Emily Picks Her Poison

It's always interesting when I meet someone with a lot of tattoos, trying to guess, when you ask them to pick just one, which piece they will choose to share. A couple weeks ago, I met Emily, who has two full sleeves, along with her chest and back tattooed. She selected this tattoo on her right forearm for our readers to enjoy:

This is a take on the famous Sailor Jerry design, like the one seen in this post from 2008:

Emily created a male version of the classic "Posion" Sailor Jerry woman. She explained:

"I was a Women's Studies major an an undergrad and when I started getting a lot of tattoos, I thought, 'This'll be funny'. That's what most of my tattoos are."

The tattoo was done by Alex Franklin when he was at Sinister Ink in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Sinister Ink has long since closed (Revolver Tattoo is located in its place) and Alex has been working out of Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge for many years now.

Thanks to Emily for sharing this cool 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.

Fernando's Trio of Whimsical Ink

I met Fernando a while back outside of Penn Station and he had a lot of work to share. He estimated that he had around thirty tattoos on his canvas, but we picked three to spotlight here on Tattoosday.

As a Star Wars fan, he couldn't resist this portrait of R2-D2:

The banner "YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE" refers to the scene in the first movie, when Princess Leia sends a holographic distress message to Obi-Wan Kenobi via R2-D2 that ends, "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Both the tattoo of R2-D2 and this one, were done by Evan at Revolver Tattoo in New Burnswick, New Jersey:

That is Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons in the Transformers franchise.

And thirdly, Fernando shared this take on a sugar skull:

This piece was tattooed by Mike Rivelry at Immortal Ink.

Thanks to Fernando for sharing a few of his dozens of tattoos 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.

The Ship Keeps Sailing Along (Revisiting Carrie's Ribcage)

Last September, I posted this amazing tattoo:


If you missed it the first time around, go back and read the full post here before proceeding...

There.

Did you read/reread it? Good.

This is what it looks like now:


One of the great things about writing this blog, besides meeting people with incredible tattoos, is that some of the tattooed subjects become friends. Carrie and I have stayed in touch and we chat from time to time. She even submitted the tattoos she and her husband received as wedding gifts (this post here).

As for this updated version of the pirate ship, the first post was done in two sittings and she has had two more to add the color, about 4 hours worth of work on the color. She estimates (and hopes) that one more sitting will take care of filling in the rest of the ship and the top sail.

As mentioned in the first post, this piece is the work of Charles "Chuck" Denise at Revolver Tattoo in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Thanks again to Carrie for updating us here at Tattoosday on the progress of this phenomenal tattoo!

Carrie Returns with Some Matrimonial Ink

As this blog has evolved from a weekly installment over at BillyBlog into a full-time appreciation of the Tattoo, I have gained an immense appreciation of the way Mexican folk art has been absorbed into the medium.

The celebration of Dio de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is a perfect match for tattooing, as it is associated with bright colors and what I call a "pleasant morbidity," in the form of skeletons and skulls.


Some of my favorite posts here at Tattoosday have been related to the Day of the Dead (see here and here).

So it was with great pleasure that I learned that Carrie, of the amazing ship tattoo, was sending me new ink photos, and moreso when I saw they were in the Dio de los Muertos theme.

Carrie sent a slew of photos relating to two tattoos she and her new husband, Ryan, received as a wedding gift from their friend, Evan Lindemann, who is a tattoo artist at Revolver Tattoo in New Brunswick, NJ. This is the same shop where her pirate ship was (and continues to be) inked.

The couple were married on Halloween of 2008, and honeymooned the following week, which coincided with the Day of the Dead celebrations:

"We had a masquerade ball for our Halloween wedding...our cake topper was a Day of he Dead skeleton bride and groom folk art bride and groom


and our toasting flutes were hand painted from Mexico and had day of the dead bride and groom skulls as well [see photo above]....Going to Mexico was the icing on the cake to finish out our awesome wedding....In Mexico we went to Playa del Carmen, shopped like crazy on 5th ave and ... found some beautiful Day of the Dead figurines and shadow boxes.....

For our wedding gift, ...Evan...wanted to give us a tattoo each.

We love tattoos, so it was one hell of an offer....so...we decided that I would get the Day of the Dead figurine that is the skeleton in the tux representing the groom


and Ryan would get the Day of the Dead woman figurine which represents the bride:


So, we have a piece together and they are beautiful!"

Carrie concludes, that these tattoos "symbolize our love, marriage and honeymoon".

She added that this may "sound kind of corny," but she is right when she says they are beautiful.

A belated congratulations to Carrie (and Ryan) for the marriage, and their incredibly cool (and romantic) his-and-hers tattoos. In a day and age when so many married couples tattoo each others' names on their bodies, it is heart-warming from an artistic perspective to see the level of creativity and thought that went into these pieces.

And a hearty thank you to Carrie (and Ryan) for sharing their work here on Tattoosday!