I met Nick outside of Penn Station and, of his "six or seven" tattoos, he offered up this one:
Nick had this AK-47 inked on his stomach to pay homage to his Russian heritage. He told me that this tattoo was done by Fernando Alvarez out in Los Angeles.
Thanks to Nick for sharing his ink with us here at Tattoosday!
I met Simona in Park Slope, Brooklyn, back at the end of July. At the corner of Prospect Avenue and Prospect Park West, just outside of the Holy Name Church.
Simona had an unusual script around her right bicep:
The line displayed is "Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien," which means "Out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come".
This tattoo was inked by one of the best tattooers of script around, Stephanie Tamez at New York Adorned. Work from Stephanie has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.
She placed the tattoo there because that is where Jews who were interned during the Holocaust had been tattooed by the Nazis. It's tattooed there as an expression of solidarity with her faith and, as a reminder to never forget the horror that was the Holocaust.
Thanks to Simona for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!
When I met Chloe back in July, I didn't think that the tattoo she offered would be saved for an anniversary, or a special occasion, but that is how it played out.
In fact, when I approached her in the Union Square Barnes & Noble, I was more interested in a design on her thigh. However, she dismissed that tattoo, one of her first, and offered up this relatively crude rendering of the American flag:
By crude, I mean unpolished, and I do not mean it disrespectfully. For Chloe disclosed that this was a "stick and poke" tattoo that she and her friend Luke had given one another when in school.
Chloe was a Visual Arts major and explained that, in college, everyone seemed to be "poo-poohing on America," and this bothered her.
It is occasionally the case where college students, from their campuses, speak out against our country.
But Chloe and Luke wanted to make their own personal statements. "We do have a lot here," she told me, and expressed her dismay at those fellow students who seemed to take our freedoms for granted.
Chloe loves American culture (especially Westerns) and is "super-jazzed about Americana".
Despite the fact that it was not professionally done, it seems appropriate that this tattoo appear here on Patriot's Day, on a day on which we give pause, and remember what America is about. Our freedom is not something to take for granted and, whereas we certainly have a right to voice our discontent with the government, we should also not take for granted the freedoms we do have, those that make us who we are.
Thanks to Chloe for letting us unfurl her flag here on Tattoosday, on this day in which we should all pause and reflect, remembering how fortunate we Americans are to live in such a wonderful country.
I also encourage people to check out previous Patriot Day posts here, here and here.
Earlier this week, author Karen E. Olson released the third installment of her Tattoo Shop Mystery series, Driven To Ink.
For those readers who may not be familiar with Ms. Olson's series, you can check out my reviews of the first two books, here (The Missing Ink) and here (Pretty in Ink).
The series features Brett Kavanaugh, a Las Vegas-based tattoo artist, and a cast of supporting characters, from her police officer brother Tim, to fellow artist and competitor Jeff Coleman, owner of the shop Murder Ink. Kavanaugh's staff at The Painted Lady, a high-end tattoo shop at the Venetian Hotel and Casino, also offers up some memorable characters, including Bitsy, the diminuitive shop manager.
Driven To Ink, like its predecessors, has an "only in Las Vegas" feel, with a well-crafted narrative that, this time around, revolves around a drive-thru wedding chapel called "That's Amore" that features a handful of Dean Martindoppelgängers crooning, you guessed it, "That's Amore".
Olson has once again spun a riveting tale, which finds Brett Kavanaugh discovering a dead Dean Martin imperspnator in her trunk, with a tattoo machine's clip cord around the victim's neck. She had just lent her car, a Mustang Bullitt, to Jeff Coleman's octogenarian mother, Sylvia, so she could get married in style at the That's Amore chapel.
What I love about Karen Olson's books is that tattoos are seen above and beyond base clues in a murder mystery. She treats the vocation with utter respect, explaining things to the reader as if they were new to a tattoo studio. Tattoos may serve as clues, but they are not regarded as these huge totems that define their owners.
Brett Kavanaugh is an enjoyable protagonist, not without faults, and the author let's the reader tag along on her adventures that start off innocently enough, but pull her into deeper and deeper water. It's no surprise that one of the recurring characters is an Emergency Room doctor, as medical attention seems to be needed from time to time, making this mystery series ring truer than one in which the hero (or heroine) dances through their adventure unscathed.
Olson's first book in the series was a novelty. A new mystery with tattoos at the center of the narrative. After three volumes, Brett Kavanaugh seems more real, more human, than ever before.
A word to the skeptics, those tattoo snobs who may scoff at the light-hearted appearance of these books: Karen Olsen has given a gift to the tattoo community in the form of Brett Kavanaugh. Driven To Ink is another great mystery, with a respectful and honest portrayal of one artist/sleuth who just happens to be a tattoo shop owner.
I have enjoyed every one of Ms. Olson's books and Driven To Ink is yet another chapter in the fascinating life of Brett Kavanaugh. I'm looking forward to her next installment which, I am led to believe, is tentatively called Ink Flamingos.
Check out Karen talking about her first Tattoo Shop Mystery here:
Here's another orphan post. I took the picture, got the name, a shred of info, and passed a flier. And even though I saw Heather, the host of the tattoo, a week later, walking by me one day in a hurry, I never got to the bottom of this tattoo. So it goes....
Heather credited this to an artist named "Joanne" with a long French name. Any guesses? Anyone?
A few weeks ago, I was walking up Seventh Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets, when I spotted this peeking out of a guy's shirt sleeve:
I stopped to ask him about the tattoo. Or rather, asked him if I could take a picture, when he revealed that it was much larger than it appeared poking out of the sleeve on his left arm:
Sadly, I gave him the Tattoosday flier and asked him to e-mail me so we could discuss it further and he a) lost the flier or b) decided to forgo contacting me. So, I have no idea who he is, nor can I credit the artist, whose work is pretty darn impressive.
When this happens, I dub it an "orphan" post, but obviously, despite the lack of details, it's still worth sharing.
Thanks to the anonymous contributor who allowed me to take photos of this great tattoo and share it with us here on Tattoosday!
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, like its predecessors, has an "only in Las Vegas" feel, with a well-crafted narrative that, this time around, revolves around a drive-thru wedding chapel called "That's Amore" that features a handful of 
