Tattoosday in the Berkshires: Bob & Sue's Excellent Tattoos

Back in June, we took a trip up to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts to drop my older daughter off for a summer program in Lenox. I had anticipated seeing some cool tattoos on the weekend trip, but came up empty-handed. That is, until we were headed back to New York, and took a small detour in Stockbridge, MA, where I ran into Bob and Sue.

We spotted the couple in a shop along Main Street and talked to them about their tattoos. They had been up at Tanglewood the night before to hear the Boston Pops perform a "Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration," which made sense, when we took a closer look at Bob's tattoo:

Bob explained:

"The sun is from the Filipino flag - it's my heritage. The hills are covered with trees from New England, that's where I grew up. The road is not straight, it's narrow ... that [Yamaha Stratoliner] is based on my bike, and I'm a Grateful Dead fan."

The artist is Canman out of Visions Tattoo Gallery in Medway, MA.

Sue shared these two tattoos:

This portrait, inked six months ago, depicts their children, who are in their thirties now. Their daughter is twelve in the portrait and this, too, was done by Canman, as was this other piece on Sue's opposite arm:

This piece is about four years old, yet it's still fairly bright.

Thanks to Bob and Sue for sharing their tattoos 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.

Emily's Sugar Skull Butterfly

At the end of July 2012, I bumped into Emily on the West 4th Street subway platform in Manhattan.

By her estimates, she has "about twenty" tattoos.

She offered up this stunning piece that wraps around her forearm:

Best to click on the image to see it in greater detail.

This hybrid sugar skull butterfly is a custom piece designed and tattooed by Brad Stevens at New York Adorned.

A piece by Brad appeared previously on Tattoosday here, back in August 2010.

Emily blogs over at Rougetheday.com.

Thanks to Emily for sharing this great 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.

Megan Shares a Floral Sleeve from Edmonton

Back in May, I met Megan in Penn Station. She was visiting New York City from Edmonton, Alberta. Her lovely full sleeve caught my eye:

I mean, it really is spectacular:

With "love" and "faith" inscribed on her wrists, her arm is a bloom with roses, chrysanthemums, calendulas, and a bright sunflower at her shoulder, with a hummingbird fluttering on her back:

The pink flowers below the hummingbird are gladiolas. It's really quite an extraordinary sleeve.

Megan elaborated:

"It's all the birth flowers of the people in my family. The butterfly represents change, the rose represents love, and the hummingbird is for my grandma. The sunflower is for my mom."

She estimates that she has spent about 55 hours under the needle for this sleeve.

Megan credited Jessica Adler at Crimson Empire Tattoo in Edmonton.

Thanks to Megan for sharing her beautiful sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Work by Rev. Jorell Elie on Tattoosday

Trying to not to talk about the scarcity of posts back in August, we're expanding a little here, and sharing work by Rev. Jorell Elie.

I am told Elie "is an incredibly talented artist out of West Hollywood, CA, who happens to travel to Brooklyn, NY quite often (this month in fact)."

No arguments there. The photos were sent along to highlight the Rev.'s work.

Our readers are invited to check out the website here to see some of the bigger pieces that are works in progress.

Looks like the artist Rev. Jorell Elie works out of  The Honorable Society in West Hollywood, CA.

You can reach out to Elie at tattoosbyjorell@gmail.com, or follow him on Instagram @thejorell.

 

And, as mentioned earlier, you can check out more of this talented artist's work at www.jorellelie.com.

Thanks to Jenna Elie for sending these pictures along and alerting me to Rev. Elie's upcoming trip to New York.

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. Photos reprinted by with the permission of the artist.

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.

An Israeli Butterfly

Well, we seem to be on an international run this week, with work from two European artists over the last two days. Today we head further east.

I know butterflies are fairly common as tattoo designs, but when I spotted this one fluttering around Penn Station, I felt compelled to ask its owner about it:

This pretty butterfly belongs to Osnat, who is from Israel. She credited the piece on her right shoulder to an artist named Raz at Studio Raz in the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

Thanks to Osnat for sharing her butterfly with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Ryan Shares Two Tattoos by "Brooklyn P"

I often wonder how may Tattoosday encounters would have been lost had my apartment come with its own laundry facilities. I raise this point because, yet again, I met someone cool with tattoos at my local laundromat and he was generous enough to share his ink with us here on Tattoosday.

In fact, Ryan, who is this particular contributor, and I share a common bond, which is that we have both been tattooed by the same artist, Peter Caruso a.k.a. "Brooklyn P," who originally shared his work with us here on the site way back in 2008 here.

Ryan currently has a back piece in progress, but he shared two tattoos from his legs. First, on his right leg, is this work:

This pin-up girl is classic old school Brooklyn ink, based on flash by the legendary artist Tony Polito. Brooklyn P is an admirer of Polito, and even shared a piece that Tony did on him here.

Ryan also has this tattoo of butterflies on his left leg, which is based on a original design by Brooklyn P:

Ryan estimates he has about fifteen tattoos in all.

My tattoo from Brooklyn P is documented here.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! And thanks again to Brooklyn P, who continues to work hard at keeping that old school style of Brooklyn tattooing alive!

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.

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.

Kristina: Aon Grá

Over the summer, we were having a yard sale, when Kristina stopped by to peruse the goods. She shared this, one of her four tattoos:

Located on the inside of her right arm, the phrase "aon grá" is Irish for "one love". This decorative tattoo with a powerful message was tattooed by Rob at Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge. Work from the shop which, due to its close proximity to "home base" for Tattoosday, has appeared often over the years on the site, and can be seen here.


Thanks to Kristina for sharing her 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.

Natalie's Geisha Butterfly

Last month, I ran into Natalie on Seventh Avenue and 24th Street. She had several tattoos, but shared this geisha, with butterfly wings, floating on the top of her back:

She got this about six years ago in the city of Leeds from an artist named Diego.

When I asked why she got this particular tattoo, she replied, "I kind of just wanted something that was quite girly, yet strong at the same time."

Natalie is a professional photographer whose work can be seen on her website here.

Thanks to Natalie for sharing this cool 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.

Three Tattoos from Sabrina

I met Sabrina on Penn Plaza back in June after stopping to admire her tattoos. She has three and talked me through them chronologically.

She explained , "I like to get [a tattoo] for every place I lived," and her first one was this butterfly armband:

Sabrina is from upstate New York. She went to one of the shops in Utica and spoke to the owner about getting an armband. He dismissed her initial request, saying "I don't do armbands anymore, they're too 1990". So, Sabrina explained, "he designed a different sort of armband and went with that ... ".

She added, "I like butterflies because I like things that fly ... I feel like I'm a free spirit." One of the butterflies is based on a necklace that she wore every day.

Her second piece is on her right forearm and is what she referred to as her "college tattoo":

Sabrina told me, "I just wanted another tattoo and I like Egyptian hieroglyphs." This is one of the symbols that really appealed to her, and she had this inked at a shop in White Plains, New York, near where she went to college.

Her third tattoo, also inspired by hieroglyphs, is the one she got after coming to New York City:

This owl tattoo is more realistic, although she wanted it positioned like a hieroglyph. It is a great horned owl and was tattooed by Bang Bang at East Side Ink.

Thanks to Sabrina for sharing her 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.