The Tattooed Poet's Project, Jillian Brall's Love of Trees Manifests Itself in a Back Piece

In April, we featured 31 tattooed poets in honor of National Poetry Month. But we had some late entries who missed the cut-off and, well, we just plum ran out of days. Nonetheless, we have decided to continue the feature as an occasional treat for those lovers of tattoos and poetry who frequent Tattoosday.First, the tattoo:The owner of this piece elaborates:My name is Jillian Brall. I am

Aaron's Skater Days Represented in Ink

Aaron has this very unusal piece tattooed on the back of his right bicep:When I stopped to speak to him on 7th Avenue in Manhattan, I was happy to hear this tattoo, along with many of his nine others, were inked by Peter Cavorsi at Body Art Studios in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Peter has done three tattoos on my wife and me and he comes highly recommended by us. To see all of Peter's work that has

New York City Tattoo Convention, Part 2: Amazing Tattoos from North of the Border

Lost in the post-euphoric haze of the tattoo orgy known as a tattoo convention, was an encounter I had with several Canadians, one of which is a talented artist.This was, of course, the New York City Tattoo Convention, which I attended a couple weeks ago (see the brief recap here).Having decided not to collect many posts and photos for the blog (I had settled on this one), I found myself chatting

Tattoorism: Erika's Yellow Rose

I've been remiss in sharing Erika's tattoo, which she sent me almost two months ago. So let's have a visit from her lovely rose tattoo:I'll let Erika explain the artowork:"...[this] was done at Miami Ink [actually called Love Hate Tattoo Studios]. Not by anyone on the show, as they only tattoo for the show, but they have a group of very talented artists who are not featured. This tattoo has a

Tattoo Highway Contest!

Win Prizes from the New A&E Real Life Series TATTOO HIGHWAY, PREMIERING WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 AT 10/9C.Tattoo Highway follows 15-year tattoo veteran and star of former A&E hit “Inked,” Thomas Pendelton as he takes his tattoo parlor on the road to cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Salt Lake City to transform personal stories into living art. Pendelton and his business partner and wife

Landon's Sugar Skull

One of my favorite tattoos to feature here on Tattoosday are sugar skulls. Clicking here (or on the tag at the bottom of the post) will display all of the sugar skulls featured on the site and, undoubtedly, demonstrate that, like snowflakes, no two sugar skull tattoos are the same.I met Landon last week on Broadway during the lunch hour. He has thirteen tattoos in all, and he offered up this

Mike's Marine: A Tattoo for Memorial Day

It only seemed fitting that, on this Memorial Day, we feature a tattoo that honors are men and women in uniform.A week ago, I was fresh off of my experience at the New York City Tattoo Convention, and everything I saw on the street was uninteresting. Until I passed by Mike and did a double-take.This is the tattoo on Mike's inner right forearm:Mike explained that, as a United States Marine, he was

Grover's Tattoos Recollect the Past, But Focus on the Future

I ran into Grover a month or two ago where he worked in Penn Station and admired the work on his sleeve. As I try my best to not disrupt folks on the job, I passed him a Tattoosday card and was happy to see when he e-mailed me a few days later.Our schedules are different, and we tabled any definitive date to meet and discuss his ink. But one day, by chance, I passed the business where he worked

Janet Presents: The Non-Stick Tattoo That is Permanent

My awesome friend Janet (whose tattoos are here) sent this to me last Friday and, although I am not in the habit of accepting on the street submissions, this one is pretty damn cool and blogworthy:Janet reports:"I was walking behind this guy going north on 6th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets on the east side of the street and was compelled to tap him and ask about the tattoo. He allowed me

Sean's Organic Tattoo

It's always interesting when you meet people with a lot of tattoos. Unless someone volunteers to catalog their entire collection (case I point here), I generally ask folks to share just one with us here on Tattoosday.The problem there is that asking someone to pick one tattoo to offer up is often like asking someone to select their favorite child among their brood of kids. They're all special in

Dispatch from the New York City Tattoo Convention

I take pride in the fact that this site is very positive. Even "bad" tattoos get their moments in the sun. If the story behind an "eh" tattoo is compelling, then it's worth telling.There are enough places on the web where "free speech" reigns, wearing the stained sheet of petty negativity.So I don't feel too bad about offering this word of advice to the organizers of the New York City Tattoo

Lacey's Traditional Gypsy Tattoo

I will never hesitate to ask someone about traditional tattoos. There's something classic about the imagery that just intrigues me.Last week I ran into Lacey as our paths crossed on Seventh Avenue. It was a gloomy, overcast day, and I spotted a flash of vibrant color cutting through the streets. She shared this lovely gypsy:This tattoo in particular, Lacey told me, doesn't necessarily signify

A New Tattoo Show on A&E is Coming Down the Highway

I owe a great debt to shows like Miami Ink, Inked, and L.A. Ink.When I first decided, almost two years ago, to run a once-weekly over on my original site, BillyBlog, I had no idea how much I would enjoy the project. I basically conceived of a "Poor Man's Miami Ink," a once-weekly Tat-Tuesday post. Before long, I had spun off Tattoosday onto its own page, and it hit the ground running.But Inked

Lauren's Thigh Tattoo Salutes Mastodon

If you're reading this post and the Tattoosday banner features some wonderfully-inked revolvers, those "hand guns" belong to Amanda and the original post is here.Just recently, I was thinking that I hadn't seen Amanda in a while and was wondering if she still lived in my neighborhood. Later that day, a much-tattooed woman named Lauren walked into the laundromat where I was packing up the weekly

Doug's Colorful Demon

I ran into Doug in Penn Station a couple weeks back and he offered up this, one of seven tattoos:He said that this tattoo, which represents twelve hours worth of work, is based on a Japanese demon he spotted while poring over a book on medieval manuscripts.There's no real specific meaning behind it, he just liked the design, especially how different it was from other demons one typically sees in

Emily's Back Piece Takes Yin and Yang to the Next Level

I spent yesterday at the New York City Tattoo Convention at the Roseland Ballroom.I'll provide a fuller dispatch later but I wanted to share one of the more visually-stunning pieces that I chanced upon.This is Emily's back piece:This represents about sixty (60!) hours of work by Erick Diaz at Asylum Studios in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. A smaller, much less complicated tattoo

Mike's Lion-Skeleton Tattoo

I met Mike outside of Penn Station after work last Friday. He has five to eight tattoos in all, and he had this pretty cool piece to offer:This piece is all original artwork by the artist, Doug White, formerly at the Ink Spot Tattoo Studios in Linden, New Jersey, back in 1995-6. Mike doesn't know where Doug ended up, but he believes he's now tattooing out in Texas.He also mentioned there's a

Great Balls of Yarn!

A week ago, I met Hobart, who has 14 tattoos. He offered up this interesting piece for Tattoosday readers:Seems like your everyday run-of-the-mill pentagram tattoo. But it's not.Hobart is a knitter and he and his friends often attended "Stitch 'n Bitch" sessions where a group of knitters would get together and practice their craft. Hobart said they grew tired of the "normal middle-age ladies"

April Marching into May

Last Friday, I spotted this tattoo on Seventh Avenue in the 20's:April was happy to stop and chat about her black and gray tattoo which was a gift from her boyfriend on her 27th birthday.The piece is fairly straight forward - cherry blossoms bloom in late March/early April. Her birthday is in March and her name is April.For that alone these traditional tattoo flowers seemed appropriate for

Milo's Tattoos Honor Family

I met Milo at Trader Joe's in Brooklyn on the first Saturday in May. Working the door as a greeter, Milo's tattoos were peeking out from under a shirt sleeve so I couldn't help but stop to chat. Twenty minutes later, when Milo was on break and my groceries were bought, we continued our conversation.This tattoo is actually a series of family-themed pieces that make up what is currently a

Adam's Tattoos Honor God and Country

On April 28th, I was walking across Penn Plaza, outside of Madison Square Garden, and saw a couple of guys taking pictures.This is fairly common outside of "the world's most famous arena".Depending on the event going on that day or night, one can get an eyefull of tattoo ink. When there is a rock concert scheduled, there is quite a few visible tattoos on the plaza, when the Westminster dog show's

Inked Up Angels: Part 2, Kat's Incredible Buddha

Last Friday, I featured a tattoo from one of two women I met in Penn Station.They both are part of a group called Inked Up Angels.I had first taken the photo of the tattoo belonging to "Pink", and now it was her friend's turn.I looked to Kat curiously, wondering what tattoo she was going to offer for Tattoosday.We were standing in a corner of busy Penn Station near the subway turnstiles and she

Sad News

I'm numb today after learning that the poet Craig Arnold, whose tattoos were featured here, died just a few days after my posts, just a few days after we chatted via instant message on Facebook.I certainly did not have the level of interaction with him that many of the other people in his life, I had only really known him for a short time. But his interest and eagerness to participate in the

Inked Up Angels: Part 1, Pink's X-Men

Back in April, I ran into two young ladies in Penn Station. Both were significantly tattooed and I was delighted when they agreed to talk to me and allowed me to snap a few photos.In order to give each woman her proper due, I'll start with "Pink", who showed me her tattoo first.Actually, she was already showing her tattoos. With a full leg sleeve and an estimated eleven pieces in all (

The Ship Keeps Sailing Along (Revisiting Carrie's Ribcage)

Last September, I posted this amazing tattoo:If you missed it the first time around, go back and read the full post here before proceeding...There.Did you read/reread it? Good.This is what it looks like now:One of the great things about writing this blog, besides meeting people with incredible tattoos, is that some of the tattooed subjects become friends. Carrie and I have stayed in touch and we

Ricky & Jessica's Matching Nightmarish Tattoos

I met Jessica and Ricky outside of Penn Station during the last week of April.I had spotted one of Ricky's four tattoos on his right bicep:This is, of course, a tattoo based on the great film A Nightmare Before Christmas, with the character Jack Skellington in the foreground and his girlfriend Sally in the background, standing on the recognizable Tim Burton hill.What's particularly cool about the

Ronda's Olympic Tattoos

As many of my resources were tied up with the Tattooed Poets Project in April, I kept my encounters with random tattooed people in New York to a minimum, saving them for special occasions.However, I couldn't resist on Tuesday, April 21, when I spotted a familiar symbol on the right ankle of a woman in the Amtrak section of Penn Station:Those are, of course, the recognizable Olympic rings.One can

Ashley's Two Little Birds

Last July, I met two tattooed women, Becky and Ashley, outside of Borders (Becky's post is here, Ashley's is here) on Penn Plaza.A few months later, in one of my more embarrassing moments as an ink-spotter, I approached Becky again, outside of Macy*s, and asked her about her tattoos. She reminded me that she was already featured on Tattoosday, and I reddened, apologized, and moved on. In my

Grace's Black and Gray Koi

I met Grace earlier this week outside of Penn Station. She has three stars tattooed on the inside of her right wrist and had a cherry blossom (above) inked on the back of her neck.About a year ago, she expanded it, adding the koi fish below it:She attributed the work to an artist named Kevin, and he did in it in a small shop in Koreatown in Manhattan.Grace says that the tattoo is purely

Ben's Amazing Back Piece

With the Tattooed Poets Series under way last month, I was a bit remiss in posting about the "regular" tattoo encounters.With apologies to the following volunteer, I am presenting some amazing work on a gentleman named Ben, who I spotted back on April 2 while walking through Penn Station.Ben was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and had tattoos covering his arms. When I approached him and explained