Fun Tattoo Links for a Friday!

With my backlog nearly eliminated, and the bone-chilling temperatures of the northeast making exposed skin a rare and unusual sight, we here at Tattoosday are always looking for new ways to entertain our vast international audience of tattoo connoisseurs.

Earlier this week, my lovely wife Melanie sent me a couple of iVillage links that featured slideshows of tattoos. I'd be remiss if I didn't pass these goodies along.

First up is this slideshow of fifty-plus "tattoos for mom and dad". My favorite is below.

“I chose a drawing that my son had done of his cat, Peter Parker to go on top of the Braille when he was 3-years-old. I love it and it makes me very happy.”

-- Jessica of Dallas, Texas

The link is here.

Note that, as tattoos go, a significant amount of these would not meet Tattoosday's standard of "high quality" body art. The reality is, most Americans can't afford (or choose not to pay) high-end artist prices. A lot of these entries, reader-submitted, are evidence that people love their ink, often regardless of quality.

Which brings us to link #2, "What to Know Before Getting a Tattoo: 8 Awful Mistakes". That link is here. No slide show, but some practical advice.

If anyone wants advice, or has a question, feel free to e-mail me at Tattoosday@gmail.com. I will do my best to answer your inquiries.

Craig's Hand-Held Camera

This is an orphan, of sorts, from 2012.

Back on July 14, I met Craig, at the Chelsea Bazaar in Manhattan. There were several food vendors in attendance, including Craig's business Eat Me Sweetly.

I took a picture of this incredible tattoo on Craig's hand:

Unfortunately, my recording of our meeting is a bit garbled because of the noise at the bazaar. I e-mailed Craig a couple weeks back and haven't heard back, but I'm trying to clear out the last of the 2012 posts, so if he does write back, I'll be sure to update the site.

That said, all I know about the tattoo artist is that his name is Ray.

One of the specialties that Craig and his partner Jessica have at Eat Me Sweetly (and what drew me to their table) is pickles.

This is what I had:

They were delicious!

As for the camera on his hand, Craig explained:

"I used to be in the film business before I turned to making pickles for work. I was in post-production and pre-production. I was on both sides of the camera. I used to do a lot of talking head interviews for Citibank and then I started film scanning, film restoration, things like that."

Thanks to Craig for sharing his camera tattoo with us on Tattoosday (and for the awesome pickles)!

This entry is ©2013 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.

Why Don't Millionaires Have Better Tattoos? Or, Inkasaurus Rex

As a tattoo blogger and enthusiast, a lot of my non-tattooed friends often ask me, "Why do professional athletes have such lousy tattoos?"

A good point.

When you think "great tattoos" you don't picture your favorite basketball, football, or baseball player. Even the majority of Olympians with ink seemed to have rather plain and unimaginative work. But they're (for the most part) amateurs, so I can understand a little more their lack of great body art.

On Sunday, during the AFC championship football game, a friend of mine tweeted: "I make a million dollars a year but still get tattooed in my friend's kitchen" --60% of the NFL.

I often fantasize about coming into money and listing the top ten artists I would have work on me. They are justifiably expensive.

So, I was shaking my head recently, when news of New York Jets' Head Coach Rex Ryan's fairly awful tattoo exploded in the media.

If you missed the story, check it out here. Don't get me wrong, if you want to get a cartoon of your wife wearing the jersey of your starting quarterback, that's your prerogative. But if you make $2.875 million a year, you can afford a better tattoo. Seriously.

Before you blow up my comments section with angry rebuttals, take a deep breath. Look at the link and the photo of Ryan's tattoo. Could you do better? Unless Mark Sanchez tattooed it himself, I think Rex Ryan got a bad deal.

Shannon Shares Work by Stacey Martin and Noon

Sometimes a quick run to the grocery store brings an unexpected bonus.

Last September, for example, I ran into Shannon, whose tattoos prompted me to stop and inquire.

As it turned out, Shannon is one of the owners of Triple Diamond Tattoo, which opened last summer on Third Avenue in Brooklyn.

She shared two tattoos, including this back piece:

This tattoo features yellow roses and a fan and was inked by Stacey Martin at Dovetail Tattoo in Austin, Texas. We have featured Stacey's work previously on Tattoosday, namely this piece from last summer.

Shannon also shared this unusual tattoo on her leg:

The tattoo on her leg was done by Noon, a modern abstract artist based in Troyes, France, who travels to the U.S. once a year.

I always ask about back story, of course, but also recognize their is a significant segment of the tattooed population who get tattooed for the sake of the art. Regrading these pieces, Shannon identified with the latter, stating simple, "I like what I like."

Thanks to Shannon from stopping and sharing with me at Foodtown, so we could present these cool tattoos on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 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.

John's Incredible Art-Themed Sleeve by Stefano Alcantara

If you go back to the beginnings of Tattoosday, one of our earliest contributors was John Sorezza, a friend of the neighborhood who I see quite often. He shared his first work, the beginning of a leg piece, here.

In the years that have passed since I first met him, John has taken up work as a tattoo artist and tattoos out of Brooklyn Made Tattoo.

Over last summer I ran into him down the block and he shared some of his latest ink, all inspired by his new vocation:

As I've said before, sleeves are always a challenge to capture on a web page, especially when the photos are taken out on the street, where natural light differs, depending on the angle. Despite my amazing photo editing skills, the collage above is marred by totally different tones, but you can still see the gist of the tattoo - the phrase "ART IS PAIN" carved from the inside with an X-Acto knife, with a dripping paintbrush, pen and pencil, all tools of the artist's trade, poking through the letters in the flesh.

And if you weren't impressed by that, check out this phenomenal tattoo machine on the inner part of John's forearm:

And all of this is punctuated by this mask on the back of his hand:

John pointed out that the eyes are fashioned with pen quills, to keep with the theme of this art-inspired sleeve.

This amazing work is the product of the great Stefano Alcantara, who hails from Lima, Peru, and tattoos out of world-famous Paul Booth's Last Rites Tattoo Theater here in New York City. You can also check out Alcantara's Facebook fan page here.

Thanks again to John for continuing to share his work with us here on Tattoosday! You can find John at Brooklyn Made Tattoo in Bay Ridge.

See John's other tattoos here, here, here, and here.

This entry is ©2013 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.

Bruno, World Traveler, Shares Two Impressive Tattoos

On a lovely fall day, back in October, I met Bruno on 32nd Street, just south of Greeley Square.

This was the tattoo on his calf that caught my eye and inspired me to stop him:

Bruno told me he was "travelling the world, trying to get some good waves everywhere I go." He had this Hannya mask done "back in Brazil, four years ago,"

But, despite spotting the mask on his leg, he was more proud to show me his latest tattoo, still healing on his thigh:

This tattoo on his thigh was done in Indonesia. He identified it as "Barong, a god from the Hindu-Balinese religion." It was inked at Shotonk Tattoo, by Shotonk, who Bruno said is "one of the best tattoo artists in Bali."

He added, that Barong is "one of the protector gods for the island, so I really feel like he's going to be protecting me in all my journeys."

Thanks to Bruno for sharing his cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! We wish him safe travels as he journeys the earth, looking for those awesome waves.

This entry is ©2013 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.

Daisy Shares Some Lovely Work from East River Tattoo

This past fall, I ran into Daisy as she was exiting a subway station on the Upper West Side. She was displaying some interesting tattoos and she was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat with me about them.

Daisy explained that she had only just recently started getting a lot of tattoos "all in the last year and a half." She elaborated "[I] just very quickly became this extremely tattooed person ... it just felt so right to meet these amazing people ... I love Sue and Duke, they're just so cool."

She was referring to two of the artists responsible for the majority of her new work, Duke Riley and Sue Jeiven, from East River Tattoo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

This amazing piece from Duke graces her upper left arm:

Daisy explained that this is based on a tarot card of the moon. She explained, "this card just speaks to me a whole lot - I brought in ten different versions of it and this is the one [Duke] came up with."

A small tattoo from Duke appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Daisy also shared some work from Sue Jeiven, including these pieces on her forearms:

Daisy explained that the piece on the left (her right), which she called the "Tiger Lady," is emblematic of Sue's work. Sue has been battling cancer. I'm not up to speed on her current condition, but she appears to still be going strong.  "She has the emblem fight the good fight underneath this and a lot of her closest friends have this tattoo," Daisy told me. She added, "She has it on her cards now and she has a stamp of it, but she just came up with it one day and it sort of became, this is like illness, the girl is... we don't know whether she is getting swallowed or she's coming out or she's peeking out or making peace with the tiger, you don't really know."

And the tattoo on the other arm? Daisy said, "It's just kind of a companion piece ... I just sorta liked the girls looking at each other, with the tiger and the fox."

Daisy also shared this tattoo from her upper right arm:

Daisy explained:

"Ship lady is one that Sue drew. She was just drawing some flash up and sometimes she'll start drawing something and be like, oh this is my friend, and this is my other friend, and so she said this one was me."

What was particularly nice for me, in meeting Daisy, was that I had met Sue Jeiven previously, by chance, at Penn Station, a year earlier. In fact, Sue shared a tattoo she has, a phenomenal piece by the artist Deno, here.

It was truly a pleasure meeting Daisy, and I'm happy we were able to highlight some of the fine work from Sue and Duke at East River Tattoo! Thanks Daisy!

~ ~ ~

This entry is ©2013 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.