Inkbursts: Spring Awakening

So I'm digging these inkbursts for now. This is the third in the series, each piece composed on the New York City subways.

On Thursday it was 60 degrees in the Big Apple and, I read somewhere that this has been the fourth warmest winter on record. You wouldn't know that from the paucity of posts these last few months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

We had a bat mitzvah to throw in February, and I have been working behind the scenes recruiting contributors for our upcoming fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project in April. To which I can exclaim, "More poets! More tattoos! More FUN!"

I used to feel guilty about letting a day go by post-less. I pictured inked fans worldwide waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, only to be gravely disheartened by yet another day gone by without a new Tattoosday post. No more. This blog is neither the center of my universe, nor a viable way to help support a family of four. I have come to terms with that.

But, with spring rapidly approaching and blog traffic at an all-time high (50,000+ visits per month in January and February!), I am in high spirits and am hoping to do a lot of great things with Tattoosday in the months to come. Thank you for checking in and checking us out!

GRANDPA.

My boy John was in the house yesterday to get his grandpa's face on his arm. We had a really good time and severals laughs with all the guys over here at the studio. Here is the result of a productive day, take a look...

Danielle's Mother Walks with Her

Last week I met Danielle in Penn Station and spotted this tattoo on her left foot:

She explained that November 7, 1958 was her mother's birth date. Danielle was just a little girl of eight years old when her mother passed, and she got this, her only tattoo, to memorialize her mom.

The reason she got it on her foot was because her mother's funeral card had the famous "Footprints" prayer:

“Footprints:
One night a man had a dream. In it he was walking along a beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the final scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints and realized that they came at the hardest and saddest times of his life.

Bothered about this, he questioned the Lord, saying "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most burdensome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you the most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." 

She had this done at a tattoo convention by an artist from Long Island's DaVinci Tattoo Studio.

Thanks to Danielle for sharing this very personal tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Inkbursts: I See Your Tattoo but I Won't Ask You About It

I take pride in the fact that I can sit on a train and spot tattoos.

I'm not talking about the obvious, but the subtle.

Remember, I have been inkspotting for over four and a half years (!). I am adept ar detecting scribbles on feet, a word on an inner wrist, and the edges of sleeves peeking out from under sleeves.

Does this help me? Rarely. My general rule is, if I can't identify it, I won't ask someone about it.

Imagine, someone walking up to you and asking to see more of your barely visible ink. It reeks of creepiness, a characteristic I so desperately want to avoid, as it is well-documented that the world is full of people who do not respect tattooed people's boundaries, and often demand to see someone's tattoos, as if it is their right.

But, I digress.

This all started because I spotted an interesting shape on a guy's inner left wrist on the R train this morning. I wanted to ask him about it, but I didn't.

It was way too early for that.

Eckel is leaving... it must be Thursday!

That was a Buffy reference there, in case you're less nerdy than us... which, let's face it, you probably are!

Anyway, Eckel finally decided to go public with his news of moving (again), so now i can post it here too.

If you're a Danish client who needs to finish a tattoo, you should get in touch with Eckel right away, and if you're not a regular of his, but just someone hoping to get tattooed by him, all you can do at this time is to keep an eye on his blog for future dates and booking info.

"i will leave denmark for good in may, therefore i wont take on new clients.

people with ongoing projects should get in contact with me as soon as possible.i will hopefully come back once in a while to keep in touch with allan and amalie(and lucifer,of course!)so in case stuff needs some finishing,there will be another chance later on.

i will announce me next destination on here in a few months,,but i have a long summer travelling ahead,and that will give me time to figure out where to go.

thanks to everybody who made my time in denmark a life changing experience.you are the best."

Og så den danske: Eckel flytter fra Danmark, så dette er din sidste chance i denne omgang hvis du er ved at få lavet noget af ham, som du gerne vil have færdigt inden han rejser i maj.

Hvis du ikke er kunde, men bare havde håbet på at blive det i den nærmeste fremtid, må du væbne dig med tålmodighed, og tjekke hans blog for opdateringer.

Han vil selvfølgelig komme tilbage til København og besøge os engang i fremtiden.

Never Say Never, and Never, Ever Give Up

Readers of Tattoosday first encountered my friend Brooke's tattoos here (in 2007) and here (in 2008).

I work with Brooke, as well, and we often chat about tattoos. A year or two ago, she had told me she was done getting inked. But, you know what they say, never say never.

So I was not terribly surprised a few months back when she and I talked about new work she was thinking about.

Then, out of nowhere it seemed, Brooke returned from a trip to San Francisco with a fresh tattoo, She provided me with this photo, which added kanji vertically on her back:

I sat down with Brooke last week and asked her to tell me how this new ink came to fruition. Here's the story, in her words:

"My grandfather and I decided about six-plus years ago that we were both going to get tattoos. And he doesn’t have any tattoos. So, we thought it would be cool - one quote that he’s always said to me over and over again was Winston Churchill's 'Never, never never give up.' So, we thought, all right,  it would be really cool  to get this tattooed on us, but let’s do it in Japanese, or Chinese, or something, so we both started doing some research and trying to find someone we trusted ... neither one of us could really come up with anything that we felt comfortable with. So, we just never did it and then he got sick … he’s been in and out of hospitals for five years now. He ended up in the hospital in the beginning of December, so I went and saw him at the beginning of January - they weren’t sure if he was going to make it or not.

I wanted to try and get the tattoo before I went out there, so I scrambled - you know, something to kind of cheer him up and make him happy and I couldn’t really pull it together, so I just didn’t do it.

One night [in San Francisco] when I left the hospital, I went looking for something to eat and found myself in Haight-Ashbury and decided to pull over and just go walking around and I walked past a tattoo shop [Soul Patch Tattoo] and I just went in to browse - I didn’t go in thinking I was going to do anything. I just started looking through the artists’ work and the guy asked me if I needed help and I said, 'Naw, I’m okay,'  then like, 'You know what, actually...do you have anyone who can do Japanese kanji?' He’s like, 'Yeah,' and points to the girl next to me and he said, 'she can'."

Fortunately for Brooke, she had found Wakako, a Tokyo-born tattooist whose specialty is Japanese art. If you're going to have someone give you a kanji tattoo, and you want to feel 100% comfortable that what you're getting is proper and correct, she certainly fits the bill. Brooke continued:

"I told her the story that I was doing this for my grandpa and the hope was one day he’d get better and he’d get one, as well. So I asked her how long it would take her to draw it up and she said, 'ten seconds' ... She had her coat and she was getting ready to go out the door ... so we started talking about, 'all right, I’m in town for a few more days, when can you do it?' [and] when [I was] available and the next thing you know she [said] 'well, what about we just do this now?'

So the next thing you know she goes in the back and draws it up and I’m grtting a tattoo. I mean, it happened so quickly and so I was really happy … the next day I was able to go back and show my grandpa in the hospital ... he was really happy with it and loved it. The cool part is that I got it done, I got it done by someone I trusted and he was able to see it and he loved it."

And how does Churchill's famous speech translate into Japanese? Brooke told me it had to be simplified, "It’s just never give up," which was the essence of "his favorite quote that he used to say to me all the time.”

Unfortunately, Brooke's grandfather, Bill Rhodes, passed away a few weeks ago on February 8, just weeks after seeing his granddaughter's tattoo, which had made him so happy to see. You can read his obituary here. His spirit lives on in the lives of many, one manifestation being the line of kanji running down Brooke's back.

Brooke summed it up best: 'it kind of was kismet, it worked out perfectly that I was there. He got to see it right then and there, fresh.”

Thanks again to Brooke for sharing her tattoo and the wonderful story behind it here on Tattoosday! And thanks to Bill Rhodes, for helping inspire this tattoo.

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.

LOUIS.

Shoot out to my boy Louis that sat all the way throught a long day of tattooing without a single complant...