Rachel's Bird Helped Her Let Go

The same night I met Brian, I met Rachel, who has eight tattoos.

She shared this one with me:

This piece on her left biceps is based on the work of artist Kurt Halsey. This little bird appears in multiple works by the artist, but Rachel imagined it for her own personal situation. She got it after a break-up a couple of years ago, and the tattoo gave her the strength to "let the bird go". In this case, the bird represents the ended relationship and the tattoo is a transitional piece that helped her recover from the difficulty of moving past it.

From Memphis, Tennessee, Rachel had this inked at Underground Art Tattoos and Body Piercing by Chris Fitzgerald. Chris had been a piercer at the shop and then moved into tattooing. He has since left tattooing and moved to photography. His new business is Cult Noir Photography, and his work can be seen here.

Thanks to Rachel for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Two Rocking Tattoos from Joe

I met Joe last month outside of Penn Station and he shared two tattoos with us.

First is this hellcat:

Why this cat? It's a design, Joe says, inspired by the band Rancid, whose music appears on Hellcat Records.

Not to mention, he likes cats. Need he have more reasons? That's on his upper left arm.

I'm more excited to share this photo, which actually is a rare Tattoosday shot in which one can see the contributor's face. I could have cropped it out, but I think it's a cool shot.

This tattoo arose out of Joe's desire to have some body art made with red ink. The design is based on the album art for a disbanded musical act out of Washington called Isa.

The two tattoos are among five Joe has in total and were done by Milton Sillas at Tattoo Royale in the Pacific Beach section of  San Diego, California.

Thanks to Joe for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday and for waiting so patiently for me to get to his tattoos. The summer backlog is both a bane and a blessing.

As a postscript, readers familiar with the site will notice that I've watermarked these photos. I've grown tired of seeing Tattoosday content appropriated elsewhere on the web, without attribution. This is an attempt to maintain credit of our content here at Tattoosday.

Two Rocking Tattoos from Joe

I met Joe last month outside of Penn Station and he shared two tattoos with us.



First is this hellcat:

Why this cat? It's a design, Joe says, inspired by the band Rancid, whose music appears on Hellcat Records.



Not to mention, he likes cats. Need he have more reasons? That's on his upper left arm.



I'm more excited to share this photo, which actually is a rare Tattoosday shot in which one can see the contributor's face. I could have cropped it out, but I think it's a cool shot.

This tattoo arose out of Joe's desire to have some body art made with red ink. The design is based on the album art for a disbanded musical act out of Washington called Isa.

The two tattoos are among five Joe has in total and were done by Milton Sillas at Tattoo Royale in the Pacific Beach section of  San Diego, California.



Thanks to Joe for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday and for waiting so patiently for me to get to his tattoos. The summer backlog is both a bane and a blessing.



As a postscript, readers familiar with the site will notice that I've watermarked these photos. I've grown tired of seeing Tattoosday content appropriated elsewhere on the web, without attribution. This is an attempt to maintain credit of our content here at Tattoosday.

Two Rocking Tattoos from Joe

I met Joe last month outside of Penn Station and he shared two tattoos with us.



First is this hellcat:

Why this cat? It's a design, Joe says, inspired by the band Rancid, whose music appears on Hellcat Records.



Not to mention, he likes cats. Need he have more reasons? That's on his upper left arm.



I'm more excited to share this photo, which actually is a rare Tattoosday shot in which one can see the contributor's face. I could have cropped it out, but I think it's a cool shot.

This tattoo arose out of Joe's desire to have some body art made with red ink. The design is based on the album art for a disbanded musical act out of Washington called Isa.

The two tattoos are among five Joe has in total and were done by Milton Sillas at Tattoo Royale in the Pacific Beach section of  San Diego, California.



Thanks to Joe for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday and for waiting so patiently for me to get to his tattoos. The summer backlog is both a bane and a blessing.



As a postscript, readers familiar with the site will notice that I've watermarked these photos. I've grown tired of seeing Tattoosday content appropriated elsewhere on the web, without attribution. This is an attempt to maintain credit of our content here at Tattoosday.

Two Rocking Tattoos from Joe

I met Joe last month outside of Penn Station and he shared two tattoos with us.



First is this hellcat:

Why this cat? It's a design, Joe says, inspired by the band Rancid, whose music appears on Hellcat Records.



Not to mention, he likes cats. Need he have more reasons? That's on his upper left arm.



I'm more excited to share this photo, which actually is a rare Tattoosday shot in which one can see the contributor's face. I could have cropped it out, but I think it's a cool shot.

This tattoo arose out of Joe's desire to have some body art made with red ink. The design is based on the album art for a disbanded musical act out of Washington called Isa.

The two tattoos are among five Joe has in total and were done by Milton Sillas at Tattoo Royale in the Pacific Beach section of  San Diego, California.



Thanks to Joe for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday and for waiting so patiently for me to get to his tattoos. The summer backlog is both a bane and a blessing.



As a postscript, readers familiar with the site will notice that I've watermarked these photos. I've grown tired of seeing Tattoosday content appropriated elsewhere on the web, without attribution. This is an attempt to maintain credit of our content here at Tattoosday.

Michelle's Amazing Owl Tattoo Honors Her Dad

I follow a method to creating content for this blog and I generally post ink in the chronological order that I see it. Sometimes a post may take longer because it requires more research. Other times, a tattoo is so good, it deserves to be seen right away. The tattoo above is one of those that demanded it be posted immediately. It helped that the story behind it is short and sweet.

I had left the office for lunch on Friday and I spotted this owl (sorry, bad pun) going into Starbucks. I suddenly realized I had left my camera on my desk. What to do? Run upstairs and risk missing the chance? Ask her to send me a photo? Then, I realized I had my phone, a recent upgrade, with a functioning camera. But would it take a good tattoo picture?

I believe so.

This is Michelle's tattoo, covering her upper left arm. It is dedicated to her father, who is her very own "wise old owl". The tattoo artist was Marina, who was apprenticing at Fly-Rite Studio, in Brooklyn.

All I can say is, "Wow." Not only is it an amazingly beautiful piece of body art, but it rendered the dozen or so tattoos I saw throughout the day uninteresting. When you fly first class, it's hard to go back to sitting in coach.

Everything I've seen come out of Fly-Rite has been spot-on. See other tattoos that were inked st the studio here.

Thanks again profusely to Michelle for sharing her wonderful owl tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and thanks to Marina for inking such a cool piece!

Alexa's Blue Bird Honors Her Grandfather's Memory

I met Alexa on the southeast corner of 34th Street and 7th Avenue last Tuesday and may have saved her from a little bit of parental grief.

I asked her about the sparrow below her neck and she was happy to tell me about it, especially since I reminded her about it. She was waiting to meet her father, who doesn't know she's inked, and she covered up after I snapped the picture.


Alexa got this tattoo on the first anniversary of her grandfather's passing. All that it symbolizes to her, the color blue, the freedom from the earth, true love - all of these combine to empower the symbol she finds as especially fitting for the memory of her grandfather.

The sparrow was designed by a friend of hers. She took the drawing to Crazy Fantasy Tattoo in the West Village where the artist colored the design and inked it.

Thanks to Alexa for sharing her sparrow with us on Tattoosday!

Candice Explains Her Six Interesting Tattoos

I first met Candice a couple of weeks ago when I spotted some very interesting tattoos on her arms and told her about Tattoosday.

She was on her way back to work from lunch, so she took a flier and said she'd check it out. She e-mailed me later that day and we agreed to meet a week later to talk about her six tattoos. She has three on her right biceps, two on her left, and a chest piece.

Candice works for a New York-based non-profit hunger organization, and gets to travel a bit. I discovered, as she went through her tattoos chronologically, that she collected tattoos in various cities across the country.

Her right arm has three pieces:

The one on the top right is her first:

This was inked in August 2003 when she was 19 at Distinction TA2 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She thinks the artist’s name was Carlos, but doesn’t remember for sure.

Since the age of 10, Candice has been fascinated by Iceland. She pointed out her ancestry is Sicilian, not Icelandic. Nonetheless, she has always loved Iceland. Thus, her first tattoo was the Icelandic crest, which graces the backs of most coins, or kroná, in the country.

The four quadrants each represent one of the four mythical Guardians of Iceland, each in turn representing the North, South, East and West sections of the country. This myth is central to Icelandic culture (read more here).

Clockwise from the upper left, there is an eagle, a dragon, a mountain giant, and a bull. Candice has a special affinity for the bull as her astrological sign is Taurus.

Her second piece was inked in August 2004 at the same shop in Sunset Park by Rob. The person who did her coin had subsequently left the shop:

Aside from liking birds, the piece's design history came courtesy of her boyfriend at the time (they have since broken up but remain friends). He found the bird image in a textbook and duplicated and customized it into a larger collage. At a time, she thought about using it as a back piece, but they pared it down to fit on her biceps. She's not sure what type of bird it is, but it remains one of her favorite pieces. I love the inverted imagery, which recalls a bit of yin-yang correlation.

Her third tattoo is a very basic, rudimentary design. Flipping back to her left arm, Candice explained that it represents a medieval watermark of a crossbow:

At first, I wasn't very impressed by it. Then I got the story. She was visiting New Orleans on business, pre-Katrina in March 2005, and it took all of 7 minutes and cost only $25. The piece was inked at Eyecandy Tattoo in New Orleans and, Candice believes that the artist was intoxicated ("I think she was drunk. It was a total New Orleans experience.")

She sensed my surprise at her analysis of the sobriety of the tattooist. Diplomatically, she re-stated, "Well, she was drinking a beer while doing it. She said not to worry, she worked like that a lot." So, let's give the tattooist the benefit of the doubt. Maybe not drunk, but certainly quick.

And why the crossbow watermark?

The crossbow represented a Medieval theme, another subject of interest in Candice’s life.

This watermark design also appears on the cover of the first single by an artist named Jason Molina, performing as Songs:Ohia.

Tattoo #4 was inked in August 2005, her third August tattoo in a row. The design originated after waking up from a dream and immediately drawing the image that had been so prominent in the dream state. She designed the piece, purposely modeling the hands after her own, down to distinctive spots and coloring:

My first impression was that it was a variation on the claddagh ring, with the two hands and the heart in the center of the balloon. Candice was surprised when I mentioned that, but acknowledged the similarities, although she had never considered them before. In fact, to Candice, this tattoo represents one being able to let go of things in life, while at the same time allowing things to come back, as well. In essence, it embodies one’s ability to control one’s own happiness.

When I asked Candice why it was the sole tattoo of hers in color. She simply replied, “Because I dreamt it in color.” Makes perfect sense. I could probably write another page about the apparent influence that The Wizard of Oz had on this tattoo. I say apparent, because the movie never came up when we discussed it. But the theme is applicable, the dreaming in color is similar, and the hot air balloon, which was what transported the wizard to the land of Oz, also makes the case for an homage, conscious or sub-conscious, to the images of L. Frank Baum.

Interesting to note that this piece was inked by Kelly Krantz, formerly of FlyRite Studio in Brooklyn. Kelly’s appeared previously here on a tattoo I spotted just a few blocks away.

Candice’s fifth tattoo was inked in March 2006 while on a trip to San Francisco. I actually didn’t take this photo, which she understandably provided to me. It’s a chest piece that runs vertically from the middle of her chest down to her stomach:

This style of ink is known as a “Sailor Jerry” tattoo, which is basically classic, old-school tattooing. Candice just loved this piece of flash art. This photo was taken about a week after the piece was done at Black & Blue Tattoo, “a woman owned and operated San Francisco tattoo shop”. The fact that it is woman-owned increased the comfort level significantly for Candice, as the inking required much more exposure than she had been used to with her arm tattoos. She also noted that the location on her body created an interesting sensation: both pain and laughter - it tickled and hurt simultaneously! The artist was Natalie Chandler, who is now working out of Oakland.

And finally, her last piece is a line drawing of a structure representing a house:

This image appeared on the cover of an album by the band Modest Mouse called Building Nothing Out of Something.

This piece was inked by Curtis James at Anchor Tattoo in Seattle, in January 2007. Modest Mouse is from the Seattle area and when Candie was visiting her ex-boyfriend, and several other friends, the image from the album seemed apropos, as she felt she was in a home away from home.

Well, I must thank Candice for her active participation in this post. She and I exchanged multiple e-mails, coordinating our schedules so I could snap the pictures, and she made my life easier by doing a lot of the research on her tattoos. Thank you for sharing your ink here at Tattoosday!