Friday, April 30, 2021

dawn lonsinger and the Three of Swords (The Tattooed Poets Project)

We didn't want National Poetry Month to end without celebrating at least one tattooed poet.

Fortunately, previous contributor dawn lonsinger has been kind enough to share, with some new ink to appreciate!


dawn elaborates:
"I got this Three of Swords tattoo -- on some level -- to mark the grief of this year, of all the losses piling on top of each other, the pandemic making even more vivid the disturbing social inequities & technological dysphoria & substratal loneliness in this country. In tarot, the Three of Swords card represents suffering from major heartbreaks or betrayals, feeling lonely or lost or both . . . hence the heart (seat of love & beauty & affection) pierced through with three swords, which is also often depicted in front of a stormy sky with rain pelting down, the way mourning feels inside of us. And who among us -- in this warring world -- has not been heart-riven? 

Depending on the day, depending on the mood, I name the three swords: childhood, heartbreak, health . . . or capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy . . . or subjectivity, loneliness, death . . . or poetry, poetry, poetry . . . or Philomela, Antigone, Cassandra . . . or after those who have wounded me the most: P, J, K, or after those I have lost & miss: Carol, Sue, X. And, of course, I know I will keep on renaming them, because none of us know what our most profound penetrating incandescent woundings will be until the end. I also think it is meaningful that the swords -- tools of war -- pierce not into viscera, but into our symbol for interiority; the flesh of language against (in both senses) the mayhem of metal & 'progress'. 

Of course, when this tarot card is reversed -- which is how I see it -- it means some kind of reconciliation with pain, maybe forgiveness, maybe release or optimism. But I like -- either way -- that it's not a heart broken, but a heart wounded, and in an ongoing way. I think -- because we are addicted to narratives of transformation & transcendence -- that we are often too eager to be done with loss/pain/grief, to be healed, even though the ache reminds us of what we've held precious/irreplaceable, something or someone or some time that filled us with blooming. 

I don't buy the old adage that 'time heals all wounds;' rather, time gives us the space to learn how to better dialogue & dance with the pain, which remains. Whenever I get too precious, too tornadoed by how unintelligible and unfair the world, and am tempted to wish things were easier, that we could banish sadness . . . I remind myself that idealism is violent, and GOOD VIBES ONLY is a mantra of the repressed . . . and of something John Keats wrote in a letter: 'Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?' 

In my tattoo -- more classic in design & color than my other tattoos -- there are three flowers over the heart, and blood & rain (or tears) falling. I'm into its all-at-once wilding & smarting & opening & ablution. Also, my friend Aggie says the blood-tipped ends of the swords look like pencils, and that's a misrecognition I can get behind."

dawn credited the work to Orrin Hurley (@orrinhurley) from Three Kings Tattoo (@threekingstattoo) in Brooklyn, New York. 

dawn also shared this poem, which appeared previously in The Los Angeles Review, Summer 2020: 

A History

We were too late. The knots of clay & kink
of thorn & prophecy of fur were cleared away & the sun

was already a dividend of glass facades and rearview mirrors.
Between people a line of some sort or another:

grocery line, bottom line, perforation, window sill, the edge
of the bed. Your guess is as good as mine. Between you and me

are 92 blocks, 18 subway entrances, technicolor jungle-print
tablecloths in a dollar store folded into perfect squares

and stacked one on top of the other like prayer books,
kids snaking circles in the waterless fountain while

snowy branches hook around the sky’s bloodless neck.
Between people a line of some sort or another: exit only lane,

exclamation point, barbed wire, zipper, mail slot, trench,
the circumference of your wrist. Between you and me

the problem of fathers, snack packs of applesauce,
the questions of the dead clinging to the wet landscape

of the living, and countless lottery machines curving
tiny numbers like the bones of our inner ears onto slips of paper,

scattered secrets, and an aisle in every hardware store
where assorted compendiums of nails hang suspended like dreams,

beautifully fallow as if they might be spared utility. Between people
a line of some sort or another: deadline, Uber ride, VIP access line, fire

line, hemline, referendum, lip. And above us, chiffon shifts
of swallows unfolding a way out of the infrastructure, but also

above us: the intimations of heaven & our estrangement,
and below the underpaid line cooks & dishwashers, wingless

& sweating. Ours is a ghost story. Ours is a luxury gone
sour and a love gone sweet. Ours are the nameless blooms

we keep calling by made-up names expedient and/or beautiful,
the hydrangeas head-heavy
………………………………………& woozy by the checkout.

~ ~ ~

dawn lonsinger is the author of Whelm (winner of the 2012 Idaho Prize in Poetry and Freund Prize), and recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, four Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prizes, Utah Poetry Prize in Prose and Poetry, the Greg Grummer Poetry Prize (chosen by Eduardo Corral), and runner up for the Poetry Society of America’s Emily Dickinson Award (chosen by H.L. Hix). Her poems and lyric essays have appeared in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Subtropics, Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. Her poem, “Sundress,” was chosen by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book to be featured in their Public Poetry Project, and appeared on 1500 posters distributed to libraries, public schools, bookstores, and universities. She holds an MFA from Cornell University, a PhD from the University of Utah, and is an Associate Professor at Muhlenberg College, teaching Creative Writing, Poetry & Politics, and Monstrosity & Apocalypse in Literature and Film. She has recently finished a creative nonfiction book that tries to navigate the consanguinity and dissonance between erotics and robotics in a Tindering world, and is now working on finishing a second book of poems, The Long and Terrible Taming, which explores taming and wildness in all its manifestations, and a speculative fiction novel, Beast, that strives to upend our ontological assumptions about animality vs. humanity. 

I am extremey grateful to dawn for returning to the Tattooed Poets Project and sharing her new tattoo and her poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!



This entry is ©2021 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.net 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, March 12, 2021

Jolee's Ghost Light Shines Through the Pandemic

Yesterday, when the world was acknowledging the first anniversary of the delcaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was thinking about today, the anniversary of the lights going out on Broadway and in theaters across New York City. 

This was a particularly big deal in our home, as my daughter Jolee is an actor and worked front of house at The Public Theater.

This made me think of an amazing tattoo she got back in 2018, a "ghost light" on her thigh:


Jolee explains:
"A ghost light is an electric light that is left lit on the stage of a theater when the theater is unoccupied and would otherwise be completely dark. The light stands on a wheeled mount, and the bulb sits within a wire cage, and is placed center stage. Ghost lights also have superstitious justifications, as there are countless stories from centuries of theater about ghost lights being left lit to either appease the ghosts of a theater or to scare them away while no one is there to do that themselves."
She adds:
"I chose a ghost light for a variety of reasons. I wanted a commemorative tattoo for the art in which I've dedicated most of my life's work, but also had a sort of ambiguous nature. A deeply personal tattoo, yet also has a universal understanding amongst other artists. I like to think that the light for my love of theater remains lit throughout my life, no matter what happens."

As we look forward to the future, I like to think that the "light at the end of the tunnel" that is just out of reach is a ghost light, illuminating our way to a day when theaters will be open and vibrant again, as actors re-take their stages and bring their art back to life. 

This super cool tattoo was designed and crafted by the incomparable Alex McWatt (@alexthreekings) at Three Kings Tattoo (@threekingstattoo) in Manhattan. Alex has tattooed everyone in our family and his work has appeared numerous times on Tattoosday previously (click here to see what else we've featured).

Thanks to Jolee for sharing her tattoo and words with us here on Tattoosday! I look forward to seeing her on stage in the future, emanating her own light as an actor, and continuing to make me proud.

This entry is ©2021 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, March 9, 2021

Kristin's Disneyana Sleeve

We're clearing out our pre-pandemic backlog and today featuring some Disney-themed tattoos spotted at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade back in June 2018.

I met Kristin pre-parade at the Coney Island Brewing Company and talked to her about her arm.


In addition to the piece at the top of the arm,


but also features Cinderella and Prince Eric.

She also has this Ariel piece:


She credited the work to artist Joe Budds at Monarch Tattoo in New Jersey.

Thanks to Kristin for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2021 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, March 7, 2021

Amina's Gypsy Wolf Tattoo (from the Archives)

Tattoosday recently came off hiatus and we're posting all those goodies that never made it to the blogosphere.

Below is another tattoo I spotted at the 2018 Summer Vibe convention out on Long Island:


Amina credited Macho (@tattoos_by_macho) with the work.

Thanks to Amina for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2021 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, March 6, 2021

Hugo's Back (from the Archives)

Working through some old posts, I stumbled across a few from 2018's United Ink Summer Vibe show out on Long Island.

Check out this work on Hugo, featuring a Mayan theme, crafted by Roberto Castillo (@roberto_castillo1) from Sacred Tattoo (@sacredtattoonyc) in Manhattan:



Thanks to Hugo for sharing his cool back piece with us here on Tattooday!

This entry is ©2021 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 4, 2021

Jennie's Rabbit (from the Archives)

Way back in 2018, Jennie, a friend of my daughter's, came back to New York from Chicago, rocking this leporine tattoo:

I photographed it - it was maybe Jennie's third or fourth tattoo - and never posted it, but let’s just say I figured I'd let it "age." Jennie has gone on to fill her arm with some great work, but I thought it was time to give this rabbit it's due. Check out another one of Jennie's cool tattoos (also from '18) here.

Jennie credited the work to a tattoo artist she remembers as "Wolfy." The four stars recall the flag of Chicago, where Jennie was finishing up school. 

She notes: “The stars are for Chicago, but he thought the actual Chicago flag stars were ugly, so he made them normal stars instead and I was too meek to correct him.” 

And why the rabbit? 

Jennie explains: 
“I got the rabbit because, on my walk at the ass crack of dawn every day, I would see a million rabbits! They’re a leftover product of Chicago’s meatpacking history! I think there are more of them than there are squirrels. 

I think I went [to get the tattoo] on a whim that day. I definitely went with my friend Lily … Wolfy called himself that because he had multiple wolf tattoos [and] kept asking if we were lesbians and then [kept] assuring me there was nothing wrong with that if we were … he had a very strong Chicago accent.” 
More about the Chicago rabbit situation here.

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

This entry is ©2021 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, March 2, 2021

Brewsday Tuesday: Coney Island Brewery Edition

I won't lie, it has been way too long since we've had an installment of Brewsday Tuesday on Tattoosday, and I am happy to be finally sharing work (and beer) featuring my good friends at Coney Island Brewery (@coneyislandbeer), in South Brooklyn!




I first met Kat, Coney Island Brewery's general manager, at a tattoo convention back in 2019. Last February (yes, February 2020), I popped in and spent some time talking to her about her tattoos, Coney Island Brewery, and the expansion of their location on Surf Avenue.

And then the pandemic started. Tattoosday took a 10-month hiatus. But over the summer and into the fall, I started riding my bike out to Coney Island on Sundays and stopping by the brewery. After closing to the public in March and April, 2020, they started selling beer for curbside pickup and, once dining restrictions lifted, they began serving food outdoors on their expanded patio, weather permitting.

In January 2021, they set up a tent with heaters to make outdoor dining in the winter a little more bearable. All along, the operation has been a safe space - sanitizer at all tables, QR codes to access food and drink menus, and very strict mask rules. 

And here we are in March 2021, things are looking up, Coney Island Brewery is releasing a spring saison later this month (more on that later), and Tattoosday is back in business!

Let's talk about Kat's tattoo first:


I'll let Kat explain:
"This is Ninkasi. She is the Sumerian goddess of beer ... the first recipe ever actually written down of beer was a poem to her, it was kind of like a love poem ... when I started working here, I fell in love with the background and history of women and beer, which kind of sometimes gets forgotten ...  
When we started doing all of the tattoo expos, I was making friends and sharing our beer and I told an artist who's based out in Ohio (Will Eagle @thebeardedeagle ) ... about this idea that I had for a tattoo to represent Ninkasi and he was like, 'please let me do it...'.  So, the next time that he was in the city [July 2018] we did this, we're going to build around it, do like a bunch of hops around her ... I shared my story and love of beer with someone and they were like, let me bring that to life ... this is definitely one of my favorite tattoos."

Coney Island Brewery is a subsidiary of Boston Beer, Co., which is most often associated with Samuel Adams, but it retains a very South Brooklyn vibe; Mermaid Pilsner and Merman IPA are hallmark brands in the borough in which I live. Longtime readers of this blog will recognize it as a favorite place to hang out and spot tattoos, especially during the summer and when the Coney Island Mermaid Parade is rolling down Surf Avenue in June. I mean, merpeople and tattoos go hand in hand!

Kat started as a bartender back in the spring of 2016 and has moved up as the brewery has sprung from a relatively small space to a huge location at MCU Park, still having not exercised its full potential due to the pandemic. "Watching it grow has been really awesome," Kat told me. The fact that they have survived throughout 2020 is an incredible testament to the strength of their brand.

This past fall, I enjoyed their version of Black is Beautiful, a stout whose recipe was shared industry-wide by Texas-based Weathered Souls Brewing, to "raise awareness for the injustices people of color face daily and raise funds for police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged." 


In the fall, to promote voter registration, the brewery released a delicious doppelbock called Registrator:


January brought back a Coney Island favorite, their New York Honey Stout. It was so good, I grabbed a growler full!



If darker beers aren't your bag, fear not, there are lots of other options! I'm looking forward to this seasonal collaboration dropping later this month:


Brewed with strawberry and black pepper, there will be a can release at the brewery on Thursday, March 18! I know I'll be there!! [For more information on the release, go here.]

Coney Island Brewery continues to be a supportive force in the New York Community. They just announced their "Hops for Hospitality" campaign, in which they "will donate $1.00 from every can, draft, 6-packs or 12-packs of CIB products sold to the NYC Hospitality Alliance at participating locations in the State of New York during the months of March through May." The hospitality industry in New York has been devastated over the past year. This is just another example of Coney Island Brewery's committment to community involvement.

Thanks to Kat for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and to Coney Island Brewery for their awesome beer and commitment to the community in South Brooklyn and beyond!

To be entered to win a special gift from Coney Island Brewery, please be sure to comment on this post, either here or on social media where this post appears.


Coney Island does Sour beer, too!


This entry is ©2021 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.