Best Tattoos Mild: August 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!