Holy Shit, Nikko Hurtado!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Skull, Snake and a Sword
This happens when you want to have a radical, bad-ass tattoo a little bit too much.
Dragons, Dragons, Everywhere!
On a recent trip to Rite-Aid with my older daughter, I warned her: "I don't know what it is about this place, but I always spot tattoos here." In fact, at least three prior posts on Tattoosday have featured ink photographed under the drugstore's fluorescent lights.
On Thursday the 25th, as I headed to the pharmacy, I ran into Alise Orlando-Aly, who was proudly displaying at least half a dozen black dragons on arms, neck, and legs.
She has a dozen dragons in all, including two on her lower back for her children that she couldn't show me in the store. Those, representing her kids, are her favorites. However, for the purpose of modesty, I snapped shots of the two on the outside of her calves.
Her work was all done by Echo at Masterpiece Tattoo in Staten Island, where she lives. She was inspired by the Mortal Kombat book series and, her tattoos started as pictures, then each was customized by the artist in collaboration with her.
Check out the right side:
And the left:
Both pieces took five hours, combined, to ink. She added that the left side is actually a cover-up of a hammerhead shark.
When I asked her her name, she said I could use her surname as well. "I'm proud of my tattoos," she smiled, "I have nothing to be ashamed of".
I agree whole-heartedly and thank Alise for sharing her dragons with Tattoosday!
On Thursday the 25th, as I headed to the pharmacy, I ran into Alise Orlando-Aly, who was proudly displaying at least half a dozen black dragons on arms, neck, and legs.
She has a dozen dragons in all, including two on her lower back for her children that she couldn't show me in the store. Those, representing her kids, are her favorites. However, for the purpose of modesty, I snapped shots of the two on the outside of her calves.
Her work was all done by Echo at Masterpiece Tattoo in Staten Island, where she lives. She was inspired by the Mortal Kombat book series and, her tattoos started as pictures, then each was customized by the artist in collaboration with her.
Check out the right side:
And the left:
Both pieces took five hours, combined, to ink. She added that the left side is actually a cover-up of a hammerhead shark.
When I asked her her name, she said I could use her surname as well. "I'm proud of my tattoos," she smiled, "I have nothing to be ashamed of".
I agree whole-heartedly and thank Alise for sharing her dragons with Tattoosday!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Bad Angel
Just because it's your back it does not mean that you can hire someone who should have finished his / hers art career at etch-a-sketch. And what's with the head ? Half a brain ?
Friday, April 25, 2008
The World is His
Thursday (April 17) was the most beautiful day yet this spring, but I was at work sans camera and passing out Tattoosday fliers without the possibility of taking pictures seemed lame.
Remember, this blog is not just about tattoos, but about the pursuit of interesting tattoo stories as well.
Thanks to Brooke, however, I was armed with a camera phone on my lunch break, as I ran a couple of errands.
And it was walking on 23rd street that I met a guy from my neck of the woods with some ink on his arms. I am always fascinated by examples of words people choose to inscribe in their flesh. This is on his right forearm:
Our tattoo host said that it's a quote from the film Scarface, one of Tony Montana's many mottos, delivered with gusto by Al Pacino. I couldn't find any direct quotes on the web, but it makes sense, based on the existence of a video game called Scarface: The World is Yours.
In addition, his left arm had three shamrocks, which were recently inked:
It's a celebration of his Irish ancestry. They're just outlines right now, but he plans to fill them in with green, orange, and white ink, to represent the flag of Ireland.
Both of these tattoos were inked at Groove Tattoos in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. When I mentioned that I had work from Body Art Studios, he flashed some print on the backs of his biceps, indicating that those were inked there too.
Thanks to our anonymous friend for sharing his ink here at Tattoosday!
Remember, this blog is not just about tattoos, but about the pursuit of interesting tattoo stories as well.
Thanks to Brooke, however, I was armed with a camera phone on my lunch break, as I ran a couple of errands.
And it was walking on 23rd street that I met a guy from my neck of the woods with some ink on his arms. I am always fascinated by examples of words people choose to inscribe in their flesh. This is on his right forearm:
Our tattoo host said that it's a quote from the film Scarface, one of Tony Montana's many mottos, delivered with gusto by Al Pacino. I couldn't find any direct quotes on the web, but it makes sense, based on the existence of a video game called Scarface: The World is Yours.
In addition, his left arm had three shamrocks, which were recently inked:
It's a celebration of his Irish ancestry. They're just outlines right now, but he plans to fill them in with green, orange, and white ink, to represent the flag of Ireland.Both of these tattoos were inked at Groove Tattoos in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. When I mentioned that I had work from Body Art Studios, he flashed some print on the backs of his biceps, indicating that those were inked there too.
Thanks to our anonymous friend for sharing his ink here at Tattoosday!
Coverup
Coverup of an old hand-poked tattoo of a Centipede. Changed it into a Neo Tribalistic Dragon.
Electra-fying!
I love Carmen Electra (especially when she got snotted on by King Kong in the extras of Scary Movie 3*) so naturally I adore this perfect Mike De Vries portrait.
*Yes, I've seen the extras of Scary Movie 3. What of it?
Thursday, April 24, 2008
A Picture-Perfect Portrait
Slyvester Stallone's favourite tattooist Mike De Vries with a stunning colour piece!
1st Tattoo Event
24th April 2008 @ Chillies - Immortal Nite.
This is the very first sponsored event by Immortal Tattoos @ Chillies.
Carlston (AcidCrue) and Myself checking up on the gear before I get it on !!
Getting Started...
Almost there...
The Final Product - Chucky in Dotted Works.
PS : Got too wasted to take more pics, but there will be more in upcoming updates. Hick* Hahaha !!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
A Double Shot: Steve and Krista Show Off Some Awesome Ink
Last Friday, my head was spinning. It seemed that there were tattoos everywhere. They were as prevalent as the blossoms on the trees. I passed out a few fliers, but hadn’t received any commitments from people to chat. The good weather means that we here at Tattoosday can be more selective in our choices, hopefully bringing you more intricate and complicated tattoos.
Just outside of Penn Station, I saw a man and a woman chatting in the sun. The guy had a bright red tattoo on his forearm. I couldn’t tell if the woman had ink, as her back was to me when I approached.
In introduced myself to Steve, who has six tattoos in all. He offered up the arm piece first, as it was the most meaningful of all his work:
Just outside of Penn Station, I saw a man and a woman chatting in the sun. The guy had a bright red tattoo on his forearm. I couldn’t tell if the woman had ink, as her back was to me when I approached.
In introduced myself to Steve, who has six tattoos in all. He offered up the arm piece first, as it was the most meaningful of all his work:
Steve plays bass for a band out of Long Island called The Devilles. Check them out here. He described them as "punk rock n roll". Their MySpace profile categorizes them as "punk/blues/soul". Here's Steve at a gig:
To break the tattoo down a little, the quote in the banner is “When I got the music/I got a place to go,” which are lyrics from the song "Radio" by Rancid, from their 1994 album, Let’s Go. A little research proved that “Radio” was originally released on the Radio Radio Radio EP a year earlier, with Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong as a second guitarist in a brief stint with the band. Armstrong is even shares writing credit on the track. The album version, post-Bille Joe, has a significantly different arrangement.
Here's a little video of Rancid performing "Radio":
The guitar in Steve’s tattoo is modeled after his own instrument, a Gretsch.
He explained that the tattoo exemplifies the role of music in Steve's life. He finds it very therapeutic and acknowledges that, without music, "I would not be the same person I am today, or even be here at all." It's the biggest, most important thing in his life.
This was designed and inked by Greg Fly at The Tattoo Shop in Medford, Long Island.
Steve also offered up this stomach piece:
This is a direct quote from the Clash song of the same name from the London Calling album. Pepe at The Tattoo Shop did this piece and it represents Steve's belief that he'll be able to make an impression on this world before he dies.
In the course of talking to Steve, the young lady with him was an active participant in the discussion. Her name is Krista and she works as an apprentice at The Tattoo Shop where Steve's work was done. She said she had about six or seven tattoos in all. After talking with Steve, I asked her if she would like to show off her ink for Tattoosday as well.
She tried to downplay her body art, saying that, compared to Steve, her stories weren’t that interesting. I begged to differ but, to be perfectly honest, she could have been right. I only saw one of her tattoos, but it is truly spectacular:
Krista was born in upstate New York but she grew up in North Carolina. She remembers always being fascinated by the "Western motif" and when she drew up the rudimentary sketch of this tattoo, this was in the forefront of the vision. She took the basic premise to a tattooist named Zam at Visionary (a custom shop). She told him "this is [basically] what I want. Go nuts with it." Like I said, the end result is breath-taking. I believe this is Tattoosday's first chest piece.
Krista wanted me to plug her shop's show on April 26th at Club Bianco in Hauppauge. Check out The Tattoo Shop's page here to get all the details.
Thanks again to Krista and Steve for sharing their awesome tattoos!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
New School Swallow
Swallow tattoos once common among sailors years ago now seem to have been rediscovered and transformed into a new school style of tattoo. It is not uncommon to see some retro chick with swallow tattoos emblazoned across the chest, abdomen or even on the arms.
Sailors would have swallows tattooed as a sort of metaphor for finding their way, because the legend goes that if you were ever lost at sea if you saw a swallow you could follow it home. There are different versions of why people get swallows and can also mean a person has done time in prison or 'bird'.
Swallow tattoos seem to be popular with those into Rockabilly and are usually tattooed on either side of the neck for guys or across the chest or abdomen for chicks. The most famous person with this style of tattoo is Marc Almond of SoftCell fame a British group popular in the 80's and early 90's.
The traditional tattoo means: A sailor gets a set of swallows on his chest. The story goes if he or she drowns, the swallows come down and lift his soul to the heavens.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tattoos from the Blogosphere: Introducing Mat’s Incredible Back Piece
With the exception of one photo sent by my Dad way back at the advent of Tattoosday, everything on this blog has resulted from an encounter in the streets of New York City.
However, we’re branching out, and I am actually going to feature tattoos I have never seen in person. A cyber-field trip, if you will, to the canvas of a fellow blogger, Mat Giordano, whose This Blog Right Here, is a favorite web destination of mine.
Needless to say, this is one of the more impressive pieces I have seen, and I was eager to post it but you know me, I love the back story (no pun intended). I e-mailed Mat some questions and he didn’t get back to me for a while. Finally, through instant messaging, he not only sent me new pictures of other tattoos (subject for a later post), but gave me the full rundown of this incredible tattoo.
Me: I need to know what [the elephant] was all about
Mat: Well, it's actually a simple one. I have a love for African black elephants: their patterning, symmetry, ear structure, [and] demeanor….and the platelets of jewelry and Tibetan skull crown symbolize a Tibetan tradition.
Me: Since you were a kid?
Mat: Yes, since I was a baby, I think. [The] tradition [is] where there's five skulls: the three in the center
symbolizing my small family…being book-ended by prosperity to the right and longevity to the left, depending on how you are looking at it, I suppose.
[Five-Skull Crown: The skulls stuck onto the five points of the crown represent the five main afflictions, anger, greed, pride, envy and ignorance, conquered and transmuted into the five wisdoms--ultimate reality, discriminating, equalizing, all-accomplishing, and mirror wisdoms. Cited here.]
Me: How long did it take/how many sittings? Was it one shop that you had it inked in?
Mat: Nope, a friend that sleeved both of my legs started the basic line work….and in Orlando, I ran into this up-and-coming fella, BJ, in a bar. He whipped out his digital camera, took some snapshots, said 'don't make any plans on Sunday'. He went, bought some reference books, and free-handed the entire thing. Four sittings total, about 25 hours.
Me: So, BJ did the majority of the work in Florida, right? After a friend of yours did the basic outline in Philly?
Mat: My back credit will go to BJ at Built 4 Speed Tattoo in Orlando, Florida. It should be noted that Built 4 Speed is a custom shop only...
Me: ...Custom meaning, by appointment only, no flash on the walls, all original work, right?
Mat: Yeah, no flash basically. That's the point I wanted to make.
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