The Tattooed Poets Project: Ira Sukrungruang

Today's tattooed poet is Ira Sukrungruang.Before checking out his tattoo, here’s what Ira had to say about ink:

"I thought if I held off until I was thirty, it meant I really wanted a tattoo. It meant that I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo since I was fifteen and waited nearly fifteen years to finally have one done. I’m a guy who wants things, and sometimes my wants are fleeting, like a child with a new toy; after an hour of play, I’m bored.

But after that one tattoo—an enormous dragon on my right calf—I’ve been getting a tattoo done every year, and I love every one of them. 

My tattoos are a way to call attention to my body on my own terms. For most of my life, I was fat. When I got my first tattoo, I was close to four-hundred pounds, and I wanted people to look at me because of my tattoo, not because I was enormous. I think long and hard about my tattoos. I have a total of five, and I’m thinking about getting another one done soon. All my tattoos have stories, and because they have stories, I wanted a tattoo artist who I not only trusted, but was a close friend, a person who would do what I wanted, and share in my life. My artist is the poet Ruth Awad, and I can say with certainty, she is the best. 

I don’t give Ruth easy tattoos. On average, my tattoos take about 4-10 hours to complete. Because I am Thai-American, my tattoos reflect my dual life. It is my way of paying homage to my culture, my parents, my life as a Buddhist. There is one tattoo, however, I love most. It was the simplest one. It took only two hours to complete. It is the image of Buddha on my chest. 

I used to wear a Buddha around my neck at all times. I was never without him. When I was nervous, I chewed on him. When I was scared, I’d grasp him tight in my hand. My mother gave me my Buddha. She said to keep him close to my heart. He would protect me. For most of my life, I had. Suddenly, I developed a skin allergy. I broke out in hives and rashes. I was allergic to Buddha! To fix this, to always have him with me, I decided to have Buddha tattooed on my chest. He is the first thing I see every morning and the last thing every night. There is a comfort in that. Seeing him there, in a jungle of chest hair, makes me feel lighter."

Ira shared this poem with us, which first appeared in Mead Magazine, under the title "In the Keeping of Men":

Sleeping Venus

               “To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space,                                              into the keeping of men.” –John Berger, Ways of Seeing

I am learning to see, letting light dance
within my retinas, letting it slosh
around orbed-pupils, like an aerating wine.

There walked a woman today, at the grocery
store, who turned the heads of the meat men behind
refrigerated steaks. How they devoured
her elegant stride. How her presence was body
without mind. They will remember her—only
briefly—as the one with long legs, the one with gracious
hips, and she will be catalogued
away with infinite others, a forever list
of parts.

Giorgione, when you painted Venus, reclined,
her hand seductively positioned above her groin,
what dreams did you give her? Did you fill
her head with the scent of olives and Tuscan
suns? Does painter and subject occupy
the same breath?

My wife sits alone
in her room, the night air
laden with grief,
a guitar on her lap. How do I paint
her voice and the sound of pluck chords? How do I
capture the beating within her chest,
the sad song singing in her heart?

I am learning to see.
First, I close my eyes.

 ~ ~ ~

Ira Sukrungruang is the author of the memoir Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy.  His poems have been published in North American Review, Witness, River Styx, and many other journals. He teaches in the MFA program at University of South Florida and is the editor of Sweet: A Literary Confection. For more information about him, visit: www.sukrungruang.com.

Thanks to Ira for sharing his tattoo and poetry with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. 


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Tattoosday Goes to Hawai'i: Reston's Expansive Ink

I've alluded, in previous posts, to a trip to Ala Moana Center, during which I was astounded by the amount of tattoos I saw, much more than I recall seeing on my previous trip, five years ago.

I was in the expansive food court section of the complex when I met Reston and his uncle. I was first intrigued by the work on his left arm:

but then, in one of those rare Tattoosday moments in which I see much more than I anticipated, his uncle convinced Reston to show me his back, which revealed this wonderful work:

For Reston, his tattoos are tributes to his heritage. The large Buddha on his back acknowledges the Buddhist faith that can be found on his father's side of the family. The tiki and tribal patterns are in honor of his mother's Pacific Islander lineage. This is apparent from the merging of the two styles (and the names "mom" and "dad" at the top of his back:

In addition, Reston shared this cool lizard on his left shoulder:

Actually, in Hawaiian tattoo styles, this is referred to more specifically as a mo'o, which can be defined (source here) as a "spirit guardian (lizard) that protects a resource, such as a fishpond, from overuse and other abuse". Mo'o are also referred to as geckos.

There's a lot going on with Reston's personal canvas, but you can see the geographic shapes of the mo'o design jumping off the skin.

  All the work was done in California. The Buddha back piece was inked by Jon Highland, owner of 12 Monkeys Tattoo in Tracy, California. The majority of the tribal/Polynesian work was tattooed by Orly at Humble Beginnings Tattoo Studio in San Jose.

A hearty mahalo to Reston for being bold enough to remove his shirt in the Ala Moana food court so we could all get to better appreciate his ink. We here at Tattoosday thank you for your contributions to the site!

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 told me I needed to move. We switched spots, so that I was standing in the corner and she was between me and the crowds. Her friend Pink stood behind her and shielded Kat from the throngs of commuters. I got that she was going to show me something quite revealing, yet I had no clue what it was.

With her left side facing me, Kat hiked up her skirt to reveal this absolutely incredible piece, that ran from the upper part of her thigh, to above her waistline:


That's about eighteen hours of work, folks, and it's an amazing piece. Kat had it tattooed because she is a Buddhist and loves loves the spirituality of Buddha.


The detail that went into this tattoo and the vibrancy of the color is phenomenal. Take a closer loom at the lotus at the bottom of the tattoo:


Equally incredible is the detailed line work, as is evidence in the eyebrows and the leaves of the tree in the background:


This amazing tattoo was inked by Dez Mooney at The White Lotus Tattoo & Art Gallery in Toms River.

This is definitely one of my favorite tattoos that I have seen in nearly two years of Tattoosday posts.

I want to thank Kat for sharing her amazing work with us here at Tattoosday.

If you head over to the Inked Up Angels MySpace Page, you can not only see more of Kat's tattoos (including shots of the Buddha in progress), but you can catch glimpses of some additional work on a number of other tattooed women.