'Tis The Season to be Chosing (for some anyway...)

Here were are, November and even though I am an Ossee (to use the American pronunciation ;) and having once been a keen student of US history, I have one question burning in my mind:

Obama or McCain?

I wonder what Europe would be like as the ruler of a state? and I wonder what life in a place ruled by the Branden Rose might be like for Joe the Plumber...? Who would you like from the Half-Continent to rule your own land? (Just to keep things a little on topic - is it terrible of me to be so topical?)

More of Jessica's Ink: Halloween Post

I have featured a lot of Jessica's work before. The previous post here will link you back to earlier posts.

This seemed an appropriate piece for Halloween. It is on the other side of the leg that features Beetlejuice holding a pumpkin. You can see the pumpkin in the photo.

The image is of a child in a ghost costume holding a rock and a paper sack. It's based on a scene from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". A bunch of kids are comparing their goodies and Charlie reaches into his bag and sadly proclaims "I got a rock."


Happy Halloween everyone! And thanks to Jessica for sharing her ink!!

Here's a little "I got a rock" bonus:

Charlie Honors The Birth of His Youngest Son

A cold and dreary day drove me underground on Tuesday, as I spent some of my lunch hour inkspotting, and meeting some new tattoos.

Since it was Tat-Tuesday, it only seemed fitting that I met a father and son, Amtrakking from Florida up to Boston, who had four tattoos apiece.

I met Charlie first, who had a tiger on his forearm. However, he offered up this piece on his right bicep instead:


As a parent with child-inspired ink, I certainly appreciated this tattoo which honors the birth of his youngest son, Derry.

He wanted to do a tribute, but didn't want to do a portrait, which is a popular method for doing so. Instead, he went for the footprints, name and birth date.

Whereas a portrait is a snapshot in time, footprints and/or hand prints are a record of your child's beginning, and a literal imprint of part of their flesh on one's own. There's something remarkable about the historical record contained therein, like the door jamb in the family home that displays the height-marks of the child, growing over the years.

This piece was inked by "Old School" at AK's N Chevrolets in Hollywood, Florida.


I can't find an active link for the shop, and it appears as it was renamed Almost Famous 2 Tattoos (not to be confused with Almost Famous Tattoos in Miami).

Check back in the coming days to see the tattoo offered up by Charlie's older son Jason, that ties in to this piece as well.

Thanks to Charlie for sharing his little piece of family history here on Tattoosday!

Hemorrhage: Ryan's Derek Hess Piece is Bloody Awesome

I technically didn't meet Ryan, but he did respond to a flier I passed out. I gave it to his girlfriend, we're guessing around 34th Street in Manhattan, she passed it to him, and he e-mailed me the following photo:


Initially, all he told me was "It's a Derek Hess piece. It's my blood around it in the ... photo. It was done by Nick [Males] @ Silk City Tattoos".

Of course, I know inquiring minds would want to know more, so I asked him for more specifics.

"It's a piece of art that Derek Hess did [it's entitled "Hemorrhage"].
I have the print on my wall in my room, among others by him...this is just my favorite one. My girlfriend was getting her garter done on her leg and I had asked [Nick] if he could do it. He said yeah, so when she went for her second sitting, I got mine done. I think it took about 3 hours, theres a lot of detail in it. The black didn't hurt much but the blood was the worst part, non-stop pain with little to no breaks. A lot of fun."

Work by Nick at Silk City Tattoo has appeared on the blog previously here.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing his body art here with us on Tattoosday!

"Wendy"

Facebook (remember the days when it was exclusive to students only?), aka. cum bucket of the internet, has so much to offer.

You can get reconnect with "friends" that you never had interest in real life, lose your privacy, get bombarded by clever data-mining advertisers, and blah blah blah...

It comes with no surprise there is a group called "CooLeSt TaTToo On FaceBook...." with this posted in it by Wayne Fright (go ahead and friendquest him):


http://photos-413.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v236/165/18/624295413/n624295413_2973720_4222.jpg

Yep, it is an upside-down "Wendy".

Enola's Tattoo in Waterworld

io9.com recently posted something about futuristic bad-ass tattoos, one that received much attention is on the back of Enola in Waterworld (it was a shitty movie by Kevin Costner, come to think of it, were any of Costner's movies good?).

From Engrish & Hanzi Smatter

I thought Enola was a dwarf when I first saw the movie. Perhaps that was because the camera's angle that made her head huge and shrunk her torso.



The characters on the left of the circular thing is "latitude" and "longitude" on the right. I don't know why the movie people decided to break two characters into three. It is not like they are saving any flesh space.



The characters inside of the circular part is longitude & latitude's actual coordinates.

Latitude = 27° 59' N
Longitude = 86° 56' E

Spoiler alert: it is the location of Mount Everest.

Eryn's Yarn Skull

I had seen Eryn before in the vicinity of 39th and Broadway and wanted to ask her about her tattoos. When I finally got the opportunity, she rolled up her right sleeve to reveal this incredible tattoo:


Eryn is a professional knitter and works with yarn on a daily basis (see some of her artsy stuff here). A friend of her designed this piece for as an homage to her vocation, although Eryn admits it exemplifies her "dorkitude".


This skull, capped with yarn, boasts knitting needle crossbones:

It's a brilliant piece and was inked by Alex Vidaud at Nautilus Tattoo in Hartford, Connecticut.

Thanks to Eryn for sharing her awesome ink with us here at Tattoosday!

An Interlude: Third Time's a Charm

Last week I had a bizarre lunchtime walk on Thursday. I met a woman outside of Macy*s who had an interesting neck tattoo. She seemed like a willing participant until the older woman standing with her kept repeating that what I was doing was "weird". The tattooed woman began to appear uncomfortable, so I bowed out gracefully, handing her a flier and moving on.

A while later I stopped another woman with a really cool pin-up on her arm. She said I'd stopped her before and thanked me, but wasn't interested. I vaguely remembered her after the fact, but couldn't pinpoint when or where I may have met her before.

Inkspotting can be streaky, and I considered quitting for the day, but I was determined to give it one more try. It was then that I met Melanie. In fairness to her, and to give her tattoo the spotlight it deserves, her ink is posted below (here).

Melanie's Traditional Revolvers

As I mentioned above (here), Melanie crossed my path on a day last week when I had been having some bad luck with inkspotting.

However, when I saw her on 34th Street across from Macy*s, I had to talk to her about her tattoos.

What caught my eye first was her chest piece, two traditional Sailor Jerry designs, including a near replica of the neck piece sported by Buddy Nielsen of Senses Fail.

She told me an artist named Kenny up in Kingston, New York had inked the chest piece, but instead of photographing that, she offered up her stomach piece instead:


The reason for her offering this other piece is that it was tattooed by the artist she is currently working with, Cookie, at Pop's Tattoo Emporium in Kingston.

Melanie got her first tattoo at sixteen and fell in love with the traditional style. When I asked her how many she had, she had the typical response of the heavily-inked: she wasn't sure.

The guns and roses along the waistline are a traditional motif and part of her desire for ink is to fill in space, to keep working with the body's canvas. The sheriff's badge exemplifies this, as she noted it was added as an afterthought.

The "City of Sin" identification on the badge is consistent with the piece's theme, and it artistically brings the whole tattoo together, centering the focus at the ends of the gun barrels, and providing a stronger sense of balance in the design.

Thanks so much to Melanie for sharing her traditional holsters with us here on Tattoosday!

Europe v 3.11

me was wondering: "It's nice to see that there are upgrades, add-ons, plugins, etc [Europe v3.11, perhaps?]. in the half-continent. Are these upgrades limited to internal organs only? Are there pugnators out there who figure an extra eye/arm/thorny-bark-like-skin-in-sensitive-areas/claw/magic-big-toe in addition to their modified innards might improve their trade [and fees]?."

You have hit the nail on the head about the "upgrades", (actually called scirrhitus) I do have a list of rare but existing outwardly editions to a person's self - not so much extra limbs but claws (actylls), thorns on back (which might even shoot out of the person- I forget their name off the top of my head and am not sure they quite fit the H-c "vibe"), different kind of teeth for a bit o' combat biting - known as sagital (sharp) or trenchant (blunt) maws, toughened skin, weird snapping jaws a bit like Aliens TM (called labiachus - though I am not so sure about this one, either), foul spit, and some other stuff. I have been thinking this might be a bit more in the Half-Continents future rather than right now in Rossamünd's time (HIR 1601) - we shall have to wait and see.

Interestingly enough I was just talking to Will and Mandii last night about how the Europe of Book 2 and 3 is a v 2.01 fulgar - she went and had her organs checked after vaoriating (spasming) in Book 1 and while the transmogrifer is there having a gander, she has the funds to have him do some major improvements... She gets to "kick butt" (as they say...) in Book 3... or was that too much of a spoiler?!

edwarrd asked: "With the spoors, is it something that a lahzar has to have, or is it something they choose to have to promote what they are? Also, can they have variations of the spoors?"

Some lahzars will chose to hide their nature, yes, or not make it obvious and so go without spoors or have them places not easily spotted. Others like to mark themselves with more than the usual signs, so that faces and bodies will be patterned with all manner of markings. As with our world such spooring is considered a step into the wilder side of society.

Just adding a bit more to anna's enquiries about literary traditions, I wrote this recently to a friend: The longest standing literary tradition is plays and folk songs... (I am thinking epic poems of the Attics and Tutelarchs would be included in this too) Novels - as Threnody reads - are a more modern innovation and are yet to be seen as a "literary tradition" as such.

Advice for young players

This weeks piece of folksy wisdom: do not stay up way past your bedtime, tap yourself a glass o' water when overtired, go to bed and have your wife/partner/flatmate wake up 3 hours later to find that said tap (faucet) has not been properly turned off and the kitchen bench, floor and draws are all swimming, then spend next hour+ ladling water out of draws that can not be removed and towel dry every stinking piece that dwelt in said drawers. If you can avoid this, I would recommend it.

Noelle asked: "Is it possible to be both a wit and fulgar? This just occurred to me and it's going to bother me."

Well Noelle be bothered no longer! It is indeed possible to be a wit and fulgar in one person - a super-lahzar, such maddened souls are generally called dexters and typically have short lives full of violence, pain and a whole lot of treacle-taking. Not recommended for any but "power players".

Anna asks: "By the way Mr Cornish, how is the culture-life in H-C? Authors, painters, genealogy ..?"

There surely are these things, I touch on such a little more in Book 3 - though Rossamünd not being overly cultural does not give me great play with such things. However a brief mention in the story does give me licence to go too far in the Explicarium, which is yet to be properly worked up. I tend to add brief entries as I write the main tale, points to be elaborated while the main text is in Celia's/Tim's most excellent hands.

Ah, Monday, you spotted my H.P! I feel like I have been caught with my petticoat showing ;)

Thank you all! for your encouragements last post, I clearly see you all know full well the personal insanity that is writing.

Nov 2008 Wired - Lost, in Translation

In November 2008 issue of Wired magazine, there is an interesting article about underground (or should that be "under-net") volunteers that would add subtitles to popular American television shows for those who do not understand English.

The concept is interesting however the illustration accompanying the story is not so.





While both English and Arabic alphabets are up-right and correct, the four Chinese characters are upside-down.

認真爆笑 means "serious laughter" in Chinese.

This is second time I have spotted Wired magazine making similar snafu.

Jessica's Back, Sharing Tattoos 51 and 52

I met Jessica back in June, prior to a Pearl Jam concert, in front of Madison Square Garden. She is an artist in her own right, doing a lot of the work her self, using her own kit and mirrors. Check out the original post here. I followed up with a post of more of her work here. I had a third post planned, as she had sent me some more photos of new work at the end of July.

I recently reconnected with her via e-mail and she responded with follow-up photos of the July pics, plus a whole bunch of others she has worked on since.

I am easily overloaded by too much information so I am going to try and space Jessica's work out over time and give her work the attention it deserves.

I'm going to start looking at the two pieces Jessica sent me back in July:




At the time, she advised me that she had "just finished starting [tattoo] #51 (Beetlejuice holding a jack o' lantern which I've wanted a really long time." She had just had "session one of a dragon started by Joe Matisa from il Bacio Tattoo in Trenton...he'll finish coloring it in after i get back from my vacation...".

So that was then, this is now.....




Jessica expanded a little more:

Beetlejuice is on my right leg. [I] always loved the movie and show. I've said if I ever got married, it would be awesome to wear Lydia's red dress, dress as Lydia and find me a Beetlejuice groom! and to have a big Tim Burton-style costume ball reception. Fall is my favorite time of the year. The leaves. The weather. All the spooky hayrides and haunted houses... Halloween!!!

[As mentioned above,] Joe Matisa of il Bacio Tattoo in Trenton, NJ did my dragon. That's on the left leg. It's a total custom freehand design he came up with. All I came up with was the awesome color scheme. The rest was the amazing Joe's work. I plan to put an Ed Hardy dragon next to it myself, which shall be my most ambitious idea to tackle so far....

Thanks again to Jessica for sharing her awesome work with us here on Tattoosday!

Dad 9.15.94

Alan and I both can't figure out what this tattoo is about.


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A81015/high/obkj-my-first-tattoo.jpg

Is it 伕, "common laborer", or 佚?


Update: This tattoo belongs to "Joker" in Rankmytattoos.com

Representing Levittown

This isn't the first Long Island tattoo here on this blog (see Ian Jones' post here), but it is the first specifically marking one place on Long Island.

This tattoo belongs to Dave, who told me that he and about 8 or 9 friends share the exact same piece, "geographically correct".

There's not much to this piece other than that it is an homage to his home in Levittown, a hamlet in the Town of Hempstead located on Long Island in Nassau County, New York. If one is not familiar with the place, it's worth a perusal of their wikipedia page here. The historical significance of Levittown as one of the first planned suburbs is generally undisputed.

Dave's friends had their hometown tribute inked at Skin Deep Tattoo in Levittown itself. Dave's piece was done at East Coast Tattoo & Body Piercing in Bethpage which, he informed me, has relocated to Reno, Nevada.

I have a deep respect for geographic tattoos, as they say much about a person, and their permanent presence on the body means that the place journeys with the individual, even after that person has moved on to other locales.

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

Jerome Sports a Dark Tower Tattoo

I spotted Jerome at the corner of 31st and 7th Avenue talking with a friend.

He offered up the piece above (one of his nine tattoos) with the disclaimer that the top end had to be redone, due to some unfortunate ink running.

Regardless of the small imperfection, it's a pretty sweet tattoo.

The piece is based on the artwork featured on the spines of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.

Jerome was quick to point out, it is not a Guns N' Roses tattoo, which it often is mistaken for. The artwork in question, for example, it is seen at the base of the spine of the sixth book in the series, below:

I have not read the books in which The Gunslinger is a major character, but I know that fans of the series are fierce in their love of the novels.

This was inked by Jon Jon at Cutting Edge Body Arts in Manhattan. Work from Cutting Edge has appeared before on Tattoosday here.

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

Jesse's Religious Experience

Religious imagery is among the most popular of themes in tattoo art. There is, to the shrinking minority of people who don't like tattoos, a greater level of acceptance of Christian-themed body art.

[Jewish tattoos are coming along, but the majority of Jews have fundamental issues with ink on Jews. Islamic tattoos are less common, and I can't speak to their acceptance. Eastern religious tattoos may be the most popular of religious ink, but there is a greater understang of body art when it comes to Hindu and Buddhist themes. But I digress.]

I generally avoid talking to people about full sleeves, but when I started talking to Jesse while we were browsing the books at the Chelsea Salvation Army store, it was clear that his right sleeve, which continued onto his chest, was the most important work he had.


Jesse's ink is a reflection of his faith. It is inspired by religious images that he has come across while visiting churches in Europe. He couldn't give me the specific locations of the art which inspired his work (Rome, Paris), but I'd be happy to hear from readers who may recognize the
work.
Aside from the obvious depictions of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, Jesse also pulled up his shirt to show me the most recent of his ten tattoos, which was the extension of his sleeve into his chest:


All of this work was done by Mike Pastore at Masterpiece Tattoo in Staten Island, New York. Work from Masterpiece has appeared previously here.

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

Going back to go forward...

Something I find frustrating when I write is those times when I am keen to press on with the story but it occurs to me that one of the characters (usually Rossamünd, bless him) is not being quite true to himself in an earlier chapter. Sometimes I will try to write on, enjoying too much the sensation of the word count increasing and chapters being marked off (especially with the hot breath of deadlines panting on my nape).

Inevitably, however, I can avoid it no longer and must put the advance of the words on hold and correct the earlier discord, work the changes all through the text until I am satisfied - which can cost frustratingly large amounts of time. Yet once the agony is grappled the text invariably is far improved and my sense of direction stronger, and I leap off once more into 'storm front' of the tale with fresh vigour.

Sometimes I also just get stuck...

John Paul's Gorilla Tattoo Recalls the Soviet Regime

On Monday, I met John Paul in Herald Square at 34th Street, after spotting a flourish of color on his inner bicep.

He was more than happy to show me this wonderful tattoo above.

John Paul explained that it is based on a prison tattoo from a Soviet Union gulag. The artwork represents a criticism of the regime of the U.S.S.R., depicting it, not as the common Russian bear, but as the brute gorilla. It is ham-fisted and out of control, with the symbolic hammer and sickle at the ready:


John Paul told me he is fascinated with the historic aspect of the former Soviet Union and the criticism of the regime as depicted in art, especially body art. Here's a great source if you are likewise interested in learning more about Russian prison tattoos:

The piece is incomplete in that one may notice the space below the gorilla has a banner that has yet to be filled out. John Paul said the original idea was to have the letters "FTW" for "Fuck the World" inked there, but he was not willing to have that permanently inked there. He is still deciding what to ultimately fill in the space.

This was tattooed about a year ago by Adam Warmerdam in Los Angeles. Adam is a free-lance tattoo artist in Southern California. It is one of four of John Paul's tattoos.

Thanks to John Paul for sharing this fascinating tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Mara Shares a Decorative Tattoo

I met Mara this afternoon in the plaza at the corner of 39th Street and Broadway. She was kind enough to share the above tattoo, inked on her left forearm.

She talked to me as she finished her soup, and I'm appreciative of that, as I felt a little guilty intruding on her lunch break.

Mara notes that this piece is "purely decorative". It was tattooed by Stephanie Tamez at New York Adorned, based on a design created by her friend Katherine Irwin.


The tattoo is inspired by the work of Aubrey Beardsley (who provided inspiration for a previous Tattoosday entry here). The lines and design, especially the peacock feathers, have a Beardsley-esque feel to them.


Thanks to Mara for sharing this beautiful tattoo with us!

Saint Lucy Graces David's Arm

**This post was updated for clarification of facts on October 13, 2008.

As Autumn advances on New York, tattoos have been less frequently spotted by yours truly, but a recent streak of warmer temperatures have extended the season just a bit.

I spotted the above piece on David's right bicep last Saturday at a green market in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

The tattoo was inked as a result of David taking care of a neighbor's dogs for a spell up in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1992. The neighbor had grown up in Syracuse, New York. and attended St. Lucy's Church there. The original Syracuse, in the province of Syracuse, in the region of Sicily, in Southern Italy, was where Saint Lucy was born and martyred. She is also known as the Patroness of Syracuse.

David and his neighbor had a mutual friend who was a tattoo artist and the neighbor arranged for the artist to do the tattoo for David as a form of payment for the favor.

The basis for the artwork, which is a portrait of Saint Lucy, was a Jane's Addiction concert t-shirt, circa 1991 and the Ritual de la Habitual tour. The tattooist had a close affinity for Saint Lucy, as he had gone to a church named for her, and she is the patron saint for the blind.

I was unable to find art on the shirt, but I did find the following poster art:


and this additional image, credited to a prayer card, which bears a striking resemblance, and may in fact be the basis for the concert poster and shirt art:

David indicates that the shirt looked more like the prayer card than the poster.

According to her story, her eyes were gouged out prior to her execution, and as a result, when depicted in art, two eyes appear on a plate in the portrait. In the case of this tattoo, they appear to the left of the piece:


Her eyes are often regarded as holy relics.

David also admires her as she is seen as one of the earliest feminist figures in Christianity. He also notes that he gave his friend/neighbor the concert t-shirt which inspired the tattoo, due to his relationship with St. Lucy's Church in Syracuse, NY.

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

Tattoo Posts That Go Bad: Peeping Kanji

Last October, I posted a a tattoo belonging to a guy named John here. His friend Donna also had tattoos and tried to show them to me on her lower back/waistline, but she understandably couldn't successfully reveal them fully without lowering her pants to an uncomfortable level. She said she would send me better pictures. She never did. But I kept the post in my drafts folder under the title "Peeping Kanji". Unfortunately, the Kilroy-was-here-esque tattoos could not be deciphered by Kwok, my subject matter expert on the Chinese language.

So is there any value to these pictures? Maybe, maybe not. But I want to wish them adieu and maybe their inclusion here will prompt Donna to finally getting around to send me the photos.




I'd love to know what these kanji mean. Guesses anyone?

Scary Spice, tell me what you want?

While scanning through gossip site, The Superficial, I came across several images of Melanie Brown, aka. the former Scary Spice, modeling for Ultimo Autumn/Winter lingerie line.


http://thesuperficial.com/2008/10/scary_spice_will_frighten_your.php

I have no idea what the character circled in red supposedly to be.

Is it 女? Or, is it 太?

Oh, Melanie B, why can't you tell me what you want, what you really really want? According to the song, what she really wanted was "zigazig ha".

Tattoorism 101: Another Form of Tattoo Regret

The other day while walking near Madison Square Garden, I stopped to talk to a woman about the tattoo on her foot. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey, can I ask you about your tattoo?

She: Ugh, that thing? I hate it. I got it when I was younger and wish I hadn't.

Me: Well, I write a tattoo appreciation blog, and would love to tell the story behind it anyway. Would you be interested?

She: Nah. I have three tattoos and I am so over them.

Me: [Thinking I spot an interesting tattoo on her ear] Well, would you talk to me about any of them?

She: Nah. Not interested.

Me: Well, thank you anyway. Have a nice day.

So, did she really hate her tattoos, or was she just saying it to make me go away? I'd like to think the former.

Anyway, this is a segue to the Mickey Mouse Fantasia tattoo above.

This was e-mailed to me back in July under the subject heading "Horrible Tattoo".

Here's what the sender said:

Hi Bill,

Stumbled upon your site and thought I'd share the dark side of tattoos. I was young, roughly seventeen or eighteen. Not sure which, as its been almost fifteen years now. I had been plied with beer from my high school girlfriend's brother, and the next thing I knew I was in a tattoo artist's chair. Now, I know that most tattoo artists are of the highest degree of honor, and that I have had the worst luck. Apparently a drunken teenagers wasn't much of an alarm for this fellow. The next thing I knew... I was heading home with the attached image on my arm.

I'm currently searching for a good cover-up. Contrary to a post on your blog, I was raised Christian and now try to follow more Buddhist philosophies. I debated an Aum symbol, a tree of life, a koi fish... none have really struck me as something possible for a coverup. Its quite a depressing thing to hate wearing short-sleeves or taking off one's shirt in the summer. Please pass my warning to the young readers, REALLY THINK about what you want, and never make any decisions while under the influence (which you shouldn't be anyway)! Make sure that it will have a meaning which will stick with you for years, for it shall.

By the by, if you or anyone has any ideas of coverups, please feel free to pass them my way!

-Keith

Thanks to Keith for sharing this tattoo and his story. If anyone has ideas for a cover-up, feel free to post them below in comments.

And please, folks, don't be sending me pictures of horrible tattoos, there's already a website for them.

Sharing the Misfortune

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A81006/high/n77m-my-chinese-tatto.jpg

有難同當 is a Chinese idiom means "to share the misfortune together". If this was picked from a tattoo template book, I am sure there are many sharing this misfortune.