Showing posts with label Kings Avenue Tattoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kings Avenue Tattoo. Show all posts

Thursday 27 October 2011

Collin's Gypsy Snake and Time

I met Collin back in August in the middle of Broadway, between 35th and 35th Streets, sitting at one of those tables that New York City had installed in the middle of the street.

He had a lot of ink, and chose to share this section of his upper left arm:


This piece, a snake with a gypsy head, circling an alarm clock, was done by Grez at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Manhattan on the Bowery. We promoted the shop opening back in May here.

Collin explained the elements of this piece that curves around the arm:
"The clock represents when I was born ... the candle's my life, burning, it's the time I have left ... gypsies are usually known to be good luck ...  the snake is for the fucked up parts of my life and the gypsy head is for the good parts of my life, you know, the future."
Collin explained that Grez initially was concerned about all of these elements combined into one piece. "At first he [Grez] thought it was going to be too much," Collin told me, "but it worked out and I'm happy with it."

The clock is particularly remarkable:


Grez's work has appeared on Tattoosday before, here and here. He's a great talent, and I'm always happy to stumble upon his work.

Thanks to Colin for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!


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.

Thursday 14 July 2011

Jenna Shares Two - A Lionfish and a Gustav Klimt

I met Jenna last month outside of Penn Station last month and took a few pictures of her tattoos, one of which is based on the work of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

As today is the anniversary of Klimt's birthday, 149 years ago in 1862, I felt it would be a good day to share Jenna's work.

This tattoo is on her upper left arm:


This is based on a work called "The Blood of Fish" (1898):


Jenna explains:
"...The print is a pen and ink done by Klimt called The Blood of Fish. I've always been a very big fan of Klimt's work but alot of it has all been done before in terms of tattoos. When I saw The Blood of Fish I just kind of knew that it was for me, there was something very beautiful and fluid about it and I knew I wanted it to be a part of me ...

...The only adjustments added were the little feet at the bottom and I opted out of nipples on the women, I babysit and am around kids alot I'd rather keep things PG. Either way my mother and grandmother had a heart attack, supposedly women arent supposed to get naked women tattoos, I didn't get that memo."
She credits Dan Trocchio at Three Kings in Brooklyn with this incredible tattoo.

Jenna also shared another phenomenal piece, on the upper right portion of her back:


This lionfish tattoo was inked by Grez at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massapequa, New York.

Again, I'll let Jenna explain:

"The Lion Fish was my first real tattoo. For years I had wanted a Lion Fish. I used to sit the marine biology lab during middle and high school and just draw and paint fish. Like all of the creatures on the earth, saltwater fish are really remarkable and incredibly beautiful. My father (who originally got me into salt water tanks) used to tell me that god hand painted every stripe on the lion fish. While I'm not a very religious person, it doesn't change just how much of a miracle that the oceans and the beauty they hold are. I just feel like sometimes people don't stop and look at how amazing these creatures are. My lion fish isn't only a symbol of my passion for marine life but also a piece of art that was originally hand painted by god."
Thanks again to Jenna for sharing her amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday, and for taking the time to share her thoughts about the work. And a happy 149th birthday to Gustav Klimt!

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.

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Nicole Takes Us to Candyland

At the beginning of the month, I had the pleasure of encountering a young lady named Nicole in Herald Square (34th Street and 6th Avenue, for you out-of-towners).

Nicole is heavily inked, estimating that "about 45%" of her body is tattooed.

So with so much work, where to begin? She offered up her lower left leg, which is fully-sleeved.

I always find photographing sleeves challenging, because it is so hard to capture all of the details accurately and perfectly in a photograph. So here's a collage of Nicole's Candyland sleeve:


Why a Candylamd-themed sleeve? Nicole explained,
"Growing up, that was my favorite game in the whole world.


Getting my tattoos never really meant anything, so that was kinda the one, like, childhood thing . . . I feel like if you're a girl, you should have pretty, colorful tattoos ... otherwise, you don't look 'girly' anymore.


So that's why I did that."
Nicole credited Brian Randolph, formerly of New York Adorned, with this work


Nicole informed me that Brian had moved to California, but he comes back and forth every six months.  She did say that, although this work is solely from Brian, she also gets tattooed by Justin Weatherholtz at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massapequa, New York.

Thanks to Nicole for sharing her incredibly colorful leg sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Enter to Win a T-Shirt from Kings Avenue Tattoo, Now Open in Manhattan!

We here at Tattoosday have had the pleasure of encountering work from Kings Avenue Tattoo on only one occasion. We featured work by Grez here.

Nonetheless, their shop, located out in Massapequa on Long Island, has a sterling reputation, and I know at least one loyal client, Brian Grosz, over at Needles & Sins, who sings high praise to the shop owner and artist extraordinaire, Mike Rubendall.

It was from Brian that I first learned that Kings Avenue was opening a new location here in New York City. Lucky for those of us here in the Five Boroughs who don’t have cars!

We here at Tattoosday want to help spread the word about the new location, in Manhattan on the Bowery (188 Bowery, at Spring Street) to be more exact. Located on the second floor, the new shop location will be open Monday - Saturday 12-9 and Sundays from 12-6).

In fact, Kings Ave NYC would like to cordially invite you to join in the celebration of the opening of their Manhattan location tomorrow, Thursday, May 12th, at 8:00 p.m. Please join the Kings Ave crew for drinks, friends and family for this proud moment for their shop, and for the addition of some great talent to our teeming metropolis.

And to generate a little more buzz, we put our collective heads together and came up with an idea where one of our lucky Tattoosday readers can win a cool Kings Avenue Tattoo original t-shirt, like this one, perhaps:


All you have to do is head on over to their site and check out the merchandise here. Then, in the comments section of this post, tell us which shirt design you like best and why you deserve to win it. Please note, if you don’t have a blogger ID that links you to an email where I can contact you if you win, make sure you e-mail tattoosdaycontests@gmail.com as well so we can notify you if you win.

And, dear readers, while checking out those shirts, you’ll be losing out if you don’t check out the Kings Ave site, clink on the “Artists” tab, and then get lost in the hundreds of photos of top-notch tattoo art from Mike Rubendall, Grez, Justin Weatherholtz, Brian Paul, and Matt Beckerich. Not to mention the shots from such illustrious guest artists like Chris O’Donnell, Tim Hendricks, and Kat Von D, to name only a few.

We here at Tattoosday welcome the newest branch of Kings Avenue into our fair city and hope this means we’ll be seeing a lot more of their phenomenal work on the streets and, subsequently, here on the site!

More about Kings Avenue NYC:


KINGS AVENUE NYC was founded by tattooist and international award-winner, MIKE RUBENDALL, with his associate, GREZ, a well-respected tattooist in his own right. While people have traveled from all over the world to visit their Long Island location for everything from a full-scale Japanese body-suit to a modestly-sized, classic nod to Americana flash, RUBENDALL explains that they opted to open a second shop on Bowery, "for the simple fact of wanting to be a part of the energy, life, and creativity that Manhattan possesses."

KINGS AVENUE NYC will also feature the work of resident artists MATT BECKERICH, JUSTIN WEATHERHOLTZ, BRIAN PAUL, SHAUN NEL, KEVIN LEBLANC and SARAH SCHOR - a talented collective that has adorned the bodies of notables like actress EVAN RACHEL WOOD, hip-hop impresario DAMON DASH and rocker PETE WENTZ of FALL OUT BOY. The public can also expect to see guest appearances from renowned artists like CHRIS O'DONNELL, TIM HENDRICKS and Denmark's HENNING JORGENSON as well as "celebrity" tattooists such as CHRIS NUĂ‘EZ (Miami Ink) and KAT VON D (L.A. Ink).


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.

Thursday 2 July 2009

Mason's Gypsy, with a New Orleans Twist


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

He has "twenty or so," tattoos, mostly accumulated from different artists from different places he has visited.

His offering for Tattoosday, however, was inked here in New York. It is a take on the traditional gypsy tattoo which I have been seeing a lot of lately:

Mason went to Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massepequa, Long Island, with a general idea for this piece, which is something he wanted to get for a while.

The artist, Grez, added a Fleur-de-Lis to the piece, per Mason's request, as a nod to the city of New Orleans where he grew up.

Thanks to Mason for sharing this fantastic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!