Tattoo Tinular

Matt's Skull

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:28:00 +0000

It's always a bonus when I run into a tattoo artist somewhere other than a tattoo shop.

For example, I spotted Matthew Adams on the platform of the 34th Street Station, waiting for a downtown A train last week.

Like most artists, he had a lot of ink, so he picked this one piece to share:

And on the back side of the forearm:

Matt works at Sacred Tattoo in Manhattan with Lalo Yunda, who is the artist that inked this incredible skull.

As it turns out, I have featured Matt's work on the site before here and here, as well as this piece by Lalo.

Thanks to Matt for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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://tattootinular.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.

Marianna Shares the First Rose of Spring

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 10:25:00 +0000

Today is the first day of spring! It's always a joyous time here at Tattoosday, as the temperatures rise and all the tattoos of my fellow New Yorkers come out of hibernation.

Last week we were experiencing a lovely end-of-winter day with warm temperatures and I encountered this lovely first rose of spring on the F train:

This rose, on the upper left arm of a woman named Marianna, was just popping off of her skin having been freshly inked the day before by the talented Eli Quinters at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn. Eli's work has appeared previously on Tattoosday here and here.

Marianna had a lot of other interesting work in progress going on, so perhaps we shall see more from her in the future. In the mean time, however, we have this lovely rose which she offered up in celebration of the end of winter.

Thanks to Marianna for sharing her beautiful flower with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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://tattootinular.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: Camille Harp's Bird Flies Free

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:37:00 +0000

It has been a while since we celebrated "Musician Monday," but the early onset of spring has brought out the tattoos and last week in Penn station, I met Camille, who shared this part of her left sleeve:

We focused on this segment in particular:

Camille told me she went to her artist, Fernando Casillas, at Think Ink Tattoo in Norman, Oklahoma, and just told him she wanted a bird flying out of a cage. "I just like the idea of setting yourself free," she explained. Work from Think Ink has appeared on Tattoosday previously, here.

It wasn't until the following day, when I noticed that Camille had followed us on Twitter, that I realized that she was a musician. I had caught her while she was heading back to Oklahoma, and was nervous about catching the right train and making her flight in time.

Camille, as it turns out, is Camille Harp, a singer-songwriter from a musical family, who has an album forthcoming called "Little Bit of Light". If you go to CamilleHarp.com, you can download her song "One by One". It's a lovely song that only makes me wish I could hear her in concert. She has a wonderful voice and soulful tone.

You can also grab her record "Like the Rain" here.

Thanks to Camille for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Please check out her website and/or her fan page on Facebook and support this wonderful artist!

We'll leave you with a performance from 2010, in which Camille sings with her mother in Oklahoma City:

Jason's Two Stars Lead the Way

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 10:07:00 +0000

Last week, I spotted Jason walking through Penn Station and took the opportunity to ask him about some of his tattoos. He says he has about twenty-four in all, so I took a picture of his forearms, from the photo here you can see six of them, including a Celtic knot and the phrase "Let it be...".

However, Jason drew my attention to the two stars, which were his first two tattoos. I'll let Jason explain, in his own words:

"The crumbling star was originally meant for my broken aspirations, something I dreamt up when I was a kid. And then, the outline of the green star ... the green, for me, it means rejuvenation, you know, new ideas, new paths, just different things to inspire me."

The two stars were not done at the same time, but the crumbling star was inked at Addiction NYC in the East Village. The green star followed a couple weeks later and was completed in Brooklyn, at Inkman Tattoo Studio.

Jason told me he likes to get new tattoos when he travels, what I like to call a "tattoorist," if you will. New ink is always a great way to commemorate places one has visited.

Thanks to Jason for sharing these two stars with us here on Tattoosday!

Steve's Zombie Apocalypse - In Progress

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 10:02:00 +0000

A couple weeks back, on an unseasonably warm and sunny February day, I spotted Steve on Penn Plaza, wearing a short-sleeve shirt, with some pretty cool ink peeking out from his arm.

Intrigued, I approached him, and started up a conversation about his tattoos. He showed me several pieces, including this, a back piece that is in progress:

Take a closer look - this is pretty cool. I spoke to Steve at length about his work. He had recently left the U.S. Marines, where he had been stationed overseas in Japan. It was there that he chanced upon an artist named Aya, at a shop called Silent Ink, located in the city of Iwakuni.

As Steve, explained it, Aya is a deaf-mute (thus the shop name) and he became a huge fan of her work while serving in Japan. "It's a full zombie apocalypse scene," he told me, and he plans to fly out to Washington State when Aya next travels to see her fiance in the U.S., so she can complete the work.

I always defer to the contributor, as to whether they want to share work in progress, and Steve had no qualms about letting us see this early stage of the back piece. I was able to get a closer look at the completed sections:

I just love the colors and shading behind the tree that borders the upper right arm:

Steve estimates that she has already spent approximately 38 hours on his canvas over several sittings. "I like to sit for a long time," he told me. I certainly look forward to hearing back from him when Aya has completed this work!

Thanks to Steve for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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://tattootinular.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.

Inkbursts: Spring Awakening

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 18:54:00 +0000

So I'm digging these inkbursts for now. This is the third in the series, each piece composed on the New York City subways.

On Thursday it was 60 degrees in the Big Apple and, I read somewhere that this has been the fourth warmest winter on record. You wouldn't know that from the paucity of posts these last few months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

We had a bat mitzvah to throw in February, and I have been working behind the scenes recruiting contributors for our upcoming fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project in April. To which I can exclaim, "More poets! More tattoos! More FUN!"

I used to feel guilty about letting a day go by post-less. I pictured inked fans worldwide waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, only to be gravely disheartened by yet another day gone by without a new Tattoosday post. No more. This blog is neither the center of my universe, nor a viable way to help support a family of four. I have come to terms with that.

But, with spring rapidly approaching and blog traffic at an all-time high (50,000+ visits per month in January and February!), I am in high spirits and am hoping to do a lot of great things with Tattoosday in the months to come. Thank you for checking in and checking us out!

Danielle's Mother Walks with Her

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 11:58:00 +0000

Last week I met Danielle in Penn Station and spotted this tattoo on her left foot:

She explained that November 7, 1958 was her mother's birth date. Danielle was just a little girl of eight years old when her mother passed, and she got this, her only tattoo, to memorialize her mom.

The reason she got it on her foot was because her mother's funeral card had the famous "Footprints" prayer:

“Footprints:
One night a man had a dream. In it he was walking along a beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the final scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints and realized that they came at the hardest and saddest times of his life.

Bothered about this, he questioned the Lord, saying "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most burdensome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you the most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

She had this done at a tattoo convention by an artist from Long Island's DaVinci Tattoo Studio.

Thanks to Danielle for sharing this very personal tattoo with us here on 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://tattootinular.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.

Inkbursts: I See Your Tattoo but I Won't Ask You About It

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 16:26:00 +0000

I take pride in the fact that I can sit on a train and spot tattoos.

I'm not talking about the obvious, but the subtle.

Remember, I have been inkspotting for over four and a half years (!). I am adept ar detecting scribbles on feet, a word on an inner wrist, and the edges of sleeves peeking out from under sleeves.

Does this help me? Rarely. My general rule is, if I can't identify it, I won't ask someone about it.

Imagine, someone walking up to you and asking to see more of your barely visible ink. It reeks of creepiness, a characteristic I so desperately want to avoid, as it is well-documented that the world is full of people who do not respect tattooed people's boundaries, and often demand to see someone's tattoos, as if it is their right.

But, I digress.

This all started because I spotted an interesting shape on a guy's inner left wrist on the R train this morning. I wanted to ask him about it, but I didn't.

It was way too early for that.

Inkburst: Commenting on Tattoosday

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 12:50:00 +0000

I am writing this post on the subway, on my Samsung Galaxy S II's Blogger app, in what I will call an "Inkburst." That is, a small, mini-post, that I hope people find interesting.

Readers may notice that there aren't a lot of comments on this site. I have a filter set up that requires my approval before a comment sees the light of Tattoosday.

I tend to approve benign and positive statements, and reject ads, spam and, more controversially, negative remarks.

Why won't I allow negative feedback? I think it's counter-productive and it goes against the grain of this site's philosophy - meeting and appreciating tattoos.

So, when a recent reader named "Anonymous" dropped comments blasting two posts, they didn't make the cut. And, I agreed with his or her opinion about one of the posts!

But this site is not always about museum-quality body art. Sometimes, bad, or merely average ink is interesting, too. If you want nothing but high end work, I recommend Tattoo Snob.

The way I see it, if I hand a flyer to someone on the streets of Manhattan, and they're on the fence about contributing, they'll be less likely to participate if they think there's a chance of getting flamed by a inktroll.

I do occasionally let a constructive comment through, however, if I feel it is relevant to a piece's flaws, and it is written objectively, and not soaked in sanctimonious venom.

Feel free, however, to praise away! And thank you again for visiting us here at Tattoosday!

Never Say Never, and Never, Ever Give Up

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 13:55:00 +0000

Readers of Tattoosday first encountered my friend Brooke's tattoos here (in 2007) and here (in 2008).

I work with Brooke, as well, and we often chat about tattoos. A year or two ago, she had told me she was done getting inked. But, you know what they say, never say never.

So I was not terribly surprised a few months back when she and I talked about new work she was thinking about.

Then, out of nowhere it seemed, Brooke returned from a trip to San Francisco with a fresh tattoo, She provided me with this photo, which added kanji vertically on her back:

I sat down with Brooke last week and asked her to tell me how this new ink came to fruition. Here's the story, in her words:

"My grandfather and I decided about six-plus years ago that we were both going to get tattoos. And he doesn’t have any tattoos. So, we thought it would be cool - one quote that he’s always said to me over and over again was Winston Churchill's 'Never, never never give up.' So, we thought, all right, it would be really cool to get this tattooed on us, but let’s do it in Japanese, or Chinese, or something, so we both started doing some research and trying to find someone we trusted ... neither one of us could really come up with anything that we felt comfortable with. So, we just never did it and then he got sick … he’s been in and out of hospitals for five years now. He ended up in the hospital in the beginning of December, so I went and saw him at the beginning of January - they weren’t sure if he was going to make it or not.

I wanted to try and get the tattoo before I went out there, so I scrambled - you know, something to kind of cheer him up and make him happy and I couldn’t really pull it together, so I just didn’t do it.

One night [in San Francisco] when I left the hospital, I went looking for something to eat and found myself in Haight-Ashbury and decided to pull over and just go walking around and I walked past a tattoo shop [Soul Patch Tattoo] and I just went in to browse - I didn’t go in thinking I was going to do anything. I just started looking through the artists’ work and the guy asked me if I needed help and I said, 'Naw, I’m okay,' then like, 'You know what, actually...do you have anyone who can do Japanese kanji?' He’s like, 'Yeah,' and points to the girl next to me and he said, 'she can'."

Fortunately for Brooke, she had found Wakako, a Tokyo-born tattooist whose specialty is Japanese art. If you're going to have someone give you a kanji tattoo, and you want to feel 100% comfortable that what you're getting is proper and correct, she certainly fits the bill. Brooke continued:

"I told her the story that I was doing this for my grandpa and the hope was one day he’d get better and he’d get one, as well. So I asked her how long it would take her to draw it up and she said, 'ten seconds' ... She had her coat and she was getting ready to go out the door ... so we started talking about, 'all right, I’m in town for a few more days, when can you do it?' [and] when [I was] available and the next thing you know she [said] 'well, what about we just do this now?'

So the next thing you know she goes in the back and draws it up and I’m grtting a tattoo. I mean, it happened so quickly and so I was really happy … the next day I was able to go back and show my grandpa in the hospital ... he was really happy with it and loved it. The cool part is that I got it done, I got it done by someone I trusted and he was able to see it and he loved it."

And how does Churchill's famous speech translate into Japanese? Brooke told me it had to be simplified, "It’s just never give up," which was the essence of "his favorite quote that he used to say to me all the time.”

Unfortunately, Brooke's grandfather, Bill Rhodes, passed away a few weeks ago on February 8, just weeks after seeing his granddaughter's tattoo, which had made him so happy to see. You can read his obituary here. His spirit lives on in the lives of many, one manifestation being the line of kanji running down Brooke's back.

Brooke summed it up best: 'it kind of was kismet, it worked out perfectly that I was there. He got to see it right then and there, fresh.”

Thanks again to Brooke for sharing her tattoo and the wonderful story behind it here on Tattoosday! And thanks to Bill Rhodes, for helping inspire this tattoo.

Ryan Shares Two Tattoos by "Brooklyn P"

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 11:40:00 +0000

I often wonder how may Tattoosday encounters would have been lost had my apartment come with its own laundry facilities. I raise this point because, yet again, I met someone cool with tattoos at my local laundromat and he was generous enough to share his ink with us here on Tattoosday.

In fact, Ryan, who is this particular contributor, and I share a common bond, which is that we have both been tattooed by the same artist, Peter Caruso a.k.a. "Brooklyn P," who originally shared his work with us here on the site way back in 2008 here.

Ryan currently has a back piece in progress, but he shared two tattoos from his legs. First, on his right leg, is this work:

This pin-up girl is classic old school Brooklyn ink, based on flash by the legendary artist Tony Polito. Brooklyn P is an admirer of Polito, and even shared a piece that Tony did on him here.

Ryan also has this tattoo of butterflies on his left leg, which is based on a original design by Brooklyn P:

Ryan estimates he has about fifteen tattoos in all.

My tattoo from Brooklyn P is documented here.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! And thanks again to Brooklyn P, who continues to work hard at keeping that old school style of Brooklyn tattooing alive!

Repost: Keikikalani

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 20:55:00 +0000

Today my daughter Shayna had her bat mitzvah. In honor of Shayna, and in light of the rabbi commenting on angels and cherubim during the service, my sister Alicia suggested I repost my second tattoo, in honor of my youngest daughter.

You may recognize this from the bottom of the page (or for long-time readers, it once served as the masthead).

This is my second tattoo, inked in July 2005, by Peter Cavorsi at Body Art Studios in Brooklyn. I brought him this art as reference, and he ran with it, customizing it to more closely reflect my younger daughter's blonde hair, and her affinity for Green Day, at the young age of six.
Thanks for reading Tattoosday!

Orphans

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 13:44:00 +0000

Call them what you will, what I will go with is “Orphans”.

I have a handful of posts that have lingered “on deck,” so to speak, that are, by themselves, sad little bits that were never completed, or, for whatever reason, didn’t pass muster with Tattoosday’s editorial board.

However, by packaging them together, I can cross them off my list once and for all, and move on. A Spring Cleaning, if you will.

So let’s get down to business:

Last March 25, I posted this New York’ish piece on Jonathan. A few days later, Jonathan got another tattoo and sent me a preliminary photo:

I asked him if he could send me a better photo of this pretty awesome owl tattoo. I asked again at the end of April, and again at the end of May. I followed up again in October, at which point Jonathan said he would send me a new photo soon.

Look, things happen, and I hardly see Tattoosday as the center of the universe. There comes a time, however, when I’m going to have to assume that it’s fallen by the wayside, and move on. This means, of course, that Jonathan will email me a crisper photo tomorrow.

At the end of last April, I ran into a guy named Nick on the West 4^th Street subway platform. I snapped this photos:

The reason I balked at posting this originally was because the piece is a cover-up of a cross, and the original tattoo is fairly visible in its new incarnation.

I was concerned that a stand-alone post would incur the wrath of the tattoo purists and the story that this was a memorial piece for Nick’s grandfather would be lost.

Thus, it ended up in Tattoosday’s home for Orphan Tattoos.

Thanks to Nick, nonetheless, for sharing it with us.

Also last April, I met a guy named Johnny in Penn Station. I noticed as I was passing by that he had script peeking out from under his shirt at the top of his chest and I handed him a flier and a card. In May, he sent me the following two photos and the accompanying description:

Hey Bill,

We met in Penn Station a couple of weeks ago. I finally got some pictures of a couple of my tattoos. Both of these were done by Krista at Empire Ink in Akron, OH.

The pin-up girl was drawn by my grandmother when she was 16 for my grandfather while they were dating. The other was an original design.

The Latin quote at the top of the heart is a quote from Julius Caesar. It translates to "From the bottom of my heart". Thanks for the interest in the tattoos and letting me share.
Johnny

Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t post these originally. As time passed and the e-mail traveled to the bottom of my inbox, it became an out-of-sight, out-of-mind submission. Thanks to Johnny for sending these in originally, and for waiting so patiently to see them appear on the site.

At the end of June 2011, I met a woman named Christina in Penn Station, whose ink did make the site a couple months later, here. At the time, she was accompanied by two other people, one whose name was Damion. I took a picture of Damion’s tattoo, but it never made the site, until now. Part of the reason Damion’s work never went live was due to the fact that it is an unfinished work, an orphan in more ways than one. Here’s the shot.

Damion loves these wings, calling them his “prize possession”. Why are they unfinished? He credited the artist Carlos Alfonso at Rising Dragon Tattoo, formerly located under the Hotel Chelsea on 23^rd Street. But, Damion informed me, Carlos passed away. It’s not so easy to have another artist finish the work of a deceased tattooist. Damion’s not the only one who was so affected, as you might imagine. The story rang a bell with me, as I had also featured Carlos’ work in a 2009 post with the ink of performance poet Jackie Sheeler here.

A belated thanks to Damion for baring his back and showing off his wings in Penn Station!

As summer waned, I had a couple of unsuccessful encounters in September, in which the quality of the photos I took were substandard, and e-mails to the contributors went unanswered.

For example, Chris shared this cool octopus on his leg:

Can you tell it’s an octopus? There’s the issue. Chris’s leg hair and the glare of the sun renders this poor octopus almost invisible. It was inked by a Thai artist namedTong, working out of Tatudharma in Sydney, Australia. Chris was travelling and he “likes octopi,” recognizing that, “as far as invertebrates go, [they are] probably the most intelligent of them.”

In a weird twist of this orphan post, the Tatudharma web site indicates that the shop is closed permanently, a result of it having been firebombed last April. The artists can still be contacted through the website, however.

A couple weeks later, my camera was programmed on the wrong setting, so I ended up with these two washed-out shots of interesting tattoos:

The host of these pieces is Lindsey, a Southern Californian who had both tattoos inked in San Diego.

The plant was done about 8 or 9 years ago by an artist named Alethio.

“I had my boyfriend draw it,” she explained, “I told him I wanted a dictionary-style type of flower, so he kinda came up with a design, so it’s not an actual plant, it’s fictitious … I wanted something organic to be represented on me.”

The bird on her other arm was done by Gary at Ace Tattoo. “That was the beginning of a sleeve that never happened,” Lindsey said with a sigh.

Thanks to Chris and Lindsey for sharing their tattoos and for hopefully forgiving my camera for betraying them.

And last, but not least is this piece from December:

Jen acknowledged that it wasn’t done very well, but she said she had a good reason for getting it. I did send an email as a follow-up, but more than one reeks of desperation. Maybe one of these days Jen will find my card or flier and finally e-mail me back to explain what wanderlust means to her. Until then, we’re left with this orphan.

Believe it or not, we still have a few 2011 photos left in the tank, but this entry takes out a good chunk of our backlog. Thanks for giving these orphans a home, even if its just for a minute or two.

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://tattootinular.blogspot.comand 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.

Cleaning Out the Inbox - Post-Valentine's Day February Edition

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:57:00 +0000

Occasionally I will post a handful of items that came my way, in one form or another, that may be of interest to our readers.

For example, the other day my mother-in-law gave me a clipping from the New York Daily News that appeared back on Sunday, November 2011.

TODD MAISEL/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Michael McLeer of Brooklyn Made Tattoo on 93rd St. in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, designed the label for the new Beaujolais Nouveau and has his vintage 1976 Cadillac decorated the same way.

Readers of Tattoosday and/or residents of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where we are based, will recognize "Kaves," as he is known. I first encountered his work back in 2008 here and, last May, he shared a piece on his own canvas, a portrait by Mark Mahoney here.

Kaves is a true artist on multiple fronts, and the photo above showcases his latest project, a wine label he designed. Read more about him and his Beaujolais in the full article here.

Check out this tattoo-themed wallpaper:

So it's not Valentine's Day any more, but it's still pretty cool. You can grab this on the fFurious website here: http://ffurious.com/index.html?latest.html

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I missed the opportunity to post this love-related tattoo video. Needles and Sins beat me to it, but I'll share it anyway.

That's from Brooklyn comedian Boris Khaykin. Pretty funny!

~

Normally, I like to stay positive on Tattoosday, so I've avoided posting all those "10 worst tattoos" lists and other such web features that mock the less-fortunate in the inked nation. However, this link, is actually pretty clever. It's called "10 Horrible and Unexpected Tattoo Consequences" and can be read here. Writer Molly Mahan elicited several chuckles from this here jaded inkblogger. Besides, you can learn a bit about " the first case of nonischemic priapism following penile tattooing". That's worth the price of admission right there.

~

Ivan Shares an Amazing David Sena Tattoo

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 11:30:00 +0000

This post is a straggler from 2011 and readers may wonder why it took so long to appear here on the site.

First, take a gander:

Pretty cool, isn't it?

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of information on it, as I snapped this on the subway one evening last June, and I wasn't able to record a lot of details. This is what I do know: the host of this tattoo is Ivan, and the piece took 2 sessions and approximately 15 hours to complete. The talented artist behind this is David Sena from North Star Tattoo in New York City.

The detail in the piece is wonderful:

And the scale of the tattoo as it wraps around the arm is impressive:

Unfortunately, there's not much more I can provide in terms of what went into the work, but the quality of the tattoo speaks for itself.

Thanks to Ivan for allowing me to snap these shots on the subway and consenting to sharing them here on Tattoosday!

Dmitry's Sleeve and Invader Zim

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 17:05:00 +0000

We still have a handful of posts from 2011, including this one, which features a sleeve from a guy named Dmitry who I met in Penn Station back in July. Take a look:

This sleeve is a collaborative effort with Dmitry and his tattoo artist, Gene Coffey, from Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

He explained that he has spent a long time working on it, and that it is based on a animated series called Invader Zim, which was created by Jhonen Vasquez and originally aired in 2001.

Dmitry told me "I've always been a big fan of [the show] and I've always loved the artwork." He brought Gene "a few pictures from the show and we put together the piece".

The sleeve starts on the upper arm, featuring Zim at the very top,

The bottom section of the sleeve features other characters from the show, as well.

The back of the lower section of the arm has this illustration:

There's a whole catalog of the characters from the show listed here. I'd venture to try and identify every one seen in Dmitry's canvas, but I would most likely misname one or two. He told me the show has achieved a kind of cult following so, if any fans would like to add comments below, feel free to do so.

Thanks to Dmitry for sharing his fantastic tattoo sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

Jon Paul's Three Cities

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sat, 07 Feb 2015 11:37:00 +0000

Last August, I met Jon Paul, writer and content producer for the web site Poptimistic (http://www.poptimistic.com). He shared this tattoo, one of three he has, from his upper right arm:

Jon Paul's focus on Poptimistic is travel and food. He credits the work to the artist Friday Jones, who does custom tattoo work out of Senses New York Salon & Spa in the Flat Iron District. I mentioned Ms. Jones back on Tattoosday in 2009 here.

Jon Paul explained that he originally met Ms. Jones in New Orleans when she did "the very first tattoo [he] got ... the compass that the rest of the tattoo is built around." About a year later, he elaborated, "I went back to her and said, 'Now I want you to build a whole piece around my three favorite spots in the world.' So she designed it custom from that." She did it over three sessions.

Represented among Jon Paul's three favorite places are New York City, where he calls home:

The Big Apple is represented by the Statue of Liberty and by the iconic Art Deco style of the landmark Chrysler Buillding.

Paris is represented by the Eiffel Tower:

Sydney, Australia is represented by it's recognizable Opera House:

Jon Paul said " Sydney I love just for the sheer beauty of it and the people ... are lovely." Jon Paul elaborates further on why he loves Australia in this post, which includes another photo of his tattoo.

Thanks to Jon Paul for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

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Richard's Mayan Calendar Honors His Heritage

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 11:40:00 +0000

Just two weeks ago, back in the first month of the current year, 2012, which as many may have heard, is the last year in the Mayan calendar, I met Richard in Penn Station. He has this amazing tattoo on his upper right arm:

He had just finished the last section of the tattoo a couple weeks earlier. The piece is a cultural tribute to his and his family's Mexican heritage.

This was done by Chuck Bondo at Station 1 Tattoo in Huntington, New York.

Thanks to Richard for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Kristina's Ambigram - Dream/Believe

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 12:22:00 +0000

It may be warm here in New York today, but last month we had a typical January day where temperatures were seasonably frigid. Not necessarily great inkspotting weather, but I ran into Kristina in Penn Station after seeing this tattoo on her calf:

This is an ambigram, which is a design that reads differently, depending on the way you look at it. It appears as the word "dream"

If you flip your perspective, you see a similarly-inspiring message:

That says "believe".

Kristina credited an artist named Scott in Farmingdale, New York. ~~I will take a leap and assume this was done by Scott Trerrotola at Tattoo Ritual. It should be noted that Scott recently opened a new shop in Bellmore called Alchemy Tattoo Arts.~~ The artist is otherwise unknown.

Thanks to Kristina for sharing this, one of her four tattoos, here with us on Tattoosday!

A Spot of Hawaiian Ink on the New York City Subway

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 15:04:00 +0000

Earlier this week, I posted about my experience on Ink Master, getting a tribal tattoo that was inspired by my upbringing in Hawai'i. Do note that I have not referred to this as a Hawaiian tribal piece, which is a whole different thing altogether.

Just to illustrate, one of my "leftover" posts from 2011 is this tattoo:

This was a real treat for me, spotting an authentic Hawaiian tattoo, in New York City of all places.

Looking back to last June, I had just attended a networking event at Bowlmor Lanes in Times Square and was headed home to Brooklyn. On the 8th Avenue subway platform at 42nd Street, I spotted a bunch of folks with t-shirts bearing Hawaiian names. I got to chatting with them. Turns out they were affiliated with Na Keiki O Ka Mo'i, an outrigger canoe club from Wai'anae, Hawai'i, and they were in town to compete in the 2011 Liberty World Outrigger Competition.

I was shocked. Outrigger canoes in the East River? I've lived in New York for almost 15 years and never knew that this existed in the Big Apple!

There was a whole lot of local folks from Hawai'i on the platform, and when an express and local train pulled in simultaneously, chaos erupted as the visitors scattered into both downtown trains.

I sat down on an "A" train next to a handful of the group and struck up a conversation with a few people. I spoke with one guy, in particular, named Sam "Kamu" Kapoi. Go figure, the talk turned to tattoos and Sam stretched out his left leg to show me his ink.

Sam and I have kept in touch, so I was able to get some additional information on this piece.

Sam is a filmmaker and was accompanying the group as they competed in New York.

The art of Hawaiian tattoo has deep roots in the culture of the islands, and every aspect of a tattoo has personal meaning that is often held very privately by the tattooed individual. You just don't go up to someone with a Hawaiian tattoo and ask, "So what does it mean?"

Sam said it himself in a message to me, "the tattoo itself ... is my family design, very sacred." He credited his artist as Keone Nunes, who specializes in traditional Hawaiian tattoos and uses the tapping method.

Here's a nice clip on YouTube with Mr. Nunes discussing the art of kakau:

The juxtaposition of this illustration compared to my own experience getting a tribal piece on a tattoo reality show is stark. Whereas I love my new tattoo, I in no way hold it in the same high regard as the traditional art of kakau in Hawai'i. I feel honored to have been lucky to come across an example, by chance, in New York.

A big mahalo nui loa to Sam for sharing his traditional Hawaiian ink with us here on Tattoosday.

Tattoosday Goes Tribal on Ink Master

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 13:35:00 +0000

What’s the hardest thing about being an ink-blogger and getting a tattoo on a televised competition show? Keeping my mouth shut for almost six months about the experience.

This is the tattoo that I received back in August in the course of my stint as a "human canvas" on the set of Spike TV's Ink Master.

What you didn't see on the show (if you watched last night) was the consulting session in which I sat down with the artist and hashed out the ideas and concepts that I wanted represented in this tribal piece that ultimately ended up on my left thigh.

The two main elements are the honu, or Hawaiian sea turtle, and the hibiscus, which is the state flower of Hawai'i. Having grown up in the Aloha State, I wanted something that represented my childhood home.

The end result far exceeded my expectations. I want to again thank Heather Sinn, my artist, for giving me an exceptional tattoo under less than ideal conditions.

I also want to share a little bit more about how I lucked into being tattooed by such a wonderfully talented artist.

The episode that aired last night was dubbed “Botched Head Tattoo” by the network. Fortunately, mine was not the botched head tattoo, although I have stayed in touch with the human canvas who chose to have his scalp inked and can say, with 100% confidence, the only thing botched about it was that it wasn’t completed in the five-hour time limit. The artist, Bili Vëgas, ultimately finished the piece at his shop in New York, and Ryan, who shared one of his other tattoos with us here on Tattoosday back in August, is very happy with the end result.

Photo Courtesy of

Bili Vëgas @ www.bilivegas.com

Back in July, I wrote here about Ink Master’s call for candidates looking for a cover-up. Shortly after posting the piece, I sent in my own idea for a tattoo for the show, thinking it was a long shot.

Within the hour, I got a response asking if I could come in and discuss the idea in person. Fortunately, I was off that day, and I went into Manhattan and met with production staff, discussing what I wanted in terms of a memorial piece for my step-father, who passed away in April 2010. This discussion also included a mention of my almost having been tattooed with a Hawaiian tribal memorial band.

Things moved quickly from there and after a series of phone calls, my original idea was scrapped and I was confirmed to be a human canvas on an episode dedicated to tribal tattoos. I am not generally a fan of tribal ink, but I thought that if I could get something with a Hawaiian influence, I would be cool with that. Having grown up in Honolulu, and with family still in the islands, it made sense to get something along those lines. I was concerned, however, whether whoever was tattooing me would approach the challenge with an understanding and respect for the culture of Hawai’i.

On the designated day, I met at the rendez-vous point with three other human canvases near Times Square to be transported to the set by shuttle. The studio was set up at an old church building in Newark. We were shown to a holding room with five other canvases and, as is typical in television production, we waited.

We didn’t know who the judges were until moments before being led to the set, which was quite impressive, as is evident on the show. I was initially happy to pick the skull with artist Heather Sinn’s name on it and, after our consult, during which I threw idea after idea at her about what would be ideal in the tattoo, I was excited to see what she would come up with overnight.

On the shuttle from Manhattan to the set the next day, we all chatted about our artists and talked about how we thought it would go. Ryan, who was about to have his head inked, was chowing down on a big bowl of red jell-o, a trick some tattoo artists recommend to minimize bleeding (the gelatin aids with blood coagulation). We were also still abuzz about the one canvas who was dismissed because of his psoriasis. The guy had been a veritable comedian in the holding room, and his absence was surprising.

After getting miked up and led to the set, we met with the artists in their work rooms and saw our designs for the first time. I was blown away by what Heather came up with, especially having looked at her online portfolio the night before, and noticed that she wasn’t an artist that did a lot of tribal work.

There was one glaring concern that I did have, however. Heather was not a happy camper. This was episode 2, so they had just started production, and one show was already in the tank. Mind you, they don’t wait a week between episodes, they are often shot in succession, and the hours are long and grueling, even to artists who spend hours on delicately maneuvering a vibrating machine doing meticulous work on a canvas that moves.

Heather did not hide this sentiment from me, the client, and I was concerned, especially since the challenge was rigorously timed, and had dropped from 6 hours to 5 hours after the initial cover-up challenge of episode 1.

She assured me that she was going to do her best under the not-so-ideal circumstances. I would direct readers to this interview that recently ran with Heather in the LA Weekly. She wears her emotions on her sleeve and does not back down from her feelings.

Heather told me she would not be very talkative when she was doing the initial line work as she was not accustomed to this type of tattoo. Fine by me. The cameras were around us constantly and Heather was very concerned that she would not have the time to finish the piece. She also expressed to me that she was not very fond of any of the judges. After seeing the flash challenge that preceded our meeting, I can see why.

When all was said and done, however, she powered through it and knocked it out with time to spare. The result left me with an awesome tattoo, and I have nothing but praise for her craftsmanship.

As for the show itself, so much footage went unused, including scenes in which the human canvases saw their tattoos for the first time in a full-length mirror, met with the judges, and did candid interviews with the producers.

I can say that, despite all the tattoo flaws picked out by the judges in the show, none of the canvases on my episode were disappointed with the final result of their sessions with the Ink Master artists. And, as much as I would like to bemoan the massive amount of "canvas" footage on the cutting room floor, ultimately the artists were being judged on the quality of their work, not on the stories behind their clients' tattoos, or their feelings about the final product.

I think that this is one of the compelling aspects about Ink Master that makes the show so interesting from a technical standpoint. Sure, there's the reality show drama involving the artists' personalities, but the show seems committed, more than most of the other "reality" shows out there, to celebrating the tattoos for art's sake.

I'm not on any more episodes, but I'll keep watching.

Wesley Shares Two Significant Blossoms

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 19:12:00 +0000

I met Wesley in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, earlier this month, and she shared these two tattoos from her forearms:

These two flowers are (pictured from left to right) a Cherokee Rose, which is the state flower of Georgia, and a Nile, or Egyptian Lotus.

Wesley explained that the Cherokee Rose is generally white in color, but white flowers don't generally translate well to white skin. Fortunately, they can occasionally grow pink, so that's the shade she chose for the tattoo.

Wesley explained the whole process of these tattoos in detail:

"I was born in Macon, Georgia and my dad's from Georgia and the whole myth is that when the Cherokees were driven out ... by the white people, they cried ... The Trail of Tears ...and the flowers that sprang up where their tears [fell] were the Cherokee Rose. And [the flower on the left arm] is a Nile Lotus ... an Egyptian lotus, you see it a a lot on the sarcophagi ... Egyptian tombs, and it's about death and rebirth.... I got them ... in 2005 ...in Seattle by a guy ... Ian at Lucky Devil Tattoo in Capitol Hill, Seattle ... it was a year almost since I had been diagnosed and treated for cancer and it was sort of my celebration of 'I'm okay' and I had some whole elaborate - I was going to have insects on the inside of my wrist and flowers on the outside, and there was a possibility of a snake, there was a whole big thing and ... the great thing about this artist was that he was like, 'here, let me do a temporary version of what that would look like,' and I was like, 'that would look really cluttered and ridiculous' ... and I realized that I really wanted them to be something I could see and I was more attuned to the flowers ... I wanted something that was close to home from my past and then something that was from another culture from farther away - there's the birth thing and the death thing. Yeah."

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

Will Is Well-Armed for the Opera

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 11:39:00 +0000

Occasionally, one of my posts will fall through the cracks and I only discover it by chance.

For example, earlier this week I was passing through K-Mart in Penn Station when it struck me: the guy I had met several months earlier in there never ended up on the site! How did that happen? I'm still scratching my head over that one, because how could I forget this tattoo?

Will explained to me that he has the signatures of twenty-seven female opera singers that have, in some way, touched his life. The photo above is only a fragment of the whole array, which covers his left arm and runs down the side of his chest.

"I'm a big opera fan ...[it's] just a form of music and expression that has always meant a lot to me," Will told me. He explained how he had waited for two hours for a singer to emerge from a venue after a performance, but she never came out. That missed autograph opportunity gave him the idea to recreate the signatures of an array of great singers on his flesh.

Among the names visible in the photo above are Maria Callas and Grace Bumbry.

The signatures were inked by Dave Wallin at Eight of Swords Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Will for sharing his operatic arm with us here on Tattoosday!

Ink Master Premieres Tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 11:13:00 +0000

Regular readers of Tattoosday may recall this post, last July, when I mentioned that a production company was looking for volunteers to get tattoos on a new reality tattoo competition series.

That was six months ago and the first installment of that project, Ink Master, is scheduled to debut tonight on Spike TV, at 10:00 PM (and 11:00) EST.

I strongly encourage people to watch, as I’ve seen the line-up of artists competing, and know for a fact that they are a talented crew.

Unlike New York Ink, which seems to have evolved very quickly into a faux-drama in a tattoo shop that just happens to have great tattooers, the focus of this show is about creating body art in a reality-competition setting.

That’s not to say there won’t be interpersonal conflicts - even shows like Master Chef and Project Runway have their share of drama. But, I am optimistic that this series will not disappoint.

Check out the trailer below:

SPIKE

Official Ink Master Series Trailer

And here’s a bit of a tease ..... I know with 100% certainty that at least three of the volunteers on a couple of the episodes have appeared previously as subjects on Tattoosday. I’m looking forward to not only seeing who wins each week, but as USA Today put it, “who on earth decides to get inked as part of a reality competition?”

This won’t be the last you hear about Ink Master on Tattoosday. Trust me.

Meister's Memorial Sparrows

noreply@blogger.com (ibad) — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 15:26:00 +0000

Last month, I was leaving the Muhlenberg branch of the New York Public Library when I spotted a woman with two birds on the backs of her calves:

These two sparrows belong to Meister, who is also known as The Nervous Cook.

I love how these are not your typical tattoo sparrows, but are more lifelike than the traditional bird flash that is much more common.

She explained that these, two of her eight tattoos, are memorial tattoos, that she has "for three people that I lost, roughly around the same time." Meister elaborated:

"A best friend of mine passed away in a scuba accident - she's the female sparrow [on the left calf] ...

...and then two good friends of mine died within two weeks of each other ... totally just a a devastating series of unfortunate accidents."

These, along with most of her other work, were tattooed by Myles Karr, who works out of Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn. Meister indicated that these sparrows were done a while back, when Myles still worked out of the now-defunct 334 Bowery Tattoo. Work from Myles has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Meister for sharing her beautiful sparrows with us here on Tattoosday! Be sure to visit her over at The Nervous Cook.