Amy Honors Her Grandmother with a Brandon Maldonado Design (via Zac Brown)

Last month, Tattoosday reader Amy was the lucky winner in our Brooklyn Tattoo t-shirt giveaway.

We struck up a transcontinental conversation, and she offered to share some of her work with us, in what we  call a little "tattoorism."

Let's take a look:

She credited the work to Tony Carey at Hold Fast Tattoo in Prescott, Arizona.

Amy explained, "it's based on the original artwork of Brandon Maldonado's "Our Lady of Merciful Fate" which was featured on the Zac Brown Band's album Uncaged."

via brandonmaldonado.com

She added, "I was looking for something to honor my grandmother and I had been wanting a day of the dead tattoo ... when I saw this album cover I fell in love with Brandon's art."

Thanks to Amy for being a top-notch Tattoosday reader and generously sharing her ink with us here on the site!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tattoosday Goes to L.A. - Javie's Sublime Tattoo

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, I popped in and talked to a few of the artists in San Pedro's Ace of Hearts Tattoo.

Fortunately for me, they were also in the sharing mood. Check out this piece on the upper right arm of artist Javie Dev:

This awesome tattoo was an appropriate one to feature, as Southern Californians would attest. The work refers to the ska/punk band Sublime, who hail from neighboring Long Beach.

Their debut album, 40 Oz. to Freedom, featured this cover art:

What makes this tattoo particularly special is that Javie got it from Opie Ortiz, the artist who designed the album cover. Opie was one of Javie's mentors and did the tattoo at American Beauty Tattoo Parlor in Sunset Beach.

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

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Matt's Black Flag Tribute

I met Matt on the 59th Street subway platform in Brooklyn back in October 2011 and he shared one of his tattoos with me.

Before I proceed though, I should point out that this is my last photo from 2011. I was holding out to make this an elaborate post, combined with a book review, but it just never evolved that way.

And, as Tattoosday recently reached its five year milestone (more on that later), we're going to try things a little differently around here. Of course, that has nothing to do with this tattoo:

This tattoo is based on the album cover for Black Flag's My War.

Note the slight artistic differences:

Matt credited this work to Oscar Varela, a visiting artist at New York Hardcore Tattoo in Manhattan.

When I asked Matt why he chose to pay tribute to this album with a tattoo, he explained, "That's been one of my favorite hardcore albums of all time ... I grew up in Anaheim, California, so, you know, the So Cal scene and everything like that ... gotta keep it real."

I had originally wanted to tie this piece in with a review of Henry Rollins' book Occupants.

With Rollins the lead singer of Black Flag, it seemed like a cool tie-in.

The problem is, I really couldn't wrap my head around a book review for the site, but I can give it a rousing endorsement. The volume consists of Rollins' photos as he has traveled the world, and essays he has written to accompany the images. The words are profound and the linked photos are stark and moving. I strongly suggest that people check out the book.

Thanks to Matt for sharing his Black Flag tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and for waiting patiently these past months for me to post it!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

A Trio of Tattoos from Devin

I met Devin walking down Third Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, back in September.

He had a lot of ink, so I just grabbed a shot of his left leg:

He broke these three pieces down for me, explaining that the butterfly on the top is an old Sailor Jerry flash piece that was his friend Shawn first tattoo as an apprentice at Ron & Dave's Tattooing on Staten Island.

His friend Shawn's second tattoo as an apprentice was the skull at the bottom:

In the middle of these two pieces is a piece of art that Devin attributed to artwork from the first album by a Staten Island band called The Cable Car Theory:

Thanks to Devin for sharing these three tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Christina's Frankenstein Girl

I met Christina at the end of June, unable to help noticing this colorful neck tattoo:

Christina, who is a prep chef at a catering hall, as well as a club promoter, explained that this tattoo is based on the album art from a group called Mindless Self-Indulgence. I believe she was referring to the band's 2000 release Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy:

She credited an artist named Serge for doing the tattoo at Tattoo Frenzy in Lindenhurst, New York.

Thanks to Christina for sharing her Frankenstein girl with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Panic in New York - A Visit from Victor

I always like visits from old friends of the site, but when I bumped into Victor in the Penn Plaza Borders back in May, I realized I hadn't seen him in a while. Turns out he had moved out of New York and has been residing in Pennsylvania.

Before we go further, perhaps you should reacquaint yourselves with Victor's "tat-alog". He first appeared here, showing off eight tattoos, then we checked out five more cinematic tattoos here, and then, last year, an iconic piece here.This will mark the fourth consecutive year Victor has appeared on the site, so we'll make it a good, no, great one:

This incredible David Bowie tattoo was inked by Victor's brother, Eddie Bonacore, at 5-7-0 Tattooing Co. in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

The image above, of course, is from the iconic Bowie album Aladdin Sane.

Victor told me that Eddie's Bowie portrait had garnered three awards at a recent tattoo convention.

It was a pleasure seeing our old friend Victor after a year, and we thank him, and his brother Eddie, for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.