thousands of unique tattoo

I met Mike and Norma at a local drugstore in Brooklyn in early April and they both had amazing work they were willing to share.

Their post was preempted by the Tattooed Poets Project, so I thank them in advance for their patience.

Mike shared this enormous black panther tattoo that covered a huge section of his left calf:


Mike, who estimates he has about 15% coverage, also told me that this was a cover-up. "What did you cover?" I asked. "A dolphin with a tribal design," he replied. Norma indicated that covering that tattoo had been an excellent aesthetic choice.

Mike credits Chad Smith at Screamin Mimi Tattoo in Amarillo, Texas with this piece.

I then turned to Norma, who was gracious enough to share this incredibly beautiful geisha tattoo on her left calf:


Roxxy, an artist at Elite Tattoo Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas, free-handed the design. The Japanese characters form a haiku, the meaning of which Norma didn't have with her. Regardless, it's a stunning work of art.

Thanks to Mike and Norma for sharing a little bit of their extensive ink with us here on Tattoosday!

"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.

I met Jason and Annmarie in Penn Station as they were headed home to Arizona.

You can check out Jason's ink here.

I wanted to give each their proper due.

I was fortunate that Annmarie didn't mind pulling up her skirt a little so I could see this incredible thigh tattoo:


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all the details on the piece that I would have liked and, to date, my e-mail queries have gone unanswered.

But I can tell you the artist responsible for this piece was Tony Massoli of Massoli Tattoo in Chandler, Arizona.

Thanks again to Annmarie for sharing her wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

I met Jason and Annmarie in Penn Station as they were headed home to Arizona.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all the details on their work that I wanted and they haven't responded to my email queries.

Jason is a big fan of horror films and his right arm is an entire sleeve of memorable villains from that genre:


Lacking a lot of knowledge in the area, I am woefully unable to identify any of the characters, but I didn't want that to stop me from posting the arm. Readers are welcome to post in the comments section helping me identify these gruesome personae.

In addition, Jason's left arm has this immense Freddy Kreuger (from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series) wrapping around it.


[...]

Now, I mentioned Annmarie at the beginning of the post. Check out the tattoo she offered up to us here.

In the mean time, thanks again to Jason for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Ed. Note:
[...] indicates deletion of text in which I mis-credited the artist and shop.

This is the first of many posts to follow from my recent trip to the beautiful state of Hawai'i....

On Saturday, April 24, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a tattoo artist and writer who I have admired for quite some time.

I previously spoke about Tricia Allen when I looked at her book, Tattoo Traditions of Hawaii.


Now, with her new book freshly published, I not only got to have my copy signed, but I was fortunate enough to be there for the tattoo contest that followed.


The competition was divided up into four categories (Traditional Polynesian, Tribal, Non- Polynesian and Color). The whole event was pretty laid back, as far as tattoo contests go. In fact, there was a lot of work that was not entered among the audience that could have been in the money, so to speak.

With a heavy focus on the Polynesian style, the two entrants in the color category meant my tiger could have won third prize, at least, had I been astute (and courageous) enough to enter.


In the Traditional Polynesian category, I was particularly fond of Tino Hoffman's thigh piece (pictured, left) with a honu (sea turtle) at the center. Although one could also not help buy be impressed by Robert Medeiros (right), whose canvas merited him top honors in the Tribal category.

A whole slew of photos from the event can be seen here in one of the Facebook albums on the 808Ink fanpage. The magazine premieres next month as a quarterly publication dedicated to tattoos in and around Hawai'i.

It was clear to me that one of the many talents present was the namesake of Tattoos by Bong. I even had a chance to meet Bong, who was responsible for the incredible art on Mr. Medieros.

Having just flown in earlier that day from New York, I most likely would have been a little more hyper-involved with the post-contest mix of book signing (even the subjects featured in Ms. Allen's book were signing the pages on which they appeared) and tattoo admiration among the dozens of contestants and throngs of tattoo fans. But, as 10:00 PM approached, my internal clock was still screaming at me from the Eastern Time Zone yelling "4AM! 4AM!". So i had to bow out a little earlier than I would have liked to.

I spent just under five days on Oahu, and was amazed by the amount of tattooed folk I spotted, much more than I remember seeing just a few years earlier. The skyrocketing popularity of tattooing on the mainland is certainly mirrored in the fiftieth state and amplified, it is safe to say, by the deep roots of tattooing in Polynesian culture and history.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the beautiful, glossy pages of Tricia Allen's new book, which receives a ringing endorsement from us here at Tattoosday.


The book is no tiny effort. At 285 pages, it features hundreds of full-page color photos of various styles of Polynesian tattoos, not just from Hawai'i, but from all around the South Pacific. In addition, many of the artists who created the work are profiled in the back section of the book.

I cannot help but enthusiastically recommend the book to all. It certainly made my flight back to the East Coast a lot more enjoyable. My biggest regret was not being in Hawai'i long enough to be able to have Ms. Allen tattoo me, an activity at the top of my to-do list in the future.

One more ringing endorsement comes from Ed Hardy: “This collection of amazing photos attests to the high level of artistic achievement and technical ability of the Polynesian people today, as well as non-islanders who have been heavily influenced by the art of the Pacific.”

Buy your copy from Tricia's website directly here and while visiting the site, explore the galleries, sign up for her newsletter, and check out her schedule to see when and where she will be tattooing and/or signing copies of her book in the future.

April, they say, is the cruelest month. It also seemed, for personal and professional reasons, to be the longest month. And, as many may have noticed, we ran a little over and into May.

This concludes the second annual installment of the Tattooed Poets Project. The endeavor seems to have attracted more fans this year, and I am thankful for that.

But I do need to extend thanks to all thirty-three poets who participated this year, and tolerated my incessant badgering for photos, poems, and details.

And to the dozens (and I do mean dozens) of poets across the country and overseas to whom I sent emails asking for either tattoos or news of poets the knew with tattoos, I thank you for humoring me and the project.

The person who receives what I call the Muldoon Award is G.C. Waldrep. Last year, the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon declined to participate saying "Alas, I've done the uninkable." The best response this year from an uninked poet was Mr. Waldrep's:

"What an interesting idea. But no, I remain untattooed. Except by the ravages of love and pain."

Thanks especially to Stacey Harwood at the Best American Poetry Blog who, from the outset, has been a champion and promoter of the Tattooed Poets Project. Theresa Edwards, of Holly Rose Review, not only contributed, but sent several people my way. Dorianne Laux also spreads the word like no one else and this year and Adam Deutsch not only was a return participant, he helped quite a few readers and participants discover our little inked poetry endeavor.

And I would be remiss if I didn't thank my lovely wife Melanie, who supports me and all things Tattoosday, even though it doesn't pay the bills. She recognizes how much I love to write about tattoos, and without her by my side, I wouldn't have had the strength and wherewithal to have made Tattoosday the blog it is today.

Those of you who have come to Tattoosday to see inked poets, I invite you to still visit, there's a dozen posts in the works documenting Tattoosday in Hawai'i, and then a long summer after that.

Before you know it, the Tattooed Poets Project 2011 will be upon us!

Here on the final day of the 2010 Tattooed Poets Project, we are featuring two tattooed poets (in two separate posts).

First up is Jeanann Verlee, who holds the distinction of being the one poet this year who met with me in person to discuss their tattoo.

Jeanann offered up her upper left arm:


The incredible detail of this piece is in the hummingbirds:



This whole tattoo is based on the cover art from her just-released first book Racing Hummingbirds (Write Bloody Press, 2010).


Jeanann knew she wanted her next tattoo to have something to do with the upcoming book. When she had the opportunity to work with an artist she respected, Tyson Schroeder, Jeanann held off on getting new ink and waited to see his art for the cover. She was happy she waited and, loving what she saw, she took the design Tyson created to her tattoo artist, Mark Harada at East Side Ink.

The racing hummingbirds design was placed adjacent to one of Jeanann's approximately fifteen other tattoos. The piece already on her arm consisted of a symbol comprised of Celtic and Nordic runes, and calla lilies, which represent transformation.

It was truly a pleasure meeting Jeanann at Grand Central Station and talking with her about her tattoos and her poetry. One of her poems, dedicated to poet Eboni Hogan, can be seen here over on BillyBlog. Eboni's tattoo (here) follows this post, and her poem is dedicated to Jeanann.

Thanks to Jeanann for taking the time to meet with me, sharing her tattoo, and rounding up an exciting 2010 Tattooed Poets Project!

*****

JEANANN VERLEE is a former punk rocker who collects tattoos and winks at boys. She is author of Racing Hummingbirds (Write Bloody Press, 2010) and her work has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including The New York Quarterly, PANK, FRiGG, Danse Macabre, and Not A Muse, among others. An acclaimed performance poet who co-curates the weekly reading series Urbana Poetry Slam at the Bowery Poetry Club, Verlee has performed and facilitated workshops across North America. She was co-author and performing member of national touring company The Vortex: Conflict, Power, and Choice!, charter member of the annual Spoken Word Almanac Project, and is an ardent animal rights and humanitarian activist. She lives in New York City with her best pal (a rescue pup named Callisto) and a pair of origami lovebirds. She believes in you. Learn more at JEANANNVERLEE.com.

On this final day of the Tattooed Poets Project 2010, we have a double treat - the tattoos and poetry of both Jeanann Verlee (here) and her friend Eboni Hogan.

What follows is a tat-alogue of Eboni's body art.

She prefaces her work with the following proclamation:

"A Note About The Artist: A majority of the work (the shoulder piece, the peacock and the cherry blossoms) on my body were done by an amazingly talented artist named Craig Spencer out of Whatever Tattoo II on St. Mark's Place who was also my boyfriend of almost four years until fairly recently. Yay! It's a sado-masochistic love story! Some liken this to getting a man's name tattooed across my boobs but I can say he is truly one of the only artists I trust with my flesh."

And now the ink:

"This shoulder piece is a custom design that took the most amount of tweaking before I actually got it inked. There are three quill pens, a skeleton key and a key hole, all tied together with ribbons. I'd had a strange dream one night in which a creepy old woman handed me a set of keys, tied to three feathers and told me that if I could find the door, the key would let me out...


...In my dream, I draped the key over my shoulder for safe keeping (dream logic...) but when I finally reached the promised door, the key and the feathers were adhered to my skin. The image stuck when I woke up and I talked to the artist about designing a similar piece. He suggested that the feathers be quill pens to pay homage to my love of poetry."

Next we have an image linked inexorably to the history of tattoos in the West, with its background in naval history. It was inked by an unidentified artist at Capitol City Tattoo in Madison, Wisconsin:

"I adore old school tattoos of the Sailor Jerry variety. I am also really active in the poetry slam community and every team I have ever been coined "the anchor"- the poet put up towards the end of a slam to (fingers crossed) make a home run. At the 2008 National Poetry Slam in Wisconsin, I decided it would be suitable to get this piece on my ribs."

Next up we have some cherry blossoms on the back of Eboni's right biceps:

"Blossom on the tree you know how I feel. Text by unknown artist, Addiction Ink, St. Mark's Place, cherry blossoms by Craig Spencer. If my life were a television series, Nina Simone's song "Feeling Good" would be the theme song. On my worst days, this is the never-fail anthem. The particular phrase that I decided on just happens to be the line in the song that feels infinitely more magical when sung at the tops of one's lungs. Try it."



And last, but not least, this lovely peacock:


"Peacocks are symbols of renewal and are revered by multiple cultures across the world. Furthermore, let's face it- they got a whole lotta swag. I found a vintage painting of a peacock that I loved though it's not the traditional green and blue image people are used to seeing. I got it on my left hip so that it could also serve as a cover-up for a pretty awful tattoo I got when I was 17 and foolish."

Thanks to Eboni for sending along so many tattoos for us here at Tattoosday. Be sure to head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems, dedicated to poet Jeanann Verlee, here. Jeannann's tattoo (here) precedes this post, and her poem is dedicated to Eboni.

24 year-old poet, actress and Bronx native, Eboni Hogan, has performed in over 30 U.S. cities and facilitated workshops from refugee camps to prestigious universities. She studied theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is the winner of the 2010 Women of the World Slam Poetry Slam, the 2008 Urbana Grand Slam Champion and a two time representative of the Nuyorican Slam Team. She is published in the anthologies His Rib and Double Lives and recently released her first collection of poetry entitled Grits through Penmanship Books.

I met Amanda outside of Madison Square Garden in April and she graciously allowed me to pick from one of her estimated fourteen to fifteen tattoos.

I chose this piece on her inner right biceps:


This is part of a greater plan for her arm which has a "cowboys and Indians" theme.

This design, which fits the traditional "old school" style of tattoo, was inked by Christian Peters of The Devil's Rose Tattoo in Long Island. Work from Devil's Rose appeared previously here on Tattoosday.

Thanks to Amanda for sharing this old-school tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!