Arts And Entertainment

Friday, December 16, 2011

Amy's Stunning Peacock Tattoo

Sometimes, my little camera just doesn't cut it - like on a late summer afternoon with a bright sun low on the horizon.

I met Amy as she walked passed my office back in August. I caught up to her just as she was about to go into Penn Station and I snapped these photos of her peacock half-sleeve:

Amy credited her artist Benjamin Harris at Sink the Ink Tattoo & Body Piercing, which has locations in Doylestown and Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Amy says Ben has "been my one and only tattoo artist for years and he's great"!

And, fortunately for us, Sink the Ink had a great photo of this tattoo up on their website:

Thanks to Amy for sharing this amazing 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.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

One More from Michael: An Otomo Design That Reminds Him of a Love Lost

Michael, whose Calvin tattoo was featured in the previous post here, also shared this cool piece from his right arm:

Michael explained the origin of this design:

"The artist is Katsuhiro Otomo, the legendary Japanese animator, who did Akira [a popular manga series]. I’ve been in love with him since I was a kid. He came out with another movie called Steamboy that I was super excited about … I got the deluxe set … with the sketchbook in it and I’ve fallen in love with [this girl] … I loved her from the beginning but then I was dating a girl and I fucked it all up and she, well, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and I just wanted to … she’s almost adorable as this and I wanted to put that in memory and not be a fool and, well, she’s still mad at me."

Michael added that they still talk and he's holding out hope that forgiveness and reconciliation are still a possibility.

The tattoo was inked by Ariel Salgado at Millenium Tattoo in Newburgh, New York. Ariel, Michael said, has done most of his tattoos.

Thanks (again) to Michael for sharing his work 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 can contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Michael's Calvin Embodies His Spirit of Adventure

I met Michael back in August out on Penn Plaza and he shared this tattoo, on the upper left side of his chest:

That is, for those who don't know, the comic strip character Calvin, from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes.

Michael is an illustrator and visual artist. He explains this tattoo:

"I’m a Calvin and Hobbes fanatic since I was a kid. I own every single strip. I actually have two of those omnibus hardcover [volumes] and I had gone on a road trip with my father and my 21-year old cousin. 17 states in three weeks. I‘ve always wanted a Calvin tattoo."

~~The tattoo depicts Calvin as one of his alter-egos, Spaceman Spiff.~~ The tattoo depicts Calvin, from the cover of Yukon Ho!, in which he runs away with Hobbes to the Yukon. Michael told me that this embodies his spirit of adventure.

The piece was inked by his friend Kyle Sajban at Red Rocket Tattoo in New York City.

We've featured a lot of work from Red Rocket here on this site, but I believe this is the first tattoo attributed to Kyle.

Thanks to Michael for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 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.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Vickie's Pin-Up Has Blood Money

In what must have looked odd to passers-by, I interviewed Vickie in Penn Station the day after Halloween. I'm guessing that she and her friend had attended costume parties the night before. What interested me most was Vickie's ink. She "lost count" of how many tattoos she has, and she offered up this wonderful piece on her upper left arm:

This tattoo, whose name is "Trixie," was designed and inked by Tatu Baby, who works out of Chico's Marked 4 Life, in Miami.

She also wanted to point out that, in Trixie's right hand, she's holding blood money:

Thanks to Vickie for sharing Trixie with us here on Tattoosday!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

A Trio of Tattoos from Devin

I met Devin walking down Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, back in September.

He had a lot of ink, so I just grabbed a shot of his left leg:

He broke these three pieces down for me, explaining that the butterfly on the top is an old Sailor Jerry flash piece that was his friend Shawn first tattoo as an apprentice at Ron & Dave's Tattooing on Staten Island.

His friend Shawn's second tattoo as an apprentice was the skull at the bottom:

In the middle of these two pieces is a piece of art that Devin attributed to artwork from the first album by a Staten Island band called The Cable Car Theory:

Thanks to Devin for sharing these three tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Seth's Phoenix

Yesterday's post featured a sleeve from a guy named Phoenix. Today we have a sleeve that centers around a phoenix.

Anyone who's spent any time in New York City could tell you that bike messengers have a lot of great ink. Not all, of course, but quite a few. Fixtures in the city streets, especially in warmer months, if they're not zipping by on their bikes, you can often catch a glimpse of something cool. However, I've featured very few of these folks, just because they're usually in such a hurry, it's hard to catch them.

Fortunately, I spotted Seth securing his bicycle under Madison Square Garden late one afternoon back in September, and I had a chance to compliment his sleeve, at the center of which is this phoenix:

Sleeves are often challenging to portray on Tattoosday, as they generally require multiple shots and several takes, preferably in a controlled environment, like, say, a tattoo studio. But I always try to do my best to capture more than just the central element.

Seth credits his work to Jacob Redmond, when he was at Oddball Studios in Portland, Oregon. Redmond has since moved to Atlas Tattoo, also in Portland.

Thanks to Seth for sharing his phoenix with us here on Tattoosday!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Phoenix's Sleeve is Out of This World

Back on August, I met a man named Phoenix in Penn Station who shared the sleeve on his right arm.

The work starts near his shoulder, with a traditional-style pin-up girl straddling a rocket in an outer space motif:

The cat perched on the rocket in front of the woman represents Phoenix's love of animals.

The centerpiece of the sleeve, however, is lower on the arm and represents his love of astrology:

From a practical purpose, he had his natal astrological chart wrapping around his limb. In theory, he told me, anyone who knows astrology could come up and read his arm and gain insight into his astrological makeup.

Phoenix was born with the Sun in Aries rising in Leo and with his moon in Gemini.

This work was done by Lou at Third Eye Tattoo in Park Slope, Brooklyn, about six years ago. Lou's handiwork has been featured many times over the years here on the site and can be seen here.

Thanks to Phoenix for sharing his spectacular sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!