A Bite of Chocolate News

I am a fan of Chocolate News, and had to post this because it shows how left field David Alan Grier can go with his comedy—a huge lesson future afro-comedians can learn from when searching for material.

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Tattoos from the Blogosphere: Matt's Canva Gypsy Head

We're revisiting an old friend, Mat, whose last piece posted here, will link you to two previous posts as well. Mat had dropped off my radar a while, but these photos remained in my inbox, awaiting to see the light of Tattoosday.

Here's the finished piece:

Mat explains, "I've attached a new leg piece. I got recently of a cavna gypsy head. Dustin Golden from Roanaoke, VA. was doing a guest spot [at 713 Tattoo] and had a last minute cancellation. I jumped on it."

What is a "canva gypsy head"? I'm still not sure, but Mat responded to my recent query for further clarification on the motivation behind the piece: "That Kafka mask was sort of a "gypsy" phase (which I am finding myself in now again). The real shiner of that piece was Dustin's red inks, which he mixes himself."

Indeed. The piece just jumps out at you like a bolt of light in a dark alley.

Thanks again to Mat for sharing and illuminating his ink for us here on Tattoosday!

RAILWAY GRAFFITI

TMF - Itisi Lynx Focs

VICTORIE

Rawr.

Here, kitty, kitty! Douglas Billion.

Threesome

Three completely different styles, all from the same needle, courtesy of Phil Young.

New Blog Header!

...and its all thanks to this awesome Tim Harris rendition of a classic Gil Elvgren piece.

One of My Artwork that I have been working on.

Hannya Mask - Idea of Hori Mouja

Media - Pencil,Marker and Oil Pastel on Drawing Paper

2 Koi

Hello all....

Its been awhile since I have updated anything in here... Been busy with life ( Even though it sucks most of the time ) and new projects. Well, anyway, did this piece a day ago. Enjoy !

NIMF

SOLD

A Chunk of "Scream"

A book promo job is never done. And so the push continues... The good folks at blackpower.com are running an excerpt of my book today. It's chapter 7, Gangsta Chic, where I discuss Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and the growth/mass marketing of the gangsta's life. Take a look and tell me what you think...

Tom's Two-for-Tattoosday Ink Honors His Heritage and His Love of the Yankees

After a bit of a drought of inkspotting, I finally caught some new tattoos in Penn Station on Tuesday, along the L.I.R.R. corridor.

Tom has "19 or 20" tattoos and is working to some day achieving a full sleeve on his left arm. He offered me these two tattoos (for Tat-Tuesday), whose close proximity on his forearm made them the natural choice.


On top is the trinacria of the flag of Sicily. This symbol contains the the (winged) head of Medusa and three bent legs, which supposed to represent good luck and prosperity.


It is a nod to his Italian heritage.

Below that is a New York Yankees tattoo which is very similar to my wife's cousin's stars and stripes-filled NY logo. Tom gave it a simple explanation: "I'm a huge Yankees fan".

Say what you want about other cities, but I would venture to guess that the greater New York City area has a higher per capita count of hometown tattoos than any other metropolitan area.

Tom's ink was done by Rob, owner of Skin Deep Tattoo in Levittown, New York. Work from the shop has appeared previously here.

Thanks to Tom for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

APH SEEZ

RAILWAY GRAFFITI

Strawberry Blonde

Jamie Schene takes on an Elvgren.

ALORA

STRIKE

VIMOAS

APH - SEEZ

ALORA

DRUE - PSK CREW

Que nos couleurs ...

ELOW

NAWAS

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Fabiana - Under Saraswati

Back in June, I introduced some awesome work on Fabiana here.

I followed up with her Saraswati tattoo here.

And then, her most important tattoo here.

And now we're coming back to Fabiana to see what else she has to share with us here on Tattoosday.

This post is called "Under Saraswati".

In Fabiana's words:

"And under [Saraswati] on my wrist is also a matching tat with one of my exes, the same one that broke my heart. Well, it was once again butterflies because I love them and suns because she liked them. I love butterflies, they mean freedom. Oh, wait, my big giant butterfly is under the saraswati! I drew that one!"

Just to clarify, the tattoos at the bottom of the wrist (the small butterfly and the sun) were the matching tattoos she got with her ex. The larger butterfly above those, under Saraswati, was the one she drew.

Butterflies have appeared on Tattoosday before here.

Fabiana recently e-mailed me and told me she has some new ink to share, so I thought I'd post these leftover ones from the last batch she sent me, before I introduced some more.

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

Serving Up the President-Elect on a Platter

I knew the commercial below existed for about a week, but never paid much attention to it...until this afternoon. I figured the new president-elect would complete the holy trinity (King, Kennedy and now Barack) hanging on the living room wall's of big mamas—do they still exist—everywhere. But now those commemorative plate folks have made it official, especially for white consumers. This is one of the funniest examples of white people patting themselves on the back for voting in the black guy...LOL. (Note: check out the dude looking up proudly at his new Obama plate propped up on his desk.) I only say this because there are hardly any black folks—or their sentiment—in the commercial, except, briefly, at the end. And so when the white guy, seated with his family on the couch, says, "I never thought this day would come," you kind of chuckle at the irony. Not to mention at the bottom of Barack's photo, the plate reads, "Change Has Come." But, judging from this commercial, not much has in their company's marketing strategy. What, they couldn't find an Asian and Latino family to round things out...LOL. Enjoy, if you haven't seen it already.

Platinum Blonde

A classic take on Elvgren by Mike De Vries.

Now Appearing on KnuckleTattoos.com!

Nathan over at KnuckleTattoos.com, who has featured Tattoosday content before, has now added me as a contributor, and I'm pleased as punch (and oh-so-thankful). My first contribution, although not original (it appeared in a longer form here first) is up and viewable here.

I'm excited because affiliation with his site will expand my range of inkspotting and lend me some additional street cred. I mean, what sounds cooler? "Can I ask you about your tattoo? I write a tattoo blog..." or "Hi, I'm a contributing writer at Knuckletattoos.com....".

Either way, I'm stoked to be expanding my repertoire, and am looking forward to a long and productive partnership with Nathan and his site.

Good Pin-up Bad Pin-up

I was hoping not to include bad tattoo art in this blog, but this, from Horrible Tattoos was too good to pass up. I particularly like his caption...

"Are you sure that my tattoo will look exactly like this one ?"
"Sure, sure relax..."

Chris Shares Memorial Peonies for His Grandmother, Aileen

Here at Tattoosday, we're all about finding great ink on the streets of the greatest metropolis in the world, New York City.

But we also occasionally get mail from the tattooed who I have not met, but who want to share. I had a little bit of backlog from earlier this Fall and am finally getting to some of the generous contributions.

Chris sent me a photo of his tattoo in early October, along with a thoughtful and well-written history behind the piece. His story is fascinating, and his insight into the tattoo process is meticulous and, I believe, illustrative of how best to go about creating a design that imports significant meaning into the tattoo in question. I'll let Chris' words tell the story...

Hello,

My name's Chris. I'm a freelance graphic artist who lives in the East Village. I stumbled across your blog when I was trying to track down an artist from New York Adorned - the one who did the tattoo I'd like to share with you. I hope you don't mind me just writing you like this, but I liked what I saw on your blog and I felt it would be a good place to share this piece.

I am originally from Australia SC, but I came up here two months later to visit my brother for a week or so. The first thing I did on the Sunday afternoon when I got here was head to New York, but I have lived in the US since 1990. I have not gotten to visit home the whole time I've been in the states, which means I've missed all my cousin's weddings, as well as my best friend's and I've missed being there when they had their first children. Not having been home in all this time also means I never got to see my grandmother again before she passed away in June of 2007, which was just the most horrible feeling. At the time of her passing I was still living in Adorned. I'd already set up an appointment before I came up and I'd set aside funds just for the visit, so I went over there and Damion Ross got started on my memorial piece. The piece was originally a painting that I did and Damion did some redesigning to make it truer to the style of tattoo that I wanted, so the end result is really the perfect tribute to my grandmother who loved her garden and flowers. The tattoo required two sessions and it cost more than any of my other work, but you really can't put a price on a piece that commemorates the life of someone so dear.


Just for frame of reference, I have been recovering from severe facial injuries for almost four years. At the time I made the trip up here to get the tattoo I was out of work and had no income, other than a measly settlement that a judge had begrudgingly awarded me for Social Security. I spent a sizable chunk of that settlement to memorialize my grandmother, even though I had no idea when I'd have income again. My point is that people should not be stingy when memorializing a loved one, because you're going to be carrying that reminder with you for the rest of your life. Do you really want to be reminded of how cheap you are? Give them prime real estate and wear it proudly.

Thanks for letting me share with you.

Chris.

Damion Ross' work has appeared on Tattoosday previously here. And New York Adorned has been featured many times, as evidenced here.

Chris wrote me back and expounded further on the importance of really putting thought and effort into getting the perfect design and not settling for anything less:

Hey Bill,

I'm glad to be able to share my ink and story. I am working on getting some good coverage, but that's kind of hard to do when your income is extremely limited. I've collected images and put together designs for a number of years, but this was one that I wasn't prepared for at the time, nor did I have any idea that my next tattoo would be a memorial piece. So I set about searching images for my design - looking through numerous illustrations of Japanese floral paintings, as well as photographs of flowers and different types of traditional tattoo banners. I also made sure I did my research on the symbolism of flowers in Japanese art - both for flower type and colour, as these details are of great importance. When I'd found some good, solid reference material, I was then able to start on the design work.

I did a strong pencil sketch from a photo of peonies, the two most opulent blooms and capturing as much detail as I could. I spent a good number of hours sketching to make sure I had a good solid foundation. When I'd completed the sketch I scanned it and started to colourize it in Photoshop to make sure I'd have just the right colour scheme. Once I had that down I started painting what would be my first floral painting ever! I have to honestly say I amazed myself, as I wasn't even sure I could paint flowers, but my eye didn't betray me and the results were fantastic. That said, it was the digital version that I took to New York Adorned and it ended up being simplified considerably, but the image became more bold in its simplification.

So I would recommend putting a lot of thought and work into your memorial piece, but then let the tattooist do his (do I need to say or her in this day and age) job, as they generally know what they're doing. I'm attaching a (terrible) photo of the painting,


as well as the digitized version that the tattoo artist referred to. There's a drastic difference between the scan and the photo already, as I'd only sketched the flowers when I scanned the board. I took the painting in the direction I did to offer further interpretation and ramifications to the piece. I ended up selling the painting, though not for nearly as much as I'd have liked, consider the tremendous amount of work that went into it. Before it sold I had a tattooist contact me asking if I'd sell him a digitized version to use on t-shirts. I replied with very precise terms, saying that I'd already considered making t-shirts and prints of the design so maybe we could work something out, but then I never heard back from the guy. So if you see this design around - the one with the hand and scissors - it has been stolen and I'd be most interested to hear about, as I have not had the opportunity (read: the funds) to have anything printed.....

It isn't often that I receive such an in depth analysis of a tattoo from someone. It's clear that Chris being an artist has magnified his passion about this art form. I appreciated the opportunity to share his thoughts here with everyone on Tattoosday. Once again, much thanks to Chris for illuminating his beautiful memorial tattoo for us!

Screamin' On Brooklyn College

On Wed., November 19, 11AM, your's truly will be speaking in the Woody Tanger Auditorium at Brooklyn College Library. I was invited to speak by Professor Philip Napoli (who adopted my book for his course on American Popular Culture) and the History Department to talk about Somebody Scream, pop culture as barometer for change in society, and hip-hop and the election of President-elect Barack Obama. As always, it should be live.

Tattoorism 101: Alli's Ink

Here's another installment of Tattoorism. Alli sent me these photos at the beginning of October, so I appreciate her patience while I've taken the time to post these. I'll let Alli speak for herself:

Hey there,

I'm an avid Tattoosday reader. I, like many others, enjoy the stories that connect us all through one mutual love: tattoos.

I have three tattoos, my first inking done at 16 in Durham, North Carolina. I don't exactly remember the name of the shop, it was really underground and kind of shady. It's the old flag saying "don't tread on me," inspired by a respect for my veteran father and love for American war history. It's on my left foot:


My second tattoo was done at Glenn's Tattoo Service Inc. in Carrboro, North Carolina by the artist Paulie Andrew. A few weeks after my 18th birthday, I went in with a friend and saw this design on the wall. I immediately asked about it, and he told me everyone always compliments it, but no one had gotten it tattooed yet. I sat on it, went back the next day, and got it tattooed on my upper back in dedication of the bond shared between my father, my sister Carly, and myself:


Through our lives, the changes in characters have been so many, but we always stuck together. Elephants are a sign of good luck, too, which is always a plus. :)


[That's the tattoo at the top of the post, as well.]

My last tattoo was inked in Athens, Ohio. Can't remember the name of the parlor right now, but it was my second day of college. Inspired by the possibility of my dreams of becoming a writer coming true, the start of real life, I got one of my favorite quotes tattooed on my right underarm:


"So it goes" is from the works [first introduced in Slaughterhouse-Five] of Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors of all time. Reading Vonnegut is one of the reasons I came to this school to pursue writing as a career, and it's also how I like to handle what life throws at me. This tattoo was also prompted by the New Buffalo song "Cheer Me Up Thank You," which I think is absolutely amazing. [Here's the video:]




Sorry about the poor focus of the pictures. If it makes the cut for the site, feel free to crop. My camera is under repair right now, so it was just randoms I found!

Thanks so much.

Alli

Thanks, Alli, for sharing your ink here with us at Tattoosday! And thank you for waiting so patiently for me to process your post!

Tom's Spirit Introduces Me to Eric

I wrote the majority of this post on the way home from my friend Tom Wacker's memorial service on November 12, 2008. I am currently recovering from some outpatient surgery and will use my recovery time to attempt to catch up on things here at Tattoosday.

So I am on my way home from Tom's memorial service. A friend gave me a ride from the church in Ft. Lee, New Jersey to the P.A.T.H. station in Hoboken.

I catch the P.A.T.H. to the World Trade Center station in lower Manhattan. I walk a little disorientedly and find the 2 train at Park Place. I switch at Pacific/Atlantic for an N express train. Standing there in the last car is a bike messenger with full-on ink - his neck is covered and he's got his hands and wrists done. And his long-sleeved sweatshirt is undoubtedly covering a goldmine of tattoos.

But I don't have any of my fliers with me. I left my bag at work. I find some tattoosday cards I made up from www.vistaprint.com and strike myself a deal. He's got earbuds in, and I don't want to strike up a conversation since I am getting off in 2 stops, so I decide, if he gets off at 59th
Street, I'll stop him on the platform. And Tom is backing me up from on high. The messenger exits the train when I do.

So I introduce myself and hand him my card. I apologize for not having a flier, but he stops me: "I e-mailed some pictures to you already."

I've never met this guy before in my life. But I look at him, and recognize his face. His name is Eric and he sent me shots of his phenomenal work back in September. The nature of his work, and the sheer size of it, meant that his face was visible in the photos he sent. Wow. And I've been meaning to post his photos, but they're so rife with incredible work, I couldn't get a handle on it. And I've been busy. And on and on and on.

But now he is "legitimized" as an actual Tattoosday encounter. Of course, I am convinced Tom is behind this coincidence. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant. It makes me feel better.

So Eric peels off a layer or two and gives me an extra piece, on his inner right bicep:


It is a guesture known as "the shocker". I will leave it at that. People who know what it is will understand. People who don't and are curious will research it and be appropriately shocked. And for everyone else, including the aforementioned parties, here's Eric's work:


Tom saw these photos when I first received them, and was similarly impressed with the quality and scope of the tattoos.

I think it's apparent why I didn't post them immediately. Where to begin? I like discussing elements in detail, and it seems I could write a novel about Eric's work.

The Shocker tattoo was inked by Jim Class of White Tiger Tattoo in Rochester, New York. In a follow-up email, Eric had advised me that Class "did my turtle neck sleeve, right arm, sides, armpits, entire front, and my left leg. My back, head, and right leg sleeve were done by Mike Dorsey at Permanent Productions in Cincinnati, OH. I've gotten a few souvenir tattoos and conventions along the east coast."

So we've started out small. Stay tuned for future visits from Eric's canvas. I offer him thanks for the initial photos and for stopping to chat with me at 59th Street. And thanks again to Tom for being so instrumental in the success of Tattoosday.