Monday, March 31, 2008
The Rising Sun
Despite the occasional raindrop, the journey didn't warrant an umbrella. As I ambled toward Times Square, I passed a gentleman smoking a cigarette outside of a building. His arms were inked.
I walked to the corner contemplating whether I should head back and ask him about his tattoos. I dismissed the weak excuse of precipitation and wandered back and introduced myself.
He had multiple tattoos on both arms, but what jumped out initially were the pin-ups on the interior of his forearms:
I especially liked his newest piece, on the right, with the Stars & Stripes theme and what appeared to be a rising sun tattooed on the lower right buttock of the woman. "Great detail," I thought.
I handed him a printout and said that Tattoosday averages a modest 150 hits a day. He indicated he had a blog too, with significantly more traffic. I asked if I could get the site to link and he hesitated.
Remembering that he had met me only minutes before, and that people generally have strong opinions about lifestyles that may be different than theirs, his pause was understandable when he disclosed that his blog, The House of Richard Windsor (Mature Readers only), is dedicated to the fetish of, well, spanking.
I'm an open-minded guy and such a revelation hardly phased me. If anything, it made the encounter more interesting.
So, going by the name Richard Windsor, the possessor of the above tattoos is a 44-year old originally from the English town of Swindon.
He offered up the pin-ups happily. They actually represented the lifestyle he lived. On his left forearm is the "good girl". He drew her himself* and she was later inked by Kelly Krantz at FlyRite Studio in Brooklyn. The shop has previously been featured on Tattoosday here.
The opposite arm bears the Naughty Girl, as tattooed by Krantz most recently. Both were done at the same shop, although Krantz is now working out of Hold Fast Tattoos, in Williams-
burg, Brooklyn.
It was then that I made the additional connection. I said to him: "Oh, the mark on the Naughty Girl is a hand print! I thought it was a rising sun!"
Richard smiled and laughed, "Well, it is."
Brilliant.
Anyway, thanks to Mr. Windsor for being so open and sharing his ladies with the denizens of Tattoosday!
*NOTE: Richard wrote to me, clarifying the design of the "good girl" after this posted:
Thanks to Richard Windsor for a) clarifying this matter and b) sending visitors this way to check out his pin-ups over here on Tattoosday!
I just want to clarify a little bit what I told you. While I did indeed sketch the first tattoo, all credit should really go to Kelly as his interpretation of my "very rough" drawing by far exceeded my expectations. He took my ideas and the finished product is actually his work, I shouldn't really take credit for what he created. All I did was provide the ideas and the original sketch, which in fairness was 100 times inferior to his creation.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
A Trio of Stars, Remembering a Father
I was in the store yesterday and the opportunity presented itself. From the sound of it, every employee in the store has ink, and most of them seem to be open to talking with Tattoosday.
But Samantha took the lead and offered up the three stars on her feet:
These were inked by Joe at Studio Enigma.
The triad of stars is a memorial to Samantha's father, who passed away about five years ago. She initially got the one large star, but then added the two others about 2 months ago to make a set of three, representing her and her two siblings, a brother and sister.
She chose to do these on her foot because it seemed to her like a different spot.
Thanks again for shining your stars on the blog, Samantha!
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Bar Code
Even something as simple as a bar code can go wrong.
ps. Thank you all for your emails, and pictures, I'm sorry that I don't have time to reply. Most of the pictures you send me are pretty ugly but some of them lack the "horrible" factor so they land on the waiting list. Thanks for your support, and enjoy the tats !
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Cool Tat
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Skull Mask
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tattoos I Know: Brooke's Back
Well, she's back. Literally. The other day I spotted her wearing a sweater over a halter-top, so I thought I'd invite her back to show off her previously alluded-to koi.
From a distance, they look like wings, or perhaps even eyes:
But a closer examination reveals that they are two koi. For more on koi, jump here and follow the links.
Just to recap, Brooke is from Utah and currently lives in Hoboken.
Her first koi was inked on the right side of her back in May 2005. She was in Boise, Idaho, at the time, reeling from the end of a ten-year relationship. She was in a watering hole called Bittercreek Alehouse where, she estimates, she consumed a pitcher of mojitos. It was decided that a tattoo was on the menu for the evening so she headed over to 6th Street Studio in downtown Boise.
Brooke had heard the expression "bleeding out" when people had gone through the tattoo process. Rather than the threateningly negative meaning the phrase may have in the medical community, or the technical expression of flawed inking, Brooke understands the expression to reflect the fact that many people find the pain and the minimal blood shed of the tattoo process to be redemptive and healing.
Brooke spent time looking through books and found a design she liked, a traditional koi with a background of cherry blossom petals and waves. However, when working with John the artist, she had him enlarge the koi, brighten its color, and remove the background elements.
To her, the koi on her back symbolized moving past the ended relationship into a new chapter of her life.
Flash forward to December, seven months later, she was headed back to Boise. There was a celebrity event she wanted to attend with her friends, at which adult film director/producer/star Ron Jeremy was the main attraction. She met him at the event and the next night, was back at Bittercreek, enjoying their mojitos.
She headed back to 6th Street Studio and had John even out her back, placing another koi on the left side, facing the other.
The symmetry brought a nice balance to the ink on her back. John also gave a little touch-up to the original koi on her right side.
And here's a Tattoosday first: Brooke has provided pictures from the shop as she was getting the second koi:
And here's a photo with Brooke and Chris, the artist at 6th Street Studio:
Brooke loves her koi, which people often mistake for wings from afar. However, he finds them symbolic of her perseverance and courage.
There are many stories about koi and their significance in body art. One legend is that, when koi swim upstream and reach the source of the river, they transform into dragons. Brooke sees parallels to this in her own life, having swum away from home and reached the East Coast. She is not a dragon, but feels that her tattoos represent her transformation here in the New York City area.
Thanks gain to Brooke for sharing her ink and the great back story (no pun intended) behind these and the prior tattoo here. Next time you drink mojitos, think of koi and good fortune!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Alicio's Barbed Cross
Last Sunday at the laundromat, I ran into Alicio who had this simple tattoo on the inside of his left forearm:
Designs are never just designs.
Alicio explained, "When I was growing up, religion was a big part of my life, but it caused me a lot of pain. I wanted something to represent that."
Alicio got this cross, with barbs on it to represent the pain. The tattoo is about two years old and he had it inked in Tucson, Arizona, where he lives. He was in Brooklyn, visiting.
Thanks to Alicio for his willingness to share his barbed ink with Tattoosday.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Random Shoulder Piece
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The First Two Elements of Omar's Sleeve
His name is Omar and he has two tattoos, both on his inner right forearm:
His first one is the nautical star, definitely a traditional piece:
He explained that, as he understood it, the nautical star tattoo is a common piece that represents a star guiding a sailor home on the right path. He had flames added to symbolize change, as it so often does in tattooing.
This was not inked at any shop, but by one of Omar's friends who is just learning the art of the tattoo. He pointed out that the line work was not perfect, but I wouldn't have noticed it without a harder glance.
The second piece is a traditional sugar skull, very similar to the one that appeared in Tattoosday's "Rad Tattoo from Nebraska" post:
Omar had first gone into Brooklyn Ink and discussed his second tattoo it was there that the artist recommended that he should stay traditional to be consistent with the nautical star.
He ended up in SoHo at Whatever Tattoo II where he had the sugar skull added. I'll be frank, I thought that the design was just a Day of the Dead piece and only recently learned of the significance of the sugar skull. These items are usually associated with the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday, and are made specifically for the ocasion using colored sugar. In the context of the tattoo they represent the dichotomy of life and death. This tattoo is only about two weeks old.
Omar says he plans to have a full sleeve dedicated to traditional tattoo symbols. He next hopes to add to the background of the skull with some flowers and other designs.
Thanks to Omar for his contribution to Tattoosday!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tattoos I Know: Paul Part 2, or, The Traditional Japanese Sleeve
Here's a Tattoosday first: a repeat subject in this blog's history.
Paul appeared here first, showing off his first tattoo, a dragon. In this post, Paul returns, showing off a full sleeve on his left arm.
The sleeve consists of traditional elements: there is a dragon, a lotus, a mask, a lily, and a koi.
If you went back in a time machine 8 or 9 years to visit Paul's arm, you would have seen a grim reaper holding a skull on the bicep:
and some roses in a pattern on the forearm. These earlier tattoos have been covered by elements in the sleeve. Even when told where the original ink lies, it's extremely difficult to see the previous work.
The upper arm began with the dragon cover-up:
The dark rock below the dragon covered the old piece. This design, which included the aum or om symbol at the top of the arm, was inked by Carlos at Rising Dragon Tattoos in Chelsea back in 2001. The aum symbol is the Siddhaṃ script version and is a mystical and sacred symbol in Indian religions. Note that this om is different than the one that appeare din the first Tattoosday post here.
Paul was not 100% thrilled with the dragon, so when he decided to finish the sleeve, the following year, he went elsewhere.
The lower part of the arm, which is the more prominent part of the sleeve, was inked by Mike Bellamy at Red Rocket Tattoo in Manhattan, although at the time his shop was known as Triple X Tattoo.
The largest piece is the koi. It appears to be a golden koi.
There's a whole discussion here on what koi tattoos symbolize.
In addition, one can read here about the symbolic nature of the lotus flower in tattoos.
Paul also referred to the other flower as a spider lily.
However, there are so many different varieties of specific families of flowers, that I often have a hard time finding good pictures to represent the tattoos.
The additional element in the sleeve which is only a small part, but is still interesting is what Paul referred to as the "kite mask":
Masks are traditional parts of Japanese tattoo design, but this specific one is hard to pinpoint for me. Here are some Chinese mask kites. Yet, the fact that I cannot easily find one on the web, just fascinates me more.
Paul estimates that the whole sleeve (including the dragon from 2001) took about 20 hours of work, and he did it in 6-7 sittings, mostly in 2002.
Paul sent me the following photos from the New York City Tattoo Convention, where Mike Bellamy did some of the work on Paul's sleeve:That's Paul and Mike on the far left of the photo:
Thanks to Paul for helping me update this post with additional shots!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Regina
Regina must be proud, her badly written name on a pice of dough looks pretty sparkly on this guy's arm
ps. It's 501 post in this collection, I suck at noticing things like anniversaries and round number posts (And I didn't notice the 500 post yesterday), but hey, 500 is quite a lot
Friday, March 14, 2008
Mandala Tattoo
My long time customer who is in progress of completing her blackwork sleeve, came in today to do another potion. I was given the green light to do what I feel like and that is every tattoo artist's dream come true.
Most times, its the customers who want to have certain kind of design on them, but on rare occasions, the tattoo artist gets to choose and do something they feel which is right for that individual.
I decided to mix 2 flavours into one - Polynesian and a Mandala to signify "wholeness" and used for ritual purposes.
Even though their beginnings may be linked to specific religious purposes, mandalas are popular with tattoo connoiseurs of all faiths.
I modified the Dharma Wheel: the eight hubs are a symbol of the Eightfold Path*, leading to perfection -
1. Right Belief
2. Right Resolution
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Living
6. Right Effort
7. Right Thinking
8. Peace of Mind through Meditation
Mandalas are particularly popular in henna tattoos. By definition, a mandala is any one of a variety of geometric designs that symobilize the universe. These designs are ritualistically used by Hindi and Buddist during to aid in meditation.