The Tattooed Poets Project: Stephen Caratzas

Today's tattooed poet is Stephen Caratzas, who was sent our way via Jillian Brall, a tattooed poet who has appeared on the Tattooed Poets Project twice before (here and here).

Stephen sent along this cool photo:

The tattoo in question is on his wrist. For a closer look:

Stephen explains:

"The tattoo is a griffin, inspired by an image of a griffin holding a Walther PPK automatic pistol on the cover of Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The artist, whose first name was Mike - don't recall his last name - decided to make the gun into the griffin's paw, which I agreed was a sensible idea.

I got the idea for a tattoo on the inside of my wrist from one of the characters (Casper, I believe) in Larry Clark's film, Kids. I liked the idea of having a visible tattoo even while wearing a long-sleeve dress shirt."

The tattoo is among eight Stephen has, and was inked at Fun City Tattoo on Macdougal Street in Manhattan back in the late 1990s.

Stephen sent us several poems, but I liked this one best:

THE NEW CORONERS

I never felt so good as when a waiter

in Amsterdam called me monsieur

after ordering beef champignon

putting his pen to his lips and looking off

“I believe monsieur has ordered the better dish”

so then you ordered it too

in a place called De Oude Doelen

(the old aims the old targets the old goals)

a drunk at the bar sang along with the jukebox

for years afterward I searched for the song

it wasn’t Elvis but it was sad

the song and the drunk and it was our last meal

when we two parted it was inevitable

it always is it always is

~ ~ ~

Stephen Caratzas is a writer, musician and visual artist living in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His writing has been published in Terra Incognita, Maintenant 5, the tiny, and many other journals.

Thanks to Stephen for sending us his tattoo and poems! We here at Tattoosday are grateful for his contribution.


This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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.

Don't Worry

I was walking through Penn Station last week when I spotted Turner. Actually I spotted what looked like a tattoo on his wrist. So I stopped and asked him and sure enough, he had words on the inside of his wrist, still healing from a recent inking:


The tattoo reads "A: Don't worry".

Turner explained that he is a performer/author/speaker who worries a lot, so it's sage advice that is always good to follow.

The quote itself is from a segment in a one-man show that he performed called "Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps". During one part of the show, Turner answers self-posed questions in an imagined dialog with his father. One of these questions is: "Q: What's the number one thing to think about when you're a dad?" And the answer is "A: Don't worry".

What's particularly special about this tattoo is that it is based on his father's handwriting.

Turner has a book out called Two Truths and a Lie that includes the aforementioned Becoming a Man....

Turner had this tattoo done by Big Steve in Manhattan at Funcity Tattoo.

He also gave me his card, which promotes Two Truths and a Lie. You can read about Turner at his site Undergroundtransit.com. It was there that I learned that Turner is a transgender, a woman who became a man. Of course, this adds, in my opinion, a whole different layer of meaning on the tattoo, and makes the experience of meeting Turner that much more interesting. He is just another example of what I love about writing Tattoosday. I get to meet so many people in such a wide range of diversity. It's well worth exploring his site to see clips of his shows to fully appreciate Turner as a performer.

I thank Turner for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Elaina's Ink: The Mermaid and the Tarantula

Elaina has eighteen tattoos. And not to heap loads of praise on her, but her work is brilliant.

It was the mermaid on her inner right forearm that first grabbed my attention:


She told me that the drawing was indicative of her state of mind at the time it was inked. Her boyfriend had just moved out and she was feeling reflective (thus the hand mirror).


Elaina later followed up with an email, further clarifying the tattoo:

"I realized today when you asked me the significance of my mermaid tattoo that I probably would have been better quoted saying the absolute truth. The underlying universal secret wish of all girls and women alike... I've always wanted to be a mermaid."

But Elaina had more to share. Much to my delight, she lifted her skirt on her left side to reveal this wonderful tattoo:


The spider is modeled after her mother's pet tarantula, Shelob, who is named for the giant spider in The Two Towers, book two of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I asked her what Mom thought of her ink and Elaina rolled her eyes and said that her mother recently wept when she told her she was planning her nineteenth tattoo. And, Elaina added, her mom is no stranger to ink. She told me that her mom was tattooed by legendary tattooist Lyle Tuttle during the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You tour.

The mermaid was tattooed by Claire at Funcity Tattoo in Manhattan. The spider on Elaina's thigh was done by Neal Aultman at Physical Graffiti in New Jersey.

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

The EMC is the Only EMC

I met Eric in Penn Station as I was headed back to work during lunch.

His sole tattoo on his right forearm reads "THE EMC". The EMC refers to his initals, his full name being Eric Manuel Concepcion.

He prefaced his initials with the article "the" so he can set himself apart. It's an manifestation of his individuality.

He wants to have "great significance in life" and has a larger piece in mind to build around this tattoo.

"Only one person can be me," he says, and this exemplifies his conviction that he will be great at being who he is, and that "no one will copy" him.

I've invited Eric to submit more photos as the piece evolves.

The tattoo was inked at Funcity Tattoos in Manhattan. Other work from Funcity has previously appeared here.

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