Saturday, July 31, 2010

Kristen's Trilogy of Knots

The 34th Street Platform for the A Train has been very kind to us here at Tattoosday, even more so this summer than in years' past.



Take Kristen, for example. She generously offered up this small portion of her corporeal canvas:





Estimating that she is at least a quarter covered by ink, this "trilogy of knots" was the artist's response to Kristen's request to attach the cobwebs on her elbow to the end of her wrist.



The artist, identified only as "Batman" near Canal and Broadway, was also asked to incorporate a Celtic pattern, as well.



The final result was to Kristen's liking and we here at Tattoosday thank her for sharing the tattoo with all of our readers!



Kristen's Trilogy of Knots

The 34th Street Platform for the A Train has been very kind to us here at Tattoosday, even more so this summer than in years' past.



Take Kristen, for example. She generously offered up this small portion of her corporeal canvas:





Estimating that she is at least a quarter covered by ink, this "trilogy of knots" was the artist's response to Kristen's request to attach the cobwebs on her elbow to the end of her wrist.



The artist, identified only as "Batman" near Canal and Broadway, was also asked to incorporate a Celtic pattern, as well.



The final result was to Kristen's liking and we here at Tattoosday thank her for sharing the tattoo with all of our readers!



Friday, July 30, 2010

Happy Bloggiversary to Me!

Three years ago today, Tattoosday was born.



On July 31, 2007, I put up a post on BillyBlog, featuring a tattoo on a co-worker named Sephora.



The idea was to post a weekly tattoo on Tuesday, and use this is a vehicle to expand my horizons a bit; meet interesting people and learn about tattoos.



There was one problem. I enjoyed it too much. There weren't enough Tuesdays in the week. I was impatient and wanted to post right away, not wait until Tuesday. And so, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, it goes....



So a month later I threw the previous months post up on the stand-alone blog, Tattoosday. And BillyBlog faded.



It's still there, but Tattoosday is my passion and I couldn't have even imagined, back in 2007, how easy it would become for me to talk to strangers about their ink.



The once-a-week project produced forty-five separate interactions in July, we have a 30-day backlog of material, and this past week we registered our 650,000th hit. Not too shabby.



Go see the original post here to see how far we've come.



And a hearty thanks to all our contributors, all our fans, and all the tattooists out there creating wonderful, interesting, portable art. Without all of you, Tattoosday would have been a blip of an idea, and nothing more.



Happy Bloggiversary to Me!

Three years ago today, Tattoosday was born.



On July 31, 2007, I put up a post on BillyBlog, featuring a tattoo on a co-worker named Sephora.



The idea was to post a weekly tattoo on Tuesday, and use this is a vehicle to expand my horizons a bit; meet interesting people and learn about tattoos.



There was one problem. I enjoyed it too much. There weren't enough Tuesdays in the week. I was impatient and wanted to post right away, not wait until Tuesday. And so, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, it goes....



So a month later I threw the previous months post up on the stand-alone blog, Tattoosday. And BillyBlog faded.



It's still there, but Tattoosday is my passion and I couldn't have even imagined, back in 2007, how easy it would become for me to talk to strangers about their ink.



The once-a-week project produced forty-five separate interactions in July, we have a 30-day backlog of material, and this past week we registered our 650,000th hit. Not too shabby.



Go see the original post here to see how far we've come.



And a hearty thanks to all our contributors, all our fans, and all the tattooists out there creating wonderful, interesting, portable art. Without all of you, Tattoosday would have been a blip of an idea, and nothing more.



Nick Remembers Billy, I Remember Siki

My first tattoo was modified from a piece of flash at Body Art Studios by an artist who goes by the moniker "Siki". Shortly thereafter, Siki left the shop and went on his way.



My friend Pete knows who he is but, until recently, I hadn't met anyone with ink from Siki, other than myself.



Then, I met Nick on the R train one day after work and, while discussing his many tattoos (he "lost count after 45," they've all connected) , I heard him talking about Siki.



So today's tattoo is by Siki and was, like my lynx, modified from an old piece of flash. Although he adapted it a lot more fully and developed a more unique tattoo.





Siki and Nick had a mutual friend named Billy, who Nick would often go with to get tattooed. When he passed away, they added Billy's name to the bottom of the tattoo as a tribute to their departed friend.



Thanks to Nick for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!



Nick Remembers Billy, I Remember Siki

My first tattoo was modified from a piece of flash at Body Art Studios by an artist who goes by the moniker "Siki". Shortly thereafter, Siki left the shop and went on his way.



My friend Pete knows who he is but, until recently, I hadn't met anyone with ink from Siki, other than myself.



Then, I met Nick on the R train one day after work and, while discussing his many tattoos (he "lost count after 45," they've all connected) , I heard him talking about Siki.



So today's tattoo is by Siki and was, like my lynx, modified from an old piece of flash. Although he adapted it a lot more fully and developed a more unique tattoo.





Siki and Nick had a mutual friend named Billy, who Nick would often go with to get tattooed. When he passed away, they added Billy's name to the bottom of the tattoo as a tribute to their departed friend.



Thanks to Nick for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!



Thursday, July 29, 2010

Jessica's Feather for her Mother

I met Jessica on the express platform at 34th Street earlier this month.



She shared this gorgeous peacock feather tattooed on the upper right section of her back:





The piece is an homage to her mother, who loves everything peacock, and has countless items, like bracelets and other jewelery, that emulate the vivid colors of these beautiful birds.



She credits this tattoo to an artist known only as Allison.



Thanks to Jessica for sharing this wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!



Jessica's Feather for her Mother

I met Jessica on the express platform at 34th Street earlier this month.



She shared this gorgeous peacock feather tattooed on the upper right section of her back:





The piece is an homage to her mother, who loves everything peacock, and has countless items, like bracelets and other jewelery, that emulate the vivid colors of these beautiful birds.



She credits this tattoo to an artist known only as Allison.



Thanks to Jessica for sharing this wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!



Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Michelle's Tattoo Takes Your Breath Away

Michelle has a lot of ink, twenty-one tattoos, all told, but when I stopped her in Penn Station, she chose to share this one with us:





Boldly planted on her upper right arm, Michelle explained that she paraphrased and pared down a longer quotation to read, more simply, "Live for the moments that take your breath away". I believe she was referring to the saying, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."



The flowers in the photo are cherry blossoms that were done in blue, rather than the traditional pink because, as Michelle tells it, she's "not really a pink kind of girl".





This tattoo was inked by Fat Tony at Hobo's Tattoo Shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.



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



Michelle's Tattoo Takes Your Breath Away

Michelle has a lot of ink, twenty-one tattoos, all told, but when I stopped her in Penn Station, she chose to share this one with us:





Boldly planted on her upper right arm, Michelle explained that she paraphrased and pared down a longer quotation to read, more simply, "Live for the moments that take your breath away". I believe she was referring to the saying, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."



The flowers in the photo are cherry blossoms that were done in blue, rather than the traditional pink because, as Michelle tells it, she's "not really a pink kind of girl".





This tattoo was inked by Fat Tony at Hobo's Tattoo Shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.



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