Alex Shares Three Elements of an Amazing Sleeve

I'm not sure why it has taken so long to post Alex's tattoos - when I met him at the end of May in K-Mart @ Penn Station, I was totally stoked by his ink. Perhaps I was just letting the photos simmer as I waited for the right time to share them. Nevertheless, here they are, finally.

What we're seeing are three portions of Alex's left arm sleeve, beginning with this segment which is the most impressive part of the work:

 

As Alex explains, this tattoo is

"inspired by the carvings in Cambodia in Siem Reap ... it's one of the temples of Indra, Indian god of thunder ... he's also the god of change and progress ... 

 ... He's very human-like because he messes up a lot ... he's somewhat of a womanized, so it makes him very original from the rest of the Indian gods..."

At the top of Alex's arm is this symbol:

He told me that this is the logo of a hard rock group from Brooklyn called Life of Agony.

You can check out their website here or peruse their Amazon catalog here.

In the photo above, you get a glimpse of the third and final segment of Alex's sleeve which we're seeing today, which features this familiar face:

That's the symbolic face of  Steeplechase Park on Coney Island.

Compare to this tattoo, which appeared here last year.

Alex explained about his connection to Coney Island:

"...Basically, I grew up there ... I grew up in Bensonhurst, but [Coney Island] is kind of where I became myself, adolescence and all that stuff - that's the old Coney Island..."

Alex credited all of his work to a tattoo artist named Seth Wood who is currently working out of Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Alex for sharing this amazing work with us here on Tattoosday!

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Ganesh Waits for the A Train

Actually, Kerry was waiting on the platform for the uptown A Train when I walked by at 34th Street.

How could I not stop and ask her about this tattoo:

This absolutely stunning depiction of the Hindu deity Ganesh took between eight and nine hours to complete.

Guy Ursitti at Thicker Than Water is the tattooist responsible for this work of art, the newest (at the time I met her) of Kerry's approximately fifty tattoos.

The detail in the tattoo is absolutely incredible.

Work from Thicker Than Water has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Kerry for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tracy's Indian God

I approached Tracy in Penn Station to ask her about the large Shiva tattoo on her right arm.

However, the piece wasn't finished, so she rolled up her left pant leg to display this intricate tattoo:


She couldn't remember which god this is, in the Hindu pantheon. I'm going to guess it is Brahma, the Creator, but I will entertain corrections, especially if I'm wrong.


Tracy loves Asian art and similarly loved this design.

It was inked in about four hours at Brooklyn Tattoo by Robert. Work from Brooklyn Tattoo has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

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

Elvis and the Saint

I met Kristin and Jason at the 7th Avenue Street Fair in Park Slope on Father's Day.

Street fairs in New York City generally occur in the summer months and, to an inkspotter like me, they are heaven on earth.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate. They are also hot, crowded, and dangerous. I have seen many a fair-goer clipped by a slowly-moving baby stroller. But I digress.

There were tattoos aplenty at the street fair, and one is so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of great ink, it is often paralyzing to pick just one. Compare it to letting a child lose in a candy store, and tell them they can have all the candy they want, as long as they spend just a dollar.

So when I saw a few people walking along that were festooned with tattoos, I stopped them as soon as I could wend my way through the crowd and get their attention.

When someone has "lost count" of how many tattoos they have, it is safe to say that they have a lot.

Kristin offered up her inner right forearm:


She loves Elvis Presley and this portrait, based on a shot of him from the film Girls! Girls! Girls!, is wonderfully done.

She noted that this was an older Elvis, but definitely pre-Vegas.

Jason, who was walking with Kristin, and also incredibly inked, offered up his right forearm as well:


Upon returning from a trip to India several years ago, Jason brought home a poster of a Hindu saint. He loved the poster so much, he decided to have it tattooed.

I'll be honest here. I was initially disappointed that these were the tattoos that Jason and Kristin offered. Not that they're bad tattoos. Far from it. But, they had other work I admired more.

However, I do ask people which tattoos they'd like to share, so I certainly have no right to complain.

But, in the week or so since I shot these photos, I've come to appreciate the level of skill and artistry with which these pieces were created.

Both were inked by Josh Carlton at the Great American Tattoo Company in Indianapolis.

If you look closely, he has infused each tattoo with colorful highlights that really accentuate the tattoos with an extra element of artistry.


It's a brilliant effect.

Thanks to both Kristin and Jason for sharing these two amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!