoos (@lastangelstattoos) in Dallas.

She told me, "I'm just a crazy cat lady and I really like cats." She added "I like the idea of having a Gentleman Cat." She plans on getting a complementary Lady Cat on the other side of her forearm.

Thanks, Amanda, for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Mikey's Joker at the Mermaid Parade

Saturday at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, there were thousands of tattoos to see. This one really jumped out at us:


Thanks to Mikey for sharing this amazing tattoo of the Joker, with all the Ha Ha Ha's screaming off of his skin.

He credited Albie (@riseghostofwar) at 223 Tat-2 (formerly Peter Tat-2) in West Hempstead, New York, and said he still has one session to go.

Thanks Mikey for sharing your work!

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.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Brianna's Mermaid, at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2016

I was in tattoo heaven at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (@mermaidparade) yesterday. I could literally fill this site for a year with all the body art bared on the boardwalk. This year followed the same pattern as the last, however. I hung back and enjoyed the spectacle, talking to a few people, and only really started wearing the Tattoosday hat later in the day. When people are parading, they're not as likely to take the time to share as they are afterwards. The end result is perhaps a half dozen tattoos to share, but ones that I really like from cool people.

The last photo I took was of this mermaid, on Brianna:


Briana explained that the mermaid illustration upon which this tattoo is based came from an old alchemical text and that it is, historically, one of the first recorded mermaid drawings. Check out this reference for further detail.

Briana also pointed out that the mermaid is lactating and, in essence, feeding the world.

I particularly love this tattoo because of its linework and that it is not typical of your normal color mermaid tattoos.

Brianna credited the work to Kat Fedora (@katfedora) from Bang Bang Body Arts (@bangbangbodyarts) in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Thanks to Brianna (and all the other cool people) for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Alicia's Heart (Tattoosday in Virginia Beach)

Last August, I was in Virginia Beach, visiting family, and I decided to swing by a couple of tattoo shops.  I mentioned Ghost Ship here, and I also swung by Red 5 Tattoo

The shop was bright big and spacious and I snapped a few photos.  However,  before I share those, Alicia, one of the shop staff working when I walked in was kind enough to share this pretty fantastic U2 tattoo that hearkens back to the cover photos from the band's Joshua Tree album.

It's pretty self explanatory, with the message “My  belongs to 4 Irishmen” alluding to U2’s country of origin. 

I believe this is the source photo:


The recording of my interview with Alicia was deleted, and she no longer work's at Red 5 Tattoo. I did send a message to her to retrieve the name of the artist who inked this tattoo, but I never heard back.  So it will have to stand alone.

UPDATE: Red 5 informed me that the tattoo was done about 10 years ago by artist Chris Garcia (@ChrisGarciaTattoos).
 
Check out some photos from Red 5 Tattoo below.
The Sign Above the Entrance

A Very Bright and Clean Reception Desk

The Waiting Area is Huge and Airy

Artist Portfolios Could Be Viewed In This Interactive Display
Thanks to Alicia for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Be sure to stop by Red 5 Tattoo if you’re ever in Virginia Beach! Website here.

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.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Mirko's Tattoo Looks Through Us

Earlier this month I met Mirko on Wall Street - he's a chef at a nearby restaurant, and he shared this stunning tattoo:


Mirko got this because he just loved the artwork. He credited artist Loco Dharma (@locodharma) from Dharma Tattoo (@dharmatattoostudio) in Miami.

Thanks to Mirko for sharing this beautiful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Sean's Stunning Sleeve

Earlier this month, I met Sean outside of a store on Broadway in lower Manhattan.

I generally don't like to post full sleeves on Tattoosday because it is, in my opinion, really hard to do them proper justice.

Once in a while, however, the work is exceptional, and I can't help but try and capture some segments of the sleeve.

I mean, look how great this is:


Sean explained that segments of the sleeve are in memory of a neighbor who was a mother figure for him when growing up. She succumbed to complications from lupus, and the clock and roman numerals link to the date of her death.


We didn't have time to discuss all the elements of this sleeve, but he did credit the work to Tazz (@Tazz_Tatts) who works out of Aztec Ink (@aztecinkbrooklyn) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. We've featured work by Tazz at least once before, like this piece which appeared in 2011.

Thanks to Sean for sharing his cool sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Heather's Butterfly Keeps Her Grounded

A couple years back, Heather shared an amazing tiger tattoo with us. She is the owner of Paws on Pine, a pet services company in lower Manhattan.

I see her from time to time down near my office and spotted her back in May. I went over to say hello and she shared a new tattoo on her inner forearm:


Heather told me she had this tattooed earlier this year, on April 9, by Jessica V (@jessicavtattoos) at Sacred Tattoo (@sacredtattooNYC) in Manhattan.

She elaborated:
“What’s crazy about this is, I had the appointment all set for the 9th [of April] and then I wanted to get a butterfly because I wanted it to symbolize that I could go really high, sky high, but not too high. It keeps me grounded. But then my grandmother passed that morning. She was 90, so it’s for her, too."
Here's another photo from Jessica V's instagram, identified as a "Kawaii Chibi Butterfly:"

via Instagram @jessicavtattoos
Thanks to Heather for sharing her cool butterfly with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Vladimir's Trident (K.T. Billey - Tattooed Poet of the Month)

For those of you who have been diagnosed with TPWS (Tattooed Poet Withdrawal Syndrome), we have your cure.

How about a Tattooed Poet of the Month?

Meet K.T. Billey, who is sharing this tattoo:


K.T. explains that this is "Vladimir's trident, also a hawk and a shape that I've always loved the look of." She elaborates:
"Originally the personal insignia of Vladimir the Great, it became the national symbol for Ukraine after the dismantling of the Russian Empire. It lost its official status during the Soviet era but was still used by Ukrainian nationalist groups—today it's on the Ukrainian coat of arms. As you might imagine, there's been a resurgence in the symbol's political significance. It took me a while to realize why I was getting double takes at the Russian Turkish baths.

My mom's family immigrated from western Ukraine to northern Alberta, Canada. I grew up Ukrainian folk dancing and knew at about 13 that I'd eventually get this tattoo, I just couldn't decide where. That was about the time I became serious about dance and was debating display and privacy. A few months after my mom died I put it on my forearm—skin I see relatively often. It's a reminder of myself and a way of carrying her along. I sketched the straight lines into more curved wings and got it done next door to the sex shop I worked at, shooting for a vascular blue. The artist's name escapes me now but she was an ex- English literature PhD candidate whose union had gone on strike over unfair intellectual labour. By the time the protest was over she'd decided she'd rather draw and she dropped out."
I originally asked K.T. if she wanted to wait until next April to share, or if she wanted to be an off-season contributor. Last year, we had so much overflow, we were able to share Tattooed Poets weekly through July. She asked if she could appear sooner, rather than later, and I am happy to comply.

I might add, there is a significance to posting this tattoo today, as well. For, believe it or not, it was on June 11, 980, a mere 1036 years ago, when Vladimir was coronated as the Grand Prince of Kiev. It only seems fitting, no?

K.T. also shared the following poem, "Your Stomach or Mine" which was first published in Poor Claudia's PHENOME series. She notes that "it's complementary to the bird because it's also addressed to my mom," and added that "the title of my book, which is largely how I processed that loss, happened to come from this poem."

Your Stomach or Mine?


The sun is thin, the air is triage, and you,

you are an acolyte—an adult falcon

inside me, wondering where that screech

came from. Goes to. Feeds. It’s not injury, no

sand on new graves or one-night bout

of grief. When we lost power I called

twice, afraid to forget how

onslaught behaves: lighting brass

votives, brunching by the robin egg

church. Remind me why bruises change

colour while you supervise this hack job

though your last last cross-stitch.

Spin my funeral necklace, just so

it hides the vulgar mechanics, the hook

and eye of death turning tricks.

I heard it. It left a message

in metallic thread on the mirror

that broke in the storm, so I let

my molars rot and made batteries

with the fillings. They feel better, biting

down. The tin foil reminds me

there’s a little bit of enemy

in everyone I love, and this

is updraft, beat by beat, and tailspin.

Nothing umbilical about it.

~ ~ ~

K.T. Billey’s poetry collection Vulgar Mechanics (seeking publication) was a finalist for the 2015 Pamet River Prize from YESYES Books. Now a finalist in the Poets Out Loud Prizes, it is being rendered into Spanish by poet Soledad Marambio, whose acclaimed translation of Anne Carson's "The Glass Essay" was published in 2015. Originally from rural Alberta, Canada, Billey won Vallum's 2015 Poetry Prize and her poems have appeared in journals such as CutBank, Denver Quarterly, The New Orleans Review, and Prelude. An Assistant Editor for Asymptote, she translates from Icelandic and Spanish.

Thanks to K.T. Billey for being a Tattooed Poet of the Month  and sharing her work for the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2016 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.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Carl Wears His Baseball Loyalty on His Sleeve

I met Carl this past Sunday on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge during the annual Fifth Avenue Festival. He has a bunch of tattoos, but offered up this familiar design:


That, of course, is Mr. Met, in the logo for the New York Metropolitans baseball team.

Carl is a huge fan and wanted to wear his team loyalty. He's been a fan since he can remember and recalls that his father took him to his first baseball game.

When I asked what he remembered from that first game, he noted that Joel Youngblood and Dave Kingman were playing.

This was tattooed by Brooklyn's own Mr. Kaves from Brooklyn Made Tattoo in Bay Ridge.

Thanks to Carl for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Some Amazing Black and Grey on Joel's Arm

Last week I met Joel on Broadway, downtown near Bowling Green. His arms were fully tattooed, with a panoply of black and grey work. He was kind enough to share this small section with us:


We talked about the two elements above in great detail.

First is the portrait on his forearm, which Joel explained:
"The tattoo artist is out of Miami, Javier Betancourt (@JavierBetancourt) ... he was doing a week-long stay at Three Kings [in Brooklyn] ... my wife ... found him on Instagram ... I had this idea for something much more subtle, actually, it was just sort of going to be hinting that it was her, it was going to be more Sailor Jerry, or it was going to be a silhouette ... But then we saw his work and - it was the first time I'd seen somebody do [something] like a stylized caricature ... it's very statuesque, as opposed to, like, when you see people get portraits, it's like they're trying too hard to mimic the photograph, whereas he would just take certain accents from the photograph to make the image..."
Needless to say, Joel and his wife were very pleased with the end result.

Directly above the image of his wife is a magnificent skull that spans the middle of his arm. The artist is Tamara SantibaƱez (@TamaraSantibanez) out of Saved Tattoo (@Saved_Tattoo) in Brooklyn. "I just came across her," Joel told me, "because I liked some of the work that I saw."

Thanks to Joel for sharing some of his amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Dan's Phoenix by Michael Angelo

The first Sunday in June is the Fifth Avenue Festival in Bay Ridge and, over the years, it has been kind to Tattoosday.

Here's one of the tattoos I spotted, on Dan:


Dan explained that this phoenix represents "the woman I'm looking for ... independent ... [and] strong...".

He credited this to local tattoo legend Michael Angelo in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

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

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.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Denenne Tells Us Love Kills

Last week I saw an incredible tattoo while walking on 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Needless to say, I was thrilled when Denenne agreed to let me take a photo to share here:


When I asked Denenne how this tattoo came about, she elaborated:
"I was thinking about my ex-boyfriend because I loved him so much that I felt like I wanted to kill him every single day of my life. And then, after he passed away, I just thought that Love killed me  ... Although I wanted to kill him with everything on my back, at the end of the day, love killed who I actually loved."
Deneene went to her artist, Jeanine at Liquid Expression Tattoos in south Brooklyn, and worked with her to transform the emotion into the final tattoo on her upper back, with LOVE spelled out in weapons. L is represented by a handgun, O by a hand grenade, V by a folded knife, and E by brass knuckles.

Thanks to Denenne for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.