Chris and His Koi (at the NYC Tattoo Convention)

I'll be honest, koi tattoos are pretty popular, so I don't often post photos of them. But, every once in a while, I see an exceptional one, and feel compelled to share it here.

The photo above is of a stunning koi tattoo, courtesy of a guy named Chris, who I met last week at the NYC Tattoo Convention.

It's an exceptionally well-done piece, with the traditional Japanese carp, or koi, swimming upstream, along with a lotus flower at the bottom and cherry blossoms at the top. Note also the way water and movement is skillfully represented.

Chris credited Jeremy Miller from Screamin' Ink Tattoo in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Note: this is a different Jeremy Miller than the one who competed on the first season of Ink Master.

I usually see something spectacular from the talented crew at Screamin' Ink every year at the convention, all of which can be seen in previous posts with their shop tagged here.

Thanks to Chris for sharing this great sleeve 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Laura Mullen

Our next tattooed poet is Laura Mullen, who sent us this photo of a koi on her ankle:.

Laura explains:

"The fish was a celebration of a book, early on (#2 maybe?)--somewhere before I realized how serious I was about this book stuff? I mean, these days, I think a bottle (or so) of champagne is fine now (I'm glad I don't have 7 or 8 tattoos!) (I have two); I'm more like, Okay that's awesome, another book, now let's get back to work.

(I'd like another tattoo at some point but the right place and occasion need to be clear.)
This Koi was done is San Francisco at a studio my friend Joshua Clover recommended: 222 Tattoo. [The shop closed in 2000, according to references here and here.]

Can't recall the name of the artist who did the work, sorry…there was some effort put in, as you can tell, and the fish--out of the sun mostly--is holding up well."

Laura was kind enough to send along the following poem which "is unpublished and newish":

The Plastic Wrapper

The war on drugs
The war on terror
The war on kids
The war on bullshit
The war on drugs
The war on guns
The war on health
The war on bacon
The war on drugs
The war on war
The GOP war on voting
The Left’s war on fertility
The war on Weed
The war on salt
The war on poverty
The war on women
The war on moms
The Republican war on Science
Why can’t the army win the war on suicide
The war on truth
The war on fun
Stop the war on Iran before it starts
The war on drugs
The war on terror
The war on coal
The war on Democracy
The war on sharing
The war on Terror
The war on Drugs
The war on free clicks
The war on health
The war on poverty
The war on cancer
The war on drugs
The war on drugs is a failure
The war on evil
The war on the war on coal
The war on drugs
The war on drugs is just plain crazy
The war on terror
House approves stop the war on coal bill
The war on work
War on terror the board game
The war on Islam
Iraq War
End the war on pubic hair
The war on cameras
The war on drugs
The war on success
The war on bacon
The war on cancer
The war on Christmas
Gulf war
The war on Choice
The war on bugs
The war against boys
The war on immigrants
The war on poverty
The war on Pellagra
The battle for the war on women
The war on terror
The war on coal is a myth
The war on drugs is a failure
The war on Children
The war on women
The war on silver
The war on wolves
The war on terror is over
The war on kids
The war on the middle class
The war on the poor
The war on animals
The war on cancer
The war on terror
The war on Christmas
The war on drugs
The war on drugs the war on drugs
The war on democracy
The war on bugs
The war on terror
Rupert Murdoch’s war on journalism
The Christian right and the war on America
The war on drugs
The war on women
The war on Iraq
The war on drugs the war on democracy
The war on the bill of rights
The war on baby boomers
The war on American jobs
The war on business
The war on success
The war on gays
The war against the weak
The war on doping
The war on wrong
An end to the war on drugs?
The war on terror is ‘over’
The war on cameras
The war on Syria
The war on drugs is lost
The war on women
The war on men
The war on teachers
The war on health
The war on finance
The war on margarine
The war on bagpipes
The war on Wisconsin
The war on Sexual Temptation
The war on crooked police
The war on pizza
The war on java
The war on Nixon
The war of art
The war on everything
Defend America

~ ~ ~

Laura Mullen is the author of seven books: Enduring Freedom: A Little Book of Mechanical Brides, just out from Otis Books / Seismicity Editions, and The Surface, After I Was Dead, Subject and Dark Archive (University of California Press, 2011), The Tales of Horror, and Murmur. Recognitions for her poetry include Ironwood’s Stanford Prize, two Board of Regents ATLAS grants, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Award, among other honors. She has had several MacDowell Fellowships and is a frequent visitor at the Summer Writing Program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa. Her work has been widely anthologized and is included in American Hybrid (Norton), and I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues). Undersong, the composer Jason Eckardt’s setting of “The Distance (This)” (from Subject) was released on Mode records in 2011. Mullen is the McElveen Professor in English at LSU and a special interest delegate in Creative Writing for the Modern Language Association. She is a contributing editor for the on-line poetry site The Volta.

Thanks to Laura for her contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.

Tom Shares His Escher and Hokusai-Inspired Sleeves

Back in June, I rode my bike out to the Coney Island boardwalk and did a little inkspotting. One of the several tattooed individuals I met was Tom, who had some cool work to share.

It was his M.C. Escher-inspired sleeve that first caught my attention:

Among the designs from which Tom drew inspiration were Escher's "12 Birds"

and his "Lizard."

Tom credited his artist Haun Duong, located in Queens, with this work.

His other arm has a compilation of the works of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai:

This is based primarily on his most recognizable work, The Great Wave of Kanagawa:

Tom told me that the koi fish represent the fact that he is a Pisces and that he has a twin sister. And there are additional elements from the Japanese master lower on the arm that represent him and his wife, along with three turtles (not pictured) which represent his kids. And inside the bicep:

The falcon and the snake represent the good and the bad within him.

Thanks to Tom for sharing his great work 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.

Frank's Koi Blends Traditional and Modern

Back on the first of July, I met Frank as I was headed home through Penn Station. He shared this tattoo on his lower leg:

Frank explained that the tattoo artist was Gus, who works out of John's Tattoos in Islip, New York. He elaborated, telling me, "I originally wanted a koi fish ... not too traditional, but a little bit different. Some modern twist on it ... Gus put the traditional with the modern and there it is."

 

Thanks to Frank for sharing his koi fish and cherry blossoms 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.