Tattoosday

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Gary Got His Lion

I met Gary earlier this year when he joined our friendly neighborhood trivia team at Lock Yard in South Brooklyn.

As is often the case with me, the topic of conversation turned to tattoos and Gary revealed he had one on his upper arm. I asked him to share and he did not disappoint:

Gary explained that his father had once owned a large statue of a lion's head. It was one of those items that, growing up, he had always associated with his father. About ten years ago, all of the family items got divided up and all Gary asked for was the lion. His sister, however, took the lion, and has not relinquished it to Gary.

These circumstances were in the forefront of his thoughts when he sat with a friend through some lengthy tattoo sessions at New York Adorned. As a thank you from the friend for standing by through countless hours of tattooing, the friend said she would get Gary a tattoo. He finally got his lion.

This amazing tattoo was done by the incomparable Virginia Elwood, who now works out of Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Gary for sharing his wonderful lion with us here on Tattoosday!

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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

June Flowers in May

Yesterday I spotted these beautiful flowers on a woman named June in Lower Manhattan, near Bowling Green:

June told me that this is a cover-up, as well. She raved about the tattoo artist, Miguel Prada at Body and Soul Tattoos in Jersey City, New Jersey.

These flowers are lilies and June said that purple is her favorite color.

Thanks to June for sharing her lovely flowers with us here on Tattoosday!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Dana's Straight Flush Honors Her Dad

Early last week, I ran into Dana outside of the Third Avenue Starbucks in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She had some cool black and gray work on her calf:

The tattoo honors her and her father. "He's a huge card guy," she told me. Each card has a symbolic meaning.

She pointed out that the hand is a straight flush, but not a natural one - the ten of hearts sees to that. The King and Jack are karma cards and the Ace represents her father. She said that the Queen of Clubs is a Sagittarius card for her, and is the prettiest card in the deck.

She walked into Brooklyn Made Tattoo and the shop owner Mr. Kaves (a friend of Tattoosday who makes occasional appearances here) took her concept of the card idea and turned it into the final product which she loves.

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

Monday, May 4, 2015

Scott and His Friends with Their Spirit Animals

I met Scott while he was having a sandwich in Bowling Green Park last week in lower Manhattan. He had this cool tattoo on his forearm:

Scott explained that the three heads on his forearm represent him and two of his friends. They each got the same tattoo, but with their animal totem in the middle, with the other friends above and below them. He was kind enough to send me a shot of all three together:

Scott elaborated for me:

"This tattoo represents the bond that myself and 2 others share. The three of us actually met online playing video games like Counter-Strike about 12 years ago. It was complete luck that we even met. We spent those 12 years just talking and playing games over the internet from miles away.

Dima (on the left) and Ethan (right) live in NY. I have been in Wisconsin for my whole life up until 2 months ago when I moved here for a job upon Dima's referral.

We spent a good few months discussing how we could signify this bond..and we ended up on spirit animals essentially. I chose the lion because it represents pride and I, too a fault at times, have a great sense of pride. Dima has the bear because his last name is Medved which is Russian for bear. Ethan has the wolf because of how strong they can be individually.

So I took a plane to Albany and Dima came up from Brooklyn and we met Ethan and we all got our tattoos together. It was mine and Dima's first (of many) tattoos."

Scott credited the work to Dan Belcher at the Dead President's Lounge in Albany, New York.

On the other side of his forearm, Dan also had this pretty incredible tattoo:

Or, for a different view:

"This one," Scott told me, "is an interpretation of an album cover." It's based on the work of a band called Protest the Hero. He credited the tattoo to Mark Mansavage at Old Salt Tattooers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "I gave him the album cover," Scott said, "and he did a loose interpretation of it." Here's the original artwork:

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

Sunday, May 3, 2015

An Italian Ice Cream Cone

Last week I spotted a young woman sight-seeing with a gentleman in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Her name was Noemi and she was visiting from Rome. Her male companion translated but she was a bit tentative talking about the tattoo, her friend said she was embarrassed, but surely she wasn't comfortable with the language barrier.

Regardless, it's a cool little tattoo, visiting us from Italy:

Thanks to Noemi for sharing her beautiful ice cream tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Victoria's Tattoos Shine On

I met Victoria last summer next to the New York Stock Exchange, near my office on Broad Street. I spotted this very familiar design and stopped to talk to her about it:

The tattoo is a take on the iconic album cover for Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.

"Wish You Were Here" alludes to another Pink Floyd album and title song. "Shine on My Crazy Diamond" is a variation of the song title "Shine On You Crazy Diamond."

Victoria explained:

"I lost my fiance in November [2013] ... and music was always very big in our relationship, especially bands like Pink Floyd ... very influential and meaningful. A lot of their songs like 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond,' for instance, was a song that I always thought of him, especially when he was gone. He just always was my crazy diamond. So of course that's why I got Dark Side of the Moon on my back, Shine on My Crazy Diamond, and of course I had to add Wish You Were Here because I miss him every day."

She also has this phoenix above her ankle:

Victoria elaborated:

"It's the phoenix rising from the fire and I've had a lot of hardship in my life, had a lot of things happen to me, I've always had to let it consume me or rise above it, especially this last time and so I'm like a phoenix. I've always been reborn and I've always been able to make it through the storm."

Both tattoos were done at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Victoria for sharing her tattoos 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!