Maria Shares a Valuable Wing

Last month I met Maria on the West 4th Street subway platform. She had this interesting tattoo on the upper right side of her back, and I was curious:

Maria explains:

"I'm a big gamer, and my favorite video game of all time is Super Mario Brothers 3. The P-Wing is the one item you always wanted to get."

Maria credited Rich Smith at Thicker Than Water Tattoo on the Lower East Side as the artist who gave her this wing.

My own appreciation for it it it's originality in contrast to the more common inking of angel wings on backs.

Thanks to Maria for sharing her wing 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.

Halloween guests, part one

Halloween update time! (Isn't this exciting?)
I just got confirmation from Mr. Chriss Dettmer that he will indeed be joining us for Halloween-Super-Spooky-Fun-Day on the 29th of October!
Chriss will draw up some scary flash you can choose from on the day, which no doubt will be awesome, so go ahead and get excited about that.

More updates coming soon, so check back often!

Ps. I'm getting a lot of mail these days about purchasing the metal and Halloween flash (no doubt they're mostly from people who stop reading our posts about halfway through, so this might not help at all!), so just to try and clear things up:
The London Flash has not been printed and is not for sale.
Same goes for the Halloween flash, which isn't even done yet.
This post on Allan's blog was about an opportunity for those who missed out in London, and anyone else for that matter, to come to Copenhagen and get one of the pieces from the flash set tattooed.
You can still come get the London flash tattooed on Saturday, so feel free to email me about a price quote or just to check if your favorite piece is still available. Walk-ins are welcome too, although those who are already booked in will be tattooed first.
Ok, rant over!

Danny's La Pietà, for the Love of Art

I met Danny last month across the street from Verdi Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.


He had quite a lot of nice ink, and we focused on this piece, tattooed on the inside of his upper left arm:

This is based on Michelangelo's Pietà, the famous sculpture in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Why does Danny have this, and other classic art, inked on his flesh? I'll let him explain:

"To be honest with you, I'm really into the Italian sculptors ... all [my] gray-scale pieces are ... purely art-based decisions. The only tattoos I have that have real significant meaning behind them are the words, you know, anything that's got words. All the art, it's just because I love the art."

Danny also has tattoos that are based on the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

To recreate a masterpiece of Italian sculpture like La Pietà, in such fine detail, is truly remarkable.

Joshua Lord, at East Side Ink in Manhattan, is the artist who so skillfully created this tattoo. Joshua Lord's work has appeared previously on Tattoosday here and work from East Side Ink has been posted here several times, viewable under this tag.

Thanks to Danny for sharing his amazing work 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.

Veronica Reveals What's Under Her Sleeve

Running an errand in SoHo two weeks ago found me hopping on an R train at Canal Street, which is not my normal routine. Sometimes a break in a routine can be rewarding.

Sitting on the train was Veronica, who had this intriguing ink running out from under her left shirt sleeve:

What is that? I wondered. A tree? Curious, I asked her about it and was rewarded with not only the answer, but a photo of a pretty spectacular tattoo:

Veronica explained that she had seen an exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta that featured jellyfish with really cool lighting effects that brought out these sea creatures fluorescence. She went to see Gustavo Rizerio at Invisible NYC and this beautiful tattoo was the end result. Here's a clip of what she was talking about:



I also learned, coincidentally, while talking to Veronica, that her sister Leyna, had appeared here on Tattoosday back in June 2010!

Thanks to Veronica for sharing her beautiful jellyfish 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.

Halloween at Conspiracy Inc.

This is just gonna be kind of a quick announcement since we don't have all the details in place yet, but we do know enough to tell you all  not to make any other plans on Saturday the 29th of October, cause on that day, we're gonna have some Halloween fun!!

First of all, there'll be tattoos.

Allan will make some Halloween flash (and we're not talking custom-one-per-person-flash like with London, just the regular kind) and you can get tattooed all day.

And the fancier your costume, the cheaper your tattoo, but more on that later!

There'll be some special guest appearances by other tattooers, but i'll post more about them once we get it confirmed.

So for now: tattoos, costumes, pumpkin flavored stuff, spookyness and good times all day!

We hope you'll join us, so stay tuned for more info!

Ok, i får den også lige på Dansk, bare for god ordens skyld.
Lørdag den 29. Oktober holder vi Halloween dag i Conspiracy Inc.
Der vil blive lavet spooky Halloween tatoveringer fra egen flash (altså ikke custom, husk det) hele dagen, med særlig rabat til de flottest udklædte.
Der vil være gæste tatovører (håber jeg, vi skal lige have det bekræftet!) og græskar og (u)hygge og forhåbentligt er der en masse af vores kunder og venner der har lyst til at feste med os.
Så sæt kryds i kalenderen og hold øje med denne blog for nærmere detaljer!

Flash previews will be posted here and on Allan's blog once he gets started on it (which may be as soon as today), so check back soon and often!

Ps. There's still some time available for those who want to get in on the London leftover action on the 15th of October. Write me or just show up to see what's left. Prices are set like in London, so you can email me for a quote. See the flash here (note: mystical reaper and cross/candle where taken yesterday and three others are reserved).

Der er stadig lidt tid tilbage på vores London leftover dag den 15. October, så enten skriv eller bare kom forbi på dagen og se hvad der er tilbage. Priserne er faste, de samme som i London, så skriv hvis du vil høre prisen på et bestemt design. To designs røg i går og yderligere tre er reserveret.

Productivity.

Inkspotting: The Creep Factor

There’s a fine line in what I do: I could easily fall into the “creepy” category. And I’m not talking about my full-time vocation as a Human Resources Manager.

Look, I exercise significant restraint to avoid being perceived as a Creep by the subjects I approach in public. Granted, there are some folks with predisposed notions that, by the mere fact that I am an older male approaching younger women and asking them about designs on their flesh, I have already crossed over to The United States of Creephood. But for the most part, I am able to avoid that trap.

One of my cardinal rules, and one that any loyal reader of this site can affirm, is that I do not ask about lower back tattoos, or about ink along the waistline. When one is offered to me, I am more than happy to include it in a post, but I generally avoid that section of the body, for obvious reasons. The most shining example is here.

Trickier are chest pieces, but I usually will build a rapport with a contributor before asking if they’re comfortable allowing me to photograph the area. This post was inspired by a woman I met on Tuesday, who had a simply gorgeous cluster of flowers along her neckline that I would have loved to share here on the site. I’m still holding out hope that she may send me a photo, as she was not keen on me taking a picture of her chest in the James A. Farley Post office (understandably so). I haven’t heard from her yet, but I’m still holding out hope, as it was a stunning floral tattoo.

The problem is, especially for women, that there are so many creeps out there, who judge tattooed women without even knowing them. A great discussion on this can be found here, from contributor Emily at xoJane.com. People who know me know that I am a nice guy, and go to great pains to avoid the Creep label, which is why it pains me so much to be treated like one, just because I was brave enough to approach someone about their ink.

But, if I am going to keep producing Tattoosday, I will have to continue wearing my heart on my un-tattooed (as of now) sleeve, and know that my friendly approach will continue to have success, but there will always be people who will think I’m a Creep. So be it.

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.