The Tattooed Poets Project: Cody Todd

We are extending the Tattooed Poets Project through the weekend, giving those who have been enjoying the poetic ink, a little bit more to tide them over until next year.

Today we are being visited by an old friend, Cody Todd, whose tattoos appeared here last year.

This is his latest tattoo, four weeks old, inked at Purple Panther Tattoos off of Sunset in Los Angeles:


Cody provided this explanation:

Not too much of a story behind this. It is Marv and Goldie from the "The Hard Goodbye" of Frank Miller's Sin City. The artist who did this is from Tokyo, and her name is Koko Ainai. I admire the precision of her work in copying Miller's extremely elaborate sketching. As Marv and Goldie embrace, he is holding a gun he apparently took away from her and a bullet hole is smoldering in his right shoulder as he lifts her off the ground. That tattoo is the first of what is going to be a kind of sleeve in parts in which I take different scenes from noir films or works and decorate my whole left arm with. Upon seeing Farewell My Lovely with my girlfriend last week, I decided to get the front end of a 1934 or 1936 Buick as my next tattoo.

...I am doing my critical work for my PhD at USC on the "western noir," which is a term I sort of coined for a specific genre of film and literature concerned with elements that typically comprise classical film noir, except they take place in cities in the western part of the United States. As we see in the film, Sin City, it has a "Gothic City" feel to it, but it is most certainly somewhere out in western Nevada, or California. I think the motifs of lawlessness, street and vigilante justice, and the disillusionment with the American Dream are all at work in this kind of genre, and that it also borrows many elements from the Western as a genre as well. If anyone wants to read good literary western noir, I would direct them, promptly, to read Daniel Woodrell, who takes the noir theme and brings it to the Ozarks and southwest Missouri. If Chandler and Faulkner had a love-child, it most certainly would be Woodrell.

Head over to BillyBlog and read one of Cody's poems here.

Cody Todd is the author of the chapbook, To Frankenstein, My Father (2007, Proem Press). His poems have appeared in Hunger Mountain, Salt Hill and are forthcoming in Lake Effect, The Pinch, Specs Journal and Denver Quarterly. He received an MFA from Western Michigan University and is currently a Virginia Middleton Fellow in the PhD program in English-Literature/Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. He is the Managing Editor and co-creator of the poetry journal, The Offending Adam (www.theoffendingadam.com).

The Tattooed Poets Project: Jozi Tatham

Today's tattoo (and remember folks, we're continuing through May 2!) belongs to Jozi Tatham, who was referred to us by the Milwaukee Poet Laureate, Brenda Cárdenas (thanks Brenda!).

Her tattoo is certainly amazing:


Jozi had this tattoo done by Steve Bossler, who owns Greenseed Studios in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She had met him originally at Papes Blue Ribbon Tattoo in Milwaukee. Steve splits his time between the two locations.

Jozi explains the inspiration behind this tattoo:

I have wanted this back tattoo for years now. Where the Wild Things Are was my favorite book growing up. Because I have since become a writer, it's extremely important to me to remember the childhood imagination and creativity that we are all born with, but which we often "outgrow". I refuse to grow up and let my imagination slip away, and hopefully having the monsters of creativity tattooed on my body will keep that close to me.


Please check out one of Jozi's poems over on BillyBlog here.

Jozi Tatham is currently a poetry MFA student at George Mason University in Virginia. She hails from Milwaukee, WI where she received her BA and the place which serves as "the inspiration for most of my being thus far." She has been published in newspapers and small publications in the Milwaukee area for poetry and nonfiction.

Thanks to Jozi for sharing with us here at Tattoosday!

I suck at taking photos but this one was so much fun

Bret Michaels expected to make a full recovery!!

Get well soon Bret!





Rocker and reality TV star Bret Michaels is recovering from a brain hemorrhage he suffered last week and could resume his concert tour next month, according to a statement on his website.

Michaels, 47, suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and was hospitalized last Friday.

In a statement, his manager Janna Elias said, "Doctors remain hopeful for a full recovery and plan to release more specific information next Monday," CNN reported today on its website.

The statement from Elias said that Michaels, who was the frontman for the rock band Poison, suffered a side effect from the brain hemorrhage called "hyponatremia" caused by a "lack of sodium in the body which leads to seizures."

"He is responding well to tests and treatments," she added.

Elias said Michaels' tour could resume as early as May 26 in Fort Smith, Ark., "provided there are no further complications or setbacks."

The possibility Michaels could return to performing next month comes just six days after what has been described as a near-fatal attack.

"Doctors state Michaels is very lucky as his condition could have been fatal," Elias said.

His manager and publicist have been careful not to disclose the hospital or even the city where the singer is being treated. They have said the location has been kept secret for security reasons.

While Michaels is starring in the current edition of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" -- which was taped last fall -- and he's also slated to appear on "Fantasy Camp," a new series premiering July 9 on VH1.

Michaels was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 6. He had an emergency appendectomy April 12 after complaining of stomach pains before he was scheduled to perform in San Antonio.

With AP

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/manager_michaels_will_fully_recover_has9mkCeDIlMyZ1ucVkpjJ?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz0mVB0h45n

Nrrds!

Allan got to tattoo Hata a few days ago, and if you know Hata you'll know that this is something that doesn't happen too often.
In fact, Allan hadn't tattooed him since our first trip to Japan back in 2004.
Pretty big deal!
But a small tattoo, so despite a bunch of whining and complaining, he survived.

Beached whale position
Rei is impressed (maybe!?)
The final result: ED-209

And while we're on the subject of über-nerds, our friend Chrystal finally got her other foot done, so Chewie won't be lonely anymore.*

Chrystal in her glorious Kappa hat

*Don't go all canon on us, in our happy little parallel universe they're friends and that's the end of it.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Steele Campbell

Today's tattoo comes to us from Steele Campbell:



Steele tells us how he came to choose this tattoo:


"I debated back and forth about exactly what tattoo to get and where, but this one seemed to come from within. It should.



This is the Campbell Coat of Arms with the Campbell Motto underneath with Claymore swords behind the shield, as it was the Campbell Clan that started the Black Watch. What can I say; we are known for being ruthless. And because the
Campbell blood courses through these veins, and even spills from them on occasion, I could not find a better representation of myself. It was done in Auburn, Alabama at Shenanigan’s Tattoo Parlour by Ember Reign, a hard-yet-sweet roller-derby-girl tattoo-artist (among other things) as a celebration of permanence. But as nothing gold can stay, only this tattoo and my blood have remained. As they will."

Check out one of Steele's poems here on BillyBlog.

Steele Campbell is currently living (and I mean that robustly). He is essentially transient, but has paused his peregrination at Auburn University to complete a Master’s Degree on the fiction of Marilynne Robinson. He is the recipient of the Robert Hughes Mount Jr. Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets two years running and has been published in Decompression, The Boston Literary Review, Rope and Wire and Touchstones. He is the student poetry editor of the Southern Humanities Review. You can visit him at www.steelecampbell.net.

The Iron Man 2 Premiere in Hollywood

im2


Last night was the Hollywood premiere of Iron Man 2. Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Scarlett Johansson were among the stars out and about on the red carpet supporting their soon-to-be blockbuster sequel. If you haven't yet seen the original, rent it tonight! Iron Man 2 hits theaters on May 7.


Photo: Alex J. Berliner, Berliner Studio/BEI Images


The Tattooed Poets Project: Lisa Gill

Today's tattoo comes to us courtesy of Lisa Gill:


Lisa tells us:

"Last September, I got a rattlesnake in my living room. (I live rural outside the small town Moriarty, NM). I spent over two hours in close proximity to the snake, and ultimately ended up calling the sheriff's department and getting a deputy to help me catch it and release it off my property. After the encounter I spent months and months writing direct address poems to the snake and ended up with a play where the snake speaks back. The Relenting is both "true story" and archetypal and imagined journey, paralleling the transformation the snake sparked. The encounter, and the writing where I tried to process the encounter, changed my life, and because my life had changed (and is still changing), I wanted a tattoo to symbolize the transformation.

The only tattoo image I considered was the Minoan Snake Goddess.

I understood her intuitively in a way I'm still working to express with words. I worked with tattoo artist Serena Lander. I knew Serena's work on visual artist Suzanne Sbarge, who regularly helps bring Serena to New Mexico from Seattle. I trusted Suzanne and was right to. I had a great experience with Serena, the right kind of energy and contemplative exchange. I wanted line work, one color, kind of ruddy toned. She took images I sent her from archeological digs at the Palace of Knossos and transformed them into the image now on my arm.

I consider the image both a prayer and a mark of a turning point in my life. (I have three earlier tattoos, two black, one white, all smaller, from a decade prior, sparked by a different significant recognition.) The subtext for the new one is this: right before the encounter with the rattler, I'd just made it out of a wheelchair I'd been in for five months due to multiple sclerosis. Arms are not something I take for granted any longer... and the tattoo in that respect is simply about gratitude and facing disability with resilience, as much as I can muster..."


Please venture on over to BillyBlog to read an excerpt from the aforementioned The Relenting here.

New Mexico poet Lisa Gill is the recipient of a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, a 2010 New Mexico Literary Arts Gratitude Award, and just earned her MFA from the University of New Mexico this April. She is a literary arts activist, currently booking poets for "Church of Beethoven," and the author of three books of poetry, Red as a Lotus, Mortar & Pestle, and Dark Enough. A fourth book, The Relenting, is forthcoming with New Rivers Press (June 2010) and can be considered either a play or a poem scripted for two voices, rattler and woman. She'll be touring the play in the upcoming year, starting with a staged reading with Tricklock's Kevin Elder at 516 Arts in Albuquerque in June and then onward to Minnesota, LA, hopefully even to NY.

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

Ray Romano's special fund-raising performance



Beloved television sitcom comedian Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond, Men of a Certain Age) takes the stage in New York City's newly renovated SVA Theatre (333 West 23rd Street) on Friday, May 14th to perform his Vegas-style comedy act in a rare New York appearance. The Queens-born performer will be coming back to his home town for this performance specifically for this one night only special event, to be a part of a fundraiser for ovarian cancer research.

A Ray of Hope, in its inaugural year, is an event to benefit the early detection, treatment and cure of ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer, and one of the five leading causes of cancer death among women in the United States.

Each year, approximately 22,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the United States and about 15,000 American women die from the disease. These numbers are underscored by the sobering fact that currently there is no reliable screening test for the early detection of ovarian cancer. The majority of cases (81%) are not diagnosed until the disease is advanced, at which time a woman’s survival is significantly compromised.

One hundred percent of the evening’s proceeds will go through the Sass Foundation for Medical Research with monies funnelled to Mt. Sinai Hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center, to help fund research projects for ovarian cancer.

Valerie Smaldone also co-producer of the event will emcee the event. Broadway performer Craig Schulman will perform some of the best loved songs from Broadway and Jon Manfrellotti, from Men of a Certain Age, will introduce Ray and his vegas Style act.

WHEN: Friday, May 14. Doors open at 8 pm, performance begins at 9. There will also be a VIP after-party, where ticket holders will be treated to craft beers, wine and cheeses as well as Italian pastries.

WHERE: SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th

ADDITIONAL DETAILS: Merchandise available for sale, live auction of exciting products from Coach, Brooks Brothers, Bose, Tiffany & Co. as well as a condo in Naples, Florida and a trip to Vegas to see Ray Romano's show, with a Ray Romano meet and greet!

TICKETS: Tickets for A Ray of Hope starring Ray Romano range from $150-$275 and can be purchased at Theatermania.com.
http://www.theatermania.com/new-york/shows/a-ray-of-hope_165888/

On the Path to Cure Ovarian Cancer starring Ray Romano was conceived by Linda John, an ovarian cancer survivor (and Ray's first cousin) after she went through treatment for the disease. John, CEO of Corporate Family Network, felt that there was not enough targeted research being done for early stage testing and wanted to be actively involved. In addition to her work with the Ovarian Cancer National Alliances's Survivors Training Program, Linda wanted to do more. She enlisted the help of media personality Valerie Smaldone, who has created events in the past for ovarian cancer awareness and funding, and had herself dealt with ovarian cancer years ago, to co-produce and emcee the event.

The Sass Foundation for Medical Research, Inc. was established in 1986 as a non-profit, non-sectarian foundation dedicated to medical research, education and patient care programs for cancer and related diseases. For more information go to www.sassfoundation.org or www.arayofhopeforovariancancer.com

BLACK WIDOW



THIS IS YEARS BACK BUT ONE OF MY FAVORITE SKULL PIECES

Happy Birthday Kevin James




Kevin James celebrates his 45th birthday today, while his toupee celebrates it's 10th birthday.

Renee Zellweger!

Thanks to reader Julien P. for this submission. Julien wrote to me stating that a friend of his worked on a movie with Renee and the producers were in a panic over her thinning hairline. According to Julien's friend they had to call in weave experts. And from the pictures below you can see those experts hooked her up:




You can clearly see the thinning in the front.







And here she is with curly hair extensions, all of a sudden her hair is nice and thick.




This may explain why she dates so many baldies (whether they are out or not). She's been linked to Kenny Chesney, Matthew McConaughey, Luke Perry and Jim Carrey.


The Tattooed Poets Project: Jeff Simpson

Today's tattooed poet found us by way of Adam Deutsch. Jeff Simpson offers up this cool arm tattoo:


Jeff, a tattooed poet from Oklahoma tells us:

I started reading Horace in grad school and soon grew to be a fan of the odes. The quote, pulvis et umbra sumus—taken from the ode to Torquatus—is commonly translated as, “We are dust and shadows,” but I prefer David Ferry’s version: “we’re nothing but dust, we’re nothing but shadows.” The line offers such a blunt beauty to our mortality, I thought it would serve as a good defense against procrastination, etc. The tattoo was done by David Bruehl at Think Ink Tattoos in Norman, OK. David is an incredible artist. I basically gave him the quote, said I dig skulls, and he nailed the design on the first sketch. This was my first tattoo (I was a late bloomer), and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I’ve already booked another session to start working on a sleeve.
Head over to BillyBlog and read one of Jeff's poems here.

Born and raised in southwest Oklahoma, Jeff Simpson received his MFA from Oklahoma State University in 2009. He is the founder and managing editor of The Fiddleback, an online arts & literature journal that will launch its first issue later this year. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Copper Nickel, Harpur Palate, The Pinch, and H_NGM_N. His first full-length collection, Vertical Hold, will be published by Steel Toe Books in 2011.

Ta dah!

Sorry, i haven't forgotten about this blog, it's just that all the tattoo stuff seems to get posted over here.
So that leaves me and this blog with... a foot.
A rose on a foot.
Hope you like it, i really had to fight Allan for it!

Done at Inkrat sometime in April

So, we're (obviously) still in Japan.
We're trying to have a bit of a vacation, and for me that means not answering emails in a timely manner.
Bear with me, i need the time off.
Also, we're not taking any bookings at the moment anyway, so if it's not urgent, it'll just have to wait.
Everything will be back to normal (whatever that means) in the beginning of May.

Also, we have changed the date of the official opening party yet again.
It seems that me and Allan are the only two people at the shop in May, so it'd be a little silly to have the party then.
So, after much consideration, we decided to move the opening until July, when the whole gang is (hopefully) in Copenhagen at the same time.
The date should be announced soon, and you, dear readers, will be the first to know!

"Strong Willed Woman"

from: Jaime S.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 at 2:21 PM
subject: So I got a tattoo...

Hey guys, my name's Mari. I've always been a fan of the blog, and I was wondering if you could verify my tattoo's meaning.

I'm a foreign language major, and I've studied both Mandarin and Japanese in the past. I decided to translate the meaning of "strong willed woman" into 英気女 (eiki onna). So... is this correct? I sure hope so!

I sent you a pic, too. Thanks a lot.

eiki onna

At the very least the characters are written correctly as if it was supposed to be Japanese.

Unfortunately, 英気女 does not mean "strong-willed woman" in Japanese.

It is more like "brilliant woman" or "woman of excellent ability" if they were to translate it literally. But even this is not a proper translation because 英気女 is not grammatically correct in Japanese.

It lacks the proper grammatical bits and such, so it sounds very brusque and looks sort of "faux Chinese" to a Japanese person. To be proper, they would need to be written 英気に富んだ女性 [eiki ni tonda josei] if "brilliant woman" was intended.

But it cannot be proper Chinese because the simplified character form is used only in Japanese. In Chinese, only the character forms (traditional) or (simplified) are used.

Another problem is that it seems quite inappropriately boastful and prideful for someone to tattoo themselves with "brilliant woman" in a Japanese context. One would only say this sort of thing about someone else, or as a goal to strive for, and not as a label on your own body. The most common usage of 英気 in Japanese is in the phrase 英気を養う [eiki wo yashinau] which means roughly to "rest up to be able to demonstrate one's full ability."

Certainly there are other, much better, ways of saying "strong-willed woman" in Japanese. One might be 意志の強い女性 [ishi no tsuyoi josei].

Better luck next time,

Alan & Tian

Eiffel Tower's Official Site


http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/

For a country which has its own government agency to ensure linguistic purity & accuracy, one would think France would have same standard for other languages as well.

Apparently not so, as seen here at the official website for Eiffel Tower.

The button for Japanese [日本語] is missing first character.

(Thanks Ulas for the tip)

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cheryl Dumesnil

Today's tattooed poet is Cheryl Dumesnil.

She offers up this lovely sand dollar tattoo:


Cheryl informs us that Amy Justen from Sacred Rose Tattoo in Berkeley did the work, three sand dollars on her lower left leg:

"Before my first son, Brennan, was born, I had three miscarriages. After his birth, I packed those losses away in a box marked “then,” and moved forward into parenthood. Or so I thought. Nearly a year after my second son, Kian, was born, old grief began seeping out of that box, coloring my days. While exploring how those miscarriages were still affecting me, as a way of integrating them
into my life rather than denying their impact on me, I had three sand dollars tattooed on my leg."

What folows is an excerpt from Love Song for Baby X, a memoir about Cheryl's circuitous route to parenthood, that tells the sand dollar story:


There is also a poem of Cheryl's over on BillyBlog here.

* * *



Sitting in meditation, I close my eyes and invite grief to appear. Now that I’m safely ensconced in parenthood, I can do this. Now that I know what I’m grieving: not the loss of parenthood, but the loss of three babies, I can do this. There, I said it: babies.



I breathe in. I see a meadow full of ragweed and green foxtails. I breathe out.



I wait.



Will grief enter as a mountain lion, all creep, shadow, and snarl? Will grief enter as a black-tailed deer, timidly nibbling the undergrowth?



I breathe in. I breathe out. I wait.



From the center of the field, something white and winged flickers up out of the grasses, flies like a lazy spring butterfly across the blue sky and lands on my left leg. It presses an image into my flesh then dissolves.



What I see there: three sand dollars sketched on my skin.



“Really?” I ask.



“Yes,” grief confirms, “really.”



“Okay.”



* * *



“I know what my next tattoo will be.” I present this fact to my wife Tracie as she is standing in the bathroom, brushing her teeth.



She spits a mouthful of foam into the sink, “Yeah, the cherry blossoms and humming bird, right?”



“Well yeah,” I say, “that one too, but first I need to get a different tattoo.” I touch the outside of my lower left leg, “three sand dollars, for the three babies we lost.”



Tracie looks at me, blinking, toothbrush held in midair.



When I speak it out loud, the tattoo plan seems weird, a bit extreme. I mean, were they really babies? Were they really important enough to warrant a permanent mark on my body? I say, “I’m gonna sit with it for a few days, to make sure the image sticks. But it arrived in such an authentic way, I feel like I need to do this.”



She’s not a fan of tattoos, my wife. And yet she knows tattoo is a primal means of self-expression for me. This conflict of interests—wanting to offer me her unconditional support, not wanting her wife to look like a circus freak—it hangs in the air. Until we burst out laughing.



A memorial tattoo. A monument to three spirits that passed through this body. A tribute to all I’ve learned through their passing.



* * *



A week before my appointment at Sacred Rose Tattoo, I walk Pajaro Dunes, the beach of my childhood, looking for whole sand dollars. I want to bring samples to the tattoo studio, to present my artist, Amy, with examples of the real thing.



I want her to feel their grit between her finger tips, to trace the gray veins that creep up their sides like fissures in concrete, to see how the five-pointed star is made up of hundreds of needle-thin lines, to break one open and release the three, tiny, porcelain-like doves that rattle around inside.



I know this length of beach like no other. I know where the waves cross over each other, creating pockets in the sand that catch sand dollars, a cache revealed at low tide.



This weekend, for the first time in my life, I can’t find a single whole sand dollar. This weekend, I carry home a small Tupperware bowl filled with bone-white fragments.



* * *



The electric buzz of Amy’s tattoo gun, the burn of ink needled between my epidermal layers, sends endorphins pulsing through me. Lying on her table, I float in and out of the room, memory playing its filmstrip in my brain.



Years ago, while walking along San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, troubling through a life-altering break-up, I recalled something my sister had found on the beach when we were kids: a dime-sized sand dollar. Logic questioned the accuracy of that memory: could that really have happened? I looked out at the Pacific: five tiers of gray and churning pre-storm waves. How could something so fragile have made it from there to here? Not possible. Then I looked down at the sand. There it was, not five inches away from my feet: another dime-sized sand dollar on the beach.



Now and then, Amy’s voice swirls into my dream-state: “How are you doing?”



“Mmm. Fine,” I hum.



And then the dream about my grandma returns—she and I standing in the shallow surf at Pajaro Dunes, sunlight glaring so brightly off the water, I couldn’t look directly at it. Reaching blindly into the sea, again and again, I grabbed up fistfuls of broken sand dollars, wanting the whole ones I couldn’t see. “Keep trying,” she said, “They’re in there. Just keep trying.”



As Amy works, etching the hair-fine, single-needle lines into my skin, I learn what the sand dollars are really about: hope and faith, trying and believing.


~~~~~~~~~~


Winner of the 2008 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, Cheryl Dumesnil is the author of In Praise of Falling, editor of Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall, and co-editor, with Kim Addonizio, of Dorothy Parker's Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos. Her poems have appeared in Nimrod, Indiana Review, Calyx, and Many Mountains Moving, among other literary magazines. Her essays have appeared on literarymama.com, hipmama.com, mamazine.com and in Hip Mama Zine. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and their two sons. Visit her at http://www.cheryldumesnil.com/.

Leif Garrett

Leif Garrett is a former singer and child star who achieved tremendous success as a teenager before turning to drugs and becoming a pathetic excuse for a human being. Garrett's birth name is Leif Per Nervik. He was born on November 8, 1961 in Hollywood, CA. Garret broke into acting at a young age and had an uncredited role in the 1969 swingers film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. He also had

The Tattooed Poets Project: Gina Myers

Today's tattoo comes to us courtesy of Gina Myers, who is the third poet this month to come back to the Tattooed Poets Project after appearing last year. Check out her 2009 contribution here.

Gina sent along this tattoo, which graces the inside of her left wrist:


Gina explains that this tattoo:
"... was done by PJ at Old Town Tattoo in Saginaw, Michigan. In addition to the word bird, I have several other birds tattooed on my body: a pigeon named Franklin, a phoenix, an eagle, and a number of swallows. "Ginabird" is one of my nicknames, and "bird" is a nickname I share with my best friend. I always thought it was weird when people got either their own names or their own nicknames tattooed on themselves, but this seemed okay since it was a shared nickname. It's not really about me. My best friend said she is getting the same tattoo in the same place, but that hasn't happened yet."
Be sure to head over to BillyBlog and read one of Gina's poems that she picked for us here at The Tattooed Poets Project.

Gina Myers lives in Saginaw, MI, where she works as the Associate Editor of 360 Main Street, the Book Review Editor of NewPages, and the Reviews Editor of H_NGM_N. Her first full-length collection of poetry, A Model Year, was published by Coconut Books in 2009.

The Back-Up Plan Is In Theaters Today

Jennifer Lopez + Alex O'Loughlin = Fun, chick-flick! Can't wait to see it... Have a great weekend! xo


The Back-Up Plan Is In Theaters Today

Jennifer Lopez + Alex O'Loughlin = Fun, chick-flick! Can't wait to see it... Have a great weekend! xo


Maori calf / lower leg tattoo design

koru patterns tattoo flashtribal kirituhi pattern tattoo














Description
: Eleptical tattoo design with a Maori pattern. This tatoo is suitable for the lower leg or calf and could also be used for the shoulder

Size: 28,5 x 18 cm (7 x 11 inches)

Place on body: Lower leg, shoulder, other

Product code: LL 107

Price: 23,80 euro (32 USD)


All designs can be customized at any local tattoo shop

Maori koru forearm tribal tattoo

forearm lower arm maori tattooskoru forearm maori tattoo design














Description
: Forearm/lower arm tattoo in tribals style inspired by the Maori Kirituhi designs. This koru tatoo is suitable for multiple parts of the body.

Size: 19,5 x 12 cm (7,5 x 4,5 inches)

Place on body: Forearm, other

Product code: FA 106

Price: 23,80 euro (32 USD)


All designs can be customized at any local tattoo shop

Maori tribal tattoo pattern

maori images and patternsmaori tattoos patterns design















Description
: Maori style tattoo with lines, curles and simple fills. This tribal tattoo is suitable for various places on the body.

Size: 20 x 13,5 cm (8 x 5,5 inches)

Place on body: Leg, other

Product code: LL 107

Price: 23,80 euro (32 USD)


All designs can be customized at any local tattoo shop

The Tattooed Poets Project: Amber Clark

Today's tattooed poet is Amber Clark, whose tattoo is not only on a poet, but is itself a line from a poem:


This tattoo is om Amber's upper back, just below the neck. Amber explains how this tattoo arrived to become engraved in her flesh:

"The artist was Randy Ford at Maverick's Tattoos in Destin, FL. He is soft-spoken, gentle and engaged. He also gives guitar lessons. We talked at length regarding the nature of his work - in effect, branding people permanently, acting as conduit for the indelible. And I remember thinking that we both attempt to act in the world in very much the same way; he with ink, I with writing. This is brand new; I got it in January 2010 as a 34th birthday present to myself because I found this line of Mary Oliver's poem returning and repeating in my mind again and again over the years, like a mantra. It pushes me to create, to make, to be engaged with the world - which is both ironic and (maybe) shamefully delightful. Of course, I joke about the shame, but given the context of the poem, the connotations of 'mantra' seem silly."

The following is Ms. Oliver's poem that inspires so:

What I Have Learned So Far

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of — indolence, or action.

Be ignited, or be gone.
Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of Amber's poems here.

Amber Clark teaches English and literature at Northwest Florida State College as well as Gulf Coast Community College. She reads for Tin House, and she will be guest judging the Scratch Poetry Contest in June 2010. While most of her own work can still be found on napkins and matchbooks, in personal journals and private word docs, and on the windshields of friends' and lovers' cars, most recently, her work can also be found in Pebble Lake Review, SandScript, Slow Trains, Underground Window, and Poetry365. A graduate of The College of William & Mary and The Radcliffe Publishing Institute at the Center for Advanced Study at Harvard, she also holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University at Charlotte.

Jenna Elman Gives Birth--Again


Jenna Elfman delivered her baby. Again. Her own son,Easton Quinn Monroe Elfman, was born on March 2.

The show--Accidentally on Purpose follows a thirty-something movie critic (Jenna Elfman) who’s broken up with her charming boss (Grant Show). She ends up having a one-night fling with a much younger man (Jon Foster) and becomes pregnant. She ultimately decides to keep both the baby and the guy.>>

A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists. — Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard

The Tattooed Poets Project: Aaron Anstett

Today's tattoo comes to us from Aaron Anstett who had also initially inquired about joining us last year on the Tattooed Poets Project.

Although the quality of the image may have a lot to be desired, the age and nature of the tattoo make it worth a peek, in my opinion:


Aaron explains:
"The main image was based on an illustration by a college girlfriend and applied nearly two decades ago, at a tattoo parlor outside of Iowa City, Iowa (at that time, I don't recall there being a shop in town, but who knows). The words from [John] Donne's The Sun Rising were applied a couple years after that, at a shop in Houston. Donne has long been among my favorites, though other poems more so with the passing of time."
It should be noted that "BUSY old fool, unruly sun" are not merely words from the poem, but the memorable opening line. You can read the whole Donne poem here.

Aaron Anstett's collections are Sustenance, No Accident (Nebraska Book Award and Balcones Poetry Prize), and Each Place the Body's. He's completing the last weeks of his term as the inaugural Pikes Peak Poet Laureate and lives in Colorado with his wife, Lesley, and children, Molly, Cooper, and Rachel.

Head over to BillyBlog to read one of Aaron's poems here.

Thanks to Aaron for sharing his tattoo with is here on Tattoosday!










The Tattooed Poets Project: Daphne Lazarus

Today's tattoo takes my breath away.

The work comes to us from Daphne Lazarus, who does not have the extensive poetry credits that many of our other contributors have, but does write poems. She heard about the Tattooed Poets Project via Theresa Edwards (day 1 of this year's project), editor of Holly Rose Review, an online poetry/tattoo publication in which her work has appeared.

But let's just take a look at the photo Daphne sent, shall we?


The first thing I would recommend is to click on the photo to see it enlarged. Daphne did want me to acknowledge the photographer Irvin Tan at Monochrome Meese Photography. The amazing artist behind this phenomenal back piece is Shane Tan. Clicking his name will take you to the site where you can see several more photos of this work, as it was being created.

With a piece like this, as Daphne put it, the work "speaks for itself". Agreed, but I did seek clarification on the piece at the top on her neck:


This is a traditional Thai tattoo, sak yant, also known as yantra tattooing, which serves as an emblem of protection. The whole work took place over numerous sittings in a one and a half month time span. "Sometimes I had to work the next day," Daphne told me, "it was...a hell of an experience but it marked a milestone in my life. So worth it." Indeed. We are fortunate to have such amazing work displayed here on Tattoosday.

Daphne was born in Singapore. She received her BA (Hons) in Arts Management from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore in 2009. She has curated several contemporary art exhibitions featuring emerging Singaporean artists and an exhibition featuring art works of pioneer Singapore artists from a permanent collection of an art institution. Daphne writes for a tattoo website at www.horinaka.com in collaboration with tattoo artist Shane Tan. She was also one of the event organizers for Singapore’s first body suspension show in conjunction with the first tattoo convention in Singapore.

Daphne’s passion lies in writing about art and tattoo culture and has several articles featured in several contemporary art publications. She has also written a thesis on tattoos for her undergraduate study. She will be pursuing a Master’s in Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

Daphne is not a poet by profession, but she uses it as a tool for catharsis. She has published literary works mostly in contemporary art journals and aspires to be an art writer and art historian.

Check out one of her poems over on BillyBlog here.

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

The Tattooed Poets Project: Rebecca Wolff

Like Brendan Constantine yesterday, Rebecca Wolff was a carryover poet from last year. That is, we couldn't quite coordinate getting a post together for the Tattooed Poets Project in 2009. Fortunately, we were able to get everything lined up this year.

Good things come to those who wait.

Rebecca sent us two tattoos. We'll let her describe them for us:

"I have seven tattoos, and the ankle is number 4. I got it in 1990, in a dock-side sailor-type tattoo parlor in Glasgow, Scotland, when I was about 22.


The artist was kind of a big lug, and none too bright, and at a certain point in the tattoo (I had my eyes closed) he said, "Uh, did you want the Z and the A to meet?" and I was like, "Yeah," and he was like, "Uh oh," so if you look closely at the latter end of the alphabet (right around the STUV) you'll notice it kind of gets all squinched up, and then the WXYZ is kind of all spread out so as to make it all the way around.

The wild rose on my side is what I still believe to be my final tattoo, though I find myself craving sleeves often.


I got it when I was about 31, in about 1999, and it's the only really super figurative tattoo I have. The others are all kind of ironic symbols of symbolism. So the idea was to jump into full-color symbolism and then leave it at that, and that's what I've done.


This one was done at a place on Canal Street in NYC by a young Japanese artists whose name I never really caught."
Be sure to head over to BillyBlog to read a poem Rebecca selected just for us!

Rebecca Wolff is the author of three books of poems: Manderley, Figment, and The King. Her novel The Beginners is coming out in 2011 from Riverhead Books. She is the editor and publisher of Fence and Fence Books, and publisher of The Constant Critic. She lives in Athens, New York, with Ira Sher and Asher Wolff and Margot Sher.

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