Dmitry's Sleeve and Invader Zim

We still have a handful of posts from 2011, including this one, which features a sleeve from a guy named Dmitry who I met in Penn Station back in July. Take a look:

This sleeve is a collaborative effort with Dmitry and his tattoo artist, Gene Coffey, from Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

He explained that he has spent a long time working on it, and that it is based on a animated series called Invader Zim, which was created by Jhonen Vasquez and originally aired in 2001.

Dmitry told me "I've always been a big fan of [the show] and I've always loved the artwork." He brought Gene "a few pictures from the show and we put together the piece".

The sleeve starts on the upper arm, featuring Zim at the very top,

The bottom section of the sleeve features other characters from the show, as well.

The back of the lower section of the arm has this illustration:

There's a whole catalog of the characters from the show listed here. I'd venture to try and identify every one seen in Dmitry's canvas, but I would most likely misname one or two. He told me the show has achieved a kind of cult following so, if any fans would like to add comments below, feel free to do so.

Thanks to Dmitry for sharing his fantastic tattoo sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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. 

Two Peacocks for a Tuesday

Back in June, I met two women on separate days who had peacock tattoos.

First was Charlotte, a filmmaker who I spotted on the uptown 3 train. I snapped these pictures when we got off the subway at 72nd Street:

 

Charlotte credited Daniel Albrigo as the artist, who did this when he worked at Brooklyn Adorned. He now tattoos out of Three Kings in Brooklyn.

She explained that she "wanted something beautiful to offset the Kali tattoo on her right shoulder".

A week later I met Emily near Penn Station, who had this different perspective on the peacock, inked on her calf:

Emily explained:

"My mother used to work at a school in Dallas, Texas, where I'm from, that has peacocks that roam wild on campus ... when I was a child I used to go play with them (or just watch them)."

Emily told me she "drew it and designed it with the help of Dave Wallin." Dave tattooed this when working at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but he now works out of Eight of Swords Tattoo Studio.

Thanks to both Charlotte and Emily for sharing their very different peacocks 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.

Magie's Unique Sugar Skull, Inked by Big Ant (1978-2008)

I was a happy little inkblogger last Friday night when I made it to the 4th anniversary group art show at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Happy, because I got to meet the awesome Marisa Kakoulas from the fabulous Needles and Sins tattoo blog, along with the equally-cool Brian Grosz, who is also a major creative force behind the site.

And happy because I was in a bright room with art on the walls, created by talented tattooists, and I was surrounded by people with incredible body art.

But therein lies the conundrum: great tattoos, in a hip tattoo setting, are top quality and, despite Tattoosday's success, I am still reluctant to whip out the Polaroid digital camera when, for all I know, the ink around me may have been professionally photographed and featured in glossy tattoo magazines.

So I had resigned myself to leave sans photos, knowing I had a groovy time and was able to meet other tattoo writers, when I noticed a very interesting sugar skull on the back of a young woman's right arm. Voila:


Of course I chatted a long time with Magie before I asked her if I could snap a picture, so I learned a bit about the tattoo before I asked.

Magie Serpica is an artist and tattooist who works at the newly-opened Bound for Glory Tattoo Studio in Staten Island.


The shop was co-founded by Nick Caruso who also tattoos at Flyrite Studio in Brooklyn. One of Nick's tattoos appeared here back in July on Tattoosday.

One of Magie's paintings was hanging on the wall at Tattoo Culture:

(reprinted with permission of the artist)

We talked at length about tattoos, what she called an under-served market on Staten Island (they are the first full-custom shop) in the borough (no flash on the walls, please) and have a promising future ahead.

We also discussed how difficult it has been in the past to be a female tattoo artist, how frustrating it is not to be taken seriously, and how Kat Von D. and the multitude of tattoo reality shows have helped break down the stereotypes and allowed Magie, as a female artist, to receive more respect as an artist.

Like most tattoo artists, Magie is covered in ink, with no idea how many tattoos she has ("If you can still see skin, it's not enough").

The sugar skull in question was tattooed by Anthony Gregory, aka Big Ant, a Staten Island artist who tragically passed away last year after falling ill in Las Vegas (see the sad news reported here).


She had asked him to give her a sugar skull and she had a general idea about his style, so she gave him total artistic freedom. The end result was fascinating - a unique, almost post-modern interpretation of a classic tattoo design. The angled perspective and the depth to the eyes give this tattoo a greater three-dimensional feel than your standard sugar skull.

I also like how the rose is just as important as the skull, its stem wrapping around it and adding another layer of depth.

I thank the good people at Tattoo Culture for opening their doors and allowing me the opportunity to meet some great people.

A special thanks to Magie for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday. Be sure to visit her in the new shop, Bound for Glory, in Staten Island.

Here's hoping we'll see more of their work in the future!