Global Tattoos Female

A Portrait of Marilyn

Tom Doherty gave me the best answer I have heard to the question "How many tattoos do you have?"

He looked me in the eye and said, matter-of-factly, "Not enough."

Tom has a ton of ink, and is one of the artists in residence at Another Tattoo Shop in Bound Brook, New Jersey.

It's always like winning the lottery when I chance upon a tattoo artist, because they seem to have a greater appreciation for the idea of Tattoosday and, more importantly, they have siginifantly better work, and more of it to choose from.

So Tom was not only kind enough to agree to participate, but he didn't offer up any of his visible tattoos, but instead lifted his shirt to reveal Marilyn Monroe, smiling from the left side of his torso.

Why does he choose to have Ms. Monroe inked there? He wanted a famous face, a "show-off piece," as he called it. The tattoo was done by his boss at the shop, Matt Pope.

Thanks to Tom for sharing this awesome portrait with us here at Tattoosday!

Last winter, the cold weather drove me inside, into the nearby Manhattan Mall food court, when I had time at lunch to go inkspotting. The food court has since closed and the mall is undergoing a massive J.C.Pennification, rendering it near useless for people-watching. I bring this up in the
waning days of summer, as last week I had some lunch time to spare and it was raining.

So I plodded off into nearby Penn Station to see if any commuters were in the ink-sharing mood. Near the Amtrak portion of the subterranean hub, I spotted the tattoo above and approached its owner to see what it was all about.

Eva, to whom this piece belongs, explained that it is a variation on the symbol for infinity. The arrows pointing off it represent directions moving off of the symbol.

The design originated, according to Eva, in a vision that her grandmother had. Her grandmother was a fortune-teller and the significance of the symbol carried great weight in her family.

Eva had this inked about two years ago, while visiting China. The tattoo was done by a local artist in Xinjiang Province.

Thanks to Eva for sharing this cool tattoo with us here at Tattoosday!

memories

My dear boys and girls. I truly apologize for the extremely long hiatus.

Over the past month, lots have been going on personally and it somewhat did affect me in lots of ways and it took my mind off completely in giving you guys out there what you need.

I am taking a break from life and looking for a fresh start but business still resumes as usual at Immortal Tattoos, Singapore.

Love ya all !!

I understood one thing -

Life is the strongest drug ; you will never know what kind of trip you are getting yourself into. Just like every other drug, to Life, there are side effects. - The Memories. - Kugan of Immortal Tattoos, Singapore !!

Last week outside of Penn Station, I spotted this not-so-itsy-bitsy spider crawling across the left side of Alexandra's back.

Turns out the spider, along with Alexandra, were visiting New York from Switzerland. Alexandra had limited English, but did impart to me that she "had always wanted something like that" as a tattoo, and that she doesn't regret it one bit.

The tattoo artist was named Stephan, who worked in a shop whose name she can't recall in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Thanks to Alexandra for sharing her spidery tattoo with us here and giving us our first Swiss-inked contribution to Tattoosday!

based on:

Last Saturday I posted an amazing tattoo the day after I spotted it and alluded to some posts that take longer than others. This is one of those examples.

I met Nina about a minute after meeting Mike and spotted the tattoo above. It's a tiny piece based on the graffiti art of one of my favorite artists, Keith Haring.

I asked Nina about it and she went on to catalog all eleven of her tattoos, most of which I photographed.

Whereas I appreciate someone taking the time to show me all of their ink, to do the subject justice in one post can be a daunting task.

Therefore, I'll be spreading Nina's tattoos across two posts.

As displayed above, Nina had at least one Haring tattoo. This first post will be dedicated to Nina's left arm, which boasts 7 of her 11 tattoos.

She actually has three Haring pieces, including the barking dog:

based on:

I've always been a fan of Haring, and it was a phenomenal Haring chest piece, spotted at the 2007 Siren Festival on Coney Island, that inspired me, in part, to start blogging about ink. Here's the third of her Haring pieces:

based on:

Haring was prolific in his short life, often repeating elements in his work. I have included in this post the works that are most likely used as the basis for these tattoos.

Nina is a big fan of the work of Andy Warhol, as well. She credits her love of his and Haring's work to a relative - her aunt worked at Warhol's Pop Shop in the 1980s, and it was always part of the family discussion.

She has a relatively obscure Warhol piece on the inner part of her bicep:

I should say, it is obscure in the sense that I am unfamiliar with it. It is based on his silk-screened Knives:

Most stunning among the Warhol and Haring tattoos is her Marilyn Monroe piece, which is based on an iconic Warhol work:

On her inner forearm, Nina sports a sweet pin-up piece that she believes is based on a piece of German art, circa World War I:

She loves pin-up art and this was one of the first pieces she had inked.

Not pictured is the word "Say" tattooed on her inner wrist.

All her ink was tattooed by Dan at Amazing Grace Tattoo in Geneva, New York. She's kept him busy in the past year, having just turned eighteen, and he is responsible for all of her body art, all done within the past twelve months.

Thanks to Nina for sharing her passion for tattoos here on Tattoosday. Be sure to check back for more from Nina in the future.

I braved a trip to Staples on Sunday, contrary to my notion of self-preservation. September in Staples is one of the outer circles of Hell, at least in my neighborhood, where it seems everyone with children goes for their school supplies. Everyone.

But I digress. On a mission for a printer cartridge, I spotted Rob, who is covered moderately by tattoos. I approached him with a flier, which he was already familiar with, as I had handed him a few weeks back when he was sitting in the front of Brooklyn Ink, a nearby tattoo shop.

If you read Tuesday's post, you can see how many different folks have contributed their ink to these hallowed pages. I estimate that only 1 out of 7 people I approach actually participate, so estimate that in the past year, I've spoken to (conservatively) six to eight hundred people about
Tattoosday. Sometimes I forget a name and or a face.

So, it's amazing to me that I've only, by my best estimates, only asked people about their ink a second time on maybe five occasions.

Once Rob reminded me who he was, I remembered him from the shop, and he told me I could stop by any time and take pictures of his tattoos.

It was then that I qualified one of the things that makes Tattoosday special. I won't go to shops to take pictures. That's just too easy. Like shooting fish in a barrel. The sport is in the random stumbling upon a fellow citizen of the inked nation.

So, to make a long story short, he offered up the piece above (posted so long ago, I will show it again).

This was tattooed by Alex at Brooklyn Ink, and the placement on the hand is as significant as the piece itself.

For many tattoo artists, the inking of the hands is a rite of passage. Once you tattoo your hands, it is very tough, nearly impossible, to hide the fact that you are a tattooed individual. The tattoo in theory meant that there was no turning back and that he was fully devoted to his craft.

He chose the sparrow flying through the horseshoe as both are emblems of good luck. I particularly admire the perspective created by the back wing of the bird behind the horseshoe and the front wing in the foreground. This device adds a nice depth to the piece.

Thanks to Rob at Brooklyn Ink for sharing his momentous tattoo here with us on Tattoosday!

Earlier this month, I mentioned meeting Paul here, on the bike path that runs along the southern tip of Brooklyn.

I saved the other tattoo photo I took of Paul's work for today, the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

What I didn't mention in the previous post is that Paul is a federal agent who grew up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

From his vantage point there, he watched the World Trade Center being built in the late 1960's. He was working in 6 World Trade seven years ago for the U.S. Customs Department when the towers came down, and he spent four months at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, searching for remains.

The tattoo is a poignant piece, with the sun shining between the towers. Below is Paul's badge from the Department of Homeland Security, which has evolved into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Particulatly unusual is the depiction of 9/11 in Roman numerals:

IX XI.

I don't believe I had ever seen it represented that way before.

Like the tattoo in the earlier post, this piece was inked by Joe at Brooklyn Ink.

Thanks to Paul for sharing this WTC memorial piece with us here on Tattoosday.

Click here for work from Brooklyn Ink appearing previously on this blog.

I ran into Rob in my neighborhood in late August and he gladly shared his patriotic tattoo.

Rob is a Revolutionary War buff and has a distinct interest in American history.

He wanted an "old school" tattoo back in 2000, and wanted something patriotic back "before it was fashionable". He's referring of course, to the explosion of post-9/11 red, white and blue ink. He wasn't disrespecting or being critical of patriotic tattoos done after 2001, he was merely clarifying for me that his piece was not a product of the huge wave of emotion that surged through the country after that day of infamy seven years ago.

Rob's "Land of the free, Home of the brave" banner with the original 13-star flag was inked by Darren Rosa at Rising Dragon in Manhattan. Work from Rising Dragon has appeared on Tattoosday previously here.

Thanks to Rob for sharing his red, white, and blue patriotic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday on this occasion.

Repost for Patriot Day: Mike's Tribal 9/11 Tribute

The following excerpt predates the official launch of Tattoosday as a stand-alone blog. I think it's fitting to revisit this tattoo that I spotted on September 4, 2007:

I made another pass and headed back home. Once I made my way to the Shore Road promenade, where I do the majority of my cycling. I have several spots along the several-mile route from which I can head home. I decided to go down to the 92nd Street footbridge. Standing on the bridge was a gentleman who seemed to be cooling off from running. He had earbuds in and a large biceps piece. He also had an ankle piece and another tattoo on his triceps.

I passed him while walking my bike and then headed back and said loudly, "Excuse me!" He removed his earbuds and I explained my mission. He was game. His name was Mike and he had 6 tattoos in all and didn't mind which one I photographed. I asked him which one was the most special and he held up his arm and pointed to the piece on his triceps. This one:

He explained it a tribal Native American designed mixed with the American flag which he got as a tribute after 9/11. The piece was done by Craig Cooley at Abstract Tribal Tattooing in Brooklyn. I asked him if he was a fireman, and he said, "No, a police officer." I thought, with the 6th anniversary of September 11 just a week away, it was a perfect punctuation mark to end a week of tattoo-spotting, and to begin a week of reflection on this somber anniversary.

Mercedes Honors Family Members with her Ink

Mercedes doesn't remember the specific shops where she got her ink, but each piece honors members of her family, both living and gone.

Mercedes is a make-up artist that has very close ties to her family, and these relationships have manifested themselves on her tattoos.

The piece I first noticed, on her right arm, was this one:

This is actually comprised of two parts, the rose and the ankh. The rose was her first tattoo, inked because her mother and grandmother were both named Rosa. The ankh and the name "Iggy" were done as a memorial for her brother who had passed away.

Her neck/upper back piece is actually three tattoos inked in succession:

Mercedes started with the top segments, which she described as tribal dolphins. They are in honor of her niece, who is a Pisces.

Next is the piece below the dolphins, which is a representation of fire that corresponds to Mercedes' birth sign Aries, whose zodiac element is fire.

Below that are flames rising from the number 3. This is for her nephew. The flames correspond to his sign, Leo, whose zodiac element is also fire, and the number represents that he is third in the family line.

Thanks to Mercedes for sharing her ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Global Tattoos Female

Laman

A Portrait of Marilyn

A Grandmother's Vision, Inked in China

memories

A Spider from Across the Sea

Introducing Nina's Ink, Part 1

Rob's Rite of Passage

Paul's 9/11 Memorial

A Patriotic Tattoo for Patriot Day

Repost for Patriot Day: Mike's Tribal 9/11 Tribute

Mercedes Honors Family Members with her Ink

Followers

Arsip Blog

About Me