Michael and The Legend of Zelda

I was walking up Seventh Avenue back in August when I spotted Michael, taking on break on the sidewalk, soaking in the summer pedestrian traffic.

He is a video game programmer who works for a firm called Atom Apps and has his own company called Broken Home Studios.

I noticed he had tattoos and, given his vocation, it made sense that the ink he shared with me had a gaming theme:

These logos are from the classic video game, The Legend of Zelda, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011.  When I asked why he had an affinity for Zelda, Michael explained:

"It helped me get through a very violent parent thing. It was like, the little boy, sent into the world, by himself, alone, to fight all the bad things coming at him. And, he didn't do this on his own. He was put into this against his will, like I was, with my situation. He was able to survive and fight and conquer and have a happy ending, and that's why I have that affinity for that character and that game - because I vicariously lived through that character to escape my own issues."

He got both Zelda pieces at Screamin' Ink Tattoo off of Route 4 in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Ian Shafer did the piece on the left

and he attributed the piece on the right to an artist he only remembered as Bob.

I'm familiar with the artists at Screamin' Ink, having witnessed their work up close at the last two NYC Tattoo Conventions. In fact, the work highlighted in this post, by Ian, is among the more amazing tattoos I have had the privilege to see up close.

Thanks to Michael for sharing these tattoos with us here on Tattoosday, and for being so forthright about the inspiration behind them as they related to his difficult childhood.

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Not Your Typical Knuckles Tattoo

Last month I was trying to figure out why so many interesting people were walking around the Penn Station area when a trio of tattooed guys enlightened me: it was the Friday commencement of the New York Comic Con.

Now, I realize, I could go to one of these events and have a field day with some amazing tattoos on some very committed fans, but then I'd also be writing up posts for another month or two, as well, so I was content to chat with Rob and his two friends (who will appear in subsequent posts - stay tuned-).

Rob offered us one of his three tattoos, this animated creature on his inner right forearm:

This is, I'm sure many of you may know, a character from Sonic the Hedgehog, an iconic video game series that appeared in the early 1990's and has since sold, according to Wikipedia, 70 million units worldwide.

Rob explained that he grew up playing Sonic games and his favorite character was Knuckles the Echidna, who first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. "He was the only one I wanted to be," Rob told me. An echidna, by the way, is another name for a spiny anteater.

Rob credited this tattoo to "Debbie Doo" at Skin Deep Tattoo in Levittown, New York.

Thanks to Rob for sharing his Knuckles Tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Preston's Invaders Take Tattoosday

I met Preston in early May on the train platform at West 4th Street.

I spotted his tattoo and we talked about it.After along wait, we finally get to see this, one of Preston's five tattoos, here on Tattoosday:

These are,of course, images from the original Atari Space Invaders, one of the forerunners that was the first video game to truly take the world by storm.

Preston told me that these symbols represent space invasion. The neon green color makes them stick out even more and, he added, they make a "great ice breaker".

As a result, he continued, "people invade my space" when they question him (as I was doing) about his tattoo.

Preston is a musician by trade, who goes by the moniker Press Reset. Check out his website here. And this link will take you to his new record <3 on iTunes, where you can listen to (and hopefully, buy) his music.

Preston credits the tattoo to an artist named Ziggy who tattoos out of South Florida.

Thanks to Preston for sharing his alien neck tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Brooke Shows Off Her Zombie Ninja Poo

On a sunny September afternoon, I met Brooke outside of Penn Station.

She had several interesting tattoos, and she offered this one:


She referred to it as "Zombie Ninja Poo".

On the inside of her right wrist, this tattoo was inspired by the goofy video droppings of the ninja characters in one of her son's video games, Ninjatown.

She exercised a little creative license and zombified the design. The result was an undead mass of animated, um, turds.

Thanks to Brooke for sharing this unusual tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

High Culture Vs. Low Culture: Two of Sam's Tattoos

Sam has seven tattoos, but it was this one that first caught my eye:


Yes, that is an exclamation point (!) on the back of her neck and head, inked by Mony at Body Graphics Tattoo in Philadelphia.

So why an exclamation point? Sam explained that, in the video game Metal Gear Solid on the Nintendo System, an exclamation point appeared over a character's head when he was spotted by a villain. The programming was very basic, so when the technology developed to improve on the (!) appearing over the head, the makers of the game kept the symbol, and it became
somewhat camp.

Sam remarked that her nod to "low culture" is offset by this tattoo which is on her outer right arm:


I recognized the insignia immediately, having read Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 in college. Sam reminded me that this symbol is that of the muted post-horn, a key plot element in the novel.


This is her "high culture" tattoo to complement her video game punctuation mark.

Thanks again to Sam for sharing her interesting tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!