Tattoosday: January 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Three for Tattoosday - A Trio of Teachers Share Their Ink

Last summer, I was biding my time near work, at the corner of Wall Street and Broad, when a group of tattooed people walked past. Like many of the visitors to that section of the city, they were travelers from elsewhere. I learned that these three friends were also educators, enjoying their summer with a trip to NYC.

All three of them were open and friendly, allowing me to take photos of their tattoos and to get the stories behind them.

The first person I spoke to was Amie, who shared this Wizard of Oz tattoo from her upper right arm:

It's a really cool Emerald City image, encompassed in a snow globe, with a flying witch, a yellow brick road and a rainbow. Dorothy's ruby slippers are poised in front of the snow globe.

Amie credited the work to "Little" Jen Small from 510 Expert Tattoo in Charlotte, North Carolina. "I'd been wanting something Wizard of Oz because it's my all-time favorite movie," Amie told me, "and I mentioned it to her [the artist] and she ran with the idea and did exactly what I was hoping for."

This piece, so colorful, was only two weeks old at the time, so it still had that fresh tattoo sheen.

Next up was Chad, who shared this tattoo "in the ditch" for me to see:

Chad explained, "My tattoo was done by Nate Hudak at Flying Tiger Tattoo in Norwood, Ohio." Norwood is an enclave of Cincinnati. He added, "It's an all-seeing eye ... I'm ... into traditional tattooing and I like the idea of a higher being seeing over, you know, everything."

And last up was Tom, a retired school teacher who shared this exploding apple:

He summed it up succinctly in telling me, "I had mine done by Tommy Partin at Aces High [in Mt. Orab, just east of Cincinnati, Ohio] and mine was just a way to represent being done with teaching."

Thanks to Amie, Chad and Tom, this trio of friends, who were all so generous in sharing their ink with us here on Tattoosday!

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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Ryan's Lion, and Time on His Mind

Last week I ran into Ryan, a prior contributor to Tattoosday, who appeared on the site originally here.

It was an unseasonably warm day, for January in Brooklyn, and he showed me one of his newest tattoos:

Ryan told me that he wanted a skull, but with a time theme - so you have the gears of a clock running where the brain is held.

He credited the work to Alvin Chong (see his Instagram here) who is an artist from Kuala Lumpur. He got this on a recent stint by Chong at Last Rites in New York City.

He also showed me a new piece he got from Chad Koeplinger on a recent stop at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn:

Ryan got this because he is a Leo, and wanted a lion to represent his Zodiac sign.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing his cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Fiorella Rocks a Sleeve That Illustrates Her Love of Film

Last summer, I ran into a woman named Fiorella near the subway entrance at Greeley Square.

Her tattoo stopped me in my tracks and I just had to speak to her:

And this wraps around her upper arm:

At the bottom of the tattoo is a phrase that reads "What you don't know, you can feel it sometimes."

Fiorella explained that she is a student of film making, starting out from her home in Costa Rica, and continuing her studies here in New York City.

She is a videographer, whose YouTube channel can be viewed here.

The collage of film images in the tattoo include Amadeus (partially visible in the top photo), Charlie Chaplin (top photo), A Clockwork Orange, Jack Nicholson from The Shining and an image from Cinema Paradiso.

She also had images of her family "spliced" into the filmstrip.

Her favorite director is Woody Allen.

She credited the tattoo to Hiram Cordero at 506 Tattoo Studio in San José, Costa Rica.

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

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Repost: Lizz's Tattoo Anchors Her to Her Brother

Something about this post from 2009 jumped out at me, so I thought I'd re-run it today.

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One of the things that I love most about writing Tattoosday is the way New York City plays a significant role in the narrative. It may not be a blog about New York, but it would be a much different one without this city I call my home.

This is one of those posts that is tied to the fabric of New York.

This evening, I was taking advantage of a free ticket to see a revival of Guys and Dolls at the Nederlander Theater, which is still in preview and opens March 1st.

I was standing in line outside, about twenty minutes before curtains. The theater, on the south side of West 41st Street, faces the back of the New Amsterdam Theater to the north.

There were assorted people milling about across the street, folks I assumed were crew from Mary Poppins, outside having their last cigarettes before their show started.

I spotted a woman who had exited the theater and saw, from across the street, that she had a tattoo on her right forearm. I was doing nothing but standing in line anyway, so I crossed over 41st Street to say hello.

Lizz, who works as a dresser, was more than happy to share her tattoo:

What's remarkable about this traditional-style anchor tattoo is that she had it done at the same time, on the same spot, and with the same design as her younger brother.

For Lizz, this was her most recent, her nineteenth tattoo. For her brother, five years her junior, it was his first.

The piece is based on the state flag of Rhode Island, where Lizz grew up:

Tattoos in general have significant meaning for their bearers. When the same design in shared, and the act of being tattooed is similarly experienced, the emotional charge instilled in the work is compounded.

Another example of siblings sharing a tattoo can be seen here.

Lizz told me that she doesn't rely on one artist, but that her ink has come from different shops all over the country.

This tattoo was created at Cherry Bomb Tattoo (now known as East River Tattoo) in Brooklyn by the artist Duke Riley. Work from Cherry Bomb has appeared here previously.

Thanks so much to Lizz for sharing her ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

A Light for the New Year

It has been a quiet fall, but we're gearing things up in the new year by sharing leftover work spotted in 2015.

First up is this piece I spotted on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn:

This tattoo is on the right thigh of Danielle, who I met back in August in Bay Ridge.

This is a traditional- style piece with a nautical theme. The lighthouse is actually a candle, with a storm approaching - dark clouds and lightning approach. The piece is bordered in rope with a cherry blossom at the bottom. A paper boat floats on the blue sea.

In Danielle's words:

"Basically, it's the light that never goes out. You got the rain, the candle and the candle's still going pretty strong - that's guiding the paper boat."

Danielle credited Matt Huff at Brooklyn Ink with this work. Most of her tattoos were done by Matt and the other artists at Brooklyn Ink.

Matt had a piece featured over the summer, here, an awesome George Carlin tattoo.

Click through the tag for Brooklyn Ink below to see all the work we've featured previously on the site.

Thanks to Danielle for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday.

Happy New Year to all!