tatoo : July 2013

We Are Six!

I never did a big 5-Year Anniversary Celebration last year, but I also didn't want to let the day slip by without noting that it was 6 years ago today, on my old BillyBlog, that I "introduced" Tattoosday. See the original post here.

Appearing weekly for a bit on BillyBlog, until September, when Tattoosday earned its own URL, this is our 1522nd post, and we have racked up 1.7 million hits and 2.5 million page views.

I want to thank everyone who continues to support Tattoosday, including the tattoo community as a whole, but especially my readers, first and foremost.

If you are seeing this on another website 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.

Tattoosday in the Berkshires: Bob & Sue's Excellent Tattoos

Back in June, we took a trip up to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts to drop my older daughter off for a summer program in Lenox. I had anticipated seeing some cool tattoos on the weekend trip, but came up empty-handed. That is, until we were headed back to New York, and took a small detour in Stockbridge, MA, where I ran into Bob and Sue.

We spotted the couple in a shop along Main Street and talked to them about their tattoos. They had been up at Tanglewood the night before to hear the Boston Pops perform a "Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration," which made sense, when we took a closer look at Bob's tattoo:

Bob explained:

"The sun is from the Filipino flag - it's my heritage. The hills are covered with trees from New England, that's where I grew up. The road is not straight, it's narrow ... that [Yamaha Stratoliner] is based on my bike, and I'm a Grateful Dead fan."

The artist is Canman out of Visions Tattoo Gallery in Medway, MA.

Sue shared these two tattoos:

This portrait, inked six months ago, depicts their children, who are in their thirties now. Their daughter is twelve in the portrait and this, too, was done by Canman, as was this other piece on Sue's opposite arm:

This piece is about four years old, yet it's still fairly bright.

Thanks to Bob and Sue for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

A Brief Glimpse at Megan's Bluebells on Fifth Avenue

I know that this looks like I took this photo surreptitiously, but trust me, I had the woman's permission.

I spotted Megan on Fifth Avenue, near the Mid-Manhattan Library, last month. Unlike many of the people I interview, she was not interested in stopping to talk to me, but did share, as long as I walked with her. The photo was snapped when we waited for the light to change.

She got the tattoo somewhere in the East Village, she said, and explained a bit about the tattoo:

"I collect agricultural books, like pieces from old books from the 1800s, early 19th century, and the bluebell is my favorite flower and I came across a few that were bluebell dissections ... it's taken from that."

Thanks to Megan for sharing her favorite flower with us here on Tattoosday!

Phil Shares a Portrait of His Kids

One of my daughters' teammates on her lacrosse club was immortalized, along with her big brother, on her father's arm:

At the end of the season, I got a chance to chat with Phil, the father of these two kids, about his work. The son was three in the portrait and the daughter was one. Now, they're both teenagers.

He told me that he got this piece almost twelve years ago from a European artist named Zsolt. The artist in question, Zsolt Sárközi, hails from Budapest, Hungary, and works at a shop he founded called Dark Art Tattoo. The tattoo was done here in New York City, at Sacred Tattoo in Manhattan.

Thanks to Phil for sharing this wonderful portrait of his children with us here on Tattoosday!

Katrina Shares a Pair of Audrey Kawasaki Designs in One Tattoo!

Earlier this month, I rode my bike in the Tour de Queens. At one point in the ride, all the riders had stopped in the hot sun as we waited for traffic. I looked at the person next to me and noticed she had an amazing tattoo on her right thigh. I introduced myself and she told me her name was Katrina. She told me a little about the tattoo and allowed me to take a picture of it:

I know, I know, the photo seems a little washed out. I shot it in bright sunlight and that was the best I could do. However, Katrina gave me her artist's info and I was able, with permission, to post the tattooist's photo from his online portfolio:

Photo Courtesy of Andy Pho

So, you can see, it's a pretty amazing tattoo.

Katrina later e-mailed me with her explanation of the piece:

"The whole piece on my thigh just basically gives me a representation of who I am and who I can be.

It took me 3 years to finally go with it. The artist who did it is Andy Pho (www.andypho.com) who at the time tattooed at Omni Ink in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I've always admired geishas for their perseverance and aiming to be better performers. The whole presentation of them is just beautiful and broken at the same time. Their make-up covers their whole face so you can't really tell what they're thinking or how they feel. Just a piece of mystery.

I found the geisha from one of my favorite painters, Audrey Kawasaki. I absolutely love her work. I basically combined two paintings into one. The geisha (Yuuwaka) and the anatomical heart (My Dishonest Heart) are probably my two favorite ones from her. I'm very keen on detail and Andy just did a phenomenal job for someone who had only been tattooing for a year and a half at the time."

Here are the two Kawasaki paintings in question:

"Yuuwaku" 誘惑 allure

oil and graphite on wood 20"x 26"

"Hajimari"@Jonathan Levine Gallery in NY 2009

© Audrey Kawasaki 2004 - 2013

and

My Dishonest Heart

mixed media on wood 10"x12"

'The Drawing Show' @ Thinkspace 2008

© Audrey Kawasaki 2004 - 2013

Andy Pho, the tattoo artist responsible for this great tattoo, has since left Brooklyn and Omni Ink for his own shop in Las Vegas, called Skin Design Tattoo.

Andy adds, by way of a bio:

"We are currently undergoing a major relocation to a larger studio set to open in late August. Please follow the artists there as well (the artist roster and work will be updated for the grand opening).

I am a Brooklyn native (born in Coney Island, lived in Midwood, Flatbush, Boro Park, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, and Gravesend, before relocating to Vegas)."

For the latest on Andy and Skin Design's progress, you can follow him on Facebook here.

Thanks to Katrina for sharing her awesome Audrey Kawasaki two-in-one tattoo, and to Andy Pho, for helping us really appreciate his fine work!

Vicki's Words of Inspiration Get Her Where She Needs to Go

I'm always interested on what people choose to permanently inscribe on themselves, especially when the tattoo is textual.

Earlier this week, I met Vicki in my local grocery store and she had this inked on her inner wrist:

Her tattoo reads "Motivation Dedication Hard Work."

Vicki explained,

"I'm a marathon runner. So, when you get to, like, mile 20 and have six to go, you need a little motivation, dedication and hard work ... I started living by that about ten years ago, and it gets me where I need to go."

In October, Vicki will be running her 5th marathon.

This script and tattoo was done by Mr. Kaves at Brooklyn Made Tattoo in Bay Ridge.

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

Ink Master, Season 3: Who the Hell Are These Guys?

Say what you want about "reality" tattoo competition shows, but they are relevant to tattoo blogs, regardless of how you feel. Personally, I find them fascinating on so many different levels.

The third season of Ink Master premiered this week and, while I won't run down the entire roster of this season's contestants, I do want to note that a couple of them have had their work showcased on Tattoosday previously.

The first person who jumped out at me was Craig Foster, from Skinwerks Tattoo & Design in Carrollton, Georgia.

Craig had two pieces appear on Tattoosday in 2008. This one:

Read about this tattoo here.

and this one:

Read about this tattoo here.

Many of the names are familiar, and we all remember Tatu Baby from season 2.

I featured one of her more recognizable pieces back in 2011:

Read about it here.

Something about one of the other contestants rang familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The artist with the moniker Made Rich had my ink-sense tingling and then, I realized, I interviewed one of his clients just a few weeks ago at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention.

Based out of the Queens shop Think Before You Ink, one of my favorite pieces of the night was this thigh tattoo on a woman named Taylor:

I haven't published this one yet, but I'll retroactively link it once it's done.

So I'll be tuning in this season just to see how these three artists fare, along with the others. The judges, Dave Navarro, Oliver Peck, and Chris Nunez, are hyper-critical in their assessments, which lends a certain degree of authenticity to the show's claim to find the best tattooer among the bunch to crown Ink Master.

Keep an eye on the three artists above, because I think they have a good chance of going deep into the competition.