Heart Not Time

"I do not like the concept of linear time," Fredrika said to me, "moments and feelings should be more important".

This was her thought behind this tattoo:

I met Fredrika in Penn Station last month and she was kind enough to share this tattoo on her forearm.

She has a lot of ink, but this is her favorite piece.

Fredrika hails from Hamburg, where she is lead singer for a band called Jaguar of My Dreams.

Thanks to Fredrika for sharing with us here on Tattoosday!

Waiter, There's a Marlin in My Cactus!

Believe it or not, I still have a couple of lingering pre-September tattoo encounters to write about, one of which is this bizarre tattoo I spotted two months ago today:

This tattoo on Michael's right ankle is one of three that he has. He explained that it is an interpretation of a painting that hung in Flaco's Cuban Bakery in Gainesville, Florida where he played in the house band, Michael Claytor & His Friends.

The band played there for two years and, as a tribute to the experience, Michael had this tattooed to honor the experience.

This was inked by Mike Salay at Anthem Tattoo in Gainesville.

Thanks again to Michael for sharing this cool and unusual tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

And a little Michael Claytor bonus:

Two Rocking Tattoos from Joe

I met Joe last month outside of Penn Station and he shared two tattoos with us.

First is this hellcat:

Why this cat? It's a design, Joe says, inspired by the band Rancid, whose music appears on Hellcat Records.

Not to mention, he likes cats. Need he have more reasons? That's on his upper left arm.

I'm more excited to share this photo, which actually is a rare Tattoosday shot in which one can see the contributor's face. I could have cropped it out, but I think it's a cool shot.

This tattoo arose out of Joe's desire to have some body art made with red ink. The design is based on the album art for a disbanded musical act out of Washington called Isa.

The two tattoos are among five Joe has in total and were done by Milton Sillas at Tattoo Royale in the Pacific Beach section of  San Diego, California.

Thanks to Joe for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday and for waiting so patiently for me to get to his tattoos. The summer backlog is both a bane and a blessing.

As a postscript, readers familiar with the site will notice that I've watermarked these photos. I've grown tired of seeing Tattoosday content appropriated elsewhere on the web, without attribution. This is an attempt to maintain credit of our content here at Tattoosday.

Sealed with a Snake

I spotted Steve one day, and got him to share this rattlesnake tattoo on his right arm:

Steve has three tattoos and is bass player for a band called S.W.A.K.

He came up with the design and had Gary, owner of Shotsie's Tattoo in Wayne, New Jersey, complete the process.

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

Penny's Metal Collage

Penny made me feel old.

And I mean no disrespect to her. She was more than cooperative when I stopped and asked her about the unique and colorful tattoo that graces her upper left arm.

However, I was working at a technical disadvantage (borrowed camera) and like many who have met me have observed, I don't necessarily ooze hipness.

Nonetheless, Penny indulged my photographic fumblings and I was able to capture this image, which is a fairly decent photo of her ink:

This piece is based on a collage of pictures Penny took at a handful of metal shows.

"Which bands?" I asked, hoping to find a common ground with this younger person. I cut my teeth on early American metal (I still cherish my vinyl pressing of Metallica's Kill 'Em All on Megaforce records), but then again, that was the '80s. Penny uttered names I had heard (yay me!) but alas, couldn't put in their necessary classifications.

Deathklok. Children of Bodom. Amon Amarth.

What can I say? I'm an ancient 43.

Alas, Penny was a good sport and her tattoo post has just as much to do with my feeling older as it does with her ink. Sorry, Penny.

The work she credited to an artist named Adal, who transformed her pictures into this collage on flesh in two sessions and about five hours, all told.

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

An Update from Victor

I don't often run into Tattoosday subjects more than once, but when one works in the same neighborhood, it's often tough NOT to run into them.

Case in point is my friend Victor, who I first met here in an example of what I call a tat-alog, when multiple tattoos are photographed and discussed.

We did a second post on some new cinematic signature ink he had obtained here, and that had been it for a while.

Then, last month, I spotted him again in Penn Plaza, and thought that this tattoo was new:

There's been a lot of hoopla this week as Jimmy Fallon did a whole Rolling Stones tribute over five days in honor of the reissue of Exile on Main Street.

I'll let Victor explain the history of this particular tattoo:

...[This was] done by my cousin Eddie Bonacore in his apartment...then he did it for me again when he got officially hired as a tattoo artist @ Funhouse Tattooing in the Poconos.  I love the Stones, and credit my mom for that one...she got me into them.  The Stones ooze rock n' roll and always will...even watching Shine a Light, the documentary [Martin] Scorsese recently did on them...it just further shows there commitment to rock n' roll...the least I could do was add some tongue to my wrist!

Thanks again to Victor for keeping us entertained with his rockin' tattoos here on Tattoosday!

Tattoosday's Brush with Greatness: Joan Jett in Union Square

"Timing is everything," goes one saying, and "it's the little things" is also a phrase true to my heart.

Before we venture on a little diversion, let's remind ourselves that Tattoosday is about "meeting and appreciating body art (okay, tattoos) in the New York City area". Unless I go on the road, of course.

There are numerous sites that can give you a road map to celebrity tattoos, for example, but I generally don't encounter star ink, so it rarely graces this site.

Yet yesterday found me down by Union Square, seeking out a copy of Ina Saltz's Body Type 2, which I hope to bring with me tomorrow night to the Upper West Side where Ms. Saltz will be discussing the book.

On the way back to the subway, I had the pleasure of running into a cluster of people milling about a tattooed individual who is a genuine rock star: the lovely Joan Jett.

I was going to just gawk and move on, like a polite New Yorker, but Ms. Jett was there for a reason, she sported a black tank with an "I ♥ PeTA" slogan and she was talking to folks about a cause near and dear to her, vegetarianism.

Unbeknown to me, this was a bit of public relations, as indicated by a PeTA press release.

At some point, I thought, well maybe I could get Ms. Jett to talk about one of her tattoos, in exchange for some publicity on Tattoosday.

Good idea, and even the PeTA people seemed to think so, but I only managed to squeeze in a mutual "hi" and eye contact, as I competed with fans with much more passion than me. But more on them later.

I took these shots of one of her tattoos as I stood nearby:


I even took the obligatory self-portrait of myself with Ms. Jett being interviewed in the background, just to see how dorky I could make myself appear in public:



I had a great post formulated about the piece, but found myself a little late to the party, based on this great entry by Marisa over at Needles and Sins, which includes links to discussion about the meanings of her tattoos.



But, remember, here on Tattoosday, it's often as much about the encounter as it is about the tattoos.

Remember the fans I mentioned before? I met Danielle, who sports a black heart tattoo (similar to one worn by Victor here), but had just shown Ms. Jett this cool Runaways piece in the center of her back:


Danielle co-hosts a web show on the Hunter College radio station called Activity Grrrls' Radio Revolution on Tuesdays at 2:00pm here (whcs.hunter.cuny.edu), "where to go for your weekly dose of rock n roll".

She was thrilled at meeting Ms. Jett and loved that it was in conjunction with a PeTA promotion. Danielle is a vegan and the tattoo artist in New Jersey used vegan ink for the tattoo.

Danielle updated me with the following information:

I got the tattoo done in Lola's Tattoo Shop in New Jersey, the artist's name is Charlie. He's also vegan. I told him I wanted a tattoo of the words 'The Runaways' through two cherries and he came up with a design.

So it was quite a productive lunch for me. I got my book, ran into Joan Jett, took a picture of her tattoo, and then got a photo of a piece inspired by her first band, The Runaways.

Thanks to Joan, Danielle, and the folks at PeTA for helping make this post possible here on Tattoosday!

If you're interested in Joan Jett's testimonial about her commitment to the vegetarian cause, check it out below:


You can order a FREE 'Vegetarian Starter Kit' at GoVeg.com.

More vegetarian testimonials here.

And here's a link to the PeTA Vegetarian Starter Kit which Ms. Jett was distributing.

And finally, here's a link to a news brief on the event with some video in which I do not appear.

Full disclosure: I am married to a vegetarian, but I am not one myself. I possess not the willpower to commit to such a cause, but I support and commend those that do.