Time Flies When You're Living and Dying

"No," I explained to Heather, "I don't troll the post office for tattoos." She was asking why, of all places, I stopped her in line at the Fort Hamilton Post Office in Brooklyn.

Really, it was a series of coincidences. My younger daughter was sick today, so I stayed home. Otherwise, I would have been at the main post office in Manhattan. But there I was, after an eternal wait in line, when I looked back and saw Heather talking to someone before getting into the endless line. I gasped. Heather has a lot of ink. She has sleeves (I think one was 3/4 and one was 1/2, I could be wrong) and a back piece that looks to be of significant volume, with other tattoos scattered across her self from neck to toe.

When I asked her about her tattoo count, she gave me an answer that you generally don't hear, except from the heavily-tattooed. "I estimate I'm about 40% covered." Wow. A lot of ink, indeed.

Heather gets tattooed by two main guys, and the piece she offered for Tattoosday was done by Lou Andrew at Third Eye Tattoos in Park Slope. You may be familiar with Lou's work, from Fabiana, whose ink has been appearing recently on Tattoosday.

Heather explained the piece, saying that the girl in the artwork has been "zombfied" to represent death

and the hourglass, with the wings, is symbolic of the fleeting nature of time ("time flies"), and ultimately, life. The detail is vivid and very well done:

I love the grains of sand falling in the hourglass and the red cobwebs.

Heather explained that this tattoo, on the back of her left calf, will have a companion piece on the back of the right, but not until fall. She acknowledged that her practice is not to get tattooed in the summer, when fresh ink is most susceptible to sun damage and fading.

Much thanks to Heather for sharing her tattoo here on Tattoosday! I hope she will make a return appearance in the future, perhaps later in the year when she has the other piece inked.

Marcus Sports a Heavenly Geisha

I ran into Marcus walking down 86th Street in Bay Ridge, just a block from Brooklyn Ink, where the above piece was tattooed by Joe. I hear Joe's name a lot, as his shop is closest to home for me. Although I have never been inked by Joe, everyone I've spoken to has nothing but good things to say.

Marcus, who has about a dozen tattoos, had this piece tattooed on his right forearm, because he is an artist and inspired by art. Geisha, best translated as "artist" in Japanese, are representatives of the traditional artist class in Japan. This geisha has wings, making her angelic, which adds an element of spirituality to the tattoo. The combination of the physical art form with a representation of the spiritual, appeals to Marcus' sensibility, and this tattoo ultimately captures his outlook on life.

Thanks to Marcus for taking a moment to share your heavenly geisha with us here at Tattoosday!

You can see other postings of work from Brooklyn Ink on Tattoosday here.

Angie's Life-Affirming Flower

I ran into Angie at Duane Reade and she offered up the above piece as one of her favorite tattoos (she has over twenty).

This flower is actually a composite, based on several different flowers. There is a clear lotus influence, as well, she acknowledged, a little bit of daisy. The color is based on that of the peony (right).

Angie had this inked while she was in the Army, prior to going overseas to Iraq. She identified the artist as Jim White at Halo Tattoo in Syracuse, New York. However, Jim is not listed on the shop's site, so he must have moved on.

This is located on her inner left forearm and extends upward to the inside of her elbow.

It's a beautiful flower, which was a life-affirming reminder that she carried with her to Iraq. I can only imagine how difficult the journey must have been, and I can see how one's body art provide strength as life's challenges are faced and overcome.

Thanks to Angie for taking a moment to speak to me about her tattoo!

Hello Polaroid, Goodbye Kodak!

Just a service note. The official camera of Tattoosday has been upgraded from a circa-'05 Kodak Easyshare (took a lickin' but kept on clickin') that snapped decent 4.0 megapixel shots, to a fancy-schmancy Polaroid 7.0 megapixel t730.This upgrade comes courtesy of two friends, who generously pooled their resources, and bought this for me on my birthday. They are awesome, not only for giving me such a cool and much-needed gift, but because they have been tremendous supporters of Tattoosday from the beginning. Tom and Sephora are their names, and I want to thank them all over the place. Sephora, actually, was the subject of Tattoosday's first post, back when it was an aspiring spin-off on BillyBlog.

Tom's ink appeared early on, here, back in September 2007 in this blog's infancy.

Thanks to both of these dear friends, who are affianced, by the way. Their generosity and support of the blog are above and beyond the norm. They are exceptional friends, and I formally extend my gratitude.

Henna Tattoo Video • Arabic Style How to Henna

Here is the work of a very talented traditional artist. I love her use of bold lines & white space while creating a very full look for the palm of the hand. I just wnat to do more of this kind of art. Don't you want to have some traditional henna ??? I love this pattern. What you you think?

Amanda's Tree of Strength

It seemed quite appropriate that, as I had some guests over to celebrate my birthday, Amanda, a friend of my wife's, was sharing with me a tattoo she had inked as a 30th birthday gift from her husband.

I'm fairly certain that this is the first one of these tattoos appearing here and, when I say, "one of these," I am referring to the type of tattoo that looks like it has been painted on in a watercolor style.

This was inked by Adam at Electric Rose Tattoo in Olympia, Washington. According to Amanda, Adam has tattoo training in Japan, and this watercolor-style piece certainly evokes cherry blossoms.


Amanda elaborated on the origins of this tattoo. In 2001, she was dating James, who would eventually be her husband. She had become pregnant and suffered a miscarriage in September, and this experience, after they had been dating for only seven months, was very traumatic for them.

She has other tattoos (this one was number six), and she wanted something to mark the moment, to memorialize the difficulty of the situation that was such a touchstone for emotion at the time. As the years passed and she thought of the occasion for this tattoo, searching for what she thought was the appropriate art to base it on, she envisioned a tree from which to draw her strength.

Then, in 2004, she found the image upon which the tattoo was based, on a thermos, of all places. Amanda knew instantly that this was the art she wanted on her back. She finds that it symbolizes the rebirth of her self and represents what could have been, had she not miscarried. She recalls that this was more painful than any of the other tattoos she has (three on her ankle, two on her hip) and that the emotion behind the piece helped her transcend the pain as part of the healing process.

It's a beautiful tattoo with deep meaning, and I thank Amanda for sharing it here on Tattoosday!

Keikikalani

You may recognize this from the bottom of the page (or for long-time readers, it once served as the masthead).

This is my second tattoo, inked in July 2005, by Peter Cavorsi at Body Art Studios in Brooklyn. I brought him this art as reference, and he ran with it, customizing it to more closely reflect my younger daughter's blonde hair, and her affinity for Green Day, at the young age of six.
It's my birthday today, and I'm fresh out of new material, so I thought I'd fall back on me. Thanks for reading Tattoosday!