Mari's Unusual Ink

Every so often, a Tattoosday post goes bust.

Despite amazing potential, the subject is in a hurry and, for whatever reason, I am never able to fully follow-up with the individual and we are left with a skeleton of a post.

This one's not so bad, however. I met Mari in Herald Square. I believe she is a photographer, hailing from Brazil, but now living in New York.

I took two pictures of her tattoos and then emailed some follow-up questions.

I did receive a response, written in Portuguese, that had an attachment that looked suspiciously like a virus.

So, we're going with what we have and perhaps Mari will follow-up and fill in the gaps, or perhaps not.

Mari has this tattoo on her right shin, a piece of art that her friend Wagner Viana aka GORDO designed (see his MySpace page here):


She also has this fascinating tattoo on her left leg, representing the different sizes of photographic paper.


As a photographer, perhaps she finds this useful to her vocation.


See an example of another practical "tat-tool" here.

The work was all inked in Brazil.

Thanks to Mari for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

A Viking Design Commemorates Brian's Ancestry

Back on June 29, while pacing the 59th Street platform in Brooklyn, waiting for an R train, I spotted this interesting design on the right calf of Brian:


According to Brian, the piece is based on an ancient Viking symbol representing land. He had this tattooed to commemorate his Swedish ancestry.

The piece was done by Rob (who appeared on Tattoosday here) at Brooklyn Ink.

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

Fate Leads Me to Abundance

Sometimes Fate sends me to interesting tattoos.

My commute home generally starts at the 34th Street subway station, on a Brooklyn-bound N Train.

Sometimes, if the train is in the station when I come down the stairs, it is not clear if it's an N train or a Q train. Generally, if it doesn't matter completely, I hop on and sort it out later. Hesitation can cause me to miss the right train.

So I jumped on the train before the doors closed and then realized I was on a Q. No biggie, it's still headed in the right direction, but I decided to disembark at the next stop and walk toward the back of the 14th Street platform and wait for an N.

Halfway down the platform, as luck would have it, I ran into Sean and I had to stop and ask him
about this unusual tattoo on his inner left forearm:


This, it turns out, is from the I Ching, a classic Chinese text which includes sixty-four hexagrams, each representing a description of a state, or process. The hexagram inked here is number 42, which, as he understands it, represents Abundance and Unlimited Potential. It's literal translation is "Augmenting". There's another interpretation similar to Sean's here.

In another sense, the bars represent, in a pictographic sense, land, two mountains, and thunder and rain, which combine to mean fertility of the earth.

Sean is very much into Asian tattoos and has a piece in progress on his right shoulder. He thought about this particular hexagram for about a year and a half before heading down to Dare Devil Tattoo to get it done. The artist, Chuck Donoghue, has since relocated to Atlanta, but often returns to Dare Devil.

Work from Dare Devil has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Sean for sharing his I Ching hexagram tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Website Review: Print Tattoos Online

As tattooing becomes even more popular, the proliferation of sites dedicated to the art is amazing.

I was recently made aware of a new site called Print Tattoos Online that caters to the tattoo customer seeking designs for their next tattoo(s).

People seeking tattoos in the past used to have the sole option of going into a shop, poring through the flash art is books or on the walls, and going with the best of whatever limited selection was available.

Nowadays, with the internet at one's fingertips, a site like Print Tattoos Online can help the discerning customer search out unique designs and have them on hand when they visit their local tattoo artist.

The website is relatively new, but it offers a wide range of options, from a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, a gallery to see reader-submitted tattoo photos, and a blog that covers a range of subjects, from shop reviews and samples of specific styles of art (i.e. biomechanical, dragon, koi, and cherry blossom tattoos, to name just a few). And, of course, there is the store section which sells printable tattoo designs.

Their tattoo gallery is currently seeking new submissions, and readers are encouraged to head here in order to submit photos their site.

It's always nice to see well-crafted sites devoted to the art of tattooing, and catering to the discerning customer looking for printable designs.

Please head on over to Print Tattoos Online to check out their site!

Caroline's Sabre-Toothed Skull

Back on June 23, I spotted Caroline walking in Penn Plaza, with this fascinating tattoo popping off of her right thigh:


This is Caroline's second tattoo and is based on a sketched she drew of a sabre-toothed tiger skull. She is a visual artist whose website can be seen here.

The tattooer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, did a phenomenal job in under an hour, "capturing the cross-hatches and lines that [she] was so picky about".

I sent her an e-mail with a follow-up question about her choosing her thigh for the tattoo, which seemed unusual for someone who didn't have a lot of ink. She wrote back with the following response:

"I think I chose my thigh because I wanted a bold graphic placed on the most powerful part of my body. I was working as a truck driver/trash collector on an island at the time, and my body was toning up and changing; I became aware of muscles I didn't knew I had. So when I drew the sabre-toothed tiger and decided I wanted it as a tattoo, I was drawn to the hinge of the thigh for placement. Something functional and flashy, but not in the standard spot. It's a flirtatious without being trashy."

Thanks much to Caroline for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Horror Goulash with a Side of Power Mushrooms

I was passing through Century 21 Department Store when I spotted Jason, a web designer who estimates he is 50% covered in tattoos.

He offered up this sleeve, which he worked on for six sessions with the tattoo artist Sean Sweeney at Lola's Tattoos in Bogota, New Jersey:


Sean has subsequently moved to Virginia.

They called this piece "Horror Goulash" as it was a big pot of ideas for a sleeve, with an emphasis on the dark and macabre. Over the period of its creation, they collaborated to add ideas to it.


Jason also had this piece tattooed on the back of his left calf:

These are, for the uninitiated, the power mushrooms that are sought after in the Nintendo Super Mario Bros. video games.

Jason loves Nintendo and admitted, it was a "spur of the moment" piece tattooed "somewhere in the Village".

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

Tattoo Care

Tattoo Care


Should I have wrapped tattooed place?
No. Similar to sunburn the skin will recover sooner and better, if in the air, if the 'respiratory system'. Also, do not bear too tight clothing, some strange and plasticized synthetic T-shirts, etc... but light, air, comfortable clothing.
Given care to tattoo or procedures for their healing through a number of different opinions and theories. The method described here is tested, the most recommended, and the acting is at least bitch or painful.
Some traditional forms of tattooing in the history ( Chinese, etc...) found that the tattooed place should be wrapped, others that it should be completely dry, without any ointments, third again, it should have enough moisture, and so on. Why would you experiment in your own skin and testing some assumptions?

Tattoo Care

A Duel on Christian's Arms

Christian is one of the rare Tattoosday subjects with whom I got greedy.

My normal modus operandi is to ask people for an offering of one of their multiple tattoos. I let them choose and I am happy to capture one piece and move on.

But in the course of photographing Christian's choice, I saw his other two tattoos, and requested to include them in the post, as well.

Christian is a filmmaker and the two tattoos he offered as a set were drawings from the storyboard of his film, "The Duel":


Positioned as such, Calico Joe Jackson (on the right) and Remington Turk Dakota (on the left) occupy different arms. In their natural state, the two creations of Christian's imagination, they have their backs to one another, pistols drawn, in classic duel-readiness positions. Below is a still from "The Duel," produced by Elwood Gentry Productions.


As his creations, he proudly wears them on his sleeves to commemorate his first major creative undertaking. See the trailer from the film here.

Above Calico Joe Jackson, on his right bicep, there is a familiar sight, an image from one of the first commercial films made, Georges Méliès' 1902 classic A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune):




It's a famous shot, with a bullet lodged in the eye socket of an anthropomorphically-surprised moon.

This film as inspired generations of film-makers and Christian loves the fact that such an early cinematic effort was steeped in science fiction and special effects.


Finally, I had to take a photo of the third tattoo:


That is the logo of Hunter S. Thompson, who invented the concept of Gonzo Journalism. As a huge fan of the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (see my BillyBlog post here), as well as Dr. Thompson's other writings, I greatly appreciated Christian's nod to the late great Hunter S.


All of these pieces were tattooed by the amazing Bert Krak at Top Shelf Tattooing.

A hearty thanks to Christian for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

Cody's Message of Recovery

These arms belong to Cody, who I stopped outside of Madison Square Garden on June 23.

What caught my eye was a beautiful religious piece on his forearm, but it was still healing, so we went with these tattoos instead.

Cody explained to me that he is in recovery, and that the strength he gets from this message, "Dealing with the Cards Life Dealt Me," is invaluable. "No matter what life throws at you," he told me, "We're powerless over life. We can't control it."

In other words, take things one day at a time, and face the challenges you meet as they rise up against you. Like in cards, you get dealt and a hand, and you make the best of it. And sometimes you win, and other times you lose.

This is the second recovery-themed tattoo we've seen recently (see Audrey's ink here) and I imagine we'll see more, as tattoos make great anchors for people, in recovery or not, as they face the struggles in life.

Cody's tattoos were inked by Justin at Skin Illustrations in Cookstown, New Jersey.

A Traditional Sailor Jerry Pin-up for the 4th of July

When I saw Paul standing in Borders, inked up with nineteen tattoos, I couldn't help but ask to take a picture.

Not much of a story here, but a hell of a tattoo:


This is an old school Sailor Jerry pin-up design that Paul had always loved. So, he finally had it inked by J.P. at Rising Dragon Tattoos in Manhattan. Work from their shop has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Paul for sharing his awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Joe's Martini Girl

I spotted Joe outside of Madison Square Garden after work last week.

Joe is not sure how many tattoos he has, but offered up this one, on the back of his right forearm:


Joe said that this tattoo is "the first one I ever wanted to get, but the last one I ended up getting."

The piece was inked by Tom Yak at New York Adorned. Tom did add a bra and panties to the pin-up reclining in the martini glass, for the sake or propriety. Work from New York Adorned has appeared on Tattoosday previously here.

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

Mason's Gypsy, with a New Orleans Twist

I met Mason at the 7th Avenue Street Fair in Park Slope on Father's Day.

He has "twenty or so," tattoos, mostly accumulated from different artists from different places he has visited.

His offering for Tattoosday, however, was inked here in New York. It is a take on the traditional gypsy tattoo which I have been seeing a lot of lately:

Mason went to Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massepequa, Long Island, with a general idea for this piece, which is something he wanted to get for a while.

The artist, Grez, added a Fleur-de-Lis to the piece, per Mason's request, as a nod to the city of New Orleans where he grew up.

Thanks to Mason for sharing this fantastic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Elvis and the Saint

I met Kristin and Jason at the 7th Avenue Street Fair in Park Slope on Father's Day.

Street fairs in New York City generally occur in the summer months and, to an inkspotter like me, they are heaven on earth.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate. They are also hot, crowded, and dangerous. I have seen many a fair-goer clipped by a slowly-moving baby stroller. But I digress.

There were tattoos aplenty at the street fair, and one is so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of great ink, it is often paralyzing to pick just one. Compare it to letting a child lose in a candy store, and tell them they can have all the candy they want, as long as they spend just a dollar.

So when I saw a few people walking along that were festooned with tattoos, I stopped them as soon as I could wend my way through the crowd and get their attention.

When someone has "lost count" of how many tattoos they have, it is safe to say that they have a lot.

Kristin offered up her inner right forearm:


She loves Elvis Presley and this portrait, based on a shot of him from the film Girls! Girls! Girls!, is wonderfully done.

She noted that this was an older Elvis, but definitely pre-Vegas.

Jason, who was walking with Kristin, and also incredibly inked, offered up his right forearm as well:


Upon returning from a trip to India several years ago, Jason brought home a poster of a Hindu saint. He loved the poster so much, he decided to have it tattooed.

I'll be honest here. I was initially disappointed that these were the tattoos that Jason and Kristin offered. Not that they're bad tattoos. Far from it. But, they had other work I admired more.

However, I do ask people which tattoos they'd like to share, so I certainly have no right to complain.

But, in the week or so since I shot these photos, I've come to appreciate the level of skill and artistry with which these pieces were created.

Both were inked by Josh Carlton at the Great American Tattoo Company in Indianapolis.

If you look closely, he has infused each tattoo with colorful highlights that really accentuate the tattoos with an extra element of artistry.


It's a brilliant effect.

Thanks to both Kristin and Jason for sharing these two amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!