Sharon's Bird on a Saturday

At the end of September, I spotted this bird on the left side of Sharon's upper back:

 

Sharon drew this herself and had it tattooed at Fat Cat Tattoo in Sacramento, California.

I'd love to tell you more about this tattoo, but Sharon never e-mailed me to give me more details. Nonetheless, it's some nice work.

Thanks to Sharon for sharing her bird with us here on Tattoosday!

Mrs. Dirtbird's Wedding Tattoo

Yesterday we enjoyed seeing the neck tattoo of a Missouri-based artist nicknamed "Dirtbird," as well as a piece he had inked on his friend Shawn.

In addition to meeting both Shawn and Dirtbird across the street from where I work, I also met Katie, who half-jokingly referred to herself as "Mrs. Dirtbird". She shared this tattoo with us:

Katie explained that this is a wedding tattoo. The piece depicts a heart, comprised of a male and female bird, sewn together. Since she married Dirtbird, this seems like and appropriate expression of their matrimony.

The tattoo was inked by Becky "Pink Eye" Ashcraft, who works with Dirtbird at Punkteur Tattoo in Joplin, Missouri.

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

Introducing...Dirtbird!

Occasionally in my wanderings, I will meet not just tattooed people, but tattoo practitioners, and often those visiting from outside of New York City.

So it was no surprise, when I approached a gentleman across the street from where I work, at 31st and 7th, to learn that I was talking to an artist.

Working out of Punkteur Tattoos & Piercing in Joplin, Missouri, Derek "Dirtbird" Wieberg estimates he has 130-150 hours of work inked on his personal canvas.

With so much to choose from, he offered up this piece, on the right side of his neck:

It seemed fitting, considering his name.

Dirtbird praised the artist, Rick Pierceall at Karma Tattoo in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who has done all of his throat work.

Considering it is Two-for-Tattoosday, I'll share this photo as well:

That's not Dirtbird, but it's his handiwork! The owner of this tattoo is Shawn, who had the good fortune to be inked by Dirtbird. They collaborated on the design together.

Thanks to Dirt Bird and Shawn for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Tune in tomorrow to see a tattoo from Katie, aka Mrs. Dirtbird!

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.

Lindsay's Ink for Peace

When I recently upgraded my camera, the first new photo I took, of Lindsay's tattoo, convinced me I had selected well:

This lovely tattoo, on Lindsay's upper left arm, is punctuated by this part of the tattoo on her biceps:



The picture tells the story and the words, all meaning a form of "peace" in Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, and English, punctuate the images just inches away.

Lindsay took a class on world religions at the University of Rhode Island and this influenced her greatly. She wanted the tattoo to focus on the beauty at the heart of religion, and to disregard the conflict that so often plagues religious dogma.

Lindsay feels that the tenet of peace is often lost and this is her way of expressing how it means so much, but is forgotten in relations with people of different backgrounds.

She brought a picture that somewhat embodied how she wanted the tattoo to look in to Artfreek Tattoo in Providence, Rhode Island. She and the artist Brian Mullen collaborated on interpreting what she wanted the piece to embody and she was very happy with the end result.

The tattoo was completed in two short sittings that spanned four hours.

Work from Artfreek has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Lindsay for sharing this fabulous tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Mor's Key is Found and Kept Forever

On the last Monday evening in June, I met Mor at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Her website identifies Mor as a "character animator and 'moving collage' artist".

However, we didn't talk about Mor's work.That never came up.Rather,we discussed the Tattoo on Mor's forearm:

Mor's mother had given her a little golden key as a gift that she wore on her earlobe. At some point in the middle of the night, this began to bother Mor, who would pluck the key off and throw it across the room. In the morning, Mor would find the key. This unusual pattern became a ritual of sorts until one morning, the key was nowhere to be found. Lost forever over the years, this tattoo reclaimed the key, and now Mor has it tattooed forever.

The bird represents a friend of Mor who is an "adopted mother" and someone very close to Mor.

The tattoo was done by Shiloah Rusciolelli, who currently lives in Seattle.

Thanks to Mor for sharing this unusual tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Here is Mor's "Bimboim's Trip to the Western Wall":



Mornography's YouTube channel is here.

Jenn's Ink Celebrates a Seventies Vibe

On a day that found me unsuccessful with inkspotting the 5th Avenue Festival in Bay Ridge, Fate walked me past Jenn, sitting outside a laundromat a block away from my home.

She happily shared the work on her upper left arm:

These stunning colors encircled her biceps.

She said this piece, inked by Jared Stomber at Kustom Kulture Ink in Baldwin, New York, is an "ode to 1970's fashion". This is one area of interest to her that moves her artistically and she wanted to express it through body art.

Fictional character Rhoda Morgenstern (from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and spin off Rhoda) was among the cultural icons that inspired the design.

The inner part of Jenn's arm also features artwork that recalls the animated birds from the opening sequence of The Partridge Family.

Although her birds are much more elaborate.

Thanks to Jenn for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Gina Myers

Today's tattoo comes to us courtesy of Gina Myers, who is the third poet this month to come back to the Tattooed Poets Project after appearing last year. Check out her 2009 contribution here.

Gina sent along this tattoo, which graces the inside of her left wrist:


Gina explains that this tattoo:

"... was done by PJ at Old Town Tattoo in Saginaw, Michigan. In addition to the word bird, I have several other birds tattooed on my body: a pigeon named Franklin, a phoenix, an eagle, and a number of swallows. "Ginabird" is one of my nicknames, and "bird" is a nickname I share with my best friend. I always thought it was weird when people got either their own names or their own nicknames tattooed on themselves, but this seemed okay since it was a shared nickname. It's not really about me. My best friend said she is getting the same tattoo in the same place, but that hasn't happened yet."

Be sure to head over to BillyBlog and read one of Gina's poems that she picked for us here at The Tattooed Poets Project.

Gina Myers lives in Saginaw, MI, where she works as the Associate Editor of 360 Main Street, the Book Review Editor of NewPages, and the Reviews Editor of H_NGM_N. Her first full-length collection of poetry, A Model Year, was published by Coconut Books in 2009.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Alexandra Teague

Someone recently asked me where I find all of these tattooed poets. A great question, and I owe thanks to many people, for most individuals come by way of word-of-mouth from other poets. But I also reach out on my own, often sending dozens of e-mails to writers around the country, and the world. It's like shooting an arrow into the dark, one can only hope the missive strikes a target.

I was recently poring over a copy of the anthology Poetry Daily Essentials 2007 and picking poets to e-mail. I stumbled across Alexandra Teague's "House Guest" and sent her my standard "ink-query." And sure enough, she became one of the few poets I wrote to out of the blue who replied because, not only is Ms. Teague tattooed, one of them is poetry-related. As she so aptly put it, "I sort of had to reply to you."

Without further ado, here are Alexandra's tattoos:

I was inspired to get the Japanese kanji for "poetry" after seeing a pin at the Poetry Magazine table at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in 1999.



I'd been thinking about getting a tattoo and couldn't decide on a design, but as soon as I saw the kanji, I knew it was exactly right. I see it not only as a symbol of the art of poetry but also as a reminder to live poetically. I got the tattoo at a shop in Miami (I don't remember the name). I did a bit of research to confirm that the kanji was correct (since I don't know any Japanese), but I didn't have it really confirmed until several years later when a new friend, from Japan, said, "Do you know what your tattoo says?" And I said, "I hope so." Fortunately, according to her, it really does mean "poem" or "poetry."

She also shared this lovely tattoo:

The other tattoo is a couple of years old. It was done by Amy Justen at Sacred Rose Tattoo in Berkeley, California. I've always loved the ocean and wanted to live by the coast, so the California seagull is symbolic for me of my migration out West. Amy Justen has a background in fine art and does some really interesting, painterly work with white and grey, which I love, but which made some people think the tattoo was a decal when I first got it!

Be sure to head over to BillyBlog to read one of Alexandra's poems here.

Alexandra Teague’s first book of poetry, Mortal Geography, won the Lexi Rudnitsky Prize and has just been published (April 2010) by Persea Books. Her work has also appeared in Best New Poets 2008, Best American Poetry 2009, and The Yale Anthology of Younger American Poetry, as well as journals including The Missouri Review, The Iowa Review, and New England Review. She was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and has since lived in Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, Montana, Hawaii, and California. She currently teaches English at City College of San Francisco and lives in Oakland. For more information about upcoming readings and publications, visit www.alexandrateague.com.

Thanks to Alexandra for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Julie Platt

I always feel like I'm not doing a tattoo justice when it wraps around a curved limb. Generally, I will be reluctant to showcase a piece without displaying the entire tattoo, even if that means multiple pictures shot from different angles.

Today's tattoo is one of those rare designs that is worth sharing, even if the reader can't behold every inch of it.

Julie Platt sent these photos, along with an explanation, which follows:




Julie says

"It's the audio waveform of a blackbird song made into bracelet around my left wrist. It's inspired by an image on the cover of Kate Bush's album Aerial.


I got this tattoo to commemorate earning my MFA -- I wanted something visible to remind me of poetry, whose root is song."

The tattoo was inked by Chris Boilore at Fish Ladder Tattoo, in Lansing, Michigan.

Check out one of Julie's poems over on BillyBlog here.

Julie Platt was born and raised in Pittsburgh and now lives in Michigan. Her print poetry chapbook, In the Kingdom of My Familiar, was published by Tilt Press in 2008. My mini e-chapbook, Imitation Animals, was published by Gold Wake Press in 2009. Two poems from
Imitation Animals were selected to appear in Dzanc Books' Best of the Web 2010. My work will also appear in the forthcoming e-anthology Poems to Sweat By: Hungry Young Poets 2009, published by VanVinkinroy's Indie e-Book Emporium.

Thanks to Julie for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Two for Tattoosday: Two Sisters Share Their Awesome Ink

Jenni estimates she is 35-40% covered in tattoos. When I stopped her and her sister Kailla, I was interested in seeing what she would offer up to Tattoosday readers.

Even though we can't see it in it's entirety, she offered up this chest piece:


Jenni, who was visiting from Philadelphia, says the tattoo honors her mother and father, whose names, Bogda and Adam , are enclosed in the heart at the center of the piece.

When I asked her what he folks thought of this, she smiled and said that they were both "flattered and horrified". Yet, they recognized that the sentiment behind the tattoo was sweet.


The piece which extends out and over the shoulders, was tattooed by Don McDonald at Bodyworks Tattoo Studio in Pittsburgh. She estimates that the whole thing took about seven hours in two sittings.

When I finished talking to Jenni, I turned to Kailla and asked if she was interested in sharing, as well. Unlike her sister, she didn't appear to be tattooed much. In fact, I'd estimate all I could see was about this much of her left bicep:


Much to my delight, she peeled her shirt back to reveal this astonishing tattoo:


Still only about two weeks old, this amazing tattoo was also done by Don McDonald in Pittsburgh (where Kailla resides).

She says the center of the tattoo is a Polish falcon which honors her family ancestry in Eastern Europe.

The whole piece took ten hours, which is evidenced by the scale and detail of this wonderful tattoo.


Both Kailla and Jenni were kind enough to take the time to chat with me about their beautiful body art, and I thank them for their contributions here on Tattoosday!

Tiffany's Tree of Life

I was walking through Penn Station back on July 3 when I noticed the woman ahead of me had an interesting-looking tattoo on her inner left bicep.

But it was rush hour and I was off to a small birthday gathering so, when we went separate ways at the turnstiles, I sighed and thanked the tattoo deities for letting me meet two other people earlier in the day.

A few minutes later, however, while pacing the platform, I ran into her again. And, well, I couldn't resist talking to her about this fascinating tattoo:


Tiffany, who was visiting the East Coast from Los Angeles, was quick to point out that this was not the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Apparently the serpent confuses a lot of people.

In fact, Tiffany says the tree is based on the tree of life in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, where she visited two summers ago.

The presence of the serpent is due to her affection for snakes, and the image of the reptile climbing the tree in pursuit is a nod to the circle of life. The tree sustains the bird; the bird sustains the snake.

Of the three tattoos I saw on my birthday, this one just made my day. The detail is phenomenal, and I just loved the concept of the piece.

It was tattooed by Henry Lewis at Incognito Tattoo in Pasadena, although he has moved to Northrn California. Although not listed on their website, he has been associated with Everlasting Tattoo in San Francisco. Incognito's site says he still makes guest appearances at the shop in Pasadena.

Thanks much to Tiffany for capping off an awesome day by sharing her wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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 defense, the tattoo I featured was on her foot, and it was covered in the subsequent encounter.

Flash forward to the last Friday in April, and I spotted both Ashley and Becky again, outside of Macy*s. I wasn't sure, but something seemed familiar, so I approached cautiously. Becky had dyed her black, so my failure to identify the two of them immediately was again explainable.

But unlike the previous encounter with Becky, this time I wasn't embarrassed and Ashley volunteered her two newest tattoos.

Ashley, a make-up artist, about two months ago, had two small "Mom" and "Dad" tribute tattoos inked behind her ears. Mom is on the left:


And Dad is on the right:


The birds remind her of something that her mother would tell her when she was a little girl. She would tell Ashley that if she wasn't good, the birds would get her. That, combined with the small forget-me-nots, make these small, pretty, tattoos nice tributes to her parents.

The work was done by Mohawk John at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn. Work from Three Kings has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Ashley for re-visiting us here on Tattoosday and sharing her newest tattoos!

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.

Tattoorism: A Sparrow Drops in from North of the Border

February is the Dead of Winter, and after the 60-degree day from last Wednesday, I have seen very few blogworthy tattoos in the Big Apple.

Fear not, dear readers, warmer weather is around the corner. I can feel it. So, in the mean time, I am relying on the kindness of readers.

Behold, Jenna's bird:


Jenna wrote: "I just stumbled across your blog one day and I'm always up for sharing my favourite tat! Here's a picture right after it was finished... only picture I've got :( Looks much nicer now that it's finally healed!".

Fresh ink isn't always the prettiest, but we here at Tattoosday like the occasional unsolicited submission, especially when we've been in such significant ink withdrawal.

That was all she wrote, however, so I asked Jenna for some more info on this avian neck tattoo.

Jenna hails from Toronto, and had this inked by Phil at Adrenaline Tattoo there.

She explains the meaning behind this piece:

"...My best friend passed away from cancer in December 2007, and I was really, really torn up about it. When my friend, Corey (who was only 17) was alive, he would see a psychic and never shared any information with her. One day out of the blue last year, the psychic called Corey's family and spoke to his sister. All the psychic said was 'Do you have a friend named Jenna?' and the sister said 'Yes, she was really close to Corey as well". After speaking for a little while, the psychic declared that Corey wanted me to know that he is always going to be there for me and if I feel anything warm on the back of my neck, that's him guiding me in the right way... So, that's why this beautiful bird is on the back of my neck. For Corey."

Thanks to Jenna for sharing this emotional piece with us. We'll update the post with a cleaner, fresher photo when she gets one for us.

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!