Ink on 45, Courtesy of Erica (Musician Monday!)

It has been a while since we celebrated "Musician Mondays" here on Tattoosday so, it is with pleasure that we return with a musical tattoo.

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting my wife's cousin Erica for the first time.

She and her girlfriend Moki came over to visit for a small gathering at our home set up to memorialize another cousin who had recently passed away overseas.

And, whereas Moki had significantly more tattoos (we'll see one tomorrow), Erica has only one, and she was kind enough to share it here:

People born in the CD age might not recognize this as a "spider," which was a piece of plastic inserted into the center of small 45-rpm records that allowed them to be played on the small spindles on record players. Records were those things that we, back in the Dark Ages, listened to music on.

Erica currently is the bass player for a band called Poof Pony. She has played in other acts as well, including Turbonegra (a San Francisco-based all-girl tribute band to Norwegian punk band Turbonegro) and punk stalwarts MDC (in the 1990's).

Erica explains how she came by this tattoo:

"I got it done at Temple Tattoo in Oakland - it may have been by Jonah Levin but I wouldn't swear by it ... My friend Kristen had twin hellions that must have been two or three at the time - she had an appointment at Temple and let me know in no uncertain terms that I had a choice - I could either babysit the monsters or go with her to get my own. That meant no choice to me! Since I was turning 45 and love records, the tattoo was a no-brainer. Perhaps I should have thought about it though because quite soon after the ink had settled it was pointed out to me that I had actually put the Spin Magazine logo on my arm and that was just about as cool as getting the Rolling Stones tongue logo (not). I have since seen another bass player with it in exactly the same spot, and it's been confused with being both a swastika and a hazardous waste symbol, which just proves that I don't always run with the brightest crowd."

Thanks to Erica for sharing this iconic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

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Musician Monday: Camille Harp's Bird Flies Free

It has been a while since we celebrated "Musician Monday," but the early onset of spring has brought out the tattoos and last week in Penn station, I met Camille, who shared this part of her left sleeve:

We focused on this segment in particular:

Camille told me she went to her artist, Fernando Casillas, at Think Ink Tattoo in Norman, Oklahoma, and just told him she wanted a bird flying out of a cage. "I just like the idea of setting yourself free," she explained. Work from Think Ink has appeared on Tattoosday previously, here.

It wasn't until the following day, when I noticed that Camille had followed us on Twitter, that I realized that she was a musician. I had caught her while she was heading back to Oklahoma, and was nervous about catching the right train and making her flight in time.

Camille, as it turns out, is Camille Harp, a singer-songwriter from a musical family, who has an album forthcoming called "Little Bit of Light". If you go to CamilleHarp.com, you can download her song "One by One". It's a lovely song that only makes me wish I could hear her in concert. She has a wonderful voice and soulful tone.

You can also grab her record "Like the Rain" here.

Thanks to Camille for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Please check out her website and/or her fan page on Facebook and support this wonderful artist!

We'll leave you with a performance from 2010, in which Camille sings with her mother in Oklahoma City:

This entry is ©2012 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.
 

Musician Monday: A Trio of Tattoos from Justin Y. of Everyone Dies in Utah

 Back in May, I met Justin in the Borders at Penn Plaza and he shared his three tattoos. Justin had recently been signed to a band from Texas called Everyone Dies in Utah and he was moving out from Maryland. He offered up his knuckle tattoos:

Justin has been playing drums for about eleven years and loves drums, which explains these knuckles. Of course, I would be remiss if I mentioned knuckle tattoos and didn't direct you to KnuckleTattoos.com to see more, courtesy of my friend Nathan.

The most compelling tattoo Justin shared was this piece, on his right forearm:

He explained:

"I have a little sister, she's ten now, but it was last year, so she was nine, and she was all bummed that I was moving really far and touring and stuff, so I told her I would get a tattoo for her ... I was trying to think of what would be absolutely unique, and the only thing I could think of was fingerprints. So, I decided it would be cool to get her hand print, so I went out and got a big old ink pad and did her hand print on a piece of paper, took it in, and he [Jason Kramer at Positive Image Tattoos in Baltimore] did all of his magic and got it done."

Justin's third tattoo was this piece on his left forearm:

He told me

"I love Jesus ... simple as that. I was thinking about doing a whole arm, faith-based kind of thing, and I ike the ides of just being able to walk into a room and people know exactly like, well, that guy's definitely a Christina and he's for serious ... It's a good starting piece to talk to people."

All of Justin's work is by Jason Kramer at Positive Image Tattoos in Baltimore.

Be sure to check out Everyone Dies in Utah on Facebook here.

Thanks to Justin for sharing his cool ink 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.