The Tattooed Poets Project: Erika Lutzner

Today's tattooed poet is Erika Lutzner, who sent us this photo:

Erika explains:

I have five tattoos which tell the history of my story; skin is my canvas. The tattoo that I want to share is of Ganesha. I chose to get the tattoo of Ganesha because he is the remover of obstacles, and I was at a point in my life where my path was far from clear. Ganesha watches over me and keeps me grounded and safe. I also have a tattoo of Hanuman carrying a mountain. He represents strength and knowledge. Anil Gupta did all my tattoos. He is an amazing artist. He works on the Lower East Side at his shop, Inkline Studio Inc.

Erika sent us this poem, as well, which was first published in failbetter, July, 2009.

Blackness Slips Through Sundays

A mirror cannot speak truth
Just as a woman’s face masks
a madness
The man in the mug shot
Could be anyone’s husband, friend, father, —
The woman hides behind
fiction

~ ~ ~

Erika Lutzner is the editor of Scapegoat Review. She curates Upstairs at Erika’s, a monthly writer's salon in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her work can be found in various places such as failbetter, Eclectica Magazine, and Tygerburing Literary Journal. Her first book, Invisible Girls, by dancing girl press as well as a second book, Some Things Are True That Never Happened (an anthology) are both out. She is working on various new projects. You can find Erika at http://upstairsaterikas.com/ as well as http://scapegoatreview.com/.

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

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.

Kerry Unveils Some Masterpieces

A couple weeks ago, I felt like I had won the Tattoosday lottery. In my own neighborhood, I ran into Kerry, who had a bit of a tattoo peeking out of her left sleeve. I stopped her and introduced myself, and she shared some simply phenomenal work. We'll get to that left sleeve in a second, but Kerry figured I'd be impressed with this tattoo on her upper right arm:

Well, she was certainly right about that!  This is a piece by Anil Gupta at Inkline Studio in Manhattan. The detail of this work is astonishing.

 

Anil Gupta is considered a master of the biomechanical tattoo. Kerry explained:

"I'd seen Gupta's work and I really wanted something in the biomechanical style ... I just thought of a butterfly, which is usually something very feminine and soft, just made it out of parts and steel ... like a cool mix of the styles ... we just kept building and adding more stuff to the design ... he was great to work with."

To get a full appreciation of the tattoo, check out the work from Gupta's portfolio. Simply stunning!
 

 

That's twenty-five hours of work by a master of the biomechanical.

Remember, it wasn't the Gupta tattoo that caught my attention, but this colorful section of a sleeve, on the lower part of Kerry's left arm:

 

Kerry rolled up her sleeve to reveal the entire arm:

What you see is approximately forty-two hours of work by the talented Kaz at New York Adorned.

Kerry explained the genesis of this sleeve:

"I saw this picture when I was looking up samurai stories, because I'm a martial artist and, initially, we were just going to do it half-sleeve, but then just decided to go whole hog. Kaz is really good, so I just let him go crazy with it."

Kerry's focus in martial arts is grappling and kick-boxing. 

And to think, I would have missed all of this amazing work, had I not been intrigued by the head of this Japanese monster, peeking out from one of her sleeves!

Thanks to Kerry for sharing her simply stunning tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 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.