The Tattooed Poets Project: Sammi Skolmoski

Whenever possible, I try and correspond our posts with corresponding dates. So, when Sammi Skolmoski sent this tattoo in, April 11 seemed appropriate:

Why this tattoo today? April 11, 2012 marks five years since the great Kurt Vonnegut passed away and, as Sammi explains:

" 'Goodbye, Blue Monday' is the alternate title of Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. It is my favorite book - one in which Vonnegut’s masterful use of satire and science result in a climax where he, as author, enters the pages as master/manipulator supreme, to indefinitely release his indentured characters from narrative confinement. The 'meta' relationship between writer and character — that they answer to, and are, the same person — changed my attitude toward writing, and rid me of the dreadful seriousness I often assigned it.

And, I just adore sunflowers. The floral manifestation of a ruling cosmic entity! The perfect warrior to bid goodbye to any blue Monday’s to come."

Sammi credits this piece to Mario Desa at the Chicago Tattooing & Piercing Company.

Not only do we get this tattoo from Sammi, but she has also provided us with one of her poems:

ALCHEMIST’S LAMENT

He is monochromatose
transmuted by kaleidoscope
inherent in his daily dose
of bioluminescent dope.

A regulated water bath
that leavens into churning gas
facilitates the stoneward path
of drowning yellow jars of glass

the philosophic red and white
beheld as sacred, even nigh,
rears ancient alchemistic plight
of whole salve dangling near his thigh.

~~~

Sammi Skolmoski is a writer and multimedia artist living in Los Angeles who curates a quarterly lit zine called “Madness, Barely” and is a frequent contributor to San Diego Citybeat. She surrounds herself with mystics, gazes at the sky, and plays her records LOUDLY.

Thanks to Sammi for her contribution to The Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!


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


If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Crystal's Ice-Bat and Gloomy Bear (with a Nod to The Academy Is)

These tattoos, belonging to Crystal, date back to an encounter I had with her on the R train in Brooklyn back in June. She has 14 tattoos, and first shared this one, on her inner right forearm:

What is this? I'll let Crystal explain:

“It’s an Ice-Bat  [one of the Uglydolls] with the words ‘Dream of demons / while you sleep / that make you / stutter / when you speak’ – they’re lyrics from a song [“Down and Out”] by The Academy Is, a Chicago band. My best friend and I actually have the same words, different design on her arm. We met in Chicago … it’s kind of a way to show our support for the band but also for our friendship to each other.”  

Incidentally, The Academy Is announced just last week that, after eight years, they were breaking up.


This piece was done at The Chicago Tattooing and Piercing Company, but Crystal doesn't recall the name of the artist who did the tattoo.


She also shared this chest piece:

Again, Crystal explains it best:

 “I got started on it when I was 19 and I was in Atlanta and had just started college and went through a rebellious phase. … I’m in love with the main character which is Gloomy Bear … Gloomy Bear is kind of the doll that controls the boy…..”

More on Gloomy Bear can be learned on its designer Mori Chack's wikipedia page.

Thanks to Crystal for sharing her ink with us here on Tattoosday!


Here's a little bonus, The Academy Is performing "Down and Out" at an in-store event:

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.