Tattoosday: back pieces

Showing posts with label back pieces. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Vito's Back in Memory of Mom

I met Vito at the NYC Tattoo Convention last month.

He shared this amazing back piece:

This was done in memory of Vito's mother by Megan Jean Morris from Painted Soul Tattoos in Wallingford, Connecticut, although he noted she did this while doing a guest spot at Paul Booth's Last Rites Gallery.

Thanks to Vito for sharing this 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.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Mike's Back Full of Skulls

This past weekend, I was at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and I received permission from Mike, one of the spectators on the boardwalk, to take a picture of his back piece:

He credited this back full of skulls to Jen Lohrey Carmean, who works out of Monarch Tattoo in Newfoundland, New Jersey.

Thanks to Mike for sharing his cool back tattoo with us here at Tattoosday!

Friday, June 19, 2015

Larry's Back (at the NYC Tattoo Convention)

Last weekend at the NYC Tattoo Convention, I met Larry, the owner of Bklyn Ink Works, a shop down in south Brooklyn in the Bensonhurst/Dyker Heights area.

Larry was proudly standing outside of his booth whenever I saw him at the show, talking to people and proudly showing off the work of Andrey, one of the Brooklyn Ink Works tattooers, which he wears proudly.
Here's his back:

This religious-themed black and grey work is pretty impressive.

Check out Bklyn Ink Works on Facebook here.

Andrey Tarasov can be found on Facebook as well and on Instagram (@sverlo1).

Thanks to Larry for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, June 8, 2015

Nick's Brooklyn Back at the Fifth Avenue Festival

Last week at the Fifth Avenue Festival in Bay Ridge, there was a lot of ink on display for all to see. One of the most impressive things I saw was this back piece on a guy named Nick:

I didn't get all the details on this, but the top of the tattoo reads "King's County Brooklyn" and the bottom reads "Rapid Life." The Brooklyn Bridge spans the center of the back with the Manhattan skyline in the background.

Nick credited the artist Yosh from The Ink Gallery in Staten Island with this amazing back piece. You can see work from Yosh, including this tattoo, in various stages, on his instagram @theinkgallery_tattoo.

Thanks to Nick for sharing this great back piece with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, May 1, 2015

Repost - Six Years Ago - Ben's Amazing Backpiece

Today I decided to look back to our May 1 post from 2009. It's better to have something old than nothing at all, so enjoy this piece from the last decade:

With the Tattooed Poets Series under way last month, I was a bit remiss in posting about the "regular" tattoo encounters.

With apologies to the following volunteer, I am presenting some amazing work on a gentleman named Ben, who I spotted back on April 2 while walking through Penn Station.

Ben was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and had tattoos covering his arms. When I approached him and explained Tattoosday, he enthusiastically agreed to participate. In fact, he removed his shirt to reveal an incredible back piece:

The one problem with featuring huge tattoos like this is not getting all the details in. What follows are some of the finer points of the tattoo.

At the bottom of the back is an hourglass design, within which is, Ben said, kanji representing the word "redemption":

The piece represents that he has "only so much time to redeem himself".

The main set of Chinese text in the center of the back was loosely translated by Ben as "I have trust in no man except for the trust I save for myself":

Also of note on the back are the two kanji representing "father" (the right side) and "forgive me" (the left side). These characters are in disks on either side at the top of the back.

The back was done by an artist no longer practicing at Skin Deep Tattoo on Long Island.

Imagine busy Penn Station, a guy standing there talking to a bespectacled blogger, camera in hand, beholding a subject covered in ink. Where to even begin?

It's like taking someone to the world's largest buffet and telling them they can only fill one small plate with food.

The back as a whole was impressive, but Ben was willing to share more, and we settled on this view, with a dragon and a geisha:

Ben credits this part of his body's tapestry to an artist named Loco working out of Dharma Tattoo in Miami Springs, Florida.

Thanks to Ben for sharing his amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, February 27, 2015

Jeremy's Back With an Insane Tattoo

I recently learned my friend Jeremy has an insane back piece. Check it out:

I was dying to find out what this was all about. I recognized Charles Manson, but was that George Bush? Sigmund Freud?

Next time I had a chance to sit down and talk to Jeremy, he filled me in:

"I've had an extreme interest in serial killers since I was in high school ... I'm going back to school now ... for forensic psychology ... to do profiling ... So I've always had a huge interest in it ... Down in Puerto Rico, when I was getting tattooed down there, I was talking with my tattoo artist and he'd never seen a piece that big dedicated to that [serial killers]."

So who is in this Hall of Serial Fame? From the top left, going clockwise, we have David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, then Charles Manson, then Ted Bundy (looking a little like George W. Bush), Andrei Chikatilo, Albert Fish (the one I mistook for Freud) and Ed Gein, with a silhouette of Jack the Ripper in the middle.

Am I the only one who thinks that Ted Bundy looks like George W. Bush? "No," Jeremy told me, "I get that a lot."

He credited the work to Blen167 from 167th AllStar Tattoo in Puerto Rico. Blen167 now works at Harisumi Tattoo.

So how long did this take? Jeremy told me it was about one sitting per face, "so about 6 different sittings, 4-5 hours each, 35 hours total, not super bad."

Jeremy recognizes that this might not be the most popular subject matter for a big tattoo piece, but he's committed enough to the study of the criminal mind that it seems fitting. It's definitely not work you see every day.

I thank Jeremy for sharing this amazing back piece with us here on Tattoosday!

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Kay Shares an Amazing Back Piece (at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention)

Last weekend at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention, I met Kay Reynolds, a model who shared this phenomenal back piece by David Sena:

The crow, skulls and cherry blossoms in this back piece are exceptional.

Kay explained that this massive tattoo is a cover-up in progress. Here's what it looked like before Sena began his work and, in the early stages:

Courtesy of @KayPossible on Instagram

Even incomplete, you can tell how amazing this work is.

Thanks to Kay for sharing her back piece with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Four Tattoos by Eon (at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention)

On Saturday at the 5th annual NYC Urban Tattoo Convention, I asked a guy about his back piece and who his artist was. The artist was Eon, owner of Mr. Tank's Tattoos in Denver, Colorado, and he happened to be standing right there. In fact, Eon was with four of his clients, so I just snapped away.

This is the back piece that first caught my eye:

This is a variation on the Hear No Evil, See No evil, Speak No Evil motif. I commended Eon on his style and he proudly showed off the work that was around him, like this Voodoo-themed "Black Magic" calk piece:

And this rib piece that celebrates the legalization of marijuana in his home state of Colorado:

And, finally, this killer "Money on My Mind" head tattoo. Eon explained how he used the white highlights on the darker skin to really make Ben Franklin jump off of the skull:

Thanks to Eon and his friends from Denver for sharing their ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, May 26, 2014

Joe's Back Piece Honors His Grandfathers

On this Memorial Day, we're appreciating this back piece on Joe, who I met at the NYC Tattoo Convention back in March.

When he shared this with me back at Roseland, I knew I'd be saving it for Memorial Day, especially after Joe explained, ""One of my grandparents was in the Air Force, the other one was in the Navy, so I did the World War II scene with airplanes ... and navy boats - I have battleship and I have an aircraft carrier."

This impressive piece took a little over forty hours and was inked by Kenny Restrepo at Leathernecks Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Joe for sharing his back piece with us here on Tattoosday, and for helping us honor and thank all the men and women who have sacrificed their lives in service to our country!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The Poet With the Dragon Tattoo: Kristina McDonald on the Tattooed Poets Project

Our next tattooed poet, Kristina McDonald, sent us the image of her back piece:

Kristina elaborates:

"My body and I have a complicated relationship history. This particular tattoo was born at a time when people hadn't been treating my body (or my spirit, I suppose) with care or respect, myself included. And I needed to change that. The mythology of the dragon encompasses many different things: protectors of treasure, symbols of ancient wisdom, powerful fighters. My dragon is a magical mark on my back that reminds me that I am fierce and wise and that my body is a thing that's worth protecting."

Kristina knew her artist's name was Peña, but doesn't recall the name of the shop. She added "rumor is that he went to jail shortly after I got this tattoo and none of my friends seem to know what happened to him."

The following poem she sent us was originally published in Switchback.

Remains

I.
In the picture, her feet are cut off and even now
I imagine her falling.

II.
Everything happens for a reason, says the wolf
with a dove in his claw. If it were up to me,
we would leave all our children in the woods with a blindfold
so they can learn how to really hunt.

III.
Hunger, too, has its benefits. Just look how skinny you are.
And when the men come to raid this village, keep in mind
that empty cupboards are a good place to hide.

IV.
If a broken bottle can still hold water,
it isn’t broken yet.

V.
These days I’m light enough to balance in a pail,
lower myself to the bottom of the wishing well.

VI.
Every night is a dream. Every morning
starts with the same vision: a sure-footed woman
dancing in the fountain, dropping apples
everyone will eat.

~ ~ ~

Kristina McDonald received her MFA from Eastern Washington University, where she served as poetry editor of Willow Springs. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative, New Guard Review, Sugar House Review, Switchback, and Yemassee. She has worked for literary non-profit organizations Writers in the Schools and Get Lit! Programs, and she currently works at Rice University.

Thanks to Kristine for her contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project here on Tattoosday!

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.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Johnny Shares His Angels and Demons

I met Johnny on the Coney Island boardwalk, and he allowed me to take a photo of his back to share with Tattoosday readers:

The top of the back reads "Brooklyn" and the bottom sums it up: Angels & Demons.

Johnny explained:

"It's just the passions of my life. I went through turmoil and came out of it. So, basically, I'm wearing on my skin, my griefs, my sins and my dislikes."

He couldn't be specific about who did what, but he said that the majority of the work was done by Coney Island Vinny and Michael Angelo, two staples of old-school Brooklyn tattooing.

Thanks to Johnny for sharing his back tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Anna's Sea Oats Remind Her of Family and the Ocean

I spotted Anna on Seventh Avenue about a month ago, and had to stop her to ask about this incredible back tattoo:

The artist is Joel Brennan a.k.a. Suga Bear, who owns and works out of Steadfast Tattoo Parlour in Erie, PA.

Anna explained:

"He [Suga Bear] drew it and the concept is sea oats, which represents my family and my love of the ocean ... We went on vacation every summer to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and there's beautiful sea oats in the sand dunes down there."

Thanks to Anna for sharing this lovely tattoo with us here on Tattoosday.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Barbara's Back, Courtesy of Leslie Reesen from Mad Science in The Netherlands (NYC Tattoo Convention)

One of the great things about tattoo conventions is that you get to see more back pieces than you would say, walking the streets of New York.

I've always managed to capture at least one great back tattoo from my trips to the New York City Tattoo Convention each year, and here we have another one to add to the mix:

This huge tattoo belongs to Barbara, who was working at the Mad Science Tattooing booth at Roseland.
She credited the piece to one of the artists Leslie Reesen, who was working the convention. Mad Science is located in The Hague in the Netherlands.

She was happy to share this back tattoo which represents about 55 hours of work (and extends below the waist line). Barbara explained a little about its origin.

"I wanted to do the Leaf Man, the face with all the leaves ... I really like it ... I gave him [Reesen] a free hand about the design, so it's really his own drawings ... There's one detail that I really like, because I used to be a ballet dancer and, in Wicca ...the leaf man is the god of the dance so maybe that's why I always liked the Leaf Man, I don't know, or it's more coincidence...".

Here's a shot I took of Reesen in action during the Convention:

And, in case you were wondering what he was tattooing on this woman's mohawked head, Mr. Reesen was kind enough, after the convention, to share the completed tattoo with us here on Tattoosday:

Photo courtesy of Leslie Reesen

Thank you to Barbara for sharing her Leaf Man back piece with us and, in so doing, helping introduce me to the talented artists from Mad Science in the Netherlands, especially Leslie Reesen!