"This tattoo is for my father," Kristen told me, as we sat talking at the laundromat earlier this month, "because he's my anchor and he's the only man that could ever hold me down and take care of me."
She credits an artist named Twace who works in Brooklyn. [On October 4, 2011, I learned Twace is working at Citizen Ink.] Twace does all her work and is working with Kristen on her sleeve, which is based on family and inspired by Sailor Jerry flash.
When I asked her about coming up with the design, she praised Twace, her artist:
"What I love about him is that we designed the entire piece together ... I paint and do artistic things, as well, which you find [can be] very difficult with tattoo artists to put your inspiration in ... The heart rope was my idea, the color scheme, we basically worked together, bounced ideas off each other, which makes it even more like a special event."
Thanks to Kristen for sharing this cool 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://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.
"I just told [the artist] that I wanted something that would relate to the Navy, I guess, so that's the anchor. I like Old School tattoos, I like Sailor Jerry classic-style."
Erin also has a Friday the 13th tattoo below this, on her wrist:
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://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.
Back in 2009, one of our loyal readers, Sean, submitted a whole slew of his work for our viewing pleasure. You can read the original posts, here and here.
Why do I bring this up now? Last summer, Sean sent us more of his tat-alog of work and I had been saving it for a rainy day. Since it's a rainy, sleety, snowy day, I thought I should share more of what Sean sent along. And since he sent a lot, I'm splitting it into two posts. What follows is the first installment. Italics represent direct quotes from Sean.
I got the ditch of my elbow done probably about a year or so ago. It is a flower of sorts, of my own design, made up of various geometrical shapes. The tattoo represents two parts of our world, nature (the floral shape itself, petals, leaves, etc.) and science (the geometric shapes making up the flower). I believe that one should not base their ideals solely on nature or science/technology, but on a mixture of the two. It represents my appreciation for both nature and science. Basically, I am fascinated by technology and the sciences that are its basis, but at the same time do not feel that science should trump nature all together but rather, have the two working together in harmony. It was done by Robert “Binky” Ryan at Electric Tattoo in Bradley Beach, NJ.
The sparrows circling my outer elbow were my next pieces done. I had attended a Marine museum in Philadelphia which had a great exhibit on the tattoo culture surrounding the Navy and sailors in general throughout history. According to the exhibit, sailors would earn the right to a single sparrow tattoo after traveling 5,000 miles at sea and a second sparrow after 10,000 miles. I am not much for sailing, but the idea of the sparrow representing travel and all the hardships, journeys, and successes that surround that travel appealed to me. Further, I have a general appreciation for American Traditional tattoos and their overall aesthetics. These were done by Rich Heller at Electric Tattoo in Bradley Beach, NJ.
Don’t quite remember when I got my feet finished up, but it was sometime within the last year and a half or so. My feet are tattooed with a sun and moon, which I drew myself about 6 years ago. The duality of the sun and moon, and various meanings that these two symbols hold are why I had them tattooed. The idea that each represents night and day, or two opposites that work together to make up a whole, are what drew me to having the designs placed on my feet. Further, it represents the two sides that I have to myself, a lighter, happy, and caring side and a darker, selfish side. I feel a person cannot fully understand themselves without acknowledging and accepting all parts of their personalities. I also gave the sun and moon, a dark, kind of macabre, look as I am a huge horror fan and have always been attracted to the darker side of things. Originally, I had them inked by Robert “Binky” Ryan (then at Body Art World in Pt. Pleasant, NJ but now Electric Tattoo in Bradley Beach, NJ) in 2004. They were done in grey wash and I was happy with them for about 5 years, in which point I decided to have them colored in, and had some background added. The color and background were added by Brody Longo at Slingin’ Ink in Pt. Pleasant Beach, NJ.
The next piece I got was an anchor on my inner forearm. The anchor represents all the things that drag me down in life. Across the anchor is a banner that reads “P.M.A.” the abbreviation for positive mental attitude. I feel the first step in pushing through any kind of hardship in life is to have a positive attitude, and the rest will follow. I want to say the original use of PMA was in a Bad Brains song, but I pulled it from its use in the Glassjaw song “Piano.” This tattoo is also a throwback to the band Glassjaw, as they have been my favorite band for I would have to say at least 10 years now and I have experienced just about every emotion possible while listening to their albums. So as an added bonus, the tattoo brings me back to all those memories. The tattoo was done by Rich Heller at Electric Tattoo in Bradley Beach, NJ.
Thanks to Sean for sharing all of this with us here on Tattoosday, and for patiently waiting for me to post it!
As alluded to in the previous days' posts, I got a little carried away with a Friday the 13th tattoo experiment and opened up the idea to readers who contributed the funds for a tattoo ($13 special plus lucky $7 tip).
I had seven people send me money (thank you Ginger, Jen, Sean, John, Jenise, Janet and Nicole!) and then vote on the design out of five sheets of flash (seen here).
the flaw in my plan was not collecting the money, but dealing with the votes. I asked everyone to vote for three choices, and assigned 5 points to 1st choice, 3 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd. Fifteen different designs were selected, and only four were selected twice.
The winner was this classic, simple design by Derik Snell:
I was early and first in line, so I got the first tattoo of the day at Hand of Glory's sister shop, down the block, called The End is Near.
Brian Faulk was the assigned tattooer and he made quick work of the design:
Photo by Zoe
The end is result is a little messy, but it should heal nicely:
Thanks to all the kind people at Hand of Glory/The End is Near for their help this morning. I am planning on returning later with Melanie for her addition. We'll see how it goes....
I met Marie outside of Penn Station last month after spotting her sleeve of naval designs. She picked this one on the inside of her upper right arm:
This tattoo reminds her the importance of "loving where you're from" and having "faith in where you live". The anchor and cherry blossoms are a nice blend of traditional tattoo designs from the East and the West.
The design is an allusion to a song called "Anchor and Hope," from the album Wall of People by alternative rock band Monty Are I, out of Cranston, Rhode Island.
Check them out in this video of them doing the song acoustically:
Marie is originally from New York, moved to Virginia, and has relocated back home to New York City.
The tattoo was done by Rob at Brooklyn Ink. Rob was a subject on Tattoosday a couple of years back. See his post here. And this tag will show you the work previously featured on Tattoosday created at Brooklyn Ink.
Thanks to Marie for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
On this final day of the Tattooed Poets Project 2010, we have a double treat - the tattoos and poetry of both Jeanann Verlee (here) and her friend Eboni Hogan.
What follows is a tat-alogue of Eboni's body art.
She prefaces her work with the following proclamation:
"A Note About The Artist: A majority of the work (the shoulder piece, the peacock and the cherry blossoms) on my body were done by an amazingly talented artist named Craig Spencer out of Whatever Tattoo II on St. Mark's Place who was also my boyfriend of almost four years until fairly recently. Yay! It's a sado-masochistic love story! Some liken this to getting a man's name tattooed across my boobs but I can say he is truly one of the only artists I trust with my flesh."
And now the ink:
"This shoulder piece is a custom design that took the most amount of tweaking before I actually got it inked. There are three quill pens, a skeleton key and a key hole, all tied together with ribbons. I'd had a strange dream one night in which a creepy old woman handed me a set of keys, tied to three feathers and told me that if I could find the door, the key would let me out...
...In my dream, I draped the key over my shoulder for safe keeping (dream logic...) but when I finally reached the promised door, the key and the feathers were adhered to my skin. The image stuck when I woke up and I talked to the artist about designing a similar piece. He suggested that the feathers be quill pens to pay homage to my love of poetry."
Next we have an image linked inexorably to the history of tattoos in the West, with its background in naval history. It was inked by an unidentified artist at Capitol City Tattoo in Madison, Wisconsin:
"I adore old school tattoos of the Sailor Jerry variety. I am also really active in the poetry slam community and every team I have ever been coined "the anchor"- the poet put up towards the end of a slam to (fingers crossed) make a home run. At the 2008 National Poetry Slam in Wisconsin, I decided it would be suitable to get this piece on my ribs."
Next up we have some cherry blossoms on the back of Eboni's right biceps:
"Blossom on the tree you know how I feel. Text by unknown artist, Addiction Ink, St. Mark's Place, cherry blossoms by Craig Spencer. If my life were a television series, Nina Simone's song "Feeling Good" would be the theme song. On my worst days, this is the never-fail anthem. The particular phrase that I decided on just happens to be the line in the song that feels infinitely more magical when sung at the tops of one's lungs. Try it."
And last, but not least, this lovely peacock:
"Peacocks are symbols of renewal and are revered by multiple cultures across the world. Furthermore, let's face it- they got a whole lotta swag. I found a vintage painting of a peacock that I loved though it's not the traditional green and blue image people are used to seeing. I got it on my left hip so that it could also serve as a cover-up for a pretty awful tattoo I got when I was 17 and foolish."
Thanks to Eboni for sending along so many tattoos for us here at Tattoosday. Be sure to head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems, dedicated to poet Jeanann Verlee, here. Jeannann's tattoo (here) precedes this post, and her poem is dedicated to Eboni.
24 year-old poet, actress and Bronx native, Eboni Hogan, has performed in over 30 U.S. cities and facilitated workshops from refugee camps to prestigious universities. She studied theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is the winner of the 2010 Women of the World Slam Poetry Slam, the 2008 Urbana Grand Slam Champion and a two time representative of the Nuyorican Slam Team. She is published in the anthologies His Rib and Double Lives and recently released her first collection of poetry entitled Grits through Penmanship Books.
