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.