Tattoosday Goes to Hawai'i: Scott Shares a Pair of Unique Tattoos

I have mentioned previously that one of the first orders of business on my recent trip to Hawai'i was to attend a tattoo-related book signing and contest at the Barnes & Noble in Ala Moana Center. Head back here to read all about it.

While I was milling about post-signing, pre-contest, a gentleman named Scott approached me and complimented me on my Tiger tattoo.It's still a new piece and the colors are quite crisp and vibrant. However, coming from Scott, who has this amazing tattoo, I was speechless. In fact, despite the fact that I routinely ask people about their ink, Scott was the first person to ever compliment me out of the blue about the tattoo.

Needless to say, we struck up a robust conversation and watched the contest together. Scott ended up winning 2nd and 3rd place in the color category.

He was kind enough to share two of his very unusual, colorful tattoos, for the readers here on Tattoosday, and to subsequently elaborate on the works in question.

First, we have a rather militant-looking rodent: 

This was inked on the inside of Scott's right biceps by Seth Ulakovic of Liberty Tattoo in Libertyville, Illinois. Scott explains:

Seth is a long time friend of mine, I have known him since he was an apprentice. I always loved his original art and his entire artistic style, we refer to it as 'creepy cute'. I wanted some of Seth's work before moving to Hawaii, so I approached him and told him so. The only input I gave him was, it had to be a critter and it had to be funny. You can see the tattoo he came up with. I loved it immediately and it is probably my favorite piece.

Incidentally, Scott refers affectionately to this critter as "Napoleon Beaverparte."

Next we have a piece on Scott's left biceps:

Again, we'll let go to Scott for the tale of the tape:

I am a contractor and my tape measure is my most important tool, I cannot do a thing without one. I thought it would be great to have one with me at all times.I am still new to Hawaii and had yet to meet an artist with whom I felt comfortable...Odyssey Tattoo Gallery was the fourth shop I had visited.

The owner told me they had a traveling artist in [Rachel Schilling]. I had wanted to get work from a female artist for quite some time to see if there was a difference in the tattooing experience. However I would not let someone work on me just because she was a woman.

Then I met Rachel - immediately I was comfortable with her. She has such a great attitude, and was really into tattooing the tape measure from the beginning. She is also very obviously a real pro. I went from walking into the shop with a tape measure in my hand to 4 hours later having a completed tattoo That quite frankly exceeded my expectations. Overall it was one of my best experiences receiving a tattoo and I certainly plan I having her work on me again.

It was great meeting Scott and speaking to him at length about tattoos (his, mine, and others). I thank him profusely for his friendliness and making this post such a fun experience! Mahalo from Tattoosday!

Karen's Colorful Ink Glows in More Ways than One

Autumn has not been good to us here on Tattoosday. Inkspotting has been, um, spotty, at best, and most of the work I have seen has been indoors and/or below ground.

On Tuesday, I glimpsed some color peeking out from a woman's sleeve as she walked south on Seventh Avenue.

When I stopped to talk to her, Karen was gracious, despite the chill in the air, and filled me in on the two pieces (yes, just like last Tat-twosday) on her right wrist:


Karen is a student at Fashion Institute of Technology and was inky of another sort, with smudges on her hands and arms from her projects. She is an artist specializing in textile surfaces, designing such things as wallpaper, tissue boxes, and other items requiring her craft. She cleaned some of the ink up from around her body art, enough so we could get a clearer shot of her tattoos.

The one on the left is the insignia from the Gunslinger's revolver featured on the covers of Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

This is referred to as the "Eld Sigul" insignia and stands for the Gunslinger. I'm sure fans of the series will correct me and/or expand on the topic should they find that explanation lacking.

Do note that we had a Dark Tower tattoo recently on these pages, here back in October.

What's noteworthy about this piece is the ink used has special qualities. Karen originally wanted a hot pink tattoo, but the shop (Skin Deep Tattoo) had just received a shipment of ink that illuminates under black light. I've not seen one of these in person, but have seen samples elsewhere in the blogosphere.

The other piece, on the right, is a "third eye" designed by the artist Alex Grey, who is renowned for his cover art for the band Tool:


In fact, this "third eye" piece is from the art of the Tool album Lateralus:




This, also, was worked up at Skin Deep. Karen believes that Rob was the tattoo artist for both pieces. The extreme close-up at the top of this post emphasizes how vivid the ink used in the piece is.

Karen has two other tattoos, but they were well-protected from the elements, and were not visible higher up on her arms.

I do thank her again for being so amenable to stopping and sharing her work with us here on Tattoosday!