The Tattooed Poets Project: Raffaella Ciavatta's Trio of Amazing Tattoos

Today's tattoos were submitted by Brazilian-born, New York-based poet Raffaella Ciavatta. She heard about the Tattooed Poet's Project earlier this month from Jackie Sheeler at a local reading. Jackie's tattoos were featured earlier this month here.

Raffaela sent three photos:


Raffaela says that this is "my own design mixing a Chinese dragon, representing strength, and the lizard, for the soul's search of awareness, so that it could protect me and guide me through the eternal pursuit of knowledge."

This piece on the lower left side of her back/hip was her first tattoo, done at Studio Tat 2 in Brazil.

Next is a piece on the right side of her chest, near the collar bone:



The "mater" is the Latin word for mother who, Raffaella proclaims is "done for the most important person to me in this world, my mother, father, best friend!" This piece was inked at Fabio Tattoo, also in Brazil.

And finally, this last tattoo, which you get a small glimpse of in the first picture above, is just breath-taking:

These are her angel wings, "done to achieve my dream of reaching New York." She adds, "I definitely flew from Brazil to NY." They were tattooed over six months. The tattoo was started by Eric Codo ("just the outline...he had to move to Rio de Janeiro) at Steel Star Supply in Sao Paulo and was finished by the "Amazing Fabio Renato".

Head over to BillyBlog to read one of Raffaella's poems.

Thanks to Raffaella for sharing her amazing work with us here at Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Nathan Logan's Tattoo Punctuates the Flesh

Today's tattoo was generously donated by Nathan Logan, who presents a tattoo on his left arm:


Nathan explains:

This tattoo was a gift to myself for getting into graduate school. I wanted to get a line of poetry, but the options overwhelmed me. I couldn't decide. So after giving it some thought, I chose my favorite punctuation mark, which can be found in many lovely poems and pieces of prose. I think it covers all the bases. It was done in April 2007 by Nate Harmon at Ground Zero in Muncie, Indiana [now known as 111 Arts Gallery and Tattoo Studio].

Please check out one of Nathan's poems over on BillyBlog here.

Thanks to Nathan for sharing his semi-colon tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Todd Heldt's Chicago Owl

Today's tattoo was submitted by the poet Todd Heldt:


This is on his right bicep and is based on one of his favorite Chicago landmarks, the owl perched on the Harold Washington Library, the central library for the Chicago Public Library system.


The owl is often used as a symbol to represent knowledge.

The tattoo was created by Esther Garcia at Butterfat Studios in Chicago.

Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of Todd's poems.

And, if you like owls, you must check out a blog dedicated entirely to owl tattoos here.

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

Anthony's Skate and Destroy Tattoo

Just a brief note...despite the Tattooed Poets Project for National Poetry Month, I still plan on spotting ink on the streets of New York, and posting it here. This is one of those posts....

I ran into Anthony outside of Madison Square Garden on Thursday, April 9, during the lunch hour.

He is a skateboarder with four tattoos, the most visible of which curves around his inner right forearm:


This tattoo features the pentagram logo for Thrasher magazine, a periodical devoted to the skateboarding lifestyle.


He added the "Skate and Destroy" text to the banner below the design, as it is a popular creed among skaters, and graces some Thrasher merchandise:


Anthony, who has been skateboarding for nine years, had this tattoo inked to commemorate his passion for the sport. The piece was created at Addicted to Ink in White Plains, New York and tattooed by Mike.

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

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cheryl Maddalena's Beautiful Tattoo

Today's Tattooed Poet is Cheryl Maddalena. Cheryl is a performance poet from Boise, Idaho.

Although the photo above is small, the tattoo is big, bold and beautiful.

Cheryl writes:

"It had occurred to me, as a performance poet, that I could never read other poets' tattoos from the audience. Mine is 200 point lowercase Times New Roman, the same font as all my poetry but a larger size."

The tattoo was done by Sean Wyett at Black Cat Tattoo & Piercing in Boise.

For a poem by Cheryl, not coincidentally titled Why I got the word “beautiful” tattooed on my arm in 200 point lowercase Times New Roman, head over to BillyBlog here. There's also a clip up of Cheryl performing.

Thanks to Cheryl for sending us her amazing tattoo!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Mike Sikkema's Tattoo Blends Natural with Mechanical

Today's tattooed poet is Mike Sikkema, a friend of Gina Myers (whose tattoo appeared here), who sent him my way. His piece is not fully completed, but it is still completely interesting:


















Mike explains the piece:

Eva Huber began my birds at Divine Machine Tattoo in Buffalo, NY, in the fall of 2008. The combination of real and chrome apples, of real and mechanical birds points at where we’re at: the age of remote controlled spy beetles and “vegetarian” meat made from cloned cells.

The apples and particular types of birds also point to my birthplace, northern Michigan. Another fully robotic bird, as well as a musical staff are on the way.

On a side note, Eva Huber appears to now be tattooing at Off the Map Tattoo in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Mike didn't mention this, but the but his mechanical bird reminded me a lot of Haruki Murakami's wonderful novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.


Thanks to Mike for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday. Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of his poems.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Rebecca Loudon's Bee Tattoo

The following tattoo was submitted by the poet Rebecca Loudon:

The tattoo was inspired by her favorite poem, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats:

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Rebecca adds that she will include the last two lines of the first stanza will be added "one of these days". The tattoo is on her right calf.

Rebecca added:

This tattoo was done by Tracy Zumwalt in Seattle, in December of 2008, shortly after my book Cadaver Dogs was published. Tracy used to work at Anchor Tattoo in Seattle, but now works privately by appointment only.

I have other tattoos, but I had been talking about the bee tattoo for 20 years. I was waiting for something, something to celebrated, something to mark. Bees have always been my totem animal and they are prominent in all my writing. Once the book was complete, I knew it was time. I wanted the tattoo to be a scientific rendering but I let Tracy do the artwork. The bee is on the outside of my right calf. The photo isn’t very good because it isn’t really a photo. I just put my leg on my scanner because I don’t own a camera. You can still see Tracy’s fine work in the scan though."

Rebecca Loudon lives and writes in Seattle. She is the author of 4 books of poetry, the latest being Cadaver Dogs from No Tell Books, several lyrics for songs for chamber orchestra and choir, and the libretto of a full length opera, Red Queen. She is a professional violinist and teaches violin to children. She has more than 6 and less than 10 tattoos. She practices writing at http://radishking.blogspot.com/

Head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems.

Thanks to Rebecca for her participation in the Tattooed Poet's Project!

A Bonus: click here to listen to William Butler Yeats reading the poem that inspired this tattoo!