Best Tattoos Mild: 2011

Lisa and Her Brooklyn Flytrap

Today's entry is a reader submission from a fellow Brooklynite named Lisa, who sent in this photo:

Lisa tells me:

"[This tattoo] was done a few months ago by an artist named Alex Perez, owner of Tat2sRus located at 5409 4th Ave. in Sunset Park Brooklyn. He has been tattooing for over 20 yrs and is totally awesome. This piece was done freehand just like all his pieces are. I love my tattoo and get many compliments on it."

I know this is a Venus Flytrap, but I'll call it a Brooklyn Flytrap, because it looks like it's a plant you definitely don't want to mess with!

Thanks to Lisa for sending this in to us here at Tattoosday!

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Two Peacocks for a Tuesday

Back in June, I met two women on separate days who had peacock tattoos.

First was Charlotte, a filmmaker who I spotted on the uptown 3 train. I snapped these pictures when we got off the subway at 72nd Street:

Charlotte credited Daniel Albrigo as the artist, who did this when he worked at Brooklyn Adorned. He now tattoos out of Three Kings in Brooklyn.

She explained that she "wanted something beautiful to offset the Kali tattoo on her right shoulder".

A week later I met Emily near Penn Station, who had this different perspective on the peacock, inked on her calf:

Emily explained:

"My mother used to work at a school in Dallas, Texas, where I'm from, that has peacocks that roam wild on campus ... when I was a child I used to go play with them (or just watch them)."

Emily told me she "drew it and designed it with the help of Dave Wallin." Dave tattooed this when working at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but he now works out of Eight of Swords Tattoo Studio.

Thanks to both Charlotte and Emily for sharing their very different peacocks here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

Sammy's Substitute for High Fashion

When I spotted Sammy outside of Macy*s, Herald Square, I noticed a single line of numbers just below her neck.

Intrigued, I stopped her and asked about it. It was then that she revealed that the one line of digits, from 0 to 9, was only the top of the tattoo. Here's the whole thing:

Sammy explained that this is a body art version of a clothing tag from the high-end clothing designer, Martin Margiela:

She told me that this was her "favorite design label" and said "I want to illustrate ... it's really expensive so I can't buy anything." She added that having the label on her back serves "to control my desire for buying it."

That's certainly a new functionality for a tattoo, in my opinion.

Sammy credited an artist in Los Angeles named Baku at a shop whose name I can't find, so I will go out on a limb and credit Baku Watanabe, who works at Freak Chic Tattoo on Melrose.

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

Mitch and a Positive Reminder

I met Mitch last month on the Upper West Side, near the 72nd Street Subway Station.

I spotted him and his seventeen or eighteen tattoos and asked if he would share one. He offered up his most recent piece:

I asked Mitch to elaborate on this tattoo located on his left forearm. He explained:

"I found this Japanese graffiti artist who did a bunch of flash and I just really liked one of his drawings. I was in the mood and decided to get it."

And the banner stating "Enjoy Yourself"? Mitch says, "just try to be happy all the time".

I'd imagine looking down at this cool design, inked by Mike Lucena at Flyrite Tattoo in Brooklyn, helps contribute to the happiness. Work from Mike at Flyrite appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

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

Saturday Housecleaning - Chef Misfit at Your Service

My system for Tattoosday is to try and go chronologically, but that never works out. I generally jump all over the place. I keep a list of all my pending posts, with the date associated with them, so I know where I am in my quest for a relatively normal timeline.

Although not my oldest "pending post," this one is from a guy named Austin, who I met in Penn Station back in April:

This tattoo, on Austin's left arm, had to have a great story about it, right? Especially, with the food at the bottom of the piece?

That is the logo from the Misfits, complete with chef's hat and various ingredients for something.

I stopped Austin at a dining establishment in Penn Station, and didn't want to disturb him too much, so I snapped photos, got some basic info, and figured I'd fill in the blanks with him via e-mail.

Unfortunately, he didn't respond to my e-mail inquiries and, his credit of the work, citing Chris Brewer at Seventh Saga as the artist, left me with a cold trail.

I know he is/was a culinary student and a fan of the Misfits, but that's all folks.

So, let's just enjoy what we see and know, and perhaps I can update you with more information later.

Thanks to Austin for sharing the tattoo with us!

Sarah's Seashell by the Seashore

Let's face it, after inkspotting in New York City for over four years, things can often get repetitive. That's why I don't share a lot of koi, kanji, skulls and, of late, flowers. The point is, I'm always hoping to find something new and unusual.

That's why, when I spotted Sarah last week, I was excited to talk to her about this, her first tattoo:

When I asked her about it, she explained that it was only two weeks old and it is an "alphabet cone" seashell.

She elaborated on why she got this particular tattoo:

"I got this because I found this exact shell when I was ten in Florida with my mom ... it's [her] favorite shell and so it is my tribute to her .... it even has the crack that the shell has."

Sarah credits Ren Sakurai at Albatross Tattoo in Portland, Oregon, for creating this Conus spurius on her back.

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

Marisa Shares Some Vonnegut

I love a good literary tattoo, especially when I recognize the text and the author.

I met Marisa after I spotted these six familiar words below her neck:

The quote "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt" refers to an epitaph inscribed on a tombstone in Vonnegut's classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.

This is Marisa's one and only tattoo and she explained why she chose this particular quote:

"I was going through a hard time and it helped me out a lot - it's just one of those quotes, so meaningful ... that I just needed to have it on me."

Marisa and I share a mutual appreciation of Vonnegut's work and, despite the greatness of Slaughterhouse-Five, we both liked Cat's Cradle better.

The word were inked at High Roller Tattoo in Hicksville, New York.

Thanks to Marisa for sharing this classic literary tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

And remember, you can see more literary tattoos at Contrariwise and The Word Made Flesh.

Michael and his Misfits Ink

I met Michael in Bay Ridge, at 92nd and 3rd Avenue, and he offered up these two tattoos on his forearm:

I recognized the top piece as a Misfits tattoo and asked why he chose it.

He responded:

"They are my favorite band of all time and when I say the Misfits, I mean the 1977-1983 Misfits. That to me is one of the greatest bands of all time and Glenn Danzig is my favorite singer of all time."

He credited Mark Harada, currently at East Side Ink, with tattooing this back in 2002.

The Danzig skull below the Misfits piece was done, he told me, by Chris Torres at Inborn Tattoo NYC in 2010.

Here's a little classic Misfits to get you going today:

Thanks to Michael for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Alex Shares Three Elements of an Amazing Sleeve

I'm not sure why it has taken so long to post Alex's tattoos - when I met him at the end of May in K-Mart @ Penn Station, I was totally stoked by his ink. Perhaps I was just letting the photos simmer as I waited for the right time to share them. Nevertheless, here they are, finally.

What we're seeing are three portions of Alex's left arm sleeve, beginning with this segment which is the most impressive part of the work:

As Alex explains, this tattoo is

"inspired by the carvings in Cambodia in Siem Reap ... it's one of the temples of Indra, Indian god of thunder ... he's also the god of change and progress ...

... He's very human-like because he messes up a lot ... he's somewhat of a womanized, so it makes him very original from the rest of the Indian gods..."

At the top of Alex's arm is this symbol:

He told me that this is the logo of a hard rock group from Brooklyn called Life of Agony.

You can check out their website here or peruse their Amazon catalog here.

In the photo above, you get a glimpse of the third and final segment of Alex's sleeve which we're seeing today, which features this familiar face:

That's the symbolic face of Steeplechase Park on Coney Island.

Compare to this tattoo, which appeared here last year.

Alex explained about his connection to Coney Island:

"...Basically, I grew up there ... I grew up in Bensonhurst, but [Coney Island] is kind of where I became myself, adolescence and all that stuff - that's the old Coney Island..."

Alex credited all of his work to a tattoo artist named Seth Wood who is currently working out of Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Alex for sharing this amazing work with us here on Tattoosday!

Liberty and Justice, Courtesy of Alex

I met Alex a few weeks back in Penn Station. I spotted this familiar face on his right calf:

I say a familiar face, because it is clearly the profile of the Statue of Liberty, but something looks slightly different. Alex explained why:

"It's the right side of the face, [which] is really hard to find because the arm for the torch is in the way ... I had to research forever and then I found two photos which I matched up ... one was when it was under construction, someone got the right side ... the crown part we had to reverse and put onto the picture ... I'm pretty particular - it actually took two weeks to come up with a good design..."

Alex says he got this tattoo a few years back "to commemorate President Bush leaving office." He was living in Portland, Oregon, at the time and is originally from Albany, New York. The collaboration on the tattoo was with an artist named Ron at a shop whose name he doesn't recall.

As happy as I was to take this photo, Alex was more keen on showing off a newer piece, done by Chris Reynolds at Albany Modern Body Art. He raised his shirt up to show me this tattoo on his right side:

Alex explained that his ink had a very Northeastern slant to it. This tattoo fits in with the general feel of that theme.

He wanted to be sure to praise the guys at Modern Body Art and was really very proud of this work.

Thanks to Alex for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Happy Blogiversary To Me! A Re-Post Celebration

Today marks Tattoosday's fourth anniversary, when we first started off here on BillyBlog as a once a week feature, before spinning off into a stand-alone site little over a month later.

To celebrate, I'll be sharing favorite posts from the past four years throughout the day. Just a little celebratory break before we resume our normally-scheduled programming.

I also encourage readers to comment below or email me (tattoosday@gmail.com) and I will attempt to re-post reader favorites throughout the day.

Thanks to all of my readers for supporting me throughout the years! Here's to at least four more years!

Better Late Than Never

Back in April, I ran into John in Herald Square (34th and 6th) who had some pretty amazing work. He estimates he is about 25% covered in tattoos, which includes both arms, hands to shoulders, and both sides of his neck.

I stopped him and handed him a flier, but he was in a hurry, so we went our separate ways.

A month or so later, he e-mailed me a couple of photos:

John "loved Popeye growing up" and "love[s] the way [tattoos] look".

Not a lot more to tell, other than this was done by Rodrigo Melo, when he was at Rising Dragon Tattoos on 23rd Street (now on 14th). Rodrigo has since left Rising Dragon and co-founded North Star Tattoo in the East Village.

John is a photographer whose work can be seen here.

Thanks to John for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

The Quotable Tom Ford

As a new season of Project Runway premiered last night, I thought I'd share a fashion-related tattoo. Working on "Fashion Avenue," I see a lot of ink on people in the industry. Here's one from Megan:

This is a quote by the fashion designer Tom Ford:

"Beauty is an illusion/It is here only for a moment/Then it fades/But in the brief moment of existence/It has forever/impacted the world"

Megan read these words in one of Ford's books, in a section about evening wear.

"I love Tom Ford," she told me, "and I think he's a very smart man."

The tattoo was done about 2-3 years ago at Ink Candy in Hollywood by an artist named Angel.

Thanks to Megan for sharing this inspirational quote with us here on Tattoosday!

Katie's Bouquet

I spotted this lovely tattoo on the Broadway-Lafayette subway platform last month, while switching trains:

This floral piece, on Katie's calf, is one of her eight tattoos.

The larger flower is an iris and the smaller flowers are Narcissus papyraceus or, as they are commonly known, Paperwhites.

She added these paperwhites specifically because they were her Nan's favorite flower.

The tattoo was done by an artist named Ron Hotte in San Diego. Rob is currently back in New York, more specifically on Long Island, at Solid Gold Tattoo.

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

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

A Skull in Penn Station

Last week, I was passing through Penn Station when I spotted a woman with a bunch of interesting tattoos. I introduced myself, and had taken a picture of one of her tattoos, when the loudspeaker announced her train was boarding. Having learned nothing about the tattoo I had just photographed, I gave her my card and asked her to e-mail me the details.

When this happens, I am often left with a tattoo and no story. But fortunately for all of us here at Tattoosday, Stephanie e-mailed me a few days later, and this is what she had to say:

"You stopped me in Penn Station ... and took a picture of my tattoo. Its a skull on my forearm, pink with green flowers and a backwards jaw :)

I got the tattoo years ago now and the color is still incredibly vibrant. I got it at Chameleon Tattoo & Body Piercing in Harvard Sq, Cambridge Massachusetts. The artist's name is Rueben Kayden. He does amazing traditional work and I've had him work on me several other times. At the time he had been working on two pin-up girls I have on the backs of my arms. I went in for my appointment and Rueben showed me a design he had been doodling. It was a strange skull with its jaw on the back of its head, and flowers all around. I immediately loved it. So, we ended up just tattooing that on me instead. I'm very random and I love random pieces of work. What's better than a random story?"

Work from Chameleon Tattoo and Body Piercing has appeared previously on the site here and here.

Thanks to Stephanie for sharing this tattoo and story with us here on Tattoosday!

Two for Tattoosday - Dave's Scalpflower and Bethany's Lonely Whale

A couple weeks back, I met Dave and Bethany outside of the Borders Penn Plaza in Manhattan. Both had amazing ink and shared some tattoos with us. Let's start with Dave's "scalpflower":

Dave explained that this floral tattoo on his scalp was inked by Mike Adams, who was doing a guest spot at Thicker Than Water in Manhattan.

Dave elaborated:

"We had talked about some ideas when I saw him [Mike Adams] at the Philadelphia Convention. We showed up [at Thicker than Water] and he just showed me some of the drawings of the tattoos he had recently done.

He had done another flower on someone else in the past week and I said 'Oh, let's do one of those.' He said, 'Yeah, that's awesome/ Let's do it.' "

Dave, who is approximately 70% covered in tattoos, had mostly been worked on by Tony Hundahl from Rock of Ages Tattoo in Austin, Texas. Hundahl has done both of Dave's sleeves (including the traditional segment pictured below), his chest, stomach, back, knees and one of his legs.

Dave added that, since moving to Washington D.C. recently, he started collecting work from other artists in the East.

Along with Dave, I met Bethany who, shared one of her more recent tattoos, this whale by Deno Jr.:

Deno Jr. works out of Circus Tattoo in Madrid, Spain, but had recently done a guest spot at Tattoo Paradise in D.C.

This tattoo is of this lonely whale, whose song is different from any other species, so it is an outcast, and she doesn't have a mate.

Thanks to Dave and Bethany for sharing their amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Aisha's Stunning Back Piece

This incredible back piece belongs to Aisha, a former New Yorker who now resides in Florida.

I met her last month at the corner of 36th Street and Broadway in Manhattan.

The tattoo is an interpretation of the old adage, "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil".

Inked over eleven years ago and representing about twenty hours of work, this huge piece was her second of eight tattoos.

She remembers only that the artist's name is Rodrigo, so it may have been Rodrigo Melo who currently owns and works at North Star Tattoo, but I am still working to confirm he was the tattooer behind this.

"I told him what I wanted," Aisha explained. "He just drew it on my back and I loved it and that was it."

The face is female, her eyes are closed and she has a mouth bit that represents her silence.

Despite the face's eyes being closed, she indicated that the "third eye" in the middle of the forehead is open. The third eye can be interpreted many ways, but often refers to looking inward and a greater consciousness.

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

Amy Winehouse Will Live On in Andrea's Ink

Back in June, I met Andrea on Penn Plaza in Manhattan and she shared this tattoo:

This is, of course, Amy Winehouse, whose death was just announced yesterday. Andrea, who has this inked on her upper right arm, says she had this done "in the style of Monet". The artist was "Mad Dog" at Studio 33 Tattoo on St. Mark's in Manhattan.

When I asked Andrea why she got Winehouse tattooed on her, she replied, "she has such amazing talent" and professed her admiration for her as an artist.

The tattoo art is based on a painting she had found online, and she selected it to add to her collection of approximately twenty tattoos.

In hindsight, it seems almost haunting that I photographed this piece on June 22, a month and a day before she died. We here at Tattoosday are saddened by her passing and can only wonder what art will never be created because she died at such an early age, like so many other talented musicians whose struggles with addiction cut their lives short.

Thanks to Andrea for sharing this tattoo. I hope that her ink gives her strength as she bears this tribute to Amy Winehouse for everyone to see.

Poppies for Poppy

These poppies are courtesy of Emma, who I met in Penn Station last week.

She got poppies because, she told me, "My grandfather passed away a couple years ago and I used to call him Poppy".

This is one her five tattoos, and represents about four and a half hours of work by Gus Espinoza at La Familia Tattoo, in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Thanks to Emma for sharing "Poppy's Poppies" with us here on Tattoosday!

It Was A Very Good Year for Some

I was passing through Penn Station earlier this month, when I spotted a young lady with this tattoo:

Being a baseball fan, I guessed what the meaning of this tattoo was, but I had to ask, just to confirm. The young woman, who wished only to be identified as "Passenger Jane Doe," confirmed, this tattoo refers to the last year that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.

A self-described "huge Cubs fan," she elaborated:

"My dad would take me to games. I ... grew up keeping score when I was 6 years old. I was the little girl with the scorecard. I moved to D.C. five years ago. Being a transplant made me cling to my home identity more ... whenever the Cubs come to D.C., I go to the whole series at Nats Park."

She designed the tattoo herself, using a few different fonts for inspiration. The tattoo was inked at Ambrotos Tattoo. She told me it was in D.C., but they have two locations in Bethesda and Silver Spring, Maryland, so I'm not sure which shop did the work.

Thank you, Passenger Jane Doe, for sharing your love of baseball, the Chicago Cubs, and this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Fernando's Trio of Whimsical Ink

I met Fernando a while back outside of Penn Station and he had a lot of work to share. He estimated that he had around thirty tattoos on his canvas, but we picked three to spotlight here on Tattoosday.

As a Star Wars fan, he couldn't resist this portrait of R2-D2:

The banner "YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE" refers to the scene in the first movie, when Princess Leia sends a holographic distress message to Obi-Wan Kenobi via R2-D2 that ends, "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Both the tattoo of R2-D2 and this one, were done by Evan at Revolver Tattoo in New Burnswick, New Jersey:

That is Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons in the Transformers franchise.

And thirdly, Fernando shared this take on a sugar skull:

This piece was tattooed by Mike Rivelry at Immortal Ink.

Thanks to Fernando for sharing a few of his dozens of tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Lori Shares Some Peonies, and a Fairy Mermaid

When I post here at Tattoosday, there is no definite chronological order. I tend to follow a variety of factors, which can often result in older encounters waiting in the wings for a very long time.

Take Lori, for example. At the beginning of May, while my wife was at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, fighting a bout of appendicitis, I walked over to a pizzeria on 50^th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway for a quick bite for lunch. On my way out, I noticed two women at a table, one of whom, Lori, had some pretty nice ink. Generally, one of my unwritten rules is not to bother people while they are eating, so I handed the woman my card and asked her to contact me if she was interested in contributing to Tattoosday.

Lori e-mailed me shortly thereafter, and a few weeks later, she sent me some photos. Since then, she has been patiently waiting for the post. E-mailed submissions tend to get a little lost in the shuffle but, finally, thanks to a little nudge on our Facebook page, we’re finally seeing them here on the site.

I’ll let Lori explain what we’re seeing:

“Here are 2 peonies, one is a flash stencil, done by Mike B. at Studio Enigma on Avenue U [in Brooklyn] .... the other peony (my favorite), was hand drawn by Pablo Barada, who is from Argentina [also at Studio Enigma] …

The Fairy mermaid was a picture I found just surfing the internet, so I printed it out. I wish I still had the black and white photo before Mike B. colored it in. Now that I look at it, I think the B&W was much prettier. By the way, she took 18 hours to do, six three-hour sittings.”

Thanks to Lori for sharing some of her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

A Rose for Emily (Laugh Now, Cry Later)

I ran into Emily at the beginning of the month on the 36th Street subway platform in Brooklyn.

She shared this awesome tattoo on her left thigh:

Emily credits Tazz at Aztlan Tattoo in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, with this cool ink.

"I just like roses," Emily told me, explaining that she had an idea and then Tazz expanded on the concept, which is a spin on the traditional "Laugh Now, Cry Later" theme.

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