Ariel's Elm: Rising Upward, but Steadfast

I met Ariel last month in the soon-to-be-shuttered Borders bookstore on Penn Plaza and of her three tattoos, she shared this tree on her upper right biceps:

Ariel explained that this tattoo

"was originally an actual photograph of a maple tree, but it was too difficult - you can see the shading is relatively delicate for it ... it looked better with a cloudier image ... so it looks more of a cherry blossom but it was originally a maple...

As for the reason she included the roots of the tree in the design, she specified,

"I really wanted it to be something that represents being rooted and grounded and steadfast, but still growing upwards and moving towards the heavens, something that is strong and can withstand the wind, but is adaptable and changes with the seasons ... so it's just kind of, who I would like to be."

She credited Randall Muntz at Divine Machine Tattoo in Buffalo, New York with this work. Coincidentally, Randall started full-time (according to their website) at Body Electric Tattoo in Hollywood, California, just this week.

Thanks to Ariel for sharing her lovely tree tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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Jared Shares His Vegan Tattoo

I met Jared while he was waiting for a train in Penn Station.

After the Manhattan Mall food court closed last summer, I discovered this wide expanse of Penn Station (especially the Amtrak area) was great for inkspotting when the weather made normal traipsing about unappealing.

Jared's ink runs down the length of his arm, from the top of his right bicep, down to the inner part of his forearm.

As a Vegan, Jared did his research, and sought out a tattoo artist that could give him a Vegan tattoo:



There's a school of thought that some tattoo inks are not "vegan," in the sense that they incorporate glycerine from animal fat, or they use bone char in the black inks. See this article here.

Some artists refute this as gimmicky, and here is a more skeptical view point from a Vegan. But many Vegans who are steadfast in their ideals find the idea of a purely vegan tattoo appealing. I featured another Vegan tattoo back in October 2007 here.

Jared, who is the musical director for the national touring company of the show "Spring Awakening", went to Cary at Body Electric Tattooing & Piercing in Hollywood for this custom design.

The top section of flowers includes at least one chrysanthemum. The bottom part spells out the word "Vegan" in twisting, viny, letters.

Jared's whole arm took three sessions and ultimately embodies the Vegan lifestyle, not just in words and design, but in the ink used to create the art.

Thanks to Jared for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!