A Sugar Skull for Beth

Yesterday we shared our late cousin Beth's tattoo (here).

After her funeral, my wife Melanie was talking with her tattoo artist Thomas "Thomi Hawk" Hickey, and she knew she wanted a new tattoo paying tribute to her cousin.

Although she would have loved to have something from Thomi, it was logistically challenging, as we do not have a car and Thomi works out of New Jersey. The idea for a tribute evolved to include several ideas and, eventually, Melanie knew what she wanted. The question was, who would be the best artist for the job?

In the end, the answer was simple, and we headed back to Three Kings Tattoo in the East Village to meet with Alex McWatt, the artist who did Melanie's previous tattoo,

She consulted with him first to come up with a basic concept and talk about the elements she wanted incorporated into the piece, and then a few weeks later, she was back in the shop, with that old familiar sound of a tattoo machine buzzing in her ear.

Alex McWatt in Action

And when she first saw it, she was pleased:

This is the tattoo, as it was first completed:

And a healed version, from a different angle:

Melanie wanted a Sugar Skull to honor Beth. Beth's favorite holiday was Halloween, and the sugar skull is associated with the Mexican celebration of Día de los Muertos, which coincides with Halloween,and All Saints' Day in early November, when people gather together to remember, honor and celebrate friends and family members who have died.

Because we are Jewish, Alex replaced the cross often found in sugar skulls with a Star of David. The paw print in the middle of the star is an homage to Beth and her wrist tattoo, shared yesterday, which Alex used as a reference to add to the design.

Melanie also asked for the spider, perched on top of the rose, also as a nod to Beth and her love of Halloween. One of Beth's sisters told us that, when they went to Beth's house after the funeral, there were a lot of spiders around the house, and that they had never noticed spiders there before.

Melanie loves her new tattoo and wears it proudly as a fitting tribute to Beth.

Thanks to Alex at Three Kings, who we cannot praise enough, for his fine work.

We miss you Beth, but Melanie's sugar skull makes us smile and think of you. We know you'd love it too.

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.

Simply The Beth

Everyone's reeling from a year that took so many celebrities from us. 2016 will be remembered as a devastating year from that perspective, and yet there are many of us who lost people near and dear to us - family members that left our lives too soon.

Last June, we attended a family event in New Jersey, and spent some time catching up with cousins. One of those cousins, Beth, has always been interested in Tattoosday, and we always talk about ink, inevitably, when we get together. She even appeared in these pages five years ago, here.

Anyway, at this latest gathering, Beth shared one of her new tattoos:

It's a simple tattoo, but Beth was very proud of it. The open hearts form a type of infinity sign. She summarized it saying that the open parts of the symbol allow "the good shit to come in, and the bad shit to go out." It was a marked note of optimism from her, as she elaborated that she was not letting the bad things in life bother her, and she was welcoming in the good. The musical notes are a nod to her love of music, and the paw is a tribute to her dog, Tiki. Beth loved animals and dedicated a lot of her time to dogs, even fostering puppies in her own home.

The piece was tattooed by Thomas "Thomi Hawk" Hickey at K&B Tattooing and Piercing in Hightstown, New Jersey.

Like a lot of Tattoosday encounters, I didn't post this tattoo right away. I hung on to it as the summer started and I had loads of material. This is a normal part of our "organic" process at Tattoosday. Looking back, I wish I hadn't waited.

My wife woke me up early one morning in August, in tears. Beth had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly overnight in her home. She was way too young and our hearts were broken. The photo of her tattoo sat on my phone. I had recently thought about messaging her to tell her I hadn't forgotten about it, that I was going to get to it soon.

That's an apt metaphor that we all know too well. We often take for granted that the people in our lives will be with us for a long time, and then, in a moment, they're gone.

Beth's funeral was heart-breaking, but it did afford our family the opportunity to start healing. We also got to meet Thomas Hickey and my wife and I chatted with him and his wife about Beth and her love of tattoos.

It is easy to forget in the midst of the wave of "celebrity" passings in 2016 that so many of us lost people near and dear to us. Cherish those memories. Remember the message in Beth's tattoo - let go of the bad shit in your life and allow the good shit in. We remembered Beth knowing that when she was taken from us, she was happier than she had been in years.

Thank you Beth, for your love and for your tattoos, and for being part of the Tattoosday family, always.

Beth was a huge supporter of Southern Paws Inc., a non-profit animal rescue group that rescues dogs and finds them new homes. Learn more about the organization 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.

Kevin's Tree of Gondor

Over the summer, I met Kevin on Wall Street, and he shared this tattoo:

Kevin explained:

"This is the tree of Gondor from The Lord of the Rings ... A lot of people are like, 'Is that a tree of life' and I'm like, 'no no no.' It's blossoming so that means the king has returned. [The stars represent] the seven kingdoms of man ... and [the crown at the top of the tree] is the king and the tree is like, in Tolkien literature ... a mythical tree ... I got it because I was failing high school, I was doing bullshit teenage stuff and my teacher bet me if I could write a 20-page paper with the primary source of The Lord of the Rings (because at that time [the movie] was coming out), she would pass me for the whole year in English class. And I found a primary source, and I got the paper, twenty pages, very concise, very collegiate for a high school kid and she reluctantly had to give me an A, she was like, 'this is actually one of the best things I've seen in like five years."

He had this done at Chicago Tattoo in Chicago, Illinois.

Thanks to Kevin 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.

Paige and Amy (Musician Mondays)

Back in August, I attended a poetry reading at the KGB Bar in Manhattan. Among the readers was Rebecca Loudon, who has appeared on the Tattooed Poets Project twice previously. Rebecca introduced me to Paige after the reading and Paige had this cool tattoo:

This is, of course, Amy Winehouse.

Paige has nine tattoos, and all of her tattoos, she explained, are rooted in her love of music,

She elaborated on this particular piece, what she calls her "Ode to Amy":

"As someone who lived the blues. her lifestyle constantly overshadowed her musical ability. Since she was widely known by her hairstyle I wanted the piece to emphasize her tresses but in a more mysterious way. The most common question I'm asked is, 'when are you going to add the rest of the face?' Seeing as her life was incomplete, it doesn't feel right to 'finish' it. The piece will exist as is, a fragment of what could have been. Recently, I have added the twin hearts to the top. Amy had the same on her shoulder. With the addition of the hearts I feel the piece, in my mind, is finally complete. Amy Winehouse was an undeniable master of her craft. I'm proud of her work and the influence it's had on my generation."

Paige later sent me a photo of the tattoo after it was completed with the hearts, which provides a slightly different perspective of the tattoo on her right shoulder:

Photo courtesy of Paige

The first part of the tattoo (Amy' s Head) was done by Tony Campise (@tattootony_hkt) from Hard Knox Tattoo in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The two hearts were added by Brian Love (@diabloxblanco), at Smoking Tattoos (@smokingtattoosnyc) on St. Mark's in Manhattan.

On a side note, Paige is also the lead singer of The Montrose Five Band (@montrosefive). Here's a small taste of their music:

Thanks to Paige 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.

Tattooed Poet of the Month - Shane McCrae

The month of September has drawn to an end and I almost forgot our Tattooed Poet of the Month!

Meet Shane McCrae, who shared this tattoo:

Shane tells us:

"I got this here tattoo the summer before my senior year at college. A few months previously, I had gone through an awful break-up that was entirely my fault. In the midst of the break-up, Madonna’s 'What It Feels Like for a Girl' video premiered. Now, I don’t know whether you remember that video, but in it Madonna’s badass character has the word 'LOVED' tattooed on the back of her neck. I saw this and was immediately moved by it—I’m still moved by the memory. And though I had never wanted a tattoo before, suddenly I wanted that tattoo, and I wanted it on the back of my neck. A few months later, in the final days of summer, I was hanging out with my mom in Portland, and on the spur of the moment, it was decided (my mom was somehow even more into the idea than I was) that I should get the tattoo, but on my arm. I don’t remember exactly where I got it done, but I’ve noticed it every day since, and it has made me happy every day since. I think of it as both a record of, and a reminder of, an aspiration—it reminds me to love more.

As a reference, here's the aforementioned video:

Shane also shared this poem:

The Image of the Body in the Mind

In 1995 I moved     Lord from one side     / Of Jacksonville to the other

Except my money didn’t change

But the apartment Lord was nicer

I rented from a man I can’t remember     now unless I slide

Boss Hogg’s face and body

Over his face and body in my mind

Which now are blanks expecting Boss Hogg’s face and body

But he was kind

Or what     I thought was kind back then

Lord     / When I was poor     / And told me in his office I can’t now begin

Lord     / Even to picture

if I don’t first picture Rosco bringing him bad news

He’d let me rent a place I couldn’t     not     on SSI afford

As long as I     wouldn’t complain     / Yes

roaches but no roaches     when I woke up

crawling on my eyes

~ ~ ~ 

Shane McCrae teaches at Oberlin College and at Spalding University’s low-residency MFA in Writing Program. His most recent books are In the Language of My Captor (forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press in 2017) and The Animal Too Big to Kill (Persea Books, 2015). He has received a Whiting Writer’s Award, a fellowship from the NEA, and a Pushcart Prize.

Thanks to Shane for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

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.

Drew's New Tattoo, by Amanda Wachob

I met Drew a couple of weeks ago in lower Manhattan near Bowling Green. The tattoo on her arm was still just a week or two old and I'll admit, I asked her first if it even was a tattoo, because it was so exceptionally well-done, it almost looked like it was freshly-painted on. Check it out:

When Drew confirmed it was, in fact, a tattoo, and then told me the artist was the amazing Amanda Wachob (@amandawachob), I knew how special this tattoo was. Wachob is a brilliant artist with amazing vision, and, quite honestly, finding one of her tattoos in the street is like discovering a rare bird in the wilderness.

There's a great New York Times article about her work here. And, visiting here website at www.amandawachob.com will amaze you, if you have previously been unfamiliar with her work.

Like most of Wachob's clients, Drew gave the artist free reign to do what she does best, which is create phenomenal works of art on flesh. Actually, she works in other media, as well, so saying she is best at tattoo art is selling her short.

And the inspiration for this piece? It's "slime planet and vapor-wave inspired," Drew told me. I could have stared at it all day. I have been blessed to stumble across her work in the streets a few times before, click here to see Wachob's work that has appeared previously on Tattoosday.

Thanks to Drew for sharing her new 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.

Sarah and her Snow White Sleeve

I met Sarah on the F train, last month, en route from Manhattan to Brooklyn. When we both got off at Borough Hall to transfer to our respective trains, we chatted a bit and she consented to me snapping a few photos. Check out her sleeve:

That's Snow White, of course, "the first story I was obsessed with," Sarah told me, noting that her first Halloween costume, hand-sewn by her mother, was also that of the fairy tale character.

The details in the sleeve are really amazing. I particularly love the raven:

Sarah credited the work to artist Matt Buck (@he_draws), who started the line work when he was still at Sacred Tattoo (@sacredtattoonyc), in Manhattan. He finished it up at his current shop, No Idols Tattoo (@noidolsnyc).

Thanks to Sarah for sharing her 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.

Remembering the Fallen (A Re-Post for 9/11)

This was posted originally in 2008 and re-posted again in 2009, 2011 and 2013. As I've said in the past, it only seems appropriate to re-run it again today:




Earlier this month, I mentioned meeting Paul here, on the bike path that runs along the southern tip of Brooklyn.

I saved the other tattoo photo I took of Paul's work for today, the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

What I didn't mention in the previous post is that Paul is a federal agent who grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

From his vantage point there, he watched the World Trade Center being built in the late 1960's. He was working in 6 World Trade seven years ago for the U.S. Customs Department when the towers came down, and he spent four months at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, searching for remains.

The tattoo is a poignant piece, with the sun shining between the towers. Below is Paul's badge from the Department of Homeland Security, which has evolved into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Particulatly unusual is the depiction of 9/11 in Roman numerals:

IX XI.

I don't believe I had ever seen it represented that way before.

Like the tattoo in the earlier post, this piece was inked by Joe at Brooklyn Ink.

Thanks to Paul for sharing this WTC memorial piece with us here on Tattoosday.

~ ~ ~

We here at Tattoosday send our thoughts and prayers to all the families of  people who died on 9/11, and to the families of all of the men and women who have died since then, serving our country.

This entry is © 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016 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.

The Birth of Venus Reimagined (Kathleen Nalley, Tattooed Poet of the Month)

Over the years, I have met many a tattooed poet via social media, word-of-mouth, or in person. Kathleen Nalley is the first poet I've met via a tattoo artist.

I met South Carolina artist J.J. Ohlinger (@jjohlinger) at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo) last month in Manhattan.

It was while hanging out at his booth, talking to one of his clients (whose work will appear in a future post), and chatting about Tattoosday, that the subject of tattooed poets came up.

I believe it was J.J.'s wife, who was working the show with him, said that they knew a poet that he had tattooed, and the photo was in his portfolio. The rest, as they say, was history.

I reached out to Kathleen, and she happily agreed to share her cool tattoo:

Photo Courtesy of J.J. Ohlinger

Kathleen explained how this tattoo came to be:

"I got this particular tattoo last June when JJ Ohlinger ran a contest to tattoo three people in celebration of his third year as a tattoo artist. Luckily, I was one of the winners!

As a lover of words, I’d always imagined Boticelli’s Venus coming out of an open book instead of a clamshell. Boticelli’s Venus was known the ‘birth of beauty,’ the feminine ideal. My tat riffs on the idea that women were created to be someone’s beautiful object." 

Kathleen also shared this short poem from her manuscript-in-progress, Gutterflower:

What Man’s Hands Wrought

Long  before  there  was fracking there  was  you unearthing 

the very earth digging trenches in soil spilling your chemical

goo  turning  mud to muck leaving nutrients to dry fuck you 

nature    heals  herself  in  time  even  the  most  eroded can 

make   anew   grow   pickups  from  seed  littered  the  wind 

always  knows  what  to  do  carry  things  away carry things 

where   they   will  bloom  wildflowers  color  the  landscape 

permeate the  air oh her honeysuckle hue she’s wild always

wild  always  remade  no  matter  the matter or intrusion or

drilling or fracture believe her she will

 ~ ~ ~

Kathleen Nalley’s prose poetry manuscript-in-progress, Gutterflower, follows the life of a Southern woman caught in an unending trap of poverty and violence. Kathleen is the author of the chapbooks Nesting Doll and American Sycamore. Her work is forthcoming or recently has appeared in Fall Lines, New Flash Fiction Review, Slipstream, Rivet, and storySouth, among others. Not surprisingly, she has a poem forthcoming in a violence against women-themed anthology from Sable Books.

Thanks to Kathleen for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday, and to J.J.Ohlinger for introducing us!

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.

Married Together, Buried Together

I met Geri last month on Wall Street. This tattoo jumped out of me, so I had to ask her about it:

Geri explained this represents her and her husband:

"We've been together for five years ... when we first met, we used to joke that we were gonna get buried together and when I decided I wanted to get married, I don't really believe in divorce, if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it once, so ... below it is our names [on heart-shaped headstones] ... At the time I had short hair and he has really long hair, so [the one with short hair] is me."

Geri was visiting from Pittsburgh and she credited this work to Mike from In Your Skin Tattooing in Oakdale, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to Geri for sharing her tattoo with us 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.

Musician Monday: Louis, Patrick Swayze, and Wolverine

I met Louis down on Broad Street while he was walking some dogs.

I spoke to him briefly about his tattoos, gave him my card, and said we should talk further when he didn't have the dogs with him.

A few weeks later, I spotted him again, dogless. We sat down and talked about his tattoos.

First, this fabulousness:

This is a portrait of the late Patrick Swayze, with the banner 'PAIN DON'T HURT," which alludes to the film Road House.

Louis explained:

"It's a movie I saw a few years ago ... it's so bad, it's good ... I definitely love the movie ... I just really wanted to get the Swayze tattoo ...'Pain don't hurt,' it's laughable when he says that line in the movie ... I also found his biography at a Goodwill for a dollar and I bought it ... I read some of it, he had an interesting life ... the dedication in the front was to his father, who he said 'taught me that a man can be tough and gentle at the same time.' He was a dancer, horseback rider, he did all these fight movies, I thought that was really cool."

Louis credited this to Vinny Romanelli (@vinnyromanelli) at Red Rocket Tattoo (@redrockettattoo).

He also shared this Wolverine rib piece:

Louis elaborated:

"I grew up with the X-Men cartoons in the Nineties, it was like one of those things that my dad use to work overnights, like Friday night, he would work all Friday night, he would come home Saturday morning, he'd bring bagels or something for breakfast ... and we would watch that cartoon, that was like Saturday, we'd live for that. I just remember that as a kid, and also, I read comic books still, and it's one of my favorite characters, as well ... it has a lot of significance to me."

He got this tattoo more than ten years ago from Kurt Fagerland at Empire State Studios (@empirestatestudio) out on Long Island. Fagerland has since moved on and resides in Georgia.

I did mention in the title of this post that it is "Musician Monday." Louis also happens to be the drummer for a Brooklyn band called Ellen and the Degenerates, you can check them out here.

Thanks to Louis for sharing his awesome 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.

Brewsday Tuesday: Kona Brewing Edition

Welcome to the third installment of Brewsday Tuesday on Tattoosday!

Today we are looking at a company near and dear to my heart, Kona Brewing Company (@konabrewingco).

Meet Keala Aiwohi, Senior Division Sales Manager for Kona Brewing in Hawai’i:

For those of you first seeing this feature, we like to introduce the brewery employee, talk about their tattoos, and then quench our thirst for more information about the brewery and its products.

Keala recently had this work done on his chest:

Keala explained a little about this work:

"I just kinda like the way everything flows on my chest ... I have my kids' names ... family is something that's a really big priority for me ... I have my kids' names ... over my heart, if you look at the piece, it's got ... like a tribal tiki that's making a funny face ... I wanted the tiki right over my heart, with tribal kinda swirling around, along with my daughter's name on my chest..."

Take another look at Keala and see if anything else jumps out:

There, on the inside of Keala's left arm, is a huge bottle cap from one of Kona's most popular brands, Big Wave Golden Ale:

How's that for dedication?

"Previously I worked for Anheuser-Busch, then I got offered the job with Kona Brewing Company ... I just love the way Big Wave tastes. I love it. I wanted to do something different ... I love beer and tattoos ... I didn't know exactly what I was going to do ...one day I was drinking with some friends and there was bottle caps all over the top of the counter ... and I was thinking to myself ...that would be a pretty cool tattoo ... at the moment it just felt like something that would be cool ... I love Big Wave so let's slap a Big Wave bottlecap on my arm ... I love it, I show it to people all the time."

All of Keala's work pictured was tattooed by Bronson "Bronz" Pasco (@bronzink), who works out of South Side Ink Tattoo. Pasco started tattooing in 1998 and splits his time between South Side Ink and West Coast Tattoo Parlor (@inkwestcoast) in Las Vegas.

So, how good is a beer that compels one to get the bottlecap tattooed on the body?

Let me tell you, Big Wave is a delicious ale, and one of my favorite beers from Kona.

Keala added "just the way that Big Wave tastes, I love it. I'll be drinking Big Wave for the rest of my life. Kona as a brand has an image ... it's cool, it's hip, it's for everybody ... Big Wave is inspired by the big wave riders out in Makaha ... it's the perfect beach beer ... I love the fact that it's light, it's sessionable ... it's a get-together beer, it's any-occasion type of beer."

Duly noted, my family in Brooklyn throws a Hawaiian Christmas party in December and we always have bottles of Kona's Longboard Lager, Castaway IPA, and Big Wave on hand. Big Wave has a great citrus flavor that really transports me back and tastes like advertised: "Liquid Aloha."

Speaking of advertising, Keala told me that Kona did some ads for the mainland, and I wanted to share one of them here:

Like with previous installments of Brewsday Tuesday, our participating brewery is generously offering up some giveaway items for people randomly selected among those who like, share, and retweet on social media.

A big mahalo to Keala for sharing his tattoos with us, and to Kona Brewing Company for their participation in Brewsday Tuesday! Be sure to leave comments about your favorite Kona brand for a chance to win prizes!

Three for Thursday - Kirsten Shares Her Tattoos

I spotted Kirsten last month in lower Manhattan after I saw the tattoo on the back of her calf. I had to ask about it but, it turns out, she had other tattoos, as well. Fortunately for me, she was in a generous sharing mood, and took the time to tell me about all of them.

First up, her feet:

Kirsten, who hails from Australia, explained the origins of these tattoos

"I grew up in Canada, so I kind of just wanted to start getting some mystic animals going on ... it's just like nicknames for my parents; I always called my dad Papa Bear and my mom Momma Wolf, so I got them for my parents.

She credited the work to a Sydney-based artist who works under the moniker Sprinkles (@Sprinkles_).

Sprinkles took her to his friend Scott M. Harrison to get this tattoo, on her thigh:

Here's a clearer shot from right after the tattoo was completed, liberally taken, with attribution from Harrison's Instagram (follow him @scott_m_harrison).

Photo via Instagram - @scott_m_harrison

Harrison noted " Really enjoyed doing the background pattern, would love to incorporate them into more pieces."

Kirsten explained:

"I've got like a theme of threes going on with all my other tattoos, so a three-eyed cat, it's kind of sll-seeing eye ... I got it kind of in honor of my friend that I'm visiting [in New York], she was always a crazy cat lady ... so one eye's for her, one eye's for the cat I grew up with [Betty Lou], and [one for] the cat I have now [Runty]."

And, finally, we have the tattoo I spotted in the first place:

She credited this to an artist named Louise that she met at the Australian Tattoo Expo in Sydney. This was one of the designs she had on display and Kirsten liked it.

Thanks to Kirsten for taking the time to share all of these tattoos with me. We here at Tattoosday our very grateful!

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.

Angela and Angry Little Robot

I met Angela last month near Bowling Green in lower Manhattan.

She has this tattoo on her arm, and, well, I just had to ask about it:

Angela explained that this is based on the web comic Angry Little Robot. She wanted to send me a link to the page, but the site is gone. However, she did find her favorite strip:

Angela told me:

"I got the tattoo on the one year anniversary of dating my now-husband after getting borderline too drunk to tattoo.  My other tattoos are for the most part memorials, so I wanted something that I liked that didn't have a sad memory." 

Thanks to Angela for sharing her cool tattoo with us 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.

Stormy's "Octoface"

Yesterday I recalled meeting Matt on the West 4th Street subway platform. I got on the train with him and Stormy and they shared their tattoos.

This is what Stormy offered up from her collection:

This is a case of someone being a fan of an artist's work, and travelling to another state just to be tattooed by them.

Stormy explained that she admired the work of Matt Kerley (@mattitude) at Glenn's Tattoo Service (@glennstattooservice) in Wilmington, North Carolina, so she journeyed south just to get something done by him. This hauntingly cool design was her souvenir from the trip.

Thanks to Stormy 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.

Matt's Hands

I met Matt last month on the West 4th Street subway platform and stopped to talk to him (and his friend Stormy) about their tattoos. We'll look at what Stormy shared tomorrow, but today, it's all about Matt's hands:

No deep meaning here, other than the hand tattoos coming from Matt's appreciation of Japanese imagery, so the mask and geisha head seemed like good choices.

I can't speak to the details of all the knuckle work, although the dates 1956 and 1950 represent the years Matt's parents were born.

The hand tattoos were inked by Mike Nomy (@mikenomy) from South Shore Tattoo (@southshoretattooco) in Amityville, New York.

Thanks to Mike for sharing his 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.

Heather's Memorial to Her Grandmothers

I met Heather last month at the Empire State Tattoo Expo (@NYEmpireExpo) in Manhattan, and she shared a few of the tattoos that she has on her legs, starting with this tribute to both of her grandmothers:

Heather credited Janie Shannon (@janierabbit) at the Rabbit's Den in Milltown, New Jersey, with this work.

Her other thigh is blessed with this beautiful floral display:

This was done by Mike Di Dia at White Lotus Tattoos (@whitelotustattoos) in Tom's River, New Jersey. She started with the flowers and has been adding on - the dragonfly has been the latest addition.

Thanks to Heather for sharing her 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.

Monika and Buddha (at the Empire State Tattoo Expo)

Last month at the Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo), I met Monika, who was sitting in a booth watching her tattoo artist working on a client. She was kind enough to pause and let me photographic this stunning piece on her thigh:

This is the work of Marek Pawlik, AKA Marzan (@marzan_tattoo). He works in New York City out of Inkology Tattoo Art Gallery (@inkologyartgallery). Click through the hyperlinks to see more of his amazing work,

Monika explained that this thigh piece, which represents about twelve hours of work. Buddha is important to her because he was human, from a rich family, but decided to meditate and travel. A practitioner of yoga, and a Vegan, all of these values are connected with Buddha, and his moment of transformation and enlightenment.

It really is a stunning piece of work.

Thanks to Monika for sharing her lovely tattoo by Marzan 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.

A Woman and a Wolf

On Friday evening, I was standing on the subway platform at Columbus Circle, headed to Central Park, when I looked over and saw a young woman with a stunning tattoo on her thigh.

As the train approached, there was not much time for discussion. I gave her my card and asked if I could take a picture of the tattoo. She consented:

Even though the top of the wolf headdress is covered by fabric, you can still see what a stunning tattoo this is.

I did not get the name of the woman who shared the tattoo, but she did have time to credit her artist, Marc Fischer (@marcfischertattooist) who works out of PechSchwarz Tattoo (@pechschwarztattoo) in Berlin.

I would add that this seems an appropriate tattoo to share on this special day, July 31, for we are marking our 9th anniversary today. Nine years blogging about tattoo spotted on the streets of New York City!

It is exactly for encounters like this, a brief exchange of praise and information about someone's tattoo, that this site was conceived and it is the friendliness and willingness of strangers to share that has sustained us over the years.

I humbly thank all of our contributors, and all of our fans, who continue to support and sustain this little tattoo blog as we march onward toward our tenth anniversary next summer.

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.