Here we are folks the year almost at an end, big projects up ahead: Lamplighter's release imminent, Book 3 to finish, further books to ponder and plan (see how Book 2 is received first, shall we...), get that Half-Continent map up and running at last - a bit of a theme with a couple of posts ago, things to do, planning ahead, getting my scattered brain in some appearance of order.
Might try rambling about something else.
Something I find is when I am not working on MBT and Half-Continent things I can get very excited about the prospect of my next session of labours, yet when it comes time to make good on all that enthusiasm I become suddenly all reluctant and gloomy and "won't-worky" - as my mother used to call it. Here I have been all enthusiastic and making short notes and getting ready to dive in deeper then when that time comes mope mope, is it all worth it? What am I doing, blah blah blah...
Anyone else go through this?
Anyways, may I just say HAPPY NEW YEAR; may this new one be most excellent for us all.
Biomaser Professional Tattoo Machine Rotary Pen For Permanent Makeup Eyebrow Lip Microblading DIY Machine Kit With Tattoo Needle
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200 Fashional Temporary Women Tattoo Lotus Designs Tattoo Designs With Peony Art sticker Waterproof Latest Peacock
200 Fashional Temporary Women Tattoo Lotus Designs Tattoo Designs With Peony Art sticker Waterproof Latest Peacock
New Year's Resolution
For those who are seeking suggestions on new year's resolution, may I suggest stop getting tattoos from these templates?
Especially the infamous "Asian Font" seen here, aka. English alphabet in gibberish Chinese.
Especially the infamous "Asian Font" seen here, aka. English alphabet in gibberish Chinese.
Tattoos I Know: Erika's Ink (Part 2)
This is part 2 of Erika's ink (part 1 here). Erika has a lot of tattoos, so I had to split the post, since she generously offered them all up for Tattoosday.
Tattoo #7 is actually #7 and #13, as one element was added eight years later. We'll focus on #7 now, which is the flower on the inside of Erika's left wrist.
Erika, in her own words, went through what she calls "an experimental phase" in her
life, during which she began dating women. To show her "true colors" at the time, Erika and her cousin, who was also dating women, got the same tattoo...a rainbow-petaled flower above a doubled female sign, to proudly display her alternate lifestyle.
The flower was inked at a shop called Murda Ink Tattoos, in Jamaica, New York.
Flashing forward to the Summer of 2006, Erika was having a cover-up done (see #8 and #12 below) and asked, as an afterthought, if the artist could cover the interlocking female insignia, as well. Erika's fiancee (now husband) didn't like the "advertisement" of the prior lifestyle. The leaves were added under the flower at Triple X Tattoo, now known as Red Rocket Tattoo on 46 West 36th Street in Manhattan.
Tattoo #8 was a boyfriend's name, inked along the front of her waistline, by Joe at Between the Lines. This name was covered up (see below) in 2007.
Tattoo #9 is a Chinese dragon on the middle of Erika's back. Her dress at the company holiday party afforded me a great opportunity to photograph it without her having to remove any clothing.
Joe at Between the Lines did this piece as well. Erika recalls just hanging out at Joe's shop and talking about how she wanted a big piece for her back. Joe was happy to oblige, and drew up the dragon free-hand.
She said that it took about ten weeks and three sittings to complete. The reason for the multiple sittings? The pain. To quote Erika, "I'll never forget how much that shit hurt."
The other elements of the tattoo are the kanji. When I asked Erika what they meant, she said, "Well, one of them is supposed to mean "to love life":
and the other is supposed to acknowledge that former lifestyle and say "to love women":
Erika, when she told me this, seemed to have her doubts, and was receptive to the idea of me looking into their actual meanings.
I went to my resident Chinese language expert, who quickly debunked their meanings. They do not mean what she thinks they do, he said. Because they don't make much sense. The best translation he could give was "good girl" for the top and "born/appear" for the bottom.
If you look at the kanji for "love,"
you'll notice it's not similar to any of the kanji in the tattoo.
Tattoo #10 may look familiar, as it is the first one I noticed on Erika which started out this whole business. Despite "never being crazy about tattoos on arms," Erika inked this in the Summer of 2003, while on a date. She doesn't recall the name of the shop, just that it was somewhere in the East Village. Of course, the East Village is likely one of the few places in the U.S. where tattoo/piercing shops outnumber Starbucks.
So, Erika still had a soft spot for little girl things, unicorns and fairies and such, so she designed this fairy, using several different drawings to create a composite she liked.
She designed the wings and changed the outfit color to red. Why red? As a tribute to her younger brother, who was in the Bloods, a gang whose colors are red. I, for one, appreciate the irony of a pixie sporting gang colors. This is definitely a tough, New York fairy, not some wimpy woodland nymph!
Tattoo #11 also has a pretty interesting story. Erika got married in the Spring of 2007, but she met Lance, her husband-to-be in February 2004.
They dated for a couple of weeks, but she knew he was still dating another woman. Erika thought that this other woman, who had been seeing the guy first, was going to be a problem and that, as long as she was still in the picture, their relationship wouldn't go anywhere.
Erika made a conscious decision to "steal him away" once and for all. Because he had kids from a previous relationship, she plotted to surprise him on Father's Day with a surprise trip to Florida. He had never been to South Beach in Miami and she wanted him to experience it. And so she did.
The day before they were set to return to New York, they were walking around South Beach and they stumbled upon a tattoo shop. Lance already had one small tattoo with some kanji, so Erika suggested that he go in and get a new one. The subject of tattoos had come up before (how could it not when you already had 10 pieces?), so they went in and he got a new piece on his
arm, a huge lion with a crown, representing his last name in Hindi.
It's incredibly hard to be an inked person and watch someone get a tattoo and not want one for oneself. Therefore, Erika found a piece on the wall that she liked and had it done on her back, below the bluebird, above the dragon.
Sorry, the name of the shop and the artist are not recalled.
Tattoo #12 came in the early Summer of 2006, around late June/early July. She and Lance were engaged, and she wanted to cover up the name of an ex-boyfriend tattooed across her lower abdomen.
A co-worker recommended Red Rocket Tattoo, and it was there that she had this lotus inked on her waistline:
Yep, no name anymore!
Now, for some disclosure. Erika is the first Inked Person to let me photograph her stomach for Tattoosday. I did have a mutual friend present, Sephora, who was the first person who hosted a tattoo here.
Erika wanted the lotus for two reasons. In addition to wanting something pretty to cover up an old name, she had heard that the lotus was a symbol of fertility, and she hopes to have kids some day. She hopes the lotus will be lend good luck for future procreative purposes.
There are over one hundred various types of lotus, so I can't pinpoint the exact one this is modeled after.
Once this cover-up was done, Erika asked for the leaves on the flower mentioned above to cover up the double female insignia.
Well. a hearty thanks to Erika for her participation here! She definitely holds the record for most tattoos offered up to the Tattoosday masses. Her ink is closing out the year for Tattoosday. Here's hoping that her lotus will spawn a healthy blossoming of tattoo posts here in 2008!
Tattoo #7 is actually #7 and #13, as one element was added eight years later. We'll focus on #7 now, which is the flower on the inside of Erika's left wrist.
Erika, in her own words, went through what she calls "an experimental phase" in her
life, during which she began dating women. To show her "true colors" at the time, Erika and her cousin, who was also dating women, got the same tattoo...a rainbow-petaled flower above a doubled female sign, to proudly display her alternate lifestyle.The flower was inked at a shop called Murda Ink Tattoos, in Jamaica, New York.
Flashing forward to the Summer of 2006, Erika was having a cover-up done (see #8 and #12 below) and asked, as an afterthought, if the artist could cover the interlocking female insignia, as well. Erika's fiancee (now husband) didn't like the "advertisement" of the prior lifestyle. The leaves were added under the flower at Triple X Tattoo, now known as Red Rocket Tattoo on 46 West 36th Street in Manhattan.
Tattoo #8 was a boyfriend's name, inked along the front of her waistline, by Joe at Between the Lines. This name was covered up (see below) in 2007.
Tattoo #9 is a Chinese dragon on the middle of Erika's back. Her dress at the company holiday party afforded me a great opportunity to photograph it without her having to remove any clothing.
Joe at Between the Lines did this piece as well. Erika recalls just hanging out at Joe's shop and talking about how she wanted a big piece for her back. Joe was happy to oblige, and drew up the dragon free-hand.
She said that it took about ten weeks and three sittings to complete. The reason for the multiple sittings? The pain. To quote Erika, "I'll never forget how much that shit hurt."
The other elements of the tattoo are the kanji. When I asked Erika what they meant, she said, "Well, one of them is supposed to mean "to love life":
and the other is supposed to acknowledge that former lifestyle and say "to love women":
Erika, when she told me this, seemed to have her doubts, and was receptive to the idea of me looking into their actual meanings.I went to my resident Chinese language expert, who quickly debunked their meanings. They do not mean what she thinks they do, he said. Because they don't make much sense. The best translation he could give was "good girl" for the top and "born/appear" for the bottom.
If you look at the kanji for "love,"
you'll notice it's not similar to any of the kanji in the tattoo.
Tattoo #10 may look familiar, as it is the first one I noticed on Erika which started out this whole business. Despite "never being crazy about tattoos on arms," Erika inked this in the Summer of 2003, while on a date. She doesn't recall the name of the shop, just that it was somewhere in the East Village. Of course, the East Village is likely one of the few places in the U.S. where tattoo/piercing shops outnumber Starbucks.
So, Erika still had a soft spot for little girl things, unicorns and fairies and such, so she designed this fairy, using several different drawings to create a composite she liked.
She designed the wings and changed the outfit color to red. Why red? As a tribute to her younger brother, who was in the Bloods, a gang whose colors are red. I, for one, appreciate the irony of a pixie sporting gang colors. This is definitely a tough, New York fairy, not some wimpy woodland nymph!
Tattoo #11 also has a pretty interesting story. Erika got married in the Spring of 2007, but she met Lance, her husband-to-be in February 2004.
They dated for a couple of weeks, but she knew he was still dating another woman. Erika thought that this other woman, who had been seeing the guy first, was going to be a problem and that, as long as she was still in the picture, their relationship wouldn't go anywhere.
Erika made a conscious decision to "steal him away" once and for all. Because he had kids from a previous relationship, she plotted to surprise him on Father's Day with a surprise trip to Florida. He had never been to South Beach in Miami and she wanted him to experience it. And so she did.
The day before they were set to return to New York, they were walking around South Beach and they stumbled upon a tattoo shop. Lance already had one small tattoo with some kanji, so Erika suggested that he go in and get a new one. The subject of tattoos had come up before (how could it not when you already had 10 pieces?), so they went in and he got a new piece on his
arm, a huge lion with a crown, representing his last name in Hindi.
It's incredibly hard to be an inked person and watch someone get a tattoo and not want one for oneself. Therefore, Erika found a piece on the wall that she liked and had it done on her back, below the bluebird, above the dragon.
Sorry, the name of the shop and the artist are not recalled.
Tattoo #12 came in the early Summer of 2006, around late June/early July. She and Lance were engaged, and she wanted to cover up the name of an ex-boyfriend tattooed across her lower abdomen.
A co-worker recommended Red Rocket Tattoo, and it was there that she had this lotus inked on her waistline:
Yep, no name anymore!
Now, for some disclosure. Erika is the first Inked Person to let me photograph her stomach for Tattoosday. I did have a mutual friend present, Sephora, who was the first person who hosted a tattoo here.
Erika wanted the lotus for two reasons. In addition to wanting something pretty to cover up an old name, she had heard that the lotus was a symbol of fertility, and she hopes to have kids some day. She hopes the lotus will be lend good luck for future procreative purposes.
There are over one hundred various types of lotus, so I can't pinpoint the exact one this is modeled after.
Once this cover-up was done, Erika asked for the leaves on the flower mentioned above to cover up the double female insignia.
Well. a hearty thanks to Erika for her participation here! She definitely holds the record for most tattoos offered up to the Tattoosday masses. Her ink is closing out the year for Tattoosday. Here's hoping that her lotus will spawn a healthy blossoming of tattoo posts here in 2008!
I have no idea what to entitle this...
Winter was asking:
"...can we submit sketches for the character studies? Or will it all be text?"
A most excellent idea. Indeed, the thought did cross my mind to have illustrations of your characters. It should work so why don't we give it a bash. Send your picture of your character to dm.cornish@halfcontinent.com and I shall see what I can do to include them the featured profile.
Lawrence ponders:
"I'm wondering what, if any, fantasy films which have been adapted from books you've enjoyed, and which ones you think fell short of their source material."
Hmm, I sense dangerous waters ahead. I have to say of the few adaptions I have seen not very many at all come up to snuff (IMHO - this is all to be taken simply as my own perspective). Some are very fine to look at and are so thoroughly done.
For example, I am thinking of Mr Jackson's fine go at LOTR - my own response to Mr Tolkien's work was and is so strong I was never going to be 100% satisfied with any adaption. I own all three extended versions of the films and just LOVE the hours of behind the scenes documentaries (as an illustrator it is my deep wish to be involved in such a process); I love the passion and earnest hard work of the whole team of folks who made the films and had I not known what love they had for the text and the work I would like the films as much as I do. LOTR is just to unwieldy to make in a more pure form and would probably appeal to far fewer folks (just us die-hards).
The Narnia series is promising to be wonderfully thorough - much simpler stories to adapt; the battle at the end of Lion,Witch, Wardrobe is astounding - that pause in the sound just as the armies are about to clash sublime.
The Conan films are not anywhere near the texts.
H.P.Lovcraft adaptions always turn into shlocky nonsense, and so far from the grim and serious tensions of the text.
I have to humbly admit the most horrendous crime that I got into Harry P only after seeing the first three films and began reading from there. Having confessed that I find the films adequate precis and very expertly done but the books hold more as they almost always will.
There is much more - I am sure I am making some huge oversight, missing something, but this response is not exhaustive.
Of spec-fic the one adaption that has actually improved my sense of the book is David Lynch's Dune - superb, new visions, improved understanding, a complete work in deep respect to the text and abridged so thoughtfully. 10/10.
Another would be a non-fantasy (if I may): Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a perfect coagulation of all that is brilliant about Mr O'Brian's astounding set of books - I did not mind its very loose adaption at all, it caught the very soul of the text and distilled it beautifully. The Extras DVD is very insightful too.
In a perfect world I would very very very much want to have Mr Weir do a version of MBT - or for it to have a vibe more like Master and Commander rather than say the Dungeons & Dragons films, more honest and low-key, not the smash-bash-treat-the-audience-like-they-have-no-subtlety that is the norm; music scores that are in the background not out in front demanding and dictating audience reaction - string quartets not full orchestras (a much more Half-Continent sound anyway), big "empty" audio spaces, fights filled with the drama of the sounds of combat rather than overwhelming musical stridence (sic), fulgars fighting with flickers and flashes of electricity like a subway train not great arcs of lightning spraying all over the place, etc etc etc... You can see that I have thought about this a bit.
Anyway, I had always said to myself I would not put up too much of my opinions of others work and here I am doing just that. You tricked me into it Lawrence, dang it.
What are other people's thoughts?
"...can we submit sketches for the character studies? Or will it all be text?"
A most excellent idea. Indeed, the thought did cross my mind to have illustrations of your characters. It should work so why don't we give it a bash. Send your picture of your character to dm.cornish@halfcontinent.com and I shall see what I can do to include them the featured profile.
Lawrence ponders:
"I'm wondering what, if any, fantasy films which have been adapted from books you've enjoyed, and which ones you think fell short of their source material."
Hmm, I sense dangerous waters ahead. I have to say of the few adaptions I have seen not very many at all come up to snuff (IMHO - this is all to be taken simply as my own perspective). Some are very fine to look at and are so thoroughly done.
For example, I am thinking of Mr Jackson's fine go at LOTR - my own response to Mr Tolkien's work was and is so strong I was never going to be 100% satisfied with any adaption. I own all three extended versions of the films and just LOVE the hours of behind the scenes documentaries (as an illustrator it is my deep wish to be involved in such a process); I love the passion and earnest hard work of the whole team of folks who made the films and had I not known what love they had for the text and the work I would like the films as much as I do. LOTR is just to unwieldy to make in a more pure form and would probably appeal to far fewer folks (just us die-hards).
The Narnia series is promising to be wonderfully thorough - much simpler stories to adapt; the battle at the end of Lion,Witch, Wardrobe is astounding - that pause in the sound just as the armies are about to clash sublime.
The Conan films are not anywhere near the texts.
H.P.Lovcraft adaptions always turn into shlocky nonsense, and so far from the grim and serious tensions of the text.
I have to humbly admit the most horrendous crime that I got into Harry P only after seeing the first three films and began reading from there. Having confessed that I find the films adequate precis and very expertly done but the books hold more as they almost always will.
There is much more - I am sure I am making some huge oversight, missing something, but this response is not exhaustive.
Of spec-fic the one adaption that has actually improved my sense of the book is David Lynch's Dune - superb, new visions, improved understanding, a complete work in deep respect to the text and abridged so thoughtfully. 10/10.
Another would be a non-fantasy (if I may): Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a perfect coagulation of all that is brilliant about Mr O'Brian's astounding set of books - I did not mind its very loose adaption at all, it caught the very soul of the text and distilled it beautifully. The Extras DVD is very insightful too.
In a perfect world I would very very very much want to have Mr Weir do a version of MBT - or for it to have a vibe more like Master and Commander rather than say the Dungeons & Dragons films, more honest and low-key, not the smash-bash-treat-the-audience-like-they-have-no-subtlety that is the norm; music scores that are in the background not out in front demanding and dictating audience reaction - string quartets not full orchestras (a much more Half-Continent sound anyway), big "empty" audio spaces, fights filled with the drama of the sounds of combat rather than overwhelming musical stridence (sic), fulgars fighting with flickers and flashes of electricity like a subway train not great arcs of lightning spraying all over the place, etc etc etc... You can see that I have thought about this a bit.
Anyway, I had always said to myself I would not put up too much of my opinions of others work and here I am doing just that. You tricked me into it Lawrence, dang it.
What are other people's thoughts?
Tattoos I Know: Erika's Ink (Part 1)
A long, long time ago, in a place called BillyBlog, an idea was formed. It was the idea that became Tattoosday. I decided to celebrate the many tattoos I encountered, with a photo (or two) and a story. A Miami Ink for the blogging crowd. Nothing about the artists' personalities, all about ink. In fact, all you see is the art, and very little else of the hosts.
The idea was to find strangers willing to let me take pictures of their tattoos, and post them with an accompanying text explaining when and where and why they chose to be inked. But I needed a guinea pig, so I started with a co-worker, Sephora, who seemed to enjoy talking with me about tattoos and music of all sorts. She was game, and she inaugurated the Tattoosday feature here.
And the rest is (brief) history. The Tattoosday feature, appearing every Tuesday was so much fun, I spun it off into its own blog and it has enjoyed a small, small viewership. But a blog can only dream. Through the odds and ends and goods and bads of Tattoosday's growing pains, I would occasionally saunter over to Sephora and chat about tats. The woman who sat in front of her, Erika, would often join in the conversation, but was mum about her own tattoos (if she had any, I couldn't tell. I wasn't scanning her clothing edges for ink slippages.)
Then in November, Erika was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and lo! and behold! What did I see?
Well, now I was chatting with Erika about tattoos and she mentioned she had a lot. I asked her if she would be interested in Tattoosday and she was game. So, over the last few weeks, starting with our holiday party when she was wearing a dress that showed off most of her back, through very recently when I snapped the pictures of the last of Erika's dozen (or so) tattoos, I managed to capture the catalog of Erika's ink, which is presented here for the Tattoosday readership.
Enough of my gab, lets roll with the body art!
Erika doesn't know exact dates on all her ink, so we're going to go chronologically. First up is this basic, rudimentary rose on her right lower calf.
By the way, Erika's tattoos all have pretty good story behind them. About 14 years ago, circa 1993, she was 18 and went into Your Choice Tattoo, in East Meadow, New York (on Long Island, for you non-New Yorkers). She was scared to death of what then pain would be like, Her boyfriend suggested the location on her lower leg because it wouldn't hurt so much. Of course, in hindsight, that's one of the more painful spots because it is so close to bone.
The co-owner of Your Choice Tattoo, Joe, made her go home and get her birth certificate, because he thought her ID was fake. He even joked that she would need to get a letter from her mother!
Two years later, at 20, she was back at Your Choice, this time working with artist Michelle, who put this unicorn on the right side of her lower back:
Erika explains that she was still a kid at heart, and that she had a lot of unicorns in her room. She saw this design on the wall and went with it. It's a reminder of that little girl she once was.
A year later, she was back at Your Choice Tattoo, with Michelle again. Like for most people, Ericka's tattoos serve as signposts for different periods of her life. In 1996, she was dating a guy who was heavy into the Black empowerment philosophy. "He was a big 'Power to the People' guy," Ericka recalls, "And I wanted to show him I was down with that." She exhibited this commitment by having an Egyptian ankh inked on her left shoulder:
Because the symbol simultaneously recalls Egypt and represents the hieroglyphic symbol for "life," it still resonates as a powerful image on her skin.
A year later, she had befriended another tattoo artist, Joe, at Behind the Lines II Tattooing in Jamaica, Queens. She had this small piece inked on her right shoulder:
The piece in question is the heart with the crown and the name "Marie". It's a tribute to her mother, Marie, who, Erika acknowledges, is "the Queen of her Heart".
Below the tribu
te to her mom is another piece by Joe at Behind the Lines. It's a hybrid of the Puerto Rican flag and the Haitian flag. Her father is from Puerto Rico and her mother is from Haiti and she wanted a tribute to her heritage.
A year later (approximately 1998), she was hanging out with Joe and things were slow in the shop. He offered up, "I'm bored. Want a tat?" Ericka was game and this bluebird was inked on her neck:
She acknowledges that there is no real story behind it, but that she does like the art. Ericka is a great example of how tattoos can be addictive and that, once you get one, you want to keep going.
This concludes part 1 of Ericka's Ink. Stay tuned for part 2!
Thanks again to Ericka for sharing her tattoos!
The idea was to find strangers willing to let me take pictures of their tattoos, and post them with an accompanying text explaining when and where and why they chose to be inked. But I needed a guinea pig, so I started with a co-worker, Sephora, who seemed to enjoy talking with me about tattoos and music of all sorts. She was game, and she inaugurated the Tattoosday feature here.
And the rest is (brief) history. The Tattoosday feature, appearing every Tuesday was so much fun, I spun it off into its own blog and it has enjoyed a small, small viewership. But a blog can only dream. Through the odds and ends and goods and bads of Tattoosday's growing pains, I would occasionally saunter over to Sephora and chat about tats. The woman who sat in front of her, Erika, would often join in the conversation, but was mum about her own tattoos (if she had any, I couldn't tell. I wasn't scanning her clothing edges for ink slippages.)
Then in November, Erika was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and lo! and behold! What did I see?
Well, now I was chatting with Erika about tattoos and she mentioned she had a lot. I asked her if she would be interested in Tattoosday and she was game. So, over the last few weeks, starting with our holiday party when she was wearing a dress that showed off most of her back, through very recently when I snapped the pictures of the last of Erika's dozen (or so) tattoos, I managed to capture the catalog of Erika's ink, which is presented here for the Tattoosday readership.
Enough of my gab, lets roll with the body art!
Erika doesn't know exact dates on all her ink, so we're going to go chronologically. First up is this basic, rudimentary rose on her right lower calf.
By the way, Erika's tattoos all have pretty good story behind them. About 14 years ago, circa 1993, she was 18 and went into Your Choice Tattoo, in East Meadow, New York (on Long Island, for you non-New Yorkers). She was scared to death of what then pain would be like, Her boyfriend suggested the location on her lower leg because it wouldn't hurt so much. Of course, in hindsight, that's one of the more painful spots because it is so close to bone.The co-owner of Your Choice Tattoo, Joe, made her go home and get her birth certificate, because he thought her ID was fake. He even joked that she would need to get a letter from her mother!
Two years later, at 20, she was back at Your Choice, this time working with artist Michelle, who put this unicorn on the right side of her lower back:
Erika explains that she was still a kid at heart, and that she had a lot of unicorns in her room. She saw this design on the wall and went with it. It's a reminder of that little girl she once was.
A year later, she was back at Your Choice Tattoo, with Michelle again. Like for most people, Ericka's tattoos serve as signposts for different periods of her life. In 1996, she was dating a guy who was heavy into the Black empowerment philosophy. "He was a big 'Power to the People' guy," Ericka recalls, "And I wanted to show him I was down with that." She exhibited this commitment by having an Egyptian ankh inked on her left shoulder:
Because the symbol simultaneously recalls Egypt and represents the hieroglyphic symbol for "life," it still resonates as a powerful image on her skin.
A year later, she had befriended another tattoo artist, Joe, at Behind the Lines II Tattooing in Jamaica, Queens. She had this small piece inked on her right shoulder:
The piece in question is the heart with the crown and the name "Marie". It's a tribute to her mother, Marie, who, Erika acknowledges, is "the Queen of her Heart".
Below the tribute to her mom is another piece by Joe at Behind the Lines. It's a hybrid of the Puerto Rican flag and the Haitian flag. Her father is from Puerto Rico and her mother is from Haiti and she wanted a tribute to her heritage.A year later (approximately 1998), she was hanging out with Joe and things were slow in the shop. He offered up, "I'm bored. Want a tat?" Ericka was game and this bluebird was inked on her neck:
She acknowledges that there is no real story behind it, but that she does like the art. Ericka is a great example of how tattoos can be addictive and that, once you get one, you want to keep going.
This concludes part 1 of Ericka's Ink. Stay tuned for part 2!
Thanks again to Ericka for sharing her tattoos!
Merry Thing!
It has been a most excellent year and I thank you all who have put your thoughts here and entered into the dialogue - a very healthy and helpful thing from my point of view, and I hope for you too.
The posting of the preview chapter seems to have gone down alright - I was a little worried there that I had done the wrong thing by putting it up - and I cannot wait until April/May and onwards either, the full story at last! ...not some mean glimpse.
Next year's to-do list (isn't there a blog about these thing somewhere..?)
1. Answer questions about how Book 3 is going, movie deal$, and on the possible autobiographical nature of MBT.
2. Periodically feature one of your most excellent and revelatory character studies in the profile section.
3. Say something clever about the two polls currently up (of which the general opinion is pretty clear).
4. Start some new polls - and ask you all for any ideas regard this.
5. Do some more word challenges.
6. Not sure what else but it will come to me...
...oh, and write Book 3 (probably optional).
May you all travel safely and find joy this Christmas and New Year; if i could I'd have you over at my new pad for a party (a very sober and serious party where we'd discuss heavy ideas and solve the worlds ills - in theory). I might squeeze in another post or two before the end of all things 2007, but either way, take care - it is a better planet knowing you all exist.
The posting of the preview chapter seems to have gone down alright - I was a little worried there that I had done the wrong thing by putting it up - and I cannot wait until April/May and onwards either, the full story at last! ...not some mean glimpse.
Next year's to-do list (isn't there a blog about these thing somewhere..?)
1. Answer questions about how Book 3 is going, movie deal$, and on the possible autobiographical nature of MBT.
2. Periodically feature one of your most excellent and revelatory character studies in the profile section.
3. Say something clever about the two polls currently up (of which the general opinion is pretty clear).
4. Start some new polls - and ask you all for any ideas regard this.
5. Do some more word challenges.
6. Not sure what else but it will come to me...
...oh, and write Book 3 (probably optional).
May you all travel safely and find joy this Christmas and New Year; if i could I'd have you over at my new pad for a party (a very sober and serious party where we'd discuss heavy ideas and solve the worlds ills - in theory). I might squeeze in another post or two before the end of all things 2007, but either way, take care - it is a better planet knowing you all exist.
Dana's Stargazer Lily
At the beginning of November, I found a cool tattoo where I least expected to: a bat mitzvah. Such occasions are not generally tattoo-displaying events, especially with the misconception that tattoos and Jews do not go together. However, we here at Tattoosday know better and I, with my two, and my spouse with her four, are always appreciative of a finely-inked piece.
The bat mitzvah girl was too young to be tattooed, but her older sister wasn't, and she had something on her back that I noticed in the shul. Nonetheless, she was not the person who ended up here on Tattoosday.
During the cocktail hour, post-service, pre-dinner, my lovely wife spotted a be-flowered bicep of a woman at the party.
However, she disappeared once we are all seated, and I figured that was that. Besides, I had no printouts of the blog with me, just the camera.
Later in the evening, post-dinner, post-performance (the bat mitzvah girl did a song and dance for the guests' entertainment). A bit after that, I spotted the woman on the other side of the
ballroom, seated at a table. I hate interrupting people while they are conversing with others, so I waited.
A bit further on, I saw her just outside the entrance, smoking a cigarette. Smoking may be hazardous one's health, but it seems to be Tattoosday's Best Friend. I've found the Smoking Tattooed among the most approachable, as they are standing around and not necessarily in a hurry anywhere. And by talking to them, I am not interrupting anything (generally speaking).
So, out I went to introduce myself and tell her about the blog. And, of course, she was totally cool. It turns out she had been the bat mitzvah girl's choreographer. Her name is Dana Athens, and she is a singer as well (check out her website or her MySpace page). I finally got a good look at the flower on her right biceps:
Dana explained that the tattoo is a stargazer lily, inked for inspiration as it represents "always reaching for your dreams". It is one of five tattoos she has.
When I asked her where she had it inked, she started, "A great artist named Peter...."
I cut her off...."At Body Art Studios?"
There's something about having been mutually tattooed by the same artist. It's more than just both knowing the same person. You both have let the same person artistically alter your respective bodies for life. I think it's a bond only the tattooed truly understand.
So we chatted and I took pictures of her lily. After we went back inside, I tracked down my wife, Melanie, and brought her over to Dana to introduce her.
Again, there was that connection between the mutually-tattooed. Melanie has had 3 of her 4 tattoos inked by Peter. She showed Dana her tattoos and we chatted awhile.
It was an unexpected bonus to an already festive evening.
My apologies to Dana for the delay in posting this sweet tattoo. Thanks again, Dana, for sharing your lily with us!
The bat mitzvah girl was too young to be tattooed, but her older sister wasn't, and she had something on her back that I noticed in the shul. Nonetheless, she was not the person who ended up here on Tattoosday.
During the cocktail hour, post-service, pre-dinner, my lovely wife spotted a be-flowered bicep of a woman at the party.
However, she disappeared once we are all seated, and I figured that was that. Besides, I had no printouts of the blog with me, just the camera.
Later in the evening, post-dinner, post-performance (the bat mitzvah girl did a song and dance for the guests' entertainment). A bit after that, I spotted the woman on the other side of the
ballroom, seated at a table. I hate interrupting people while they are conversing with others, so I waited.
A bit further on, I saw her just outside the entrance, smoking a cigarette. Smoking may be hazardous one's health, but it seems to be Tattoosday's Best Friend. I've found the Smoking Tattooed among the most approachable, as they are standing around and not necessarily in a hurry anywhere. And by talking to them, I am not interrupting anything (generally speaking).
So, out I went to introduce myself and tell her about the blog. And, of course, she was totally cool. It turns out she had been the bat mitzvah girl's choreographer. Her name is Dana Athens, and she is a singer as well (check out her website or her MySpace page). I finally got a good look at the flower on her right biceps:
Dana explained that the tattoo is a stargazer lily, inked for inspiration as it represents "always reaching for your dreams". It is one of five tattoos she has.
When I asked her where she had it inked, she started, "A great artist named Peter...."
I cut her off...."At Body Art Studios?"
There's something about having been mutually tattooed by the same artist. It's more than just both knowing the same person. You both have let the same person artistically alter your respective bodies for life. I think it's a bond only the tattooed truly understand.
So we chatted and I took pictures of her lily. After we went back inside, I tracked down my wife, Melanie, and brought her over to Dana to introduce her.
Again, there was that connection between the mutually-tattooed. Melanie has had 3 of her 4 tattoos inked by Peter. She showed Dana her tattoos and we chatted awhile.
It was an unexpected bonus to an already festive evening.
My apologies to Dana for the delay in posting this sweet tattoo. Thanks again, Dana, for sharing your lily with us!
A very sneaky preview indeed... Chapter 1 of LAMPLIGHTER!
Just in time for Christmas I bring you... the first chapter of MBT 2 Lamplighter, ready for you to download from...
HERE!
My word, I sure hope you all like it - consider it a Christmas present.
Merry Jesusbirthday (as I like to call it) and may it be a brilliant new year for everyone of you. I am being very UP here - might need to include a few bah-humbugs next post.
HERE!
My word, I sure hope you all like it - consider it a Christmas present.
Merry Jesusbirthday (as I like to call it) and may it be a brilliant new year for everyone of you. I am being very UP here - might need to include a few bah-humbugs next post.
Jason's Koi and Flower
While wandering aimlessly at work, I ran into Tom (see his tattoo here) with a couple of contractors. One of them had a cool tattoo and when I mentioned it to Tom, he told me to go get my camera. And so I did.
Tom introduced me and summarized my Tattoosday project.
The guy, Jason, actually had two pieces that formed a quarter-sleeve that covered pretty much the entire upper arm.
The inner arm/bicep has a flower on it which he referred to as a pantisse.
I checked an encyclopedia and found no such name. I could spend a long time trying to figure it out, but am not willing to do so.
He got it at Fly Rite Studio in Brooklyn. The artist is Elio Espana.
The outer arm hosted the koi tattoo, which was the one I first noticed.
Jason is a Pisces, and the koi represents good luck.
This piece was inked by Damien Bart at Bruce Bart Tattooing in Ft. Lauderdale.
Thanks to Jason for contributing to Tattoosday!
Tom introduced me and summarized my Tattoosday project.
The guy, Jason, actually had two pieces that formed a quarter-sleeve that covered pretty much the entire upper arm.
The inner arm/bicep has a flower on it which he referred to as a pantisse.
I checked an encyclopedia and found no such name. I could spend a long time trying to figure it out, but am not willing to do so.
He got it at Fly Rite Studio in Brooklyn. The artist is Elio Espana.
The outer arm hosted the koi tattoo, which was the one I first noticed.
Jason is a Pisces, and the koi represents good luck.
This piece was inked by Damien Bart at Bruce Bart Tattooing in Ft. Lauderdale.
Thanks to Jason for contributing to Tattoosday!
UK Cover for Book 2
Here is the front cover of the UK Edition of Lamplighter. Lovely, lovely, lovely; I am liking it a whole lot - it has a wonderful flavour all of its own. Your thoughts?Go here to see the US and ANZ covers if you have not glimpsed them before or just want a refresher.
And please keep the answers to these questions coming - I cannot enthuse enough about how great the answers have been . If you want to read other people's most excellent ideas, for now check the comments here, here and here.
SA Great 2007 Rising Stars
Not too long ago I was honoured with an inclusion in the SA (South Australia) Great 2007 Rising Stars program. It included a whole range of younger folks: business people, scienticians, athletes, teachers, inventors and other clever clogs all from this home state of mine. It was truly an honour to be included, though I felt inferior to the rest - but whatever.
They produced a magazine to go with the award and here is my interview therein - just for those who might be interested. The kinds of questions asked made for slightly different answers from some of the other interviews already linked. Check it out if you dare.
On an unusual note, there was a birthdate cutoff to be eligible to be a Rising Star and this little duck only made it by about two weeks. Phew! Not as young as I look it seems.
Probably a bit too much of my-own-trumpet-tooting going on here - I will get to Lawrence's question soon... honest!
Speaking of which, please keep the answers to these questions coming - I cannot enthuse enough about how great the answers have been . (If you want to read other people's most excellent ideas, for now check the comments here, here and here. Should I stop this project now? Am I flogging it too much perhaps?)
They produced a magazine to go with the award and here is my interview therein - just for those who might be interested. The kinds of questions asked made for slightly different answers from some of the other interviews already linked. Check it out if you dare.
On an unusual note, there was a birthdate cutoff to be eligible to be a Rising Star and this little duck only made it by about two weeks. Phew! Not as young as I look it seems.
Probably a bit too much of my-own-trumpet-tooting going on here - I will get to Lawrence's question soon... honest!
Speaking of which, please keep the answers to these questions coming - I cannot enthuse enough about how great the answers have been . (If you want to read other people's most excellent ideas, for now check the comments here, here and here. Should I stop this project now? Am I flogging it too much perhaps?)
Joanne Raine's "Supermarket" Tattoo
Apparently the big story across the pond in UK is a girl's tattoo. A young girl named Joanne Raine got her boyfriend's nickname tattooed on her with Chinese characters at a dodgy tattoo shop. Of course, they have since then broke up & the tattoo is not exactly the boy's name.
News links via BBC, The Northern Echo, & video via LiveLeak
The phrase "supermarket" is 超級市場 or abbreviated to 超市 in Chinese. I have no idea how and why 盟联行 was interpreted as "supermarket" in the news clips.
Update: Dec. 13, 2007 - I have emailed BBC regarding the error of interpreting 盟联行 as "supermarket" .
News links via BBC, The Northern Echo, & video via LiveLeak
The phrase "supermarket" is 超級市場 or abbreviated to 超市 in Chinese. I have no idea how and why 盟联行 was interpreted as "supermarket" in the news clips.
Update: Dec. 13, 2007 - I have emailed BBC regarding the error of interpreting 盟联行 as "supermarket" .
New York City Marathon
Ok, so I am late with this post.
I live a half block from an early point in the New York City marathon route. Everyone is fresh and cheery, and the Kenyans are more of a blur than they are at the end of the race.
This year, I endeavored to see how many tattoo candids I could snap of runners as they passed by. I did not have high hopes. The mass of humanity that is 30,000 souls is a blur and by the time your brain registers something interesting, it is already gone in a trail of cells just starting to sweat.
I snagged one partial shot. (Don't forget, one has to factor in the photographer's ineptitude and the several-years-old technology of a Kodak Easyshare camera.
Of course, I'm not counting painted on flags like this one:
That's Pia Larsson from Sweden, by the way.
Anyway, I did catch this guy as he blew by:
I know what you're thinking...."What tattoo?" Take a peek at the guy on the right side of the photo and see what I salvaged:
And then lightened:
And then blew up:
I don't know exactly what it is, but there is definitely a patriotic theme here.
That's the best I could do. Sorry!
I live a half block from an early point in the New York City marathon route. Everyone is fresh and cheery, and the Kenyans are more of a blur than they are at the end of the race.
This year, I endeavored to see how many tattoo candids I could snap of runners as they passed by. I did not have high hopes. The mass of humanity that is 30,000 souls is a blur and by the time your brain registers something interesting, it is already gone in a trail of cells just starting to sweat.
I snagged one partial shot. (Don't forget, one has to factor in the photographer's ineptitude and the several-years-old technology of a Kodak Easyshare camera.
Of course, I'm not counting painted on flags like this one:
That's Pia Larsson from Sweden, by the way.Anyway, I did catch this guy as he blew by:
I know what you're thinking...."What tattoo?" Take a peek at the guy on the right side of the photo and see what I salvaged:
And then lightened:
And then blew up:
I don't know exactly what it is, but there is definitely a patriotic theme here.
That's the best I could do. Sorry!
The origin of a word
I received an email query recently from a certain Beverley McKay:
"I have just finished reading Monster Blood Tattoo and have a question I was hoping you could answer for me… Could you tell me from where you derived the name you gave to the Imperial language?"
I can certainly answer that question for you. It was a few years ago now but the word was derived from two things: firstly, that I like the sound - the "vibe" if you like - of the word Latin and wanted to keep this intact some how; secondly the people who speak this language (a conglomeration of the Patris and Dido's faithful followers) style themselves the Tutelarchs (loosely the "teacher-rulers"). Consequently, I simply joined the "tut" (said 'tyoot') of Tutelarch and the "in" of Latin and so was formed Tutin. (This was my emailed reply, actually)
So, now both she and you know.
Also, regarding giantfan's inquiry into those who study the weather in the Half-Continent. Well, they are not particular folks like we have meteorologists in our own world, though certainly some natural philosophers have more than a passing interest in the movements of winds and rains. Barometers exist too, of course, for telling whether conditions are remaining fair or turning foul.
I will get to Lawrence's question about the auto-biographical nature of MBT soon.
Speaking of Lawrence, you should head on over to Lil' Chief Records and have a listen to the tunes on his jukebox. After that you need to go check out Coz's tunes, Rabbit Weather.
And while you listening to the sweet music, please please try your hand at answering these questions. I tell you truly, my sense of the H-c is so expanding just knowing and thinking of these independent lives moving about it, characters of other people's imagination dwelling therein - it is almost like these inventions of yours have become autonomous entities in my imaginings.
Totally unexpected and so very very "cool"!
"I have just finished reading Monster Blood Tattoo and have a question I was hoping you could answer for me… Could you tell me from where you derived the name you gave to the Imperial language?"
I can certainly answer that question for you. It was a few years ago now but the word was derived from two things: firstly, that I like the sound - the "vibe" if you like - of the word Latin and wanted to keep this intact some how; secondly the people who speak this language (a conglomeration of the Patris and Dido's faithful followers) style themselves the Tutelarchs (loosely the "teacher-rulers"). Consequently, I simply joined the "tut" (said 'tyoot') of Tutelarch and the "in" of Latin and so was formed Tutin. (This was my emailed reply, actually)
So, now both she and you know.
Also, regarding giantfan's inquiry into those who study the weather in the Half-Continent. Well, they are not particular folks like we have meteorologists in our own world, though certainly some natural philosophers have more than a passing interest in the movements of winds and rains. Barometers exist too, of course, for telling whether conditions are remaining fair or turning foul.
I will get to Lawrence's question about the auto-biographical nature of MBT soon.
Speaking of Lawrence, you should head on over to Lil' Chief Records and have a listen to the tunes on his jukebox. After that you need to go check out Coz's tunes, Rabbit Weather.
And while you listening to the sweet music, please please try your hand at answering these questions. I tell you truly, my sense of the H-c is so expanding just knowing and thinking of these independent lives moving about it, characters of other people's imagination dwelling therein - it is almost like these inventions of yours have become autonomous entities in my imaginings.
Totally unexpected and so very very "cool"!
Tattoos I Know: Brooke's Courage
Here's another piece from a co-worker:
The next day, Bill called her and asked her if she was still up for the tattoo. "Sure," she said, and the rest is history.
The funniest part of the story, in my opinion, is that, on occasion, if Brooke's out with Bill and other friends at a bar, Bill will ask people, "You wanna see my tattoo?" When they say okay, Bill grabs Brooke's arm and shows them the tattoo.
The tattoo was inked by Robbie at Hoboken Body Art.
This kanji cost $75 and Brooke actually went back a few months later because she wanted it darkened. They re-inked it for free, an impressive pro-customer move.
Brooke chose the kanji for "courage" to represent the courageous act of leaving the relative "safety" of Utah for the faster-paced and exciting life of the Tri-State area. She likes having it on her inner wrist because she sees it all the time and it is a constant reminder to her to always be courageous in life.
Of course, Tattoosday has had its share of kanji tattoos in our short existence. The problem with kanji tattoos are that they are prone to errors and misinterpretation. It's hard to throw a cyber-rock on the web and not hit a story about an ill-inked kanji tattoo.
This one, however, seems correct, much to my relief. It would suck to have to tell Brooke her tattoo doesn't mean "courage" but "angry goat" or something silly.
Take a closer look:
Which is pretty close to this piece on the web:
Still, I like to get a second validation, which I found here:You can see from the above selection the differences in the same character, done in the different kanji styles (each labeled ____ Shu).
Kanji tattoos continue to simultaneously intrigue and befuddle me. Thanks to Brooke for sharing her courage with me.
Brooke Goetz moved to the New York City/New Jersey area a couple years back, transplanting herself from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Earlier this year, in May, she was hanging out with some friends at a bar in Hoboken called Mikie Squared. One of her friends, Christian, was talking about tattoos. Brooke has two koi on her back (subject for a later post, hopefully) and another friend at the bar, Bill, admitted he did not have any tattoos. One thing led to another, and Bill posed the question to Brooke, "If I pay for it, will you go get a tattoo right now?" Brooke was game and agreed, without hesitation.
The next day, Bill called her and asked her if she was still up for the tattoo. "Sure," she said, and the rest is history.
The funniest part of the story, in my opinion, is that, on occasion, if Brooke's out with Bill and other friends at a bar, Bill will ask people, "You wanna see my tattoo?" When they say okay, Bill grabs Brooke's arm and shows them the tattoo.
The tattoo was inked by Robbie at Hoboken Body Art.
This kanji cost $75 and Brooke actually went back a few months later because she wanted it darkened. They re-inked it for free, an impressive pro-customer move.Brooke chose the kanji for "courage" to represent the courageous act of leaving the relative "safety" of Utah for the faster-paced and exciting life of the Tri-State area. She likes having it on her inner wrist because she sees it all the time and it is a constant reminder to her to always be courageous in life.
Of course, Tattoosday has had its share of kanji tattoos in our short existence. The problem with kanji tattoos are that they are prone to errors and misinterpretation. It's hard to throw a cyber-rock on the web and not hit a story about an ill-inked kanji tattoo.
This one, however, seems correct, much to my relief. It would suck to have to tell Brooke her tattoo doesn't mean "courage" but "angry goat" or something silly.
Take a closer look:
Which is pretty close to this piece on the web:
Still, I like to get a second validation, which I found here:
Below are some of the characters styles you can choose for your "Courage / Bravery (alternate)" calligraphy when you select this option...
Xing-Kai
Shu
ShuKai
ShuLi
ShuZhuan
Shu
Kanji tattoos continue to simultaneously intrigue and befuddle me. Thanks to Brooke for sharing her courage with me.
Kanjix
Johan and I had a good laugh at this website called Kanjix, where its motto is "A good KANJI name for you."
Besides the Engrish plastered all over the site, their kanji examples are not what I would call professional quality.
We are both curious who would pay $19 for 800 pixel size jpeg & additional $9.50 for PDF (Why not just use PDFCreator, it is FREE!).
I suggest their slogan should be changed to:
(Engrish + Eihongo) * $ = Kanjix!
Update: I find it to be very ironic that Google Adsense is posting an ad about Kanjix.
Besides the Engrish plastered all over the site, their kanji examples are not what I would call professional quality.
We are both curious who would pay $19 for 800 pixel size jpeg & additional $9.50 for PDF (Why not just use PDFCreator, it is FREE!).
I suggest their slogan should be changed to:
(Engrish + Eihongo) * $ = Kanjix!
Update: I find it to be very ironic that Google Adsense is posting an ad about Kanjix.
A galley - I have the proof.
Yesterday I received from Tim Travaglini - my US publisher-man - what in the US publishing industry is called a galley (here in Oz we called them ubers, or somesuch - not sure why, probably an acronym) of Book 2, Lamplighter. This galley is what most folks would call an uncorrected proof. Indeed, that is what it says clearly on the front: "UNCORRECTED PROOF NOT FOR RESALE"... and uncorrected it is: I am still working with Mr Travaglini to make the final adjustments for the US edition.
But the best bit is that a galley is actually an early, paperback version of the book! Yipee! It looks very nifty, I near took it to bed with me as some kind of blankey... and talk about thick! Now I reckon it is not seemly to judge a book by its weight, but deep inside some part of me cannot help but go "HURRAH! Look how dense it is! " - 730 odd pages with all things included. "Did I write that? It looks just like a bought one," I marvel to myself much more than I did with Foundling, but too much self-congratulation is not a good thing so I stop.
Just to note, there is a little treat in Book 2 for many of the brave souls who have contributed to this blog with their comments. Speaking of which, thank you very much to those who dared to answer my questions last post, your entries were brilliant. In fact they have helped greatly in expanding my sense of people moving about independently in the Half-Continent, doing their thing apart from any narrative. It would be great if others would give them a go too.
And as requested today for breakfast I had Apricot Fruity Bix[TM].
But the best bit is that a galley is actually an early, paperback version of the book! Yipee! It looks very nifty, I near took it to bed with me as some kind of blankey... and talk about thick! Now I reckon it is not seemly to judge a book by its weight, but deep inside some part of me cannot help but go "HURRAH! Look how dense it is! " - 730 odd pages with all things included. "Did I write that? It looks just like a bought one," I marvel to myself much more than I did with Foundling, but too much self-congratulation is not a good thing so I stop.
Just to note, there is a little treat in Book 2 for many of the brave souls who have contributed to this blog with their comments. Speaking of which, thank you very much to those who dared to answer my questions last post, your entries were brilliant. In fact they have helped greatly in expanding my sense of people moving about independently in the Half-Continent, doing their thing apart from any narrative. It would be great if others would give them a go too.
And as requested today for breakfast I had Apricot Fruity Bix[TM].
Memorial for a Father
On a cold morning in the beginning of November, I spied a tattoo on the bare left calf of a guy at the corner of 31st and 7th in Manhattan. He crossed the street, walking the same direction I was headed and, lo and behold, headed into the Starbucks in my office building.
He was ahead of me in line and after he ordered, I expressed admiration for his tattoo:
Obviously, it's a memorial tattoo. The host's name is Jim and, as he explained, his father had passed away 3 years ago. I didn't notice until later when I uploaded the picture, the dates 1961-2005, making his father 43 or 44 when he died. The inscription reads "In Loving Memory James R. Frederickson".
Jim explained the tattoo for me. His father wanted to be cremated, so the tattoo is an ersatz grave site. He also added in the cheap, wooden cross, because his father always had been critical of people who spent a ton of money on grave markers.
Jim explained that the piece took him 2 1/2 years to design and get just right, so it must have been completed in the past year. It was inked at Lake Geneva Tattoo.
Thanks to Jim for sharing his tattoo with me!
He was ahead of me in line and after he ordered, I expressed admiration for his tattoo:
Obviously, it's a memorial tattoo. The host's name is Jim and, as he explained, his father had passed away 3 years ago. I didn't notice until later when I uploaded the picture, the dates 1961-2005, making his father 43 or 44 when he died. The inscription reads "In Loving Memory James R. Frederickson".
Jim explained the tattoo for me. His father wanted to be cremated, so the tattoo is an ersatz grave site. He also added in the cheap, wooden cross, because his father always had been critical of people who spent a ton of money on grave markers.
Jim explained that the piece took him 2 1/2 years to design and get just right, so it must have been completed in the past year. It was inked at Lake Geneva Tattoo.
Thanks to Jim for sharing his tattoo with me!
Tattoos I Know: Jeff's Lifelong Long Life
Tattoosday is back after a November hiatus. If you want a further explanation, check out BillyBlog. Pickings have been slim, but I still hope to present a tattoo or two through the winter months. I have a few posts stored up to carry us through December......
Today's tattoo is from a co-worker named Jeff.
This piece is on his upper right arm. He got this at a tattoo shop in Rhode Island about a dozen years ago when he was 19. He'd always wanted one and designed this "under the influence of narcotics".
He thought it had meant "life-long" but found out later that it meant "long life". I have neither the time nor the wherewithal to fully research kanji mysteries like this. Here's one example of a stock "long life" kanji:
I don't see the similarities, but at least it doesn't mean "cow," like previous tattoos I have featured.
Either way, thanks to Jeff for sharing his tattoo!
Today's tattoo is from a co-worker named Jeff.
This piece is on his upper right arm. He got this at a tattoo shop in Rhode Island about a dozen years ago when he was 19. He'd always wanted one and designed this "under the influence of narcotics".
He thought it had meant "life-long" but found out later that it meant "long life". I have neither the time nor the wherewithal to fully research kanji mysteries like this. Here's one example of a stock "long life" kanji:
I don't see the similarities, but at least it doesn't mean "cow," like previous tattoos I have featured.
Either way, thanks to Jeff for sharing his tattoo!
Sasha from New York in Miami Ink
An anonymous reader emailed me this screen capture from episode 12 in season 4 of Miami Ink.
It starts at 38:30, some person telling her story:
"Hello. I'm Sasha from New York and I've got this really cool tattoo on my back of a crescent moon surrounded a kanji, which is Japanese symbol and it's all me, it's my initial. And crescent moon is there basically to protect me, to make..."
Another sucker of the "Asian font".
It starts at 38:30, some person telling her story:
"Hello. I'm Sasha from New York and I've got this really cool tattoo on my back of a crescent moon surrounded a kanji, which is Japanese symbol and it's all me, it's my initial. And crescent moon is there basically to protect me, to make..."
Another sucker of the "Asian font".
"Kyan"
My friend Jon Rahoi (who runs a fantastic site about mangled English spotted in Hong Kong and various locations in China) has recently sent me a photo of his personal trainer's tattoo.
Jon says:
Hi Tian - my personal trainer showed me his tat today. He thinks it says "Kyan" which is his son's name. He said his Taiwanese-Okinawan friend wrote it for him. In Cantonese I think it says, "hei nguk mo" (happy house fight or brawl or something) and I'm guessing it would also be at least three syllables in Japanese, too. So I thought he was on crack. BUT when I put them into Google
喜屋武
I get 76,000 pages - mostly of a girl named Chiaki Kyan, who is a cosplay idol. I'm stumped as to where they're getting "Kyan," though. It's a mystery to this poor gwailo...
anyway, thought I'd share.
Jon says:
Hi Tian - my personal trainer showed me his tat today. He thinks it says "Kyan" which is his son's name. He said his Taiwanese-Okinawan friend wrote it for him. In Cantonese I think it says, "hei nguk mo" (happy house fight or brawl or something) and I'm guessing it would also be at least three syllables in Japanese, too. So I thought he was on crack. BUT when I put them into Google
喜屋武
I get 76,000 pages - mostly of a girl named Chiaki Kyan, who is a cosplay idol. I'm stumped as to where they're getting "Kyan," though. It's a mystery to this poor gwailo...
anyway, thought I'd share.
So who in the Half-Continent would you be?
It occurred to me that it might be really rather interesting to know that if folks were citizens of the Half-Continent what type of person they might be?
- What would be your name?
- What part of the Half-Continent would you live in?
- What would be your social station?
- What profession might you choose?
- Would you be a sedorner (monster-lover) or invidist (monster-hater) or somewhere in between?
- What would you look like?
- Would you have spoors or cruorpunxis?
- What else would be interesting about you?
I am thinking I could perhaps do a little profile of each response in the side bar, a new one for each month - and "Introducing..." kind of thing. Please, answer one, some or all of these as you feel, let the world (and me) know - I reckon this might be a tad fun.
Oh - and Happy Thanksgiving to those for whom it is relevant!
(I am also wondering where random missfitt has got to... hello, are you there, sir?)
Folding-money & more
This is a replica of the 10 sou folding-money note (sometimes called a folder) that Rossamünd received from Europe just before he departs for Winstermill - actual size is about A5.The red stamp in the top left corner is the Imperial Sigil made as deep-dye mark. Pressed into the bottom right corner is the Sovereign Marque - made using a form, a metal rod cast with a state's sigil - or marque - which is placed on the paper and hammered once and firmly with a small mallet to leave an imprint in the paper. Such forms are highly valuable items - I can see certain insalubrious folk plotting how they might steal one to further their own nefarious causes. The sign "A.V" in the marque stands for "Arius Vigilans" - the Vigilant Ram of Hergoatenbosch.
I thought some folks might be interested in knowing what folding-money looks like. I have been spending some of my inbetween-books time (that being Book 2 Lamplighter - now with the printers - and Book 3 - still no official title yet) figuring out the convoluted systems and industries surrounding the production, issuing and redemption of the humble folding bill.
Such periods of pointed and concerted invention are enriching, giving me an continually expanded view of just what makes the Half-Continent work; all those folks bustling about: the printers and their secret-vault presses, the guarded trucks taking the bills to banks and other authorised issuers, the halls of clerks keeping track of the movements and uses of the bills through an unwieldy system of logs and ledgers, the revisionists sent out to investigate frauds and forgeries. Fun, fun, fun.
Also, I have at last coined Half-Continent terms for the words mooseguy kindly challenged me with. So here goes once more, Half-Continent synonyms for real-world terms #011:
mobile phone = in full these would be called eloquiproculogue, sometimes shortened to proculogue, or voxeproculogue, though everyday folks would call them ablongs ("from afar")
internet = technically it would alternatively be known as the astrapemethodologue or fulgurcoetre ("electrical gathering") shortened to the fulgurcot, though once more the vernacular would be the somewhat simpler epistulane, with emails being commonly called epistles (a briefer form of fulgepistulës) or coets.
democracy = well, technically I could simply use the word "democracy" and be done, but where would the fun be in that?! So the Gotts for example, have two terms for it, stimmanteil ("voice-sharing") used in a positive sense, and lumpelämend ("rascal-noise") used pejoratively. Given that the Gottish political system is essentially an imperial dictatorship, lumpelämend is the more common in current times. In the Haacobin capital, Clementine, the term vox paritas ("equal voice") is being thrown about more and more frequently, it detractors deriding it as glaucaloquia ("sweet-talking") - a whole lot of frothy nonsense: the Empire will not stand - and therefore the dominion of men against the monsters - (so they say) if power is shared about to any old person just because they feel they would like to have a go a running things.
Keep the challenges coming, please.
Also, would you keep Jay (I introduced you to him last post) in your thoughts: he is going through very tough times at the moment.
Introducing Jay
Today, I would like to introduce a fine fellow I have met in email-land, via his mum (the stellar Rita Faye):
Jay, from Cocoa, Florida.
Howdy, sir, how are you doing? I hope better today.
Now Jay was doing a report on Monster-blood Tattoo for school, which went basically:
"*Research and write a report about the author of the novel. Include information about their life and books they have written. Also include a photo of the author.*"
So, via his mum Rita, he asked me some questions about writing and the book and myself, did a whole lot of hard work and handed in the report early. Better yet, when he got his grade back he had achieved 120 for it! Woo-stinkin'-hoo! Well done, Jay!
Given he had asked me some questions I thought I would ask him some of my own:
Favorite character from MBT?
"Europe, because she can shoot lightning."
Favorite books? (in order...)
"Artemis Fowl series (Eoin Colfer), Monster Blood Tattoo (DM Cornish), Rock Star Superstar (Blake Nelson), Eclipse (Stephanie Meyer), The Supernaturalist (Eoin Colfer)" (How sweet is that - I'm on someone's favourite list!)
Do you like comics?
"Yes, I like comics. For example, I like Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, The Punisher, manga, and just about everything else." (Makes me think I need to get a graphic novel of MBT happening some day - or better yet some other story from the Half-Continent.)
Now, from what I understand, Jay has a blood and marrow condition which doctors are currently investigating (Rita said I could say this - I hope Jay does not mind) so please have him in your good thoughts, prayers or whatever other positive processes you have. That is kind of why I am introducing to you all - to make his day (I hope) in the midst of tough times. Maybe you could send him a howdy in the comments and answer the questions I asked him (for the illumination of both him and I):
Favorite character from MBT?
Favorite books? (in order... or not)
Do you like comics? (I include graphic novels in this)
The next book for Jay's project is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Rita says, "Jay likes it for one of the same reasons he likes MBT; the hero is a young boy that he can identify with. We shall see how he goes." We shall indeed. May you get equally high marks for this, too, Jay!
Jay, from Cocoa, Florida.
Howdy, sir, how are you doing? I hope better today.
Now Jay was doing a report on Monster-blood Tattoo for school, which went basically:
"*Research and write a report about the author of the novel. Include information about their life and books they have written. Also include a photo of the author.*"
So, via his mum Rita, he asked me some questions about writing and the book and myself, did a whole lot of hard work and handed in the report early. Better yet, when he got his grade back he had achieved 120 for it! Woo-stinkin'-hoo! Well done, Jay!
Given he had asked me some questions I thought I would ask him some of my own:
Favorite character from MBT?
"Europe, because she can shoot lightning."
Favorite books? (in order...)
"Artemis Fowl series (Eoin Colfer), Monster Blood Tattoo (DM Cornish), Rock Star Superstar (Blake Nelson), Eclipse (Stephanie Meyer), The Supernaturalist (Eoin Colfer)" (How sweet is that - I'm on someone's favourite list!)
Do you like comics?
"Yes, I like comics. For example, I like Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, The Punisher, manga, and just about everything else." (Makes me think I need to get a graphic novel of MBT happening some day - or better yet some other story from the Half-Continent.)
Now, from what I understand, Jay has a blood and marrow condition which doctors are currently investigating (Rita said I could say this - I hope Jay does not mind) so please have him in your good thoughts, prayers or whatever other positive processes you have. That is kind of why I am introducing to you all - to make his day (I hope) in the midst of tough times. Maybe you could send him a howdy in the comments and answer the questions I asked him (for the illumination of both him and I):
Favorite character from MBT?
Favorite books? (in order... or not)
Do you like comics? (I include graphic novels in this)
The next book for Jay's project is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Rita says, "Jay likes it for one of the same reasons he likes MBT; the hero is a young boy that he can identify with. We shall see how he goes." We shall indeed. May you get equally high marks for this, too, Jay!
Different Covers for Book 2
Above is the US Edition cover for MBT Book 2: Lamplighter.Below is the ANZ Edition hardback cover.
Thoughts any one?
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