Tattoo Created: 2012

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Friday, March 30, 2012

I met Collin back in August in the middle of Broadway, between 35th and 35th Streets, sitting at one of those tables that New York City had installed in the middle of the street.

He had a lot of ink, and chose to share this section of his upper left arm:

This piece, a snake with a gypsy head, circling an alarm clock, was done by Grez at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Manhattan on the Bowery. We promoted the shop opening back in May here.

Collin explained the elements of this piece that curves around the arm:

"The clock represents when I was born ... the candle's my life, burning, it's the time I have left ... gypsies are usually known to be good luck ... the snake is for the fucked up parts of my life and the gypsy head is for the good parts of my life, you know, the future."

Collin explained that Grez initially was concerned about all of these elements combined into one piece. "At first he [Grez] thought it was going to be too much," Collin told me, "but it worked out and I'm happy with it."

The clock is particularly remarkable:

Grez's work has appeared on Tattoosday before, here and here. He's a great talent, and I'm always happy to stumble upon his work.

Thanks to Colin for sharing this great tattoo with us 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://tattootinular.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.

Repost: Eddie Graces Egghead's Shoulder

For Halloween, I felt like re-posting a piece that appeared here back in November 2009. To date, this tattoo is in my Top 10 that has appeared on Tattoosday. Enjoy! And have a safe, happy Halloween!

I recently met a gentleman from England, along with his wife, as they were milling about outside of Madison Square Garden.

He referred to himself as "Egghead," I'm guessing due to his bald head. I first noticed the logo for the band Slayer on the back of his calf, along with several other interesting looking tattoos. He estimated he has about a dozen tattoos.

But, like the best Tattoosday stories, he shared this amazing tattoo on his right shoulder, hidden under a sweatshirt, which he pulled off so I could see it properly:

That's a phenomenal piece, courtesy of his artist Ben Boston at The Tattoo Studio in Bristol, England.

The tattoo is a likeness of Eddie, mascot for the band Iron Maiden, one of the premiere metal bands that came out of England in the late 1970's/early 1980's. I won't bore the reader with the catalog of my Iron Maiden fandom, but it certainly made the tattoo even that more wonderful for me.

I even had a nice chat with Egghead and his wife about concerts we had attended.

I thank Egghead for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

A Girl in a Cape and a Book

I met David last month at the Bay Ridge green market at 95th and 3rd. He shared this tattoo on his calf:

David credited this, his first tattoo, to Tony at Citizen Ink on Avenue U in Brooklyn. "I just gave him the concept, and he drew it up," David told me, "A girl in a cape and a book."

Thanks to David for sharing his first tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Hunks are interested to become Angelina Jolie's lover in Maleficent

According to Life & Style, Hollywood hunks such as Jim Sturgess, Gael Garcia Bernal and Jude Law are interested to act as Angelina Jolie's lover in Maleficent.

Jolie is looking for that role, saying, "I'm having a lot of fun. I've already got my horns fitted.” . [Maleficent] is actually a great person. But she's not perfect. She's far from perfect."

Source

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Petra's Tattoo with Teeth

A couple weeks back, I was coming out of my office at 7 Penn Plaza when a woman named Petra walked by with this tattoo on her foot:

When I stopped her and introduced myself, she was happy to share it with us here on Tattoosday.

Petra explained that this is the skull of a Velociraptor. When I asked why this particular design for a tattoo, she elaborated:

"Velociraptor is my spirit dinosaur. They're small and quick and very vicious and I identify with that as a person ... I really like dinosaurs. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a rock-climbing paleontologist, so I knew it was something that I'd like, you know, for the rest of the time I have my skin on."

This is Petra's first tattoo, and she got it inked by Cheyenne Sawyer at Atlas Tattoo in Portland, Oregon.

Thanks to Petra for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

COME SEE ME AT WIZARD WORLD COMIC CON!

I will take part a very nice Comic Convention here in Canada next Month.
The Wizard World Comic Convention in Toronto.
I will be at Artist Alley 2217waiting for you my friends!
See ya!

Brian's Literary Chest Tattoo

The weather here in New York has been turning autumnal and visible tattoos have been disappearing from the streets, but fear not, Readers, we still have material to get us through the end of the year, thanks to a backlog of photos from the summer!

Case in point is this tattoo from Brian:

I met Brian at a drugstore in Bay Ridge, back in the beginning of August. He told me he had just started working as an apprentice at A-List Industry Tattoos, a few blocks away.

At the time, Brian had seven tattoos, including this chest piece, which is comprised of two parts.

The top section reads "Incomplete - Imperfect" and is an allusion to lines from Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club:

"May I never be complete. May I never be content. May I never be perfect. Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete."

Brian credited this piece to Paul Ilardi, the owner at Monster Tattoos on Staten Island.

The bottom section of the tattoo features a banner that reads "Death steals everything but out stories."

Brian explained that he took this to mean that "what outlives us is the memories we have, the stories we have".

It's actually the final line in a short poem by Jim Harrison:

Larson's Holstein Bull

Death waits inside us for a door to open.
Death is patient as a dead cat.
Death is a doorknob made of flesh.
Death is that angelic farm girl
gored by the bull on her way home
from school, crossing the pasture
for a shortcut. In the seventh grade
she couldn't read or write. She wasn't a virgin.
She was "simpleminded," we all said.
It was May, a time of lilacs and shooting stars.
She's lived in my memory for sixty years.
Death steals everything except our stories..

Brian credited this part of the tattoo to Cesar at Bullseye Tattoos, also on Staten Island.

Thanks to Brian for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Lauren and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Tattoo

Today's tattoo is perfect for a Monday.

Last month in Penn Station, I met Lauren, who had a familiar-looking face on her upper right arm:

I couldn't quite put my finger on why I recognized the art, until she clarified for me that it was based on an illustration from a wonderful children's book by Judith Viorst called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

The phrase in the banner, "Some days are like that," is a line from the story.

When I asked Lauren why she got this tattoo, she elaborated:

"I have a very good friend who has If You're Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow on his arm and I was like, 'Ah, children's book! Great idea!' So I went to my mom and said, 'What was my favorite children's book?' and she's like, 'Well, Alexander or The Lupine Lady [from Miss Rumphius].' And I thought 'I don't want pastel colors. I want black and grey and I liked the artwork much better.' So I went with this."

This was Lauren's first tattoo and it was inked by Christian Beckman at Saints and Sinners in Baltimore. He modified Alexander's shirt, adding the skull, but it's still certifiably Alexander.

Thanks to Lauren for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 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://tattootinular.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 Tattoosday Book Review - London Tattoos

Let's eliminate the suspense - London Tattoos is a lovely book, and one of the best tattoo titles I have seen in recent years. I recommend it highly and strongly encourage Tattoosday readers to check it out.

The book is beautifully photographed by Alex MacNaughton. The concept is simple: each subject stands in a full shot at the beginning of their section. There is a paragraph or two composed by the host, describing, in various degrees of detail, their tattoo journeys. A list of tattooist credits follow as footnotes, and then we are treated to several more (at the very least) more detailed shots of the body sections featuring the person's ink.

There is a fine distinction here, that between a close-up of a tattoo, and a close-up of the tapestry on which the tattoo is marked. Its a fine line of art that McNaughton executes brillianty. We catch glimpses of work, we see sections in great detail, but we are rarely confronted by an image that is a sterile full-frame of tattoo.

I just love the way that this photo narrative unfolds. Especially remarkable are the subjects who appear mostly, if not fully, covered. A turn of the page strips layers off of the individuals and we are treated to the artistic treasures that lie beneath. It dazzles the imagination, the unveiling of a person who appears uninked, only to reveal a breath-taking display of coverage that illuminates that this person spent hours upon hours under the needle.

It is brilliantly executed and I recommend it fully, all 304 pages with 700 color illustrations. Alex MacNaughton is also the author of London Street Art, London Street Art 2 and London Street Art Anthology. I encourage Tattoosday readers to buy London Tattoos - the holidays are just around the corner - and, at the very least, visit MacNaughton's website here to get a bigger taste of the work inside this wonderful book.

Repost: Michael's Mariachis

Well, it has been a repost sort of week, and as it is All Soul's Day, a.k.a. The Day of the Dead, this only seemed fitting. It's from my college friend, Michael, and it appeared here originally on December 30, 2008. Enjoy!

In reconnecting with old college friends through Facebook, my old friend Michael who I haven't seen in almost twenty years sent me an amazing tattoo he has on his right arm.

He sent me before and after shots so we can see the transformation from outline to spectacularly colorful body art. First, the before shots.....

The detail and the line work is exemplary and breath-taking. As someone with a guitar inked on my arm, I can appreciate the intricacies of a finely-drawn instrument. The detail on the mariachi's jacket cuff is incredible.

And now, for some color:

Michael explains the basic premise of this tattoo:

In a sense, this piece is a "memorial" tattoo, although I hate to call it that. Since I grew up in the Southwest, Day of the Dead was a regular thing, so I've always been drawn to that type of imagery, plus I like the meaning -- honoring the dead, and reminding us to live life to the fullest. I picked the mariachis partly because I am so into music, and partly because of the celebratory aspect of mariachis.

Like many intricate tattoos with multiple elements, every part has significance. The tulips, for example, that are growing at the mariachi's feet, "are an actual heirloom varietal that I have in the garden" [and] are for my wife -- tulips are her favorite flower".

And the angel at the top of the piece (and the top of the post)?

Michael informs us that "the angel is for my mother, who is no longer with us. The angel holds a purple iris (my mother's favorite flower), and looks down over the whole scene."

This amazing piece was inked by Susan Behney-Doyle who works out of Jinx Proof Tattoo in Washington, D.C. Mexican folk art is one of her specialties (see a gallery of her work here) and Michael says he "gave her a few reference pieces to look at, but she basically drew it after a consultation". He continues, "we made just a couple tweaks after I saw the drawing, but it's a one-of-a-kind custom piece".

The whole tattoo was crafted back in 2006 over a five-month, seven-session period. Michael notes that one of those sessions was devoted solely to shading the guitar. A closer look at the instrument reveals an incredible complexity of brown variations that truly makes the guitar jump off the skin.

Thanks again to Michael for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday - twice!

An Epipleptic Bicycle

Being as it is still Halloween week, perhaps a little Edward Gorey is appropriate?

This tattoo was shared by Megan, when I spotted her in Penn Station at the beginning of October:

Clicking on the Gorey tag at the bottom of the post will confirm what you may have already expected - the work of Edward Gorey is quite popular as body art.

This piece is one of six tattoos Megan has, and is based on Gorey's book The Epipleptic Bicycle. That's Embley and Yewbert, hitting each other with mallets. She told me she got this because "I love Edward Gorey and it's one of my favorite books and this is the opening sequence."

This was inked by Fatty at Fatty's Custom Tattooz in Washington, D.C.

In researching I stumbled upon this story, of a woman with a similar tattoo.

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

Ryan's Religious Verse

I met Ryan at the end of September outside of Madison Square Garden, approaching him to ask about this tattoo on his upper right arm:

He explained that Philippians 4:13 was his confirmation verse. He added, "I went with the hands and everything because I already have a cross on my back."

Philippians 4:13 reads "I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me." (American Standard Version)

The chain in the hands connects to this part of the tattoo on the bicep:

Ryan commented that "I put only God can judge me because I've been going through some legal difficulties." It's a reminder that, when all is said and done, the ultimate judge is, in the belief of many, above and beyond the world in which we live.

Ryan credits Joe Bawden from Skin Alternative in Hillside, New Jersey, with this tattoo.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoo Created