Tattoosday (A Tattoo Blog): NY Empire State Tattoo Expo (2016)

Showing posts with label NY Empire State Tattoo Expo (2016). Show all posts

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Lost Sheep from the 2016 NY Empire State Tattoo Expo

This post almost never made it to Tattoosday. It's a long complicated story that involves lost recordings of my interview with a New Jersey-based artist, who I met at the 2016 Empire State Tattoo Convention (@nyempirestatetattooexpo). You read that right, this is from a year-and-a-half ago, and I unfortunately lost the name of the woman who shared this with me, but I do have some details salvaged.

First off, these amazing sheep totally caught my attention:

The woman who shared this explained that her adoptive mom was born in the year of the sheep. And the black sheep represents natural mother, whose name was "Ping." She joked that getting the sheep was a better tribute than just getting "Mom." Just below the sheep is a goose:

The tattoos were done by a couple of amazing artists - Paul Booth (@paulbooth) did the sheep and Nick Baxter (@burningxhope) did the goose and the rest of the arm.

Thanks to my unnamed contributor, who I will hopefully run into one day again, so I can properly thank her for sharing these amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Herke's Heads (at the NY Empire State Tattoo Expo 2016)

Last summer at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo), I met Herke (@tsurujo_irezuki), who had a couple of really interesting tattoos to share.

First up is this crane on his head:

Herke is a tattooer from Brig, Switzerland, and he owns the The Flying Dutchman Tattoo & Piercing Shop in nearby Naters, Switzerland.

He explained that his last name, Kranenborg, translates in Japanese to "Crane Castle." He is a traditional Japanese artists and he also has a kamon, which is a Japanese family crest, that includes a crane in the design. This piece was done in Japan by his tattoo master, Jess Yen (@jessyentattoo), who works out of the Los Angeles area at My Tattoo (@mytattooandpiercing), a shop he founded. Herke counts himself as one of Jess Yen's disciples.

He also shared this tattoo on his inner arm:

Herke explained that he received this to commemorate his 40th birthday. The artist is Jack Mosher (@jackmosher_horimuja) who works out of Hold Fast Tattoo in Prescott, Arizona.

Herke explained that in old Japan, after a battle was fought, the women from the victorious village would go to the battlefield, collect the chopped off heads of the slain enemies, clean them up and placed them around the village to commemorate the victories and warn people "if you mess with us, this is what happens to you." In a sense, it is a good luck symbol. It was actually the first tattoo that Herke showed me before I noticed the crane on his head.

Thanks to Herke for sharing his fantastic tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Brandon's Tattoos

Last summer I met a gentleman named Brandon Latham at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo). He had just been tattooed by J.J. Ohlinger (@jjohlinger), who was working the show.

Check it out:

Photo courtesy of Brandon Latham

Brandon, who is an artist in Greenville, South Carolina, explained:

"I wanted to draw a tattoo, so I drew an octopus and shaded it and got the look that I wanted and then I gave it to a professional [Ohlinger] to make it into a stencil, to make it a cohesive piece, we kind of collaborated on it ... the octopus is a creature that adapts to its surroundings it has three hearts, and so I kinda did that to represent my wife, my daughter and myself ... it's a creative unique character .... as soon as I thought about doing it, I saw them everywhere ... I thought about it for a long time because I'm not a very impulsive person, it took me a long time to even get a tattoo."

Ohlinger did a fine job placing the tattoo and making sure it flowed with the contour of Brandon's body. It's a great piece with solid linework and excellent detail.

Brandon also has this anatomical heart on the back of his calf, which Ohlinger also tattooed, back in 2014:

Brandon explained that "the different figures on the side[s] represent different things about [his] life." For example, the cat wearing the hat is "a Russian symbol that means even if you are born in mediocrity, you san still strive above and be an aristocrat," or, in other words, "just because you're born poor doesn't mean you have to continue to be poor, you can strive above that."

He also described the crow reading the book as a steampunk image, noting that "the crow, which is the only animal that analyzes human behavior ... has decided to take care of the children" after the kids' parents have gone off to work.

Brandon is a runner (10 half marathons and a couple of marathons), which explains the cool image of the hare with a tortoise shell on its back.

And the airplane, he explained "is a piper cub airplane, the plane that my dad used to work on, and my daughter's name is Piper."

The details in and around the heart really make this a cool combination of tattoos.

Thanks to Brandon for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, February 20, 2017

Erica Got Her Goat

Last July at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo (#nyempirestatetattooexpo), I met Erica at the South Shore Tattoo (#southshoretattooco) booth. Erica is the shop manager and laser technician at South Shore's shop in Amityville, Long Island. One of the trends that has developed in some tattoo shops recently has been the partnering with laser removal services and, in some cases, even having a laser technician on site.

She was kind enough to share one of her own tattoos with us:

She credited this to one of South Shore's artists, Garden Mike.

She explained:

"He does a painting a day and I watch him every day and I fell in love with that, I'm also an Aries ... I fought him for the painting of the goat for like six months...and then when my laser finally got delivered, it was ... on my laser, the painting of the goat, so I was like, now I got ya!"

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

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Jackie's Ganesh (at the NY Empire State Tattoo Expo)

Last July at the NY Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo), I met Jackie, who shared this stunning tattoo on her forearm:

She briefly told me, "I have a lot of interest in Buddhism ... this is Ganesh ... and it's supposed to mean good fortune and good health."

The artist that did this is Popo (Zhang Po) (@popotattoo), who works out of Tattoo Lou's (@tattoo_lous_ny) in Selden, New York, out on Long Island. He was also at the expo as part of the World Famous Ink Pro Team (@worldfsmousproteam).

Work from Popo has appeared previously on Tattoosday here,

Thanks to Jackie for sharing her beautiful Ganesh tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Skylar's Message: Love Yourself

I met Skylar (@abuses) at one of the booths at last summer's NY Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo) in New York City. She is an apprentice at First Class Tattoo (@firstclassnyc) in Manhattan.

She shared the following tattoo from her arm with us, credited to Douglas Grady (@douglasgrady) from Magic Cobra Tattoo Society (@magiccobratattoo) in Brooklyn.

Skylar explained how this tattoo came to be:

"I got this tattoo ... after me and my ex broke up ... I was going through a weird time in my life when I was really depressed, had a lot of anxiety. I wasn't really wanting to do anything with my life and I kinda had poured all of myself into this one person ... loved him a lot more than I loved myself and after we fell apart, I realized, 'Shit, I don't have anything for myself ... fuck that. I gotta go and make something of myself instead'... So I decided if something's going to make me commit to doing something, it's going to be putting it on my body forever. So I went, on an impulse ... walked in and was like, 'Doug, I need you to tattoo this on me.' He tattooed it on me and literally, from that moment, I've just been working real hard and trying to better myself and just reminding myself that I come before anyone else, even if I do love them. Because, how am I gonna love somebody if I can't love myself?"

A great lesson indeed!

Doug Grady's work has appeared on Tattoosday previously, here.

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

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Erika's Hyena Skull

Last summer, I met Erika, a graphic designer, at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo. She was working in a artisan's booth, helping friends sell jewelry. Her website, here, has the subtitle "illustration ~ animal photos ~ dead things." Needless to say, she has some cool tattoos, and I had a great time chatting with her about them.

One, in particular, jumped out:

This is a hyena skull inked at the top of her chest, on her left side. She explained that the hyena is one of her favorite animals and that

"I had traveled to South Africa a little while before I got the tattoo. I was trying to sleep in a tent and felt a vibration, a rustling, outside of the tent. There were a clan of hyenas (five or six of them) - I heard them crunching bones, it was all I could hear. I could smell them - it was an amazing experience ... I needed something to commemorate that."

This was tattooed by Jon Clue (@jonclue) at East Side Ink (@eastsideinktattoo), although he has recently moved to Sacred Tattoo (@sacredtattoonyc). Both are top-notch shops in Manhattan.

Here's another look at the tattoo from Clue's on-line portfolio:

Thanks to Erika for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

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!

Monday, August 1, 2016

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!

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

A Colorful Mask, with a Dagger (at the 2016 New York Empire State Tattoo Expo)

Today we're checking out a cool mask tattoo that I spotted at the New York Empire State Tattoo Expo earlier this month in Manhattan:

This is on the back calf of Chuckie Needles (@chuckieneedles), a tattoo artist out Bomber Crew Tattoo in Carbondale, Illinois.

This devil mask, with a dagger through it, was inked by Brad Fink (@bradfink), at Iron Age Tattoo, in St. Louis. Fink is also one of the proprietors of New York City's DareDevil Tattoo (@dardedeviltattoo).

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

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Allie's Tiger is Rip-Roaringly Lifelike!

Another quick update from this past weekend's New York Empire State Tattoo Expo.

On Friday, I met Allie, who had just finished receiving this stunning tiger tattoo:

This bengal tiger, ripping out of Allie's thigh, was completed by artist Amber Joy (@AmberJoyTattoo) from 546 Tattoo Studio in Sandusky, Ohio.

Not much else to say, except wow! Beautiful work from a talented tattooist!

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

Monday, July 18, 2016

Aleisha's Stunning Tattoo (at the NY Empire State Tattoo Expo)

This past weekend marked the 2016 NY Empire State Tattoo Expo (@nyempirestatetattooexpo) in Midtown Manhattan, and I spent a nice chunk of time on Friday and Saturday soaking in the sights. In years past, I have reported on tattoo conventions in greater detail, but this time around, I just wanted to meet people and talk about their work. So no big recap here, folks. Rather, I'll be doing the regular Tattoosday thing - small posts about specific tattoos with links to the artists and their shops.

That said, I will start off with what is likely one of the most amazing pieces I photographed.

This. Just this:

This amazingly breathtaking work belongs to Aleisha, who was kind enough to share with us. Tattoo shows are generally wall-to-wall spectacles of fabulous body art. This piece, by Ron Russo (@ron570tattoos) at 570 Tattooing Co. (@570tattooingco) in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was quite possibly my favorite (among a long list of astonishingly great works) from the weekend.

"I just wanted a nature-type of theme," Aleisha told me, "I pretty much let Ron decide." She noted that this stunning ocelot and the green hornet below it were actually a two-portrait cover-up.

I have found that, when you give your tattoo artist free reign to do what they want, giving yourself up as a canvas, the artist's appreciation for the freedom to create often yields the most breathtaking results.

Thanks to Aleisha for sharing this wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! We'll be seeing more from the Expo in weeks to come!

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