Tattoosday: Flyrite Tattoo

Monday, September 7, 2015

Coney Denizen and Her Dick: Our First NSFW Tattoo

In the eight years of Tattoosday's existence, we have never featured an NSFW tattoo, so it's really about time, don't you think? Especially since it's Labor Day, when no one is supposed to be at work, anyway.

I met Mary at the Mermaid Parade in June and immediately asked if I could take a picture of this phallic tattoo on the back of her arm:

Mary is an artist that uses the moniker Coney Denizen (click through for Flickr photostream).

She initially told me that this was based on her husband's drawing and that "old ladies in banks love it."

Later, she elaborated:

"I stole this piece from my husband's drawing board. I was a buyer of Indonesian and other folk art for many years. Became fascinated by the use of dicks as a prosperity symbol. I collected dick pull toys-actual dicks with wheels. When I saw this piece I thought it funny and went for it. Squid did all my work at the time, it was a fun night in the shop.Over the years I found it was a funny kind of litmus test. Older women love it, never have I had a reaction of offense. Men never notice it is a dick, until someone points it out. I did a lot of dick art for a bit. Men also never saw the dicks (blatant as they were)-unless pointed out. It has been a great one to enjoy."

Mary's reference to Squid is Sydney "Squid" Silver, or Syd the Squid, from the New York-based punk band the Lunachicks. More from Mary on Squid:

Squid did my first tattoos. I think the first was at Venus. The dick was done at Fly Rite, in Brooklyn. I remember getting faint for this one-took 6 hours-straight. Squid’s band was amazing-all girls-wicked. I knew her thru my baby sitter at the time, she lived in our pal Eddies house. I love Squid. She had the best back tattoo I had ever seen. Squid-Underwater. It is something to behold. There was no finer gal to play this way with. She was fierce and sweet. The kindest soul. Used to let me take my daughter backstage at shows. My kid thought she was the best. I believe she stopped working when she had her son, but it would not surprise me to find her somewhere ... Those were the halcyon days…."

Thanks to Mary for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and helping us break the Dick Barrier!

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.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Rochelle's Tattoos Are Powerful Reminders

Last summer, while riding my bike along the Belt Parkway Promenade, I met Rochelle, who was kind enough to talk with me and share several of her tattoos.

The first one we discussed was this one on her calf:

Rochelle explained that this is an illustration from Peter Rabbit, but not the one that is familiar to most of us. She explained that in the German version, the story spoke to her more, as Rochelle once had problems with drug abuse. She explained that the rabbit in this other version of the story took to stealing vegetables from the farmer, “but he grows fat and he is then cooked in stew by the farmer’s wife." Rochelle added, "So he’s, like, consumed by his desire, and I was consumed by my desire to do drugs ... I got the tattoo when I was becoming sober.”

This tattoo and several others Rochelle has were done by Mike Lucena from Brooklyn's Flyrite Tattoo, who she calls "a great artist and a good-hearted guy.”

She also shared this piece by Mike Lucena:

Located on her thigh, Rochelle explained, "It’s a pysanky egg, it’s a Ukrainian egg-decorating practice ... an old folk practice that my mother and I did when I was a child and I got it in memory of my mother when she passed.”

She also shared this tattoo on her upper arm:

Rochelle explained that this is Monkshood. She elaborated:

"It's a delphinium flower ... it’s like a bluebell ... almost, but they call it monkshood because, if you look at the flower it looks like a monk wearing a hood. It symbolizes usually death and ill-will, but a lot of people also use it because it symbolizes warding off evil and warding off death … I got it from Becki [Wilson] the day after my mother died, so now it has a huge amount of meaning to me ... Becki was at Greene Avenue Tattoo when this was done, but she has moved shops."

And finally, Rochelle shared a fourth tattoo, on another calf:

She explained that this was also done by Mike Lucena, and is her interpretation of The Tower Tarot Card:

"I study tarot…this is my drawing and then Mike did a complete copy and ... he had done the rabbit first, and then I was like, I want you to do it like the rabbit with my drawing … so watercolor, sort of, so he faded out the inks, the symbolism of the tower tarot card is like chaos, destruction and rebirth."

Thanks to Rochelle for sharing all of her awesome tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!