Tattoosday: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

Three from Christina at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention

This past weekend at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention, I met Christina, who has all of her work done by a Phoenix-based artist named Mike Claypool.

She had traveled from Arizona with him and shared some of her work with me. First, this piece on her stomach:

I like this classic-style piece with the nautical elements, with the anchor, compass rose and ship's wheel. The diamond, heart and wings are a nice touch too.

Then she shared this rose on her knee:

And finally, I snapped a quick pic of this circus elephant, still shiny as it had been inked the day before:

To really appreciate Mike Claypool's work, follow him on Instagram @ClaypoolTattoos.

Thanks to Christina for sharing her 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.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Dispatch from the 5th Annual NYC Urban Tattoo Convention

Today marks the third and final day of the 5th Annual NYC Urban Tattoo Convention and if you haven't gone, be sure to head down to 233 37th Street in Brooklyn in "Industry City" (across from Costco). The show opens at 11 AM and closes out at 10:00 PM.

I had a whirlwind day yesterday, meeting artists and vendors, checking out tattoos, interviewing people for upcoming Tattoosday posts, and enjoying a second Saturday in a row of body paint.

It was great seeing Ink Master contestants in action, like Jackie "Ink Bitch" Jennings

and "B-Tat"

It was great meeting new talent from other locations, like Josh "Eon" Johnson out of Denver, who did this back piece:

There's never a dull moment at the show, with plenty of paint, ink, and power to entertain.

Thanks to Chis Styles and the Awesome Al Fliction for being such great hosts and putting together such a great show!

Friday, June 27, 2014

Darkwing Duck!

Last week in Bowling Green Park I met Chris, who had a ton of tattoos, one of which is this:

He told me that this is Darkwing Duck, one of his favorite cartoons growing up.

Chris credited this to Dru from Scars of Desire in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He said that Dru has since moved to Florida.

Thanks to Chris for sharing some of his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

The 5th Annual Urban Tattoo Convention Starts Tomorrow!

Tomorrow marks the launch of the 5th Annual Urban Tattoo Convention, in Tattoosday's home boro of Brooklyn.

Located across from Costco at 233 37th Street, the show opens Friday at 3pm and runs to midnight, reopening Saturday from 11AM to midnight and Sunday from 11AM to 10PM.

The URBAN Tattoo Convention’s (UTC) mission is to empower tattooist from diverse cultural heritages to showcase their art and tattooing skill set. UTC is committed to the recognition of experienced tattooists, the development of up-and-coming tattoo artists and the cultivation of the growing urban art community.

I attended last year's expo and had a blast. I wrote about it here and featured work I spotted through many posts over the summer (link the tag here).

You can get tickets here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-nyc-urban-tattoo-convention-tickets-10304339557?aff=efbevent

I plan on live-blogging from time to time and look forward to seeing readers there!

There is nothing quite like this show, and I am thrilled to be going again!

Hope to see you all there!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Erika Helps Us Remember Michael Jackson

Five years ago today, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, passed away.

That being said, it seemed fortuitous that yesterday, across from the New York Stock Exchange, I met Erika, who has a bunch of tattoos, but whose left arm is just plain "Bad":

This iconic image is from this cover:

Erika explains:

"I got the Bad album cover because that's my favorite Michael Jackson album ... I think this was, like, right before he started to fall off the wagon, kinda, but this is the last good Michael as far as his face and his appearance ... and I'm an '80s baby, so that was my favorite album of the Eighties."

She credited this great work to Chris Mensah at Pinz-N-Needlez Tattoo in Washington D.C. I last spotted Mensah's work in 2009 here.

We also commemorated Michael's zombie self two years ago here.

Thanks to Erika for helping us commemorate the passing of one of the greatest musicians of our time!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Maria Shows Off An Incredible Sleeve by Bugs at the Mermaid Parade

It's always exciting when I find work by artists I admire out on the street, so when I met Maria on Saturday at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and I learned that her sleeve was by Bugs, I was thrilled:

I love Bugs' take on the Bird of Paradise flower here and the sleeve is punctuated on Maria's fist with this skull:

Bugs works out of L.A., but I've seen him work at the NYC Tattoo Convention and Maria said some of this sleeve was completed when he did some guest spots at a shop in New Jersey. See other work I have featured by Bugs on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Maria for sharing this great work with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

A Mermaid Welcomes in Summer

Yesterday was the first day of summer and I celebrated by heading out to Coney Island for the annual Mermaid Parade.

This was my second time at the parade, having gone first in 2012, and there are wonderful tattoos everywhere. Here at Tattoosday, we'll be sharing tattoos from the parade over the next couple of weeks.
But let's start with the first person I met along Surf Avenue:

This tattoo belongs to Alix, who was dressed up as a mermaid and had a tattoo to match.

"Any story behind this?" I asked, foolishly.

"That's MY story," Alix replied, "I like mermaids."

She credited this to Alex Rios from Hard Knox Tattoo Studio in Yonkers, New York.

She also had phenomenal work on her back, as well:

Thanks to Alix for sharing her awesome work with us here on Tattoosday!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Reposting My Tiger for the Class of '89

This weekend, my college classmates are gathering for our 25th reunion at Occidental College.

Alas, I am on the other coast, but I wanted to let them know I am thinking of them by sharing my tiger tattoo, when it was crisp and fresh in 2010.

Our school mascot is the tiger, which made getting this piece in honor of the Year of the Tiger much more appropriate.

Much thanks to the talented Shon Lindauer, now working out of High Seas Tattoo Parlor in Hollywood, California, for doing such a great job.

See the original post here.

Hugs from NYC, old friends, hope to see you all at our 30th in 2019!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Anthony's Tattoo of Transformation

I try to get to my favorite watering hole, Lock Yard, at least once a week, not only for their delicious artisanal sausages and wonderful selection of craft beer, but because each visit is often good for at least one tattoo encounter.

Two days ago, after my team lost ingloriously in the weekly trivia challenge, I met Anthony, who shared this, from among his several tattoos:

"It's a koi dragon," Anthony told me, adding "the koi dragon is a symbol of transformation - when I got it I had just lost 100 pounds, which was a big physical transformation for me."

He credited this to an artist named Conan, who at the time, was working out of his home in Brooklyn,

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

Thursday, June 19, 2014

An Unusual Peacock from Sweden

Sometimes tattoos are just destined to be on Tattoosday, I think.

For example, yesterday, I was wandering around downtown Manhattan on my lunch break when I spotted a pretty interesting tattoo on someone's back. However, she walked off before I could speak to her.

A half an hour later, I was six blocks away at the corner of Pearl and Broadway when she walked by me again. this time, I was able to speak to the tattoo owner and snap this photo:

This tattoo belongs to Johanna (she pronounced it Yo-hah-na), who was visiting from Sweden. Her artist is there, as well, and that was pretty much all she told me.

This is not your typical peacock tattoo, which is why I liked it and was so happy to see it again.

Johanna, thanks for sharing your awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

New York City in Black and Gray

Last Friday I was coming up out of the subway, only to discover the skies had opened up, and a fierce thunderstorm was dumping water in buckets in Bay Ridge. A handful of people stood one level down at 95th Street, waiting for the torrents to subside. I struck up a conversation with one guy (whose name now escapes me...Johnny? I can't be certain) who had this fantastic tattoo running the length of his arm:

The distinctive twin towers of the World Trade Center rise majestically on his arm, as the Brooklyn Bridge comes toward the viewer and a Coney Island-bound F train curves out of the tunnel, following the contours of this gentleman's arm.

Here's a closer shot of the NYC skyline:

Some nice touches on this piece are the subway car of the F train, which is based on a 1930's version of the subway and the graffiti over the tunnel which reads "Vive Tus Sueños," or "Live Your Dreams."

This work is credited to Eric Rignall from Ink Stop Tattoo NYC.

Thanks to my fellow commuter who shared this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Dorie's Hungarian Runes

I met Dorie very briefly yesterday on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn yesterday. She has these cool tattoos running the length of both arms:

Dorie told me these are ancient Hungarian runes. She was born and raised in Hungary, so these have particularly special meaning to her. In fact, she explained, "this is all my personal beliefs." She would not elaborate further, as is her right. The runes cascade down her arms in a very public presentation, yet she holds them true to her own self privately, despite their visibility.

She credited an artist from Europe named James, who tattooed her here in Brooklyn, but has since moved back across the Atlantic.

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

Friday, June 13, 2014

Laurel Cooks with a Celebrity Signature

I met Laurel last weekend while riding my bike down by the 69th Street Pier in Bay Ridge.

She has a bunch of tattoos and shared this combination on her arm:

At the bottom of the photo is a meat cleaver below what appears to be a red squiggle. Laurel is an avid baker (you can find her on Facebook under Little Laurel, Big Treats) and huge fan of the chef Anthony Bourdain.

She went to one of his book-signings and he autographed her arm, after which she headed to Hand of Glory Tattoo in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she had the artist make the signature permanent, with a meat cleaver, to boot.

Thanks to Laurel for sharing her ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Lynsey, With a Wolf in the Garden

I met Lynsey last week outside of Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan. She shared this interesting tattoo:

Wrapping around her lower leg, this tattoo is credited to Jared Hayes, an artist in Salt Lake City.

Lynsey explained, “We did a collaborative effort on it – it’s original – so, it was based off of a song I have a particular fondness for and we kinda built it off that.”

"What song?" I asked.

"Wolves in the Garden" by The Deadly Syndrome. Here's the song in an unofficial video:

The whole piece took about nine hours to complete.

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

Monday, June 9, 2014

Christian, Jonah and the Fish

I was at my favorite local watering hole, Lock Yard, last Wednesday night, and I approached a table of three heavily-tattooed gentlemen. One of them, Christian, generously offered up this really cool piece on his arm:

Christian explained the tattoo:

“It’s a character from The Bible. His name’s Jonah. He gets swallowed by a big fish. I really like the idea, in the New Testament, in the Gospels, Jesus says, ‘You guys want signs and wonders and miracles, but the only thing you’re going to get is the sign of Jonah….I’ll be in the ground for three days, just like he was in the fish for three days, and I’ll come out again. It’s kind of a resurrection idea. I like the idea of resurrection and that’s kind of what it means to me when I look at it. And from a human level, I like the fact that God would use Jonah to save a town and then Jonah would sulk about it, be a butthole about it, kinda see a parallel there with just how we are and how God uses people."

He credited the work to one of Tattoosday's favorite artist's Nick Caruso, from Bound for Glory Tattoo in Staten Island.

Christian added, "This is a piece of Coptic church art that I had Nick trace and embellish…so originally it was a painting and I said, you know, make the fish a little scarier."

We joked about how it was not like the big whale in Disney's Pinocchio, which is how I always envisioned the fish that swallowed Jonah when I first heard the story as a child.

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

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Ashley Shares Some Dogwood and a Sailor Jerry Classic

Last week I met Ashley down on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan. She has a lot of ink and was kind enough to share some with us.

First up is some dogwood on her inner arm:

The dogwood actually runs to the other side of her arm, as well:

Ashley explained that "Mame and Ah-Ben" were the names she called her grandparents.

She also shared this traditional Sailor Jerry flash piece:

Thursday will mark the 41st anniversary of the passing of Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins.

The dogwood tattoo and the Sailor Jerry piece was done by "Bad News" Becca Roach, from North Star Tattoo in NYC. I've had the pleasure of seeing Becca work at the NYC Tattoo Convention, so I'm familiar with her work.

Ashley said, "It would probably be funnier if you ask her [Becca] about me," adding, "I'm her worst patient." So I did ask Becca about Ashley and she didn't disappoint with this reply:

"She's a pretty unique lady. Always funny and fun to tattoo. But the only one who's ever gotten up in the middle of it and left. We had to send her girlfriend out to find her. She was hiding at the bar around the corner. Left, said nothing to anyone, and didn't come back."

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

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Emily's Sleeve Seen Downtown

For many years, when I worked near Penn Station, I found that massive train nexus to be a great place to meet people with tattoos. Now that I employed near Wall Street, I'm beginning to feel that the area around Federal Hall is my new reliable spot to find Tattoosday subjects.

For example, earlier this week, I met Emily, who shared a couple sections of her right arm, including the top:

This image of Buddha, surrounded by snakes, is punctuated near the lower half of the arm with some color:

The flower is a lotus, which is commonly found along with Buddha imagery.

The sleeve is a lovely contrast of black and grey, with pops of color.

Emily credited this work to an artist in London named Nikole Lowe, owner of Good Times Tattoo.

When I asked her about the work, Emily said that there was no "big deep meaning" her tattoo. "I just love the image ... and the color," she told me, adding, "I think it's a beautiful piece of artwork"

Certainly no argument from me on that one!

Thanks to Emily for sharing her lovely tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

The Tattooed Poets Project: Meg Freitag

Our next Tattooed Poet o' the Week is Meg Freitag.

She sent us two tattoos, starting with this colorful scene:

Meg elaborates:

"This first tattoo, on my left arm, is of two red foxes and two bluejays all enjoying themselves together in the forest. I wouldn't say that there's much 'meaning' to it, other than I'm pretty crazy about animals, and interested quasi-philosophically in predator/prey relationships, the necessary violence of it. It is something I think about a lot, and definitely emerges as a theme in my writing. I like the idea of forcing these two animals who are at opposite ends of the food chain to exist together in this way, in a funny sort of freeze-frame harmony. And foxes and jays are two of my favorites--they are both so extraordinarily clever! I admire their trickster natures, their no-nonsenseness, their savvy. I also think they are very aesthetically beautiful, which was ultimately a large part of why I chose them for this purpose. This tattoo was done by Tina Star at Resurrection Tattoo in Austin, Texas."

She also sent us this piece:

Meg tells us:

"The second tattoo is on my left ribs, and is a simple outline of an envelope. My two close friends and I got these matching tattoos the month before I moved to Austin for grad school. We each got a different size envelope--in addition to be a symbol of connectedness, it's also sort of a vague take on the matryoshka doll. Mine is the largest of the three, for no other reason than my friends both already have quite a bit of body art and I had more space. These ones were done by Sean Perkinson at FTW Tattoo Parlor in Oakland, California."

She also sent us this poem, which was first published in the summer 2014 issue of Tin House:

What Small Death Shines Up from the Dirt

Edith, I think I’ve been trying to replace you.

Lately I’ve lit fires in my own mouth

That can only be put out with another mouth. He and I,

We found a baby rattlesnake injured

In the middle of the road. Half its body stuck

To the blacktop, the other half looping around

And around its own busted part like a busy

Signal. He said, The babies are the most dangerous.

They haven’t learned to restrict their own venom

And so they pump it all in at once.

Everyone knows that, I said. But still he had to stop me

From wrapping the leftover part of the snake up

In my T-shirt and carrying it home.

I thought that if I saved it, it would be so grateful

It wouldn’t try to hurt me. Edith, I’m afraid I can love myself only

If someone else loves me first. One time I let him have me

Against the sink in a TJ Maxx bathroom

And we didn’t even leave our merchandise outside.

One time I was so afraid of sharks I had a panic attack

In a paddleboat while my cousin yelled at me, over and over,

We’re in a goddamn lake! One time I dreamed I saw

A hundred of my own heads on wooden stakes, but they were tiny,

Like a tray of hors d’oeuvres. One time I had a dream that the dog ate you

And choked on your beak and also died.

One time I thought I loved someone

I hardly knew at all. Long ago, I saw a hawk in a tree,

Disemboweling a baby prairie dog. I was with a child and instinctively

I put my hand over his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see.

But the guts, Edith, I couldn’t take my own eyes off them.

How they shone in the dirt, like wet rubies, or like something

You didn’t know you were even looking for,

In the moment when you finally find it.

~ ~ ~

Meg Freitag was born in Brunswick, Maine, and now lives in Austin, Texas, where she's an MFA candidate at UT's Michener Center for Writers. Her work has appeared in Tin House, Narrative, and Smoking Glue Gun.

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

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.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Krispy's Collection

Last week I ran into a guy named Krispy sitting on a bench across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.

A approached him because a lot of cool ink, and I was hoping he'd be open to talking with me. Fortunately, he was kind enough to share several pieces for Tattoosday, and he expounded on his collection.

"I look at my body as kind of an open canvas to collect art," he told me, adding "I look at tattoos as sort of like how some people look at art collections in their house, except this is kind of something I can wear on me all the time."

Krispy is co-founder/co-owner of Anonymous Mad Villainy, a clothing company based out of Philadelphia. He is an artist himself, and expounded at great length about the tattoo as art:

"I like to use tattoos as a way to connect to other artists and give them an opportunity to be creative with their work ‘cause I don’t really put a lot of restrictions on what I am getting from an artist. I usually just tell them that I like their style and give them a general idea and just let them do what they’re gonna do. I’m from Philly originally and I have a friend, Brian, that’s done about four or five of them…I have work from five different artists on me right now…. A lot of the work is just aesthetic appreciation, appreciation for well-developed art."

The tattoo above he credited to a friend of his named Dan Mugrauer, who originally tattooed one of his friends and, as he explained, "I really liked his work so I went and talked to him about getting some and he and I developed a really good relationship with each other."

When I asked what his favorite piece by Dan was he said the one above or, more likely this beetle on his ankle:

Krispy elaborated:

"I like this one particularly because it was one of the most painful pieces I’ve gotten. Going through getting that done, even though it’s really small, was a lot to handle [Ed. Note: I love how he called this ‘really small’!]. That one spent probably the smaller amount of time and is the most painful and …. I originally got it lined and waited about six months to get it colored and when it was done it looked exactly like I imagined it would. [It's] just like a scarab beetle, I’m really interested in the symmetry of different flies and moths and beetles. I plan on finishing this leg sleeve as just a bunch of different beetles and bugs then filling the negative space with some patterned wood.

This one I think I like a lot because I made a pretty long trip for it. I lived in New York since September and at the end of October I went up to the Boston Tattoo Convention to help my friend work at the convention. So he gave me this when I was there and it was one of the longest pieces I have sat for…this one was about seven hours, so I sat, like for the whole day."

Finally Krispy shared this piece on the back of his calf:

He explained:

"This one is from Justin Harris, he’s a tattoo artist out of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was in Philly for a guest spot when I happened to be on break for a week so I managed to catch him at the right time and so I have the King on my one calf and the queen on my other one. I was trying to think of who I wanted to do the queen. I had my friend Dan do the king one and I like Justin's work a lot and I thought that his work with women’s faces and demonic women was really good so I thought he’d be the right person to talk to it about."

Thanks to Krispy for sharing some of his art collection with us here on Tattoosday! Be sure to check out the Anonymous Mad Villainy site here to check out their clothing line!

This entry is ©2014 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, June 2, 2014

Christin's Exorcism

I was standing in front of Federal Hall, at the corner of Wall Street and Broad, when I noticed two women sitting nearby. One of them had an epic tattoo on her left thigh, so I introduced myself.

The woman’s name was Christin and she was visiting from Germany. Her friend, whose name I never
caught, was very helpful as an interpreter.

Check out the tattoo:

Christin explained that this is a passage, in Latin, from the Bible. More specifically, it refers to a section concerning exorcism, how, in her words, "the blood will drive out the evil and how everything will end up good.”

You can make out the word "Exorcism" behind the written text. The scratches and blood smears are part of the tattoo design.

The artist responsible is Emrah from Lausbub Tattoo in Heilbronn, Germany. When I reached out to him about the piece, he knew exactly which one I was talking about. "I love this tatt," he said, "but I never ever would do it again ... because of the tiny lettering."

When I asked Christin why she got this huge, intricate tattoo she said (through her friend, interpreting):

"There are two stories: One, the show Supernatural kind of got her on this idea. So that’s what brought her on the general idea of looking into what it is, reading up on it. And she kind of was fucking up her life a little bit much and so this was her way of putting her life back on the proper road so when she looks at it she knows I can’t go down that route again."

Thanks to Christin for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Lexy’s Chrysanthemum Sprouts from a Poem

I was leaving my office building last week on Broad Street, when a woman named Lexy walked by with this great thigh tattoo:

I caught up to her, introduced myself and she agreed to share her ink with us here.

This piece was done by Alejandro Lopez, who is based in Pasadena, California, but works out of Addiction NYC when he's in the Big Apple.

When I asked her if she originally went to Alejandro for the chrysanthemum, she said that actually, she
had gone to him for this tattoo on her ribs:

“This is a poem,” she explained, “and I told [Alejandro] the meaning of the poem, and he reached out
to me and said, You know, I really like the poem, it resonated with me and he asked if he could expand
on it … And we sat down and talked about what the meaning was for me and he created this piece [the
chrysanthemum] based on what it meant to me.”

She indicated that the poem is Korean in origin, and it is in her grandmother’s handwriting. It turns
out that Lexy’s grandma was a professional calligrapher in Korea, and the red boxes are actual
representations of her grandparent’s pen names, or signatures, in Korean. How cool is that?

She elaborated a little more on the meaning of the poem:

“The poem itself is talking about whether you live or die as a nameless wildflower or a famous rose, it’s up to you, so you basically take control of your destiny, but [should] also have compassion for those who have no control … it also says something about the day that you’re born is the day that you die.”

Lexy also told me she was born in the year of the snake, which is why she has a cobra tattoo. I didn't think much of it at the time, as I didn't see a snake here.

When I was writing up this post, however, and looked at Alejandro's Instagram page, it all made sense. After getting his permission, along with Lexy's, I am happy to share the whole work-in-progress which, for obvious reasons, I never saw on Broad Street:

Photo Courtesy of Alejandro P. Lopez via http://instagram.com/alejandropaivalopez

Thanks to Lexy for sharing her wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Thanks, as well, to Alejandro Lopez for sharing his Instagram collage so we could see his work in its full scope.