Anniversary Ink

Back at the beginning of April, when Tattoosday was celebrating National Poetry Month, my wife Melanie and I were celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary.

After Melanie's birthday tattoo (here), she was eager for another. We decided on something fairly traditional, as Jewish tattoos go, we wanted to get the phrase אני לדודי ודודי לי,which is from the Song of Songs in the Old Testament. It translates to "I am my Beloved's, My Beloved is Mine."

When we got married in April 1995, we decided on matching wedding rings that looked like this:

The phrase is engraved as part of the design circling the ring.

So we knew that this was going to be our tattoo:

Melanie was thinking about wrapping it around her ankle, and I was thinking how I could make it slightly different.

The reason this was so important to Melanie, and why it made such sense as a twentieth anniversary gift, is that her original wedding ring had been lost in the last decade. She had lost a lot of weight and the ring was loose. For our tenth anniversary, I had given her two thin rings to go on either side of the wedding band, which held it in place. However, one of the stones had come loose in one of the smaller rings and when it was being repaired, Melanie's band fell off, somewhere between Chelsea Piers and South Brooklyn. The needle in the haystack story did not end with a miraculous recovery of her ring.

So, we knew what we wanted, the next question was where to go. Who should tattoo us? This wasn't an elaborate tattoo design, but then again, lettering is deceptively challenging, especially if the tattoo is not a straight line on a flat surface.

I put on my Tattoosday thinking cap and reached out to several people, one of whom was Kevin Wilson, shop manager at Sacred Tattoo  in Manhattan. Sacred has top-notch artists and he said he definitely had confidence in whoever would be available on our anniversary.

Melanie met me after work and we headed to Sacred, which was relatively close - another bonus. When we arrived, Kevin greeted us warmly and introduced us to Gunny, who would be our artist.

After some discussion about size and placement, the tattoo was much bigger than I originally imagined and it had moved from her ankle to her right wrist. Melanie went first.

Gunny placing the stencil around Melanie's wrist

Gunny set to work, quickly and efficiently...

Gunny at work on Melanie's wrist

Before you know it, he was done, completing a solid and bold circle of Hebrew lettering around her wrist.

Here's a collage of what it looks like:

Next, it was my turn.

I didn't want anything circling my wrist or ankle, and I wanted something slightly different, yet the same.A little research resulted in the discovery of a design that comprised of the same words, but in a slightly different font and shape. I opted for it over my heart:

This has a more tribal look to it, but I'm pleased immensely. It's also in a circle, which recalls a ring in its shape. And, of course, it's over my heart.

Melanie jokes that she can't lose this ring. Neither can I. The two tattoos were the perfect anniversary gift for the likes of us!

Thanks to Kevin and Gunny at Sacred Tattoo for making this all happen! And thanks to Melanie for twenty years of marriage and patiently waiting for this post to appear on Tattoosday!

Be sure to visit Gunny on his web page here, as well as on Instagram here, and check out the photography Kevin has been doing here. Visit Sacred Tattoo and Gallery here. Talent abounds!

This entry is ©2015 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.

Evan J. Peterson's Truth on the Tattooed Poets Project

Our next tattooed poet is Evan J. Peterson, whose tattoo resonates with the one we posted earlier today, and with the solemnity of this Day of Remembrance:

Evan tells us:

"This tattoo is my first and only tattoo so far. It's Hebrew for 'Truth.' It's Emet, read from wrist to elbow. This is also one version of the Kabbalah spell that brings a golem to life. Golems are Jewish protector spirits created by animating clay, imbuing lifeless matter with divine energy. Adam of Eden was the first golem, according to some legends. I designed the art nouveau font myself, and it was perfected and transferred to my body by Roni Falgout at Hidden Hand Tattoo in Seattle, Washington. This tattoo is a prayer for Truth, to be truthful to myself and to others. I got it to commemorate 10 years being best friends with my main man Mykol, to celebrate my MFA and first finished manuscript (which has a lot to do with golems), and to mark my entry into recovery from addiction. It's somewhat ironic that I have Jewish ancestry, which is supposed to make tattoos unacceptable, but my tattoo is in Hebrew as a way of reminding me of those very ancestors. No regrets."

Evan also shared this poem with us:

The Wunderkammer (Frankenstein's Monster Taking Inventory)

My body museum, haunted by its own curiosities—

            a cabinet of wonders: tumescent chest,

            a cavity of breakthroughs, bursting;

this torso, cage of ribs, the bird inside grown wan

            since the clipping, stuffed now with batting,

            displayed like the Ashmole dodo,

the double heart clenching, bifid, a wounded

            gypsy moth pumping asymmetrical wings,

            the halves joined not by love but wire;

all of this, and yet no name;

that abdomen, distended by marvels, organs in pairs,

            trios, like the shared trunk of joined twins,

            straining the stitches to hold it all in;

           

three children’s livers, pristine, unmarked by absinthe,

            unsoured by laudanum, three milk-fed

            miracles, drawing poisons from this well;

the extra pancreas, spleens, three kidneys,

            the small intestine shortened to make room

            and allow for quick excretion;

all of this, and yet no name;

this auxiliary breast, fat lurker beneath the pectoral,

            leathery nipple, hot as a witch’s tit in a copper

            brazier, to suckle infernal familiars;

an extra lung, sponge for oxygen, drawing plenty,

            fuel for the flames at the core, goblin forge,

            a forest fire struck by one lucky bolt of light;

this skull inscribed, Hebrew scratched on the inside,

            illuminated by the flash: תמ א , Emet, Truth,

            to crack open and rub off one glyph for Death;

all of this, and yet no name;

the brain in its cradle, swollen, backed up to the wall,

            the caul pinched together, cauterized, a barrier

            between tissue and fluid, envelope of genius;

whole corpus a jar of captured lightning, ultraviolet,

            the nerves like taut wires, humming

            seven feet from brain to heels–

here is my body, my rarae aves, my cartography.

            Here is called only Terra Incognita. Here

            be monsters.

~ ~ ~

Evan J. Peterson is author of Skin Job (Minor Arcana Press, 2012) and The Midnight Channel (Babel/Salvage Press, 2013) and volume editor of the Lambda Literary Award-nominated Gay City 5: Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam (Minor Arcana Press & Gay City Health Project, 2013). His poetry, fiction, journalism, and criticism have appeared in Weird Tales, The Stranger, The Rumpus, Assaracus, Nailed, Court Green, and Aim for the Head: An Anthology of Zombie Poetry, from which his poetry was excerpted in The New York Times.

Thanks to Evan for sharing his tattoo and poem with us on The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.

Tattoos I Love: Melanie's Tribute to Our Family

How is it possible that my lovely wife Melanie, who celebrates her birthday today, has a tattoo that hasn't graced these pages? It just is, I guess, but in celebration of her special day, let's all look at my favorite tattoo of her collection:

This photo was taken shortly after it was inked by the awesome Peter Cavorsi, owner of Body Art Studios in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, many five or six years ago.

The center of the piece is a Star of David with the Hebrew word חי (Chai) in the center. The design is inspired by this necklace Melanie has:

The Hebrew words encircling the center design element are the Hebrew names of our family members: Melanie's, mine, and those of our two daughters.

When Melanie came up with the concept of the whole piece, she wanted to make sure she got the Hebrew correct, so she met with a friend of ours who is a rabbi. He agreed, in a very rabbinical way, to provide her with the Hebrew lettering on the condition that Melanie would meet with him and study why tattooing is considered by many to be forbidden in Judaism. She agreed, of course, and the lesson proves valuable whenever she feels like challenging those who challenge her on why Jews shouldn't get inked. Note this 2008 piece from the New York Times about Jews and Tattoos.

One technical note: I was in charge of proofreading the final design before the stencil was made, and I missed the fact that, in one of our daughter's Hebrew names, which is comprised of three names, the second and third names run together, a detail missed by many, but proof that, even when you think you know something's perfect, you should triple-check. This small technical error doesn't make the tattoo any less awesome, in my opinion.

Then again, I'm biased, because it's a beautiful tattoo on the woman I love and, well, she chose to ink my Hebrew name on her flesh, along with our awesome children, as well.

So, on this, Melanie's birthday, I want to share her tattoo and wish her a wonderful day.

I love you Melanie, and I love your tattoos!

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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Henry Lee

Our next tattooed poet is Michael Henry Lee.

We have been fortunate to be able to share Michael's work in two previous years, so this post makes him our first three-time contributor. This is the photo he sent:

Photo by Chris Bodor

Michael sent along this explanation of the tattoo:

"...[This] latest addition to a thirty plus year work in progress is in Hebrew and translates: Jehovah Jireh or the Lord sees, also translated, the Lord is my provider. Jehovah Jireh is the first personal name of God that appears in the Torah and the Old Testament. Flames representing God’s first appearance to Moses in a burning bush, and Romans 6:23 a key verse from the New Testament ties the whole piece together.

The most compelling element of the story is the artist who has done all Mr. Lee’s work since he moved to Florida nine years ago. Tattoo Mike; sole owner and operator of The Tattoo Garden in St. Augustine Beach Fl., was involved in a bad motorcycle accident in Sept. 2012 just a few months after completing Michael’s tattoo. As a result of the accident he lost his left leg from the knee down and required resuscitation three separate times that night. He miraculously survived, is back to work and will [have] most likely completed an awesome three piece koi design for Michael Henry Lee about the time this is posted on Tattoosday."

Personally, I always look forward to seeing what Michael will send, and this year, he did not disappoint, sending along the following haiku:

Leonid showers-
the sky continues to fall
on star at a time

night fall-
in my dreams
there’s still time

winter solstice
snowy egrets
knee deep in the moon

so so moon
the right moment
passes between two stones

climate change
another sweater
goes to good will

The preceding poems in order of appearance: 1st place in the 2012 Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Now Contest in the traditional category, and runner up in the modern category, first appeared in The Mainichi Daily News, Mu Haiku Journal IV, and Haiku News respectively.

Michael lives with his wife Sarah of over thirty years, two cats, and numerous bonsai trees in the nation's oldest city. His work has appeared in The Heron's Nest, Frogpond, Haiku News, Icebox, Berry Blue Haiku, One Hundred Gourds, Mainichi Daily News, Haiku Ramblings, and the anthology, Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness [edited by Robert Epstein] (Modern English Tanka Press, 2011).

Thanks to Michael for his continuing contributions to and support of the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday. You can see his previous entries here: 2012 and 2011.

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.