Maggie, a Fan of Pink, Shares Some Ink

One of the pluses of working near Madison Square Garden is that concert-goers and fans are always about.

Occasionally, they can be found camped out near the artists' entrance on 33rd Street. The presence of fans milling about can often be great opportunities to spot tattoos, as in this case, previously.

Earlier this month, I chatted with some Pink fans out on the street and one of them, Maggie, shared her tattoos:


Maggie has nine tattoos in all, and these represent four of them.

She seemed surprised that I was interested, more so because there weren't typical "stories" behind the art.

The top piece is a tribute to her mother,

and the heart, the bands, and the angel wing are just elements she felt like adding.

I particularly like the free form of the heart design.


All work was done at Tattoo Heaven in Manhattan.

Thanks to Maggie for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Daniel's Back Piece Begins...

In my previous post, I described meeting Daniel and Katte. And, although Katte's work was what initially prompted me to stop the couple, Daniel offered up the bigger surprise.

I have yet to come up with a term for the phenomenon, but anyone who responds to an inquiry about a visible tattoo with an unprompted unveiling of a covered one, earns a place in Tattoosday lore.

(See some memorable examples here, here, here, and here).

Daniel lifted up his shirt to reveal "the start of a back piece":


He went to Chuck at Broken Heart Tattoos in Keyport, New Jersey, with a general outline and gave the artist the "freedom to shade and color" as he saw fit. Three sessions and nine hours later, Daniel had this kick-ass skull on his back to anchor what will eventually be a much larger piece.

Thanks to Daniel for sharing this awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Raffaella Ciavatta's Trio of Amazing Tattoos

Today's tattoos were submitted by Brazilian-born, New York-based poet Raffaella Ciavatta. She heard about the Tattooed Poet's Project earlier this month from Jackie Sheeler at a local reading. Jackie's tattoos were featured earlier this month here.

Raffaela sent three photos:


Raffaela says that this is "my own design mixing a Chinese dragon, representing strength, and the lizard, for the soul's search of awareness, so that it could protect me and guide me through the eternal pursuit of knowledge."

This piece on the lower left side of her back/hip was her first tattoo, done at Studio Tat 2 in Brazil.

Next is a piece on the right side of her chest, near the collar bone:



The "mater" is the Latin word for mother who, Raffaella proclaims is "done for the most important person to me in this world, my mother, father, best friend!" This piece was inked at Fabio Tattoo, also in Brazil.

And finally, this last tattoo, which you get a small glimpse of in the first picture above, is just breath-taking:

These are her angel wings, "done to achieve my dream of reaching New York." She adds, "I definitely flew from Brazil to NY." They were tattooed over six months. The tattoo was started by Eric Codo ("just the outline...he had to move to Rio de Janeiro) at Steel Star Supply in Sao Paulo and was finished by the "Amazing Fabio Renato".

Head over to BillyBlog to read one of Raffaella's poems.

Thanks to Raffaella for sharing her amazing work with us here at Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Malaika King Albrecht Shares Her "Unambitious," Yet Meaningful, Tattoo

Today's tattoo was submitted by Malaika King Albrecht:


I contacted Malaika on Facebook when I saw her profile photo, and that she had a visible tattoo. She was kind enough to not only accept my friend request, but also to submit the photo above, along with one of her poems, over on BillyBlog.

Malaika filled me in on this piece:

I may have gotten this tattoo, my second one, at Shaw’s [Tattoo Studio] where I got my first tattoo. I was probably on Westheimer Blvd., was definitely in Houston sometime in the mid-80’s and was most likely in the good company of a guy named Nicki Sicki. The image is of a person meditating with wings and a heart, and is borrowed from Ram Dass’ book Be Here Now. The sideways 8 represents sitting in lotus position and is also the symbol of infinity. Though the heart has lost its red color, and the tattoo is an admittedly unambitious one, the image still resonates with me.

I love Malaika's modesty about the tattoo. Admittedly, it is not "spectacular," but tattoos do not have to be huge, multi-colored affairs in order to have significance for those that have them.

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

Please visit BillyBlog to read one of her poems here.

Christopher's Ink Bridges Generations

Last Friday I met Christopher on Penn Plaza. He estimated that he had tattoos numbering in the mid-fifties.

Again, I am sometimes intimidated by folks with a lot of ink, and will usually not trouble them, but not this time.

And, of all those tattoos, Christopher lifted up his shirt to reveal one of his most meaningful pieces:


The cross with angel wings behind it is graced by a banner that reads "In Loving Memory ... Grandpa Al".


This tribute tattoo was inked at Good Times Tattoo Studio in East Islip, New York by Bill. Christopher is a tattoo artist there as well.

Grandpa Al was a tattoo artist himself, at Ace Tattoo in San Diego, one of the oldest shops in the city (founded around 1947). I acknolwedged that Al must have been busy working in San Diego, with several military bases nearby.

Christopher always knew he wanted to be an artist, and has been tattooing about 14 years.

"What about your Dad," I asked him, "is he an artist?"

Christopher shook his head and said he wasn't. "And he doesn't have a single tattoo. Not one!"

"Really?" I asked.

He shook his head and laughed "I just don't understand it."

So the ink-lination to tattoo skipped a generation in his family, but you could tell he was proud of his grandfather's legacy, and he bore it like a badge of honor.

Thanks so much to Christopher for sharing his tribute to Grandpa Al here on Tattoosday!

Pursuit Until Capture

An unplanned trip to the Penn Station K-Mart yielded this awesome tattoo.

Sometimes, even if you can't initially see the whole piece, you can recognize high quality work. This was one of those times.

Chris, who works in independent film, more specifically the horror genre, wanted to pay homage to the film, John Carpenter's Halloween, that inspired him to follow the career path he chose.


The phrase "Pursuit Until Capture" was not from the film, but is a motto that guides him through life. Although applicable to the horror genre (that seems to drive every villain - the relentless pursuit of the victim), it holds a larger meaning for a life philosophy. Translation: follow one's dreams until they are attained. Chris recalls first seeing the "Pursuit Until Capture" phrase in old Sailor Jerry flash art.

This amazing piece was inked by Darren Rosa at Rising Dragon Tattoos in Chelsea. It really is superb work - click the photo to enlarge, and one can almost feel the texture of the pumpkin, the sharpness of the blade. Tattoos from Rising Dragon have previously appeared here.

Darren also inked Chris' first tattoo, a back piece, in January 2006:


Chris always imagined a tattoo with blue wings, and the phrase "Live Life Stronger then Death" exemplifies the ongoing struggle for good over evil.

Certainly words to live by.

Thanks to Chris for sharing his awesome tattoos with us here at Tattoosday!

Tattoos I Know: Erika's Ink (Part 2)

This is part 2 of Erika's ink (part 1 here). Erika has a lot of tattoos, so I had to split the post, since she generously offered them all up for Tattoosday.

Tattoo #7 is actually #7 and #13, as one element was added eight years later. We'll focus on #7 now, which is the flower on the inside of Erika's left wrist.


Erika, in her own words, went through what she calls "an experimental phase" in her life, during which she began dating women. To show her "true colors" at the time, Erika and her cousin, who was also dating women, got the same tattoo...a rainbow-petaled flower above a doubled female sign, to proudly display her alternate lifestyle.

The flower was inked at a shop called Murda Ink Tattoos, in Jamaica, New York.

Flashing forward to the Summer of 2006, Erika was having a cover-up done (see #8 and #12 below) and asked, as an afterthought, if the artist could cover the interlocking female insignia, as well. Erika's fiancee (now husband) didn't like the "advertisement" of the prior lifestyle. The leaves were added under the flower at Triple X Tattoo, now known as Red Rocket Tattoo on 46 West 36th Street in Manhattan.

Tattoo #8 was a boyfriend's name, inked along the front of her waistline, by Joe at Between the Lines. This name was covered up (see below) in 2007.

Tattoo #9 is a Chinese dragon on the middle of Erika's back. Her dress at the company holiday party afforded me a great opportunity to photograph it without her having to remove any clothing.


Joe at Between the Lines did this piece as well. Erika recalls just hanging out at Joe's shop and talking about how she wanted a big piece for her back. Joe was happy to oblige, and drew up the dragon free-hand.

She said that it took about ten weeks and three sittings to complete. The reason for the multiple sittings? The pain. To quote Erika, "I'll never forget how much that shit hurt."

The other elements of the tattoo are the kanji. When I asked Erika what they meant, she said, "Well, one of them is supposed to mean "to love life":

and the other is supposed to acknowledge that former lifestyle and say "to love women":

Erika, when she told me this, seemed to have her doubts, and was receptive to the idea of me looking into their actual meanings.

I went to my resident Chinese language expert, who quickly debunked their meanings. They do not mean what she thinks they do, he said. Because they don't make much sense. The best translation he could give was "good girl" for the top and "born/appear" for the bottom.

If you look at the kanji for "love,"


you'll notice it's not similar to any of the kanji in the tattoo.

Tattoo #10 may look familiar, as it is the first one I noticed on Erika which started out this whole business. Despite "never being crazy about tattoos on arms," Erika inked this in the Summer of 2003, while on a date. She doesn't recall the name of the shop, just that it was somewhere in the East Village. Of course, the East Village is likely one of the few places in the U.S. where tattoo/piercing shops outnumber Starbucks.

So, Erika still had a soft spot for little girl things, unicorns and fairies and such, so she designed this fairy, using several different drawings to create a composite she liked.


She designed the wings and changed the outfit color to red. Why red? As a tribute to her younger brother, who was in the Bloods, a gang whose colors are red. I, for one, appreciate the irony of a pixie sporting gang colors. This is definitely a tough, New York fairy, not some wimpy woodland nymph!

Tattoo #11 also has a pretty interesting story. Erika got married in the Spring of 2007, but she met Lance, her husband-to-be in February 2004.

They dated for a couple of weeks, but she knew he was still dating another woman. Erika thought that this other woman, who had been seeing the guy first, was going to be a problem and that, as long as she was still in the picture, their relationship wouldn't go anywhere.

Erika made a conscious decision to "steal him away" once and for all. Because he had kids from a previous relationship, she plotted to surprise him on Father's Day with a surprise trip to Florida. He had never been to South Beach in Miami and she wanted him to experience it. And so she did.

The day before they were set to return to New York, they were walking around South Beach and they stumbled upon a tattoo shop. Lance already had one small tattoo with some kanji, so Erika suggested that he go in and get a new one. The subject of tattoos had come up before (how could it not when you already had 10 pieces?), so they went in and he got a new piece on his
arm, a huge lion with a crown, representing his last name in Hindi.

It's incredibly hard to be an inked person and watch someone get a tattoo and not want one for oneself. Therefore, Erika found a piece on the wall that she liked and had it done on her back, below the bluebird, above the dragon.


Sorry, the name of the shop and the artist are not recalled.

Tattoo #12 came in the early Summer of 2006, around late June/early July. She and Lance were engaged, and she wanted to cover up the name of an ex-boyfriend tattooed across her lower abdomen.

A co-worker recommended Red Rocket Tattoo, and it was there that she had this lotus inked on her waistline:


Yep, no name anymore!

Now, for some disclosure. Erika is the first Inked Person to let me photograph her stomach for Tattoosday. I did have a mutual friend present, Sephora, who was the first person who hosted a tattoo here.

Erika wanted the lotus for two reasons. In addition to wanting something pretty to cover up an old name, she had heard that the lotus was a symbol of fertility, and she hopes to have kids some day. She hopes the lotus will be lend good luck for future procreative purposes.


There are over one hundred various types of lotus, so I can't pinpoint the exact one this is modeled after.

Once this cover-up was done, Erika asked for the leaves on the flower mentioned above to cover up the double female insignia.

Well. a hearty thanks to Erika for her participation here! She definitely holds the record for most tattoos offered up to the Tattoosday masses. Her ink is closing out the year for Tattoosday. Here's hoping that her lotus will spawn a healthy blossoming of tattoo posts here in 2008!

Maggie and the Senses

This post, originally called "Twenty-two Tattoos" has been revised. I ran into a woman from Boston named Lindsay in front of Madison Square Garden on Monday, September 24, and she let me photograph three of her 22 tattoos. Alas, it was a bright, sunny day and the shots were awash with light and did not do the body art justice. I appealed to Lindsay here and she answered my call, sending me much better shots, and an extra one to boot. So, thanks again, to Lindsay. So I didn't take these specific photos, but I gave it a try. The end result is the same, I hope: an interesting post about some great tattoos.

The first piece that Lindsay proudly showed me was this one, called "Maggie":

What struck me about this was its color. You see a lot of skulls in tattoo art, but they're seldom this shade, a pink that illuminates off of the skin. This was inked by Spiro at Superchango Tattoo Studio, just north of Houston in The Woodlands, Texas. Spiro is not listed on the shop's site currently, but his home page on Inked Nation here still shows an affiliation.

One of the things I ask people with multiple artwork when I meet them on the street, since I can't very well photograph everything on them, is what piece means the most to them. In Lindsay's case, it was a chest piece that was still a work in progress, so she offered up "Maggie," as she called her. Lindsay explained that Maggie was an original piece created by Spiro based on a painting he had done for a tattoo convention. Maggie is unusual because most of Lindsay's work she designed herself.

Maggie is an anti-drug tattoo, Lindsay explained. It's not visible in the tattoo but, off to the left, there is some additional work that she had Spiro add, like pills, a syringe, and other drug-related designs. Maggie represents what a life of drugs could produce. Lindsay wears Maggie as an anchor, a reminder of what could result from unhealthy choices.

Maggie sits on Lindsay's right shoulder. Her left arm, I noticed had this extremely interesting piece:

When I asked about it, Lindsay explained that she is creating a series of tattoos dedicated to her five senses, which she feels extremely connected to. Each sense is artistically represented with a different type of wings. This blue and yellow hand, on the outer left forearm, was barely visible in my attempt to photograph it, and represents the sense of Touch. This one is credited to Dave Boseman at Superchango.

She has the additional sense of sight on her inner left forearm:


Lindsay explained that "Sight" was done at a tattoo convention in Rhode Island.

When Lindsay so kindly responded to my request for some do-over photos, she sent me this one as well:

And I took the chance to add another one of mine...that I didn't think to show you. It is the chorus to my all time favorite song. Also done by Spiro at Superchango.

Made to Heal by Our Lady Peace

The chorus is:

I'm a thief, a liar
An angel in the fire
I'm a king, a drug
The push that comes to shove
I'm a freak, a star
I'm everything you are
I'm your jesus, I'm your pride

The song "Made to Heal" appears on Our Lady Peace's album Spiritual Machines.

The photo file name is entitled "Ribs," so I will assume that is why I didn't see this tattoo. I'll see if Lindsay can clarify that for me.

Thanks to Lindsay for her cooperation on this post and her willingness to share.