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 appeared on Tattoosday, click here.

This particular tattoo is based on work entitled "Shater Days" by the professional skateboarder and artist Ed Templeton. Templeton designs and sells skateboard products through his website Toy Machine.

Aaron felt that the design was perfect for a skater, with the image of a helmeted person hitting himself over the head with his board.

The inner skater never goes away, even as one gets older and spends less time on the board. The inner persona still courses under the skin and this particular art piece, can be, like all art, interpreted in different ways.

The act of hitting oneself over the head with one's skateboard is the ultimate expression of frustration, a sentiment that doesn't go away in life.

There are always people and things that frustrate individuals. I like how this specific work of art speaks not only to Aaron, but spoke to me as well.

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

Pengumuman Pemenang Bagi-Bagi Buku Gratis 1 Juta Pengunjung Blog

Terimakasih atas partisipasi rekan-rekan semua. Berdasarkan hasil undian, berikut daftar nama pemenang bagi-bagi buku gratis dalam ranka perayaan jumlah pengunjung blog ke satu juta.

Daftar Pemenang:
Pattiserie Homemade – Buku Sukses Bisnis Bakso
Rosy – Buku Cara Mudah Menghias Cake
Patricia – Buku Mie & Pasta
Nyncute – Buku Pintar Menu Ibu Hamil
Sulistyani – Rahasia Sehat dengan Jus Buah & Sayuran
Mohon kepada para pemenang agar mengirim alamat lengkap ke e-mail: budis1975@yahoo.com guna pengiriman buku. Maaf kepada yang belum beruntung.

Salam Sehat

Budi Sutomo

Went Walkabout. Brought back Google Wave.

Back in early 2004, Google took an interest in a tiny mapping startup called Where 2 Tech, founded by my brother Jens and me. We were excited to join Google and help create what would become Google Maps. But we also started thinking about what might come next for us after maps.

As always, Jens came up with the answer: communication. He pointed out that two of the most spectacular successes in digital communication, email and instant messaging, were originally designed in the '60s to imitate analog formats — email mimicked snail mail, and IM mimicked phone calls. Since then, so many different forms of communication had been invented — blogs, wikis, collaborative documents, etc. — and computers and networks had dramatically improved. So Jens proposed a new communications model that presumed all these advances as a starting point, and I was immediately sold. (Jens insists it took him hours to convince me, but I like my version better.)

We had a blast the next couple years turning Where 2's prototype mapping site into Google Maps. But finally we decided it was time to leave the Maps team and turn Jens' new idea into a project, which we codenamed "Walkabout." We started with a set of tough questions:

• Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents?
• Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it?
• What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers' current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms? 

After months holed up in a conference room in the Sydney office, our five-person "startup" team emerged with a prototype. And now, after more than two years of expanding our ideas, our team, and technology, we're very eager to return and see what the world might think. Today we're giving developers an early preview of Google Wave.

A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.


Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

As with Android, Google Chrome, and many other Google efforts, we plan to make the code open source as a way to encourage the developer community to get involved. Google Wave is very open and extensible, and we're inviting developers to add all kinds of cool stuff before our public launch. Google Wave has three layers: the product, the platform, and the protocol:

• The Google Wave product (available as a developer preview) is the web application people will use to access and edit waves. It's an HTML 5 app, built on Google Web Toolkit. It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop (which, for example, lets you drag a set of photos right into a wave). 
• Google Wave can also be considered a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services, and to build new extensions that work inside waves.
• The Google Wave protocol is the underlying format for storing and the means of sharing waves, and includes the "live" concurrency control, which allows edits to be reflected instantly across users and services. The protocol is designed for open federation, such that anyone's Wave services can interoperate with each other and with the Google Wave service. To encourage adoption of the protocol, we intend to open source the code behind Google Wave. 

So, this leaves one big question we need your help answering: What else can we do with this?

If you're a developer and you'd like to roll up your sleeves and start working on Google Wave with us, you can read more on the Google Wave Developer blog about the Google Wave APIs, and check out the Google Code blog to learn more about the Google Wave Federation Protocol. 

If you'd like to be notified when we launch Google Wave as a public product, you can sign up at http://wave.google.com/. We don't have a specific timeframe for public release, but we're planning to continue working on Google Wave for a number of months more as a developer preview. We're excited to see what feedback we get from our early tinkerers, and we'll undoubtedly make lots of changes to the Google Wave product, platform, and protocol as we go.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Update @ 7:07PM: The video of the Google Wave keynote presentation is now available:

Posted by Lars Rasmussen, Software Engineering Manager

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 with Phil, a co-worker of mine, after he spotted me among the masses.

It was while we were chatting, adjacent to the snack area, that I noticed we were being watched. Just to our right, this image greeted us:


This is Janet Leigh, in her iconic role in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Not only is this a masterful portrait, but it was framed beautifully by the cut-out portion of the dress worn by the woman who had this tattoo. It was as if the artist had positioned the tattoo with this dress in mind.


So I introduced myself to the woman who owns this piece. Her name is Marie and she is from Montreal. She got this tattoo because she liked the picture. And that's all that I got from her.
I would have learned more, but the room was loud and I had trouble understanding her. Her English was certainly better than my rudimentary high school French, but the environment made it difficult to pick up what she was saying.

However, shortly after our conversation began, a couple of gentleman rejoined her and one happened to be the artist of the tattoo in question.

His name is Stéphane Bérubé and he is an artist out of a shop called Tatouages Libre Expression, in Saint-Eustache, a northern suburb of Montreal, Quebec.

He was very friendly and introduced me to the other person he was with, who was one of his clients as well.

With little prompting, this guy rolled up his left pant leg to reveal a sleeve Stéphane had done, comprised of bright, multi-colored cartoon panels:





The owner of the tattoos explained that he had brought a graphic novel to Stéphane, telling him it was one of his favorite books growing up. They extracted different panels to make a cohesive combination of segments that make up the whole of the sleeve.

It is phenomenal work and I thank Stéphane and his friends for allowing me to photograph their tattoos!

Search engineer stories

I came to Google because I wanted to work on hard problems and have a big impact on the world. Four years later, I'm still constantly awed by how challenging search is. We work on improving the entire search process, including formulating queries, evaluating results, reading and understanding information, and digging deeper with this new information. Every day we work on ways, both big and small, for search to be better, faster, and more effortless.

My fellow engineers and I wanted to give a peek into some of the challenges we face and how we're trying to make search even better. We created a series of short videos so you could hear straight from the engineers. Here's mine, where I talk about a change to spell suggestions.



Some of the videos may talk about things you are already familiar with and some may be new. Either way, we hope that you enjoy hearing these stories, and do stay tuned for more!

Posted by Patrick Riley, Software Engineer

Kicking off 2nd annual Google I/O developer gathering

Today is the first day of Google I/O — two days of developer talks, fireside chats and demos, all focused on the latest innovations in the web as a development platform. We're excited to have this chance to welcome more than 3,000 developers to the Moscone Center in (unusually) sunny San Francisco for a variety of interactive roundtables and talks on subjects like Android, Google Maps and Google Apps for the Enterprise.


We'll be back with more news as the conference progresses. In the meantime, you can follow updates on the @googleio Twitter stream; videos of all sessions will be available on code.google.com shortly after they conclude.

Update @ 3:20PM: Videos from Day 1 of Google I/O are now available on our YouTube playlist.

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog team

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 very personal meaning for me. My mother's favorite flower is the yellow rose, so the rose represents her. I have a very close bond with my mother and tell her absolutely everything, and she means a lot to me. As for the two thorns? Representing me and my sister. Yes, we are the thorns in her side, but we also protect her.

I went into Miami Ink with a couple of pictures of yellow roses, as I wanted it to be just going into bloom (that's when I think roses are at their most beautiful) and told them I wanted it to curve around my ankle bone. They drew up a design in an hour and I liked the very first thing they showed me. I always get comments on it when it's exposed, and it remains my favorite of my 6 tattoos. They did such a lovely job with the shading and I think it's beautiful!

And for the record, it's the only tattoo I have that my mom kind of likes."

Here's a shot of the tattoo, just after it was completed. You can see the source material in the background:


Erika followed up with more information:

"James [Hamilton] (pictured below with Erika) was the artist and he was great. I was in Miami over Spring Break in March 2007 and that's when it was done. Ami James was hanging around the shop when I went, so I got to meet him as well..."

Thanks so much to Erika for sharing her rose tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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 Monica have transformed a 1970s tour bus into a tattoo parlor on wheels, featuring a swanky interior and top-of-the-line tattooing equipment. It’s a tattoo shop that can tattoo anyone, anywhere. Ride along as emotional limits and friendships are challenged and the persistent mechanical problems of a vintage bus are tested on the road, as “Tattoo Highway” proves to be one bumpy ride. Tattoo Highway premieres Wednesday May 27th at 10/9C on A&E!

Visit http://www.aetv.com/tattoo-highway for more information.


Here at Tattoosday, we've partnered with A&E to help promote this exciting new show. Here's how our contest is going to work:

Tattoosday is all about stories behind the tattoos and how each piece of body art resonates with the individual. To be entered into the contest, simply watch the first episode (Wednesday, May 27th at 10:00 PM Eastern/9:00 PM Central) and then write a little something in the comments section of this post. Tell us what tattoo that you saw on the premiere episode was your favorite, and why you liked it. Winners will be chosen randomly among the entries and you could win:

a Tattoo Highway iPod Skin OR

a Tattoo Highway Aluminum Water Bottle OR

a Tattoo Highway Tank.

Watch and enjoy! Winners will be announced on the site by Monday, June 1.

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 piece, on the back side of his right biceps, to share:


To Landon, there is no hidden meaning behind the tattoo, it is more decorative in its purpose.

The tattoo artist responsible is Jamie Ruth, who inked this at Dare Devil Tattoo, but is moving to London, and has been guest tattooing here and there.

Thanks to Landon for sharing his sugar skull with us here on Tattoosday!

Kode HTML Huruf Simbol SEO Friendly

SIMBOL NOTASI ‍ ‌ — – ­ " & ˆ ¡ ¦ ¨ ¯ ´ ¸ ¿ ˜ ‘ ’ ‚ “ ” „ ‹ › < > ± « » × ÷ ¢ £ ¤ ¥ § © ¬ ® ° µ ¶ · † ‡ ‰ € & ½ ¾ ¹ ² ³ Á á  â À à Å å à ã Ä ä ª Æ æ Ç ç Ð ð É é Ê ê È è Ë ë ƒ Í í Î î Ì ì Ï ï Ñ ñ Ó ó Ô ô Ò ò º Ø ø Õ õ Ö ö Œ œ š Š ß Þ þ Ú ú Û û Ù ù ÿ Ÿ ý Ý ü Ü ù Ù &#8195; &#8194; &nbsp; &thinsp; &zwj; &zwnj; &mdash; &ndash; &shy; &quot; &amp; &circ; &iexcl; &brvbar; &uml; &macr; &acute; &cedil; &iquest; &tilde; &lsquo; &rsquo; &sbquo; &ldquo; &rdquo; &bdquo; &lsaquo; &rsaquo; &lt; &gt; &plusmn; &laquo; &raquo; &times; &divide; &cent; &pound; &curren; &yen; &sect; &copy; &not; &reg; &deg; &micro; &para; &middot; &dagger; &Dagger; &permil; &euro; &amp; &frac12; &frac34; &sup1; &sup2; &sup3; &Aacute; &aacute; &Acirc; &acirc; &Agrave; &agrave; &Aring; &aring; &Atilde; &atilde; &Auml; &auml; &ordf; &AElig; &aelig; &Ccedil; &ccedil; &ETH; &eth; &Eacute; &eacute; &Ecirc; &ecirc; &Egrave; &egrave; &Euml; &euml; &fnof; &Iacute; &iacute; &Icirc; &icirc; &Igrave; &igrave; &Iuml; &iuml; &Ntilde; &ntilde; &Oacute; &oacute; &Ocirc; &ocirc; &Ograve; &ograve; &ordm; &Oslash; &oslash; &Otilde; &otilde; &Ouml; &ouml; &OElig; &oelig; &scaron; &Scaron; &szlig; &THORN; &thorn; &Uacute; &uacute; &Ucirc; &ucirc; &Ugrave; &ugrave; &yuml; &Yuml; &yacute; &Yacute; &uuml; &Uuml; &ugrave; &Ugrave; Setelah beberapa hari absen update blog,saat berkunjung ke blog yang makin terpuruk ini,saya merasa kasian..ya ngliat feed ama statnya yang makin sepi pengunjung. Berharap dapet pengunjung baru,sambil minum susu,iseng-iseng akh! mosting artikel tentang kamus bahasa Inggris,eh ! salah..,maksudnya,kamus ‘kode html’ untuk ‘huruf simbol’ yang seo friendly. Siapa tahu dengan saya membahas “seo friendly” ini,nanti akan lebih bermanfaat khan? he.. Bagi yang belum tahu Apa itu SEO,bisa baca artikelnya disini. Artikel ini saya kategorikan dalam Menghias Blog,karena ya memang nggak ada hubungannya sama template dan element baru,xixixixi.. Masih Ingat soal Parse kode? yup!yang belum tahu apa itu parse kode,bisa baca disini. Dalam HTML,sebuah “simbol” akan dituliskan berbeda dengan tampilan yang akan di hasilkan. Contoh kecil,saat anda posting di blogspot dan ingin menampilkan kode <head> dengan menulisnya sama seperti kode tersebut pasti akan gagal saat artikel hendak di publikasikan,maka anda disuruh memparsenya menjadi &lt;head&gt;. Nah! pada artikel kali ini,saya punya beberapa koleksi simbol beserta kode notasinya. Cara pemakaiannya,anda bisa lihat huruf-huruf ilustrasi di bawah ini: Contoh saya menuliskan kata : “Kamus Kode HTML Huruf Simbol – SEO Friendly»Pelajaran Blog“ maka saya saat posting akan menuliskan sepert iini: &ldquo;Kamus Kode HTML Huruf Simbol&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;SEO Friendly&raquo;Pelajaran Blog&ldquo; atau biar gaul dikit..saya saat posting menuliskan seperti ini: amp;Ccedil;&aacute;&Ntilde;&dagger;&icirc;K &ETH;&ograve;&ntilde;G &szlig;L&Oacute;g &Scaron;&Acirc;&yacute;A &raquo; maka hasilnya nanti akan seperti ini: ÇáцîK ÐòñG ßLÓg ŠÂýA » Keren khan? Untuk lebih lengkapnya bisa lihat tabel di samping. Kolom Simbol,adalah tulisan huruf simbol yang akan tampil,sedangkan kolom Notasi,adalah kode yang anda harus tuliskan. Sebenarnya,artikel kali ini tidak begitu penting,hanya mengisi waktu sambil nyusu..he..he.. Semoga bermanfaat ya..

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 choosing to honor the corps by building a sleeve of iconic military photographs.

If you think this is an impressive tattoo (which it is), seeing the source material further magnifies how phenomenal a replica the artist has created on Mike's flesh:


A page on About.com explains this image further:

"While units of the U.S. Far East Air Forces Combat Cargo Command made an all-out effort to aid embattled units of the First Marine Division and Seventh Infantry Division, the men fighting in Korea were trying desperately to link up in their battle for survival. This marine is shown just as he reached the crest of the ridge at the link-up point. Wet, stinging snow and ice made the operation the most difficult sort, as unleashed hordes of communist troops charge again and again into the United Nations forces. (circa December 1950) "

In addition to this tattoo, Mike has a Vietnam-era photo of a Marine sniper inked on his right biceps.

This astonishing tattoo was created by Randy Prause at Permanent Buzz Tattoo, in Denville, New Jersey.

A hearty thanks to Mike for sharing this tattoo with us here on Memorial Day. More importantly, Tattoosday expresses even more gratitude to Mike and all his fellow soldiers and who have so bravely served our country to ensure the freedoms we enjoy each day.

Have a safe and pleasant Memorial Day!

LOWONGAN KERJA TERBARU JULI 2009

MEGAH TAMA, PT Are you looking for another source of income !!!In today’s economic gloom, rising cost, inflation and unemployment are just some of the obstacle we are facing. You can either hope for the situation to improve or do something about it. A time of crisis is also the time where opportunities arise provided you recognize these opportunities. Let’s do something with us Megah Tama.PUBLIC

LOWONGAN KERJA TERBARU JULI 2009

MEGAH TAMA, PT Are you looking for another source of income !!!In today’s economic gloom, rising cost, inflation and unemployment are just some of the obstacle we are facing. You can either hope for the situation to improve or do something about it. A time of crisis is also the time where opportunities arise provided you recognize these opportunities. Let’s do something with us Megah Tama.PUBLIC

LOWONGAN KERJA TERBARU JUNI 2009 DI BANK

URGENTLY REQUIREDA joint venture bank is seeking Staff for position :BANK OPERATIONAL ADMINISTRATION Qualifications : * Female/Male * Able to communicate in English (speaking and writing) * Capable to operating computer (min. Ms. Office) * Single, ( Max. 24 years ) * Having Bachelor or Diploma III from reputable University (majoring of Economic, Law, Technical, etc) min GPA 3.00 * Having

LOWONGAN KERJA TERBARU JUNI 2009 DI BANK

URGENTLY REQUIREDA joint venture bank is seeking Staff for position :BANK OPERATIONAL ADMINISTRATION Qualifications : * Female/Male * Able to communicate in English (speaking and writing) * Capable to operating computer (min. Ms. Office) * Single, ( Max. 24 years ) * Having Bachelor or Diploma III from reputable University (majoring of Economic, Law, Technical, etc) min GPA 3.00 * Having

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 and he was outside on a break.

And he offered me his arm:


We discussed the inner part of his right forearm first. This cross is a tribute to his parents, who were both injured in a serious accident about five years ago. He had this tattooed after it appeared that they would recover, and it symbolizes his faith in the blessing of their survival. The tattoo reads "Mom. Dad. God Bless."

On the top part of the outer right forearm is an starred banner design and the words "Death Before Dishonor" to remind him that he has kept his head up while working hard for his daughter.

He has chosen the honest life, rather than slip into the easy trap of making a living dishonorably.

Grover's daughter's name is London, which he has inscribed on his flesh, over a tattoo of Big Ben, the emblematic clock tower than stands proudly in the city which lends its name to his daughter. Big Ben is frozen in time at 4:10, the date (April 10) that London was born.


Below that is a skull crying blood.


The blood is the only part of Grover's tattoos that are not done in black ink. This image reflects the harsh reality of the world and the raw emotion that life often pulls out of one's soul, in the form of bloody tears.

And lastly is my favorite part of the tattoo, which rests on Grover's hand.


He grew up in Harlem and the buildings represent the view south, looking to the skyline of the city. The dollar sign and, to the right, the leaves of marijuana plants, represent to Grover what it was like "back in the day," when the drive for money in the big city, and the prevalence of marijuana in the neighborhood, left a profound impact on his days growing up.

Grover credits much of the work seen here to an artist named Marco, who works out of Crazy Fantasy Tattoo on West 4th Street in Manhattan.

I want to thank Grover for sharing his set of tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

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, without hesitation, to photograph it with my phone, then told me the story, which depicts a long-running inside joke. He's a photographer, and in the course of his work, at one point ran out of baby oil to use on the models.His partner suggested spraying the models with Pam... the tattoo was a gift, related to a wedding (I'm not sure if it was his wedding, or his friend's...)."

Thanks to Janet for sharing this one here with us on Tattoosday!

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 their own way and most generally equally-loved.

So when I ran into Sean, who has eleven tattoos, there was some debate. We were going to do his right leg piece, but it wrapped around the majority of the calf, and I didn't think it would come out well because of the multiple angles. This is why you don't see a lot of sleevework on Tattoosday.

The "OUCH" tattooed inside his lower lip was funny, but it's just a word in a strange spot, and not very artistic. We considered for a moment the lipstick imprint of a kiss. But that one was on his butt, and it just didn't seem right to be photographing someone's posterior on Seventh Avenue.

So we went with a tattoo on his right forearm which doesn't totally wrap around the arm:



















This was Sean's first tattoo that was drawn on free-hand. He liked the organic colors in the design and just let the artist do her thing.


It took about four hours for Tina Forever at Resurrection Tattoo in Austin, Texas, to complete the piece.

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

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 convention: answer your e-mails, answer your messages.

I left several messages via e-mail and phone offering to help promote the show via the blog. My inquiries weren't even acknowledged. And that's fine. Except, of course, it isn't. Why else would I be writing about it? The rote response from people I've voiced my disappointment to has been similar, "Well, what do you expect? They're old-time tattoo people."

There my be truth to that sentiment, but I'm not willing to embrace it. There are plenty of people who are in the tattoo industry who are savvy enough to hit "reply" on an e-mail.

So, disclosing fully, I approached the show at the Roseland Ballroom last weekend with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. But I was determined to enjoy myself. And I did.

I spent a little over five and a half hours wandering the aisles, watching the artists, introducing myself to various people, checking out some amazing tattoos.

I enjoyed meeting Mike Bellamy from Red Rocket Tattoo and Elio Espana from FlyRite Studio in Brooklyn. I had nice chats with people from Lotus Tattoo in Sayville, Rising Dragon in Chelsea, and New York Adorned. Many of the shops whose artists' work has appeared on the blog, everyone friendly and courteous. It was nice to put faces to the hard-working people in
these, and many other shops.

I was asked by a lot of people after the show if I took a lot of pictures. The answer is no, not what would be expected from a guy who is taking tattoo photos as often as he can.

I posted one amazing back piece on Sunday, and I have another post in the works featuring an incredible artist from Quebec.

Other than that, I just observed, met other fans. Talked with the editors of fine tattoo magazines, like Inked. Took in the sights.

I thought I would feel extremely self-conscious being there with no visible tattoos. But there were a lot of people who appeared similarly un-inked. I showed my tattoos once, to a big mensch of a tattoo shop owner from Staten Island, who started peppering his speech with Yiddish when he saw my last name was Cohen. He told me that his Jewishness didn't stop him from having 52 tattoos, and it drove his father crazy.

And I even ran into two people who have been featured here on Tattoosday. I passed by John, from my neighborhood in Brooklyn, whose work appears here and here. I also had a nice chat with Melanie, whose holstered revolvers remain one of my favorite on the street encounters.

In all, I had a fun time. I can see why many I've spoken to about the New York show have seemed hesitant to admit that it's a top-notch tattoo convention. It's cramped and dingy, but that seems a bit in character with what the promoters are trying to convey.

Will I go back next year? Perhaps. But it certainly leaves me hungry for more. Las Vegas, Vancouver, Milan.

A blogger can dream, can't he?

New logo look

You may have noticed new logos at the top of some of Google's web pages, including Google Labs, Google Moderator, and Google Code. These are the result of a new logo design we are rolling out. We hope this design freshens up our look as well as improves consistency and ease of use across our sites. Now, our product names will appear in clean, simple blue lowercase type alongside the Google logo as shown here:

Since the logos appear in many different locations and sizes on our websites, our new designs are standardized to be the same size and color wherever they appear. This should make it easier for you to recognize which site you are on and navigate to wherever you want to go. They are also consistent across all our international domains, which is especially helpful for people using right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

We are happy with this change since it will help us streamline our user experience. Count on seeing the new logos rolling out to Google Maps, Google News, Google Docs and more over the next few weeks.

Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, and Jamie Divine, Senior Visual Designer

Netlog integrates with Google Friend Connect

When we started building Friend Connect, we wanted to provide a fully open system — one that lets you join any website and interact with the people there in a meaningful way, regardless of where they come from. To enable this kind of engagement, we used open standards like OpenID, OAuth, and OpenSocial as underlying technologies, enabling any other service to plug into Friend Connect.

Today, we're excited to share that Netlog has used these open standards to integrate their social networking service with Google Friend Connect. Now, Netlog's more than 45 million users across Europe can:

• Sign into any of the millions of sites and blogs using Friend Connect with their Netlog credentials
• Use their Netlog profiles on these sites
• See if any of their friends are already members of the same sites and invite other Netlog friends to join
• Share their Friend Connect activities with their friends on Netlog, and
• Send messages back to their Netlog friends

Additionally, for sites that are already using Friend Connect, one of the benefits of this standards based model is that they can take advantage of any new service that chooses to join this open ecosystem, like Netlog, without any additional work. The new network option simply appears.

Any social network or service, whether they are large or small, regional or global, niche or general audience, is welcome to take advantage of these open standards to integrate with Friend Connect, and participate in an open social web.

Posted by Mussie Shore, Product Manager

Put the pedal to the metal with a faster Google Chrome

We introduced Google Chrome back in September, and it's received a great response so far. Since launching, we've been working hard on adding the top requested features and making Google Chrome even faster.

Today, we are updating to a new version of Google Chrome that is faster than ever. JavaScript-heavy web pages will now run about 30% faster. See the chart below or compare scores yourself.

Additionally, we've added some useful features like form autofill, full screen mode, and the ability to remove thumbnails from the New Tab page. Here's a short video demonstrating some of this new functionality:



If you're already using Google Chrome, you'll be automatically updated with these new features soon. If you haven't downloaded Google Chrome, get the latest version at google.com/chrome.

To read more about this update, visit the Google Chrome blog.

Posted by Darin Fisher, Google Chrome Team

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 anything other than an appreciation of the design. She did acknowledge that gypsies were mysterious and, as she put it, "a little naughty". This and the fact that there is a familial resemblance (she has several sisters), made this an appealing choice to sport on her inner left forearm.

The tattoo was inked at Ron and Dave's Tattooing on Staten Island by the artist Chris Lopez.

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

Faster is better on Google Suggest

As we prepared to write this post, we discovered a common childhood passion for fast things: high-speed trains, roller coasters, firetrucks, and more. That may be a key part of why we're so excited to be working on Google Suggest, since it saves time by giving suggestions as we're typing our searches.

Today, we're introducing more features to Google Suggest to help you make your searches even faster. These features are rolling out gradually, so you should be able to see them soon.

Suggestions on the results page
Previously, we only showed suggestions based on your original search input. Now, when you make a search from a results page, we provide suggestions that relate to the current results page. As you can see in the example below, if your previous search was for roller coasters, when you begin a new query the first few suggestions are still related to roller coasters — helping you refine your search queries to quickly find what you want.


Personalized suggestions
Trying to remember that query which gave you the best results? You're not alone! We estimate that about a quarter of all signed-in searches are repeats from the past month. Now, if you're signed in with your Google account and have Web History enabled, we may show some of your relevant past searches as you type. Personalized suggestions will make it easier and faster for you to repeat searches that have worked before. Or, if you need to step away in the middle of a search task, this will help you continue your search tasks at a later time.

You can remove a personalized suggestion that you do not like by clicking "Remove", which will remove the search from your Web History. You can also remove searches from your Web History directly, manage Query Suggestions on the preferences page, or sign out of your Google account entirely to stop seeing personalized suggestions.

Navigational suggestions
If your first keystrokes indicate that you may be looking to navigate directly to a specific site, we'll list it and send you straight there if you click on it.

Sponsored links in suggestions
Similar to the navigational suggestions above, sometimes we detect that the most relevant completion for what you're typing is an ad. When an ad is shown, we mark it with the text "Sponsored Link" and a colored background, as on the results page.

We are also introducing a couple more changes to Suggest: we will no longer show the result count for items in the suggest box (we've gotten feedback that the numbers were not helpful in comparing the relevance of the queries) and we now bold the text of suggestions to help you more quickly scan the list. To learn more about Google Suggest, check out the help center.

We hope these new features save you time, so that you can get back to roller coasters, high-speed web surfing, action movies and each other that much faster.

Posted by Jonathan Effrat, David Kadouch and Matt Kulick, Product Managers

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 and Miami Ink are distant memories, and Kat Von D has been the only one holding the tattoo torch on television, of late. That is, until now.

Next week, A&E is premiering Tattoo Highway.

This is a new thirteen-episode mobile tattoo show that is helmed by Thomas Pendleton, who many of you will remember from Inked.

And I have seen it, and it is good.

Pendleton & Co. have equipped a mobile home with a tattoo studio and they go out and find the subjects to be inked.

Stay tuned for more news about the show. Here's a little bit of a taste of what viewers can expect next week:



Wednesday nights are about to be a lot more colorful!

P.S. Be sure to have some fun with the show's virtual tattoo generator here.

Congratulations Eric Yang, winner of the 2008-2009 National Geographic Bee

1. Timis County shares its name with a tributary of the Danube and is located in the western part of which European country?

2. Name this eastern European capital city, where a flight from the southeast would approach the city by flying over the Rhodope Mountains.

3. Name this city in Oceania, the largest on South Island, where a flight from the west would approach the city by flying over the Southern Alps.

If you're stumped, you're not alone! For 55 fourth- to eighth-graders, though, these sorts of questions represented the culmination of months of hard work studying maps and absorbing geographic knowledge.

Earlier today I had the honor of speaking at the championship round of the 2008-2009 National Geographic Bee — moderated by Jeopardy!’s Alex Trebek for the 21st year. This year, Google Earth is sponsoring the Bee in support of its mission to raise awareness and support of geography education. Held at National Geographic’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and broadcast on public television stations across the country, the competition inspires and challenges students to better understand the world around them. 

Eric Yang, who didn't miss a single question in the finals, won on the third question of a tiebreaker round by answering the first question above. Eric, a 7th grader from Texas, has already scored 2200 on his SATs!

It wasn't just the students who came away from the day re-energized and excited about geography. I was also lucky enough to meet a number of passionate educators like Rebecca Montgomery, a teacher from Mississippi, who administered the state bee there this year and told me that "the bee had a tremendous impact on our schools this year and I know now what we need to do to get kids ready to learn geography."

Here at Google, we're always excited to see how innovative teachers are using tools like Google Earth and Maps to engage students by putting the world's geographic information at their fingertips. I'm particularly happy to have been part of the Bee today because geography and mapping were such a big part of what led me to help create Google Earth. I'm not the only Googler who fell in love with maps at an early age, though. Check out this video to see how some of my fellow mapmakers started down the path that eventually brought them to their current profession:



We'll be watching to see what lies ahead for today's passionate young geo whizzes. Congrats again to all the Bee competitors, and happy exploring!

Answers: 1. ɐıuɐɯoɹ 2. ɐıɟos 3. ɥɔɹnɥɔʇsıɹɥɔ 

Posted by Brian McClendon, Director of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

Announcing the 2009 Doodle 4 Google Winner

Nearly six million online votes helped us pick the winners of this year's Doodle 4 Google competition from a very creative pool of doodles. Today, we're pleased to announce the results.

Congratulations to Christin Engelberth, a sixth grader at Bernard Harris Middle School in San Antonio, Texas. She titled her doodle "A New Beginning" to express her wish that "out of the current crisis, discoveries will be found to help the Earth prosper once more."


Christin will receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop, and a $25,000 technology grant for her school. Her doodle will be featured on the Google.com homepage tomorrow for millions of people around the world to see.

Our congratulations also go out to the three national finalists. They were selected as having the best doodle in their grade groups and will each receive a laptop computer:

Grades K-3
Miriam Elizabeth Lowery ~ Grade K, Austin Peay Elementary
Covington, TN
"Friendship Around the World"

Grades 7-9
Blakely Linz ~ Grade 7, Indian Hill Middle School,
Cincinnati, OH
"Stop to Smell the Flowers"

Grades 10-12
Emerald Lu ~ Grade 10, Covington Latin School
Covington, KY
"From the Ashes"

Our four winners were announced at a special event today at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, where we also unveiled an exhibit of the top doodles that will be on view until July 5, 2009. The finalists were treated to a day in New York City that included activities which promote peace, sustainability and wellness — all inspired by this year's theme, "What I Wish for the World." And of course, Dennis Hwang and our doodle team led a doodling class for all top regional finalists in New York city.

We have one more winner to announce: Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the recipient of the District Quality Participation Prize. They will receive a $10,000 technology grant for having the greatest quality participation.

Thanks to all those who voted and helped us find this year's winners. And thank you to all the creative kids out there who submitted entries. We hope you'll doodle with us next year!

Update @ 10:45 AM: We've posted all of the state finalists — several hundred doodles in all —on the Doodle 4 Google website and we encourage you to take a look at the beautiful artwork created by these very talented young artists.

Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, and Dennis Hwang, Webmaster Manager

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 family wash.

I had never met Lauren before, but she knew about Tattoosday because she was friends with the aforementioned Amanda. She told me that Amanda had moved out of our neighborhood (thus explaining her scarcity) and yes, she was happy to share a piece for the blog.

Lauren has a vast array of ink, thirteen tattoos by her count, and she offered up this phenomenal thigh piece:




First of all, we don't show too many thighs here on Tattoosday, partly because they're only visible when it's warm enough for shorts. But more importantly, people with thigh tattoos tend to be few and far between, to begin with.

So what's with this image?

Lauren explained it is the album art for the metal band, Mastodon, off their debut album, Remission:


In fact, Lauren saw them play that same night at Irving Plaza with the bands Kylesa and Intronaut. Check out the awesome blog Brooklyn Vegan here to see a write-up and photos of the show.

This amazing tattoo was inked by Andrea Elston at East Side Ink. Ms. Elston has since departed New York and now tattoos out of Classic Tattoo in San Marcos, Texas. Work from East Side Ink has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Lauren for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! I'm looking forward to (hopefully) showing more of her work here on the site in the future!

As a little extra bonus for Mastodon fans, or for people who want to hear what they sound like, here's the band performing their Grammy-nominated song "Colony of Birchmen" with Josh Homme: