Tattoosday: August 2014

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Kelsy: The Flesh is Weak, But The Soul is Willing

Last month I met Kelsy at The Lock Yard, one of my favorite places for craft beer and artisanal hot sausages. It's also becoming one pf my favorite places for inkspotting.

Kelsy was showing a lot of ink and offered up her chest piece for inclusion on Tattoosday:

Kelsy explained this lovely work:

"I got the tattoo for my grandmother that passed away when I was seventeen. She was basically a mom to me. She always was so nurturing and close to me. So I got the flesh is weak but the soul is willing because I feel that all of the things and all the pain that you go through is only going to shape your soul, what goes on in your soul is willing to persevere through everything ... I got roses because she grew roses and I'm not Hispanic, but I got a Day of the Dead skull, Dia de Los Muertos, because it's a celebration of death, not the loss ... but the celebration of what they gain and what I gain from always being with me ... even though i'm 3000 miles away from my family, I feel like they're always with me..."

She said the piece was created by "a mix of a couple people," most notably Eli Falconette at Blacklist Tattoo in Portland, Oregon. Eli was responsible for the roses.

Thanks to Kelsy for sharing this beautiful tattoo 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.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

A Demon on Wall Street

Earlier this month, I met Samsun, who had a bunch of cool tattoos. She let me pick this demon on the back of her upper left arm:

Samsun credited this work to Nicole Lopez de Quintana at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn.

She told me she got this because "Everyone has their own demons inside ... I put my demon on the back of my arm so it's like all my demons are kinda gonna watch my back for me 'cause I learned ... from the bad that has happened in my life so I don't make the same mistakes."

Thanks to Samsun for sharing her cool demon tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Nicole's Airplane Soars Across Her Back

I met Nicole at the 4th annual New York City Poetry Festival on Governor's Island last month. This bold tattoo on her upper back caught my attention:

Nicole explained how she came about this work:

"I'd always wanted this ... and I decided to get it kind of on a whim, which is why I don't remember the artist ... and when I went to the [tattoo shop] I said I wanted a 1945 plane the guy was like 'obviously you need to be a little more specific or bring me a drawing' and then his partner walked in and had just happened to pick up a book on aviation and I like found this plane in it."

Thanks to Nicole for sharing her aviation tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Some of Amanda's Ink at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade

I met Amanda at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade back in June. She shared a bunch of her tattoos, like these on her right arm:

A little more detail:

The peacock and the gypsy are really lovely.

Amanda also has this sugar skull:

And this super cat and fiddle on her left arm:

She credited all of the work shown here to her artist Eric Edward from Hudson River Tattoo in Hudson, New York.

Amanda's tattoos are art for art's sake. As for the cat and the fiddle, she told me, ""It was just a fantastic piece that was just pretty unique and then we just fine-tuned him and then just worked on integrating everything."

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

Sunday, August 3, 2014

A Mermaid Shares a Tattoo

You rarely see me on Tattoosday, but the stranger who took a photo with my phone did some funky multiple-frame picture taking that generated this gif.

Incidentally, I'm standing with Kristen who posed for a ton of photos at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, as she was part of the group that put the whole event together.

When I mentioned Tattoosday, Kristen was kind enough to share a tattoo on her thigh that was below her shimmering mermaid skirt:

She credited this cool tattoo to her boyfriend, Joe Khay at Citizen Ink in Brooklyn. Joe also designed this year's Mermaid Parade poster.

Kristen explained that her leg has a death theme, thus the skull and the crow, a bird often thought to carry souls within them. The tattoo has a greater significance for her, as she explained:

"It's actually what got me and my boyfriend together ... it's kind of a love story behind it. The tattoo got us together ... I was going to a different artist at the same shop and then I decided, 'Hi, I'm going to go with him for one of these tattoos' ... it was out of his element, he doesn't really do much realism, he does more neo-traditional tattoos so I kinda brought him out of his element, expanding ever since and it brought us together - it's eight months later."

Thanks to Kristen for sharing her cool tattoo 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.net 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.