Back in May, I met a guy named Mike outside of Penn Station and he shared this tattoo with us.
Occasionally, contributors who I have met on the street will send me a follow-up of additional tattoos that I didn't photograph the first time I met them. Mike was generous enough with his time and energy to do just that.
First is a piece that was done around the same time that the lion-skeleton tattoo, featured back in May, was completed, back in 1995:
This, like the previous work featured from Mike, was inked by Doug White at the Ink Spot in Linden, New Jersey.
Mike also sent along this snake:
I love the cross-hatch patterns on the back of the snake. The lines are so finely drawn, I am impressed by the amount of patience it must have taken to get these tiny details just right.
Mike also sent a photo of this gargoyle on his back:
These last two pieces were inked at Tattoo Lou's in Babylon, New York back in 2000. Work from Tattoo Lou's has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.
Thanks again to Mike for sharing more of his ink with us here on Tattoosday!
I will pace subway platforms, while waiting for my train, so that I may exercise a bit, and, let's face it, spot the occasional tattoo.
After meeting TG on the 59th Street platform in Brooklyn, and talking tattoo with him all the way to 95th Street, he told me I was lucky he had removed his sweater back on 59th.
For it was there that I spotted his tattoos. First I noticed this one:
That is a brontosaurus, which is on his left arm. It was an impulse decision and serves solely as a decorative reminder of a moment in time. TG had just left work with a paycheck and wandered into Rising Dragon Tattoos in their (relatively) new 14th Street location.
The artist was Davide, who hails from Italy, and was most likely a guest tattooer at the time.
TG sings his praises as he took a relatively simple design and gave it his all, down to the shading of the dinosaur's eyes and toe nails.
An even more compelling tattoo is this line-drawn piece:
The caption under the robot and the bear reads "Go for the knees! Bears are known for weak knees!"
This refers to a brief snippet of dialogue in Season 1, Episode 3 ("Blind Date") of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock. The line is uttered by the character Frank, who is played by actor/comedian Judah Friedlander. The absurdity of the line made it memorable to TG, who chose to immortalize it on his right forearm.
First, a point of clarification. I write blog posts with the ideal blog reader in mind. The ideal blog reader being me. And what I have noticed over the years is, despite the interest in the subject matter, it is rare that a blog post will hold my attention longer than a few paragraphs. This is why Tattoosday posts are generally brief, not drawn out, and some times split into multiple parts.
Similarly, my attempts at literary criticism are not as in-depth as many may like. I acknowledge that shortcoming while noting, for many, this is actually a plus.
As anyone in America can tell you, the rise in popularity of the art of tattooing has skyrocketed in the last twenty years, and the first decade of the 21st century has seen the acceptance of body art increase exponentially.
Johnson's book is not your typical tattoo primer (the fanciest of which has been Kat Von D's immensely successful High Voltage), but rather, a memoir of his life and experiences as a tattoo artist.
What separates Johnson from other tattoo writers is that he has a true gift for prose, a writing skill that eclipses the efforts of your standard "all about tattooing" books. As a result, the reader is sitting there in the shop with Jeff, listening to his story. I could hear the buzzing of machines and taste the neon in the air.
Case in point, a paragraph from Johnson's introduction:
"This isn't simply a memoir. It is also a personal look at the people behind an art form that has undergone a rebirth and is shaking the natal mucus from its drying wings as a new pool of exciting, schooled, and committed artists take their places. This is also a book about street shops and the artists that flourished or inexcusably withered in those fertile grounds. I want to give the reader a more complete picture of a tattoo artist's life and the lessons learned along the way, the things a TV show or a visit to your local establishment can't capture, the things people wonder about when they look through the window the first time and ask themselves What's really going on in there? This is what I've seen. You might not want to get a tattoo from me after reading this, but there you go..."
The narrative wends its way through Johnson's past to his present, getting the reader to appreciate the journey that led the author to the helm of the Sea Tramp.
He tells it like it is, warts and all. On shows like L.A. Ink, you don't get to see the unsavory characters that are often hindrances to a tattoo business. We get that here.
Part One, Dial Tone, dwells on the business side of tattooing, from employees and scheduling, to flash art and drawing, signs of a good shop, and shop lingo.
Part Two, Man's Ruin, provides a primer on the big problems confronting the business: drugs, criminals, scams and oddities. The oddities section certainly opened my eyes and made me realize any good artist wouldn't bat an eye lash over a mild case of psoriasis.
Part Three, Love and Hate, talks about the emotional journey that the author has taken.
Part Four, Wine, Song and Your Mama, deals with success.
Part Five, Tiny Revolutions, revisits the technical aspects of tattooing and spends a nice amount of time discussing the politics of tattooing and the regulation of the industry.
And the final section, Part 6, Smile Now, Cry Later discusses pranks, rivalries, and the life cycles of a couple of shops. Johnson does a nice job addressing that aching question: how does an artist feel when a great tattoo dies along with its host.
Ultimately, Tattoo Machine, despite its meandering, is a thoughtful, humorous and well-written volume on the life of a tattoo artist. Is it every tattooer's experience? Probably not. But I'd be surprised to find an artist who would read this book and not relate to anything between the covers.
We here at Tattoosday give Jeff Johnson's memoir a big thumbs up and a hearty recommendation.
I met Shom very briefly as he was about to board a train at Penn Station.
Aside from shoulder pieces and Sanskrit text circling his upper left arm, he has a couple of other tattoos, including this one on his inner left forearm:
This piece represents one of the many chakra for meditation.
It was inked at Jinx Proof Tattoo in Washington, D.C. Work from that shop has appeared previously here.
Shom had to board his train before I could get more information, but I express sincere thanks for his brief participation here on Tattoosday!
I met Drew in Penn Station and he shared this, one of his two tattoos:
It's a cool design that he saw in an encyclopedia and took to an artist at State of the Art Tattooing in Southampton, New Jersey.
Drew ascribed his own meanings to the piece, creating his own interpretation of the designs.
The main circles he regards as two pinwheels, spinning in different directions. These two, as a whole, represent progression, as life moves forward.
Also, along the edges, in addition to some traditional design aspects, Drew pointed out two half-circles and four quarter-circles. These fragmented wholes represent the realms of dreams and realities.
By ascribing his own meaning and understanding of the tattoo and its elements, Drew makes the impersonal design (out of a book) more personal and special.
Thanks to Drew for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
Last week I met Rebecca, who was waiting for an Amtrak train in Penn Station.
She had these tattoos on her inner wrists:
I recognized that they were kanji, but I didn't know that they were reiki symbols.
Reiki is a Japanese healing art, and Rebecca is a certified reiki practitioner.
As part of her certification and training, she studied enough to know that these symbols are accurate and refer to graphic representations of healing. Her right wrist speaks to long distance healing, and her left wrist refers to balance and healing.
Since reiki practitioners work with their hands, it seemed fitting that she had these symbols on her wrists.
She noted, as my wife has told me about her wrist tattoo, that the pain was very intense on this part of her body and that she passed out not once, but twice, in the course of having these tattoos inked over two sittings.
Once in a while I check in with old Tattoosday contributors and I recently revisited Sal, who works at a video store (Mr. Video III) in Brooklyn Heights. You may recall his Guns 'N Roses tattoo (here).
Earlier this year, he had this inscription tattooed on his inner right forearm:
The phrase "not a moment for granted" is inked in tribute to his late acting teacher Fred Kareman, who inspired and taught Sal, not to mention countless others.
Sal explained that Kareman instructed in the Meisner Technique, which he described as an "in the moment" method.
This phrase can be further applied to life, in general, reminding Sal and anyone who sees the tattoo that every moment is precious, and should be savored like a treasure.
The design and tattooing was done by the incomparable Mark Harada at East Side Ink. You can see other pieces by Harada featured here on Tattoosday. Similarly, clicking the East Side Ink tag reveals other fine work done at the shop.
Thanks to Sal for once again sharing a part of his body's canvas with us here on Tattoosday!
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