The Tattooed Poets Project: Shannon Phillips

Today's tattooed poet is Shannon Phillips. She has five tattoos, none of which are in color. All of them are on her back. She sent us a few photos so we could appreciate them:

I'll let Shannon tell their stories:

"I knew I wanted a tattoo, but the commitment to one idea was freaking me out.  However, I took an Art of Mexico class and when I learned the term 'Nepantla' I knew that was it. Nepantla is a term in Nahuatl that roughly means 'on the border' or 'in between.' It seemed perfect. I got the tattoo done at a place off Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach, California. It was a birthday gift from an ex that I was still friends with.

The next tattoo I got was of a coyote ouroboros. I love the coyote as a trickster symbol in Native American myth and I was also very drawn to the symbolism behind the ouroboros, the life-death-life cycle. I did not relate to the more classic ouroboros images of a dragon or a snake so I asked a young artist named Natalie Robles to design the coyote ouroboros for me. The tattoo was done at Atomic Tattoo off Hollywood Boulevard [in Los Angeles].

On the drive to a wedding in Arizona, my friend and I decided to get almost-matching tattoos. It seemed that since we were both people who had tattoos that we should have at least one on a whim. It had to be something simple since we didn't have a chance to research the tattoo shop. We settled on cat silhouettes.

The next tattoo I had done [seen at the bottom of the back in the top photo above] was at a shop in Lake Forest, California.  While walking to class one day at Cal State Long Beach, a flyer grabbed my attention – it depicted an awareness ribbon designed to resemble an Asian character. I saw it and I simply knew.

My quid pro quo\ tattoo was done at Wicked Ink in Knoxville, Tennessee.  I had heard the phrase literally translated to 'what for whom' and I had known for some time I wanted a tattoo that embodied my fascination with the structure of power. Again, I wanted something simple because I hadn't researched the tattoo shop – I was on another trip. I chose a female tattoo artist because it occurred to me that all my previous tattoos had been done by men."

Shannon sent us three poems to consider and I selected this one:

To My Stretchmarks

Fossilized jelly fish tendrils.

Moon-colored veins,
chalk-scrawled tree roots,
icicle milk.

On my hips,
Nature tattoos lightning.

--originally published in RipRap #30, 2008

~ ~ ~

Shannon Phillips earned an MFA in creative writing from Cal State University Long Beach. Her work has been published in Pearl, Verdad, RipRap, Rectangle, and her poem “Plum” placed second in Beyond Baroque's First Ever Poetry Contest. She previously taught ESL for two years and now edits Carnival, an online literary magazine.

Thanks to Shannon for sharing her poem and all of her tattoos with us on Tattoosday. I'd also like to thank her for referring us to Eric Morago, who appeared on the Tattooed Poets Project here, earlier this month.

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.


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

The Tattooed Poets Project: Traci Brimhall

Today's tattooed poet is Traci Brimhall, who shares this single word with us:

Traci explains:

"I got my tattoo last April during the Little Grassy Literary Festival at Carbondale, IL. I was in Carbondale to do a reading from my first book, when I got the email that my second book had been accepted. I wanted to do something to mark the occasion, something both wild and permanent, and there was a poet and tattoo artist, Ruth Awad, at the dinner table who offered to give me my first ink. I spent that night celebrating in Ruth's kitchen getting my first tattoo.

I chose the word Duende, a word the Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca said represented "a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought." A guitar maestro had once explained it to him this way: 'The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.' When people ask me to explain it, I usually say it's an art that asks you to do battle with what is darkest in you, and what comes out is already baptized by black sounds."

Here is the poem Traci selected for us to read:

Aubade with a Broken Neck

The first night you don’t come home
summer rains shake the clematis.
I bury the dead moth I found in our bed,
scratch up a rutabaga and eat it rough
with dirt. The dog finds me and presents
between his gentle teeth a twitching
nightjar. In her panic, she sings
in his mouth. He gives me her pain
like a gift, and I take it. I hear
the cries of her young, greedy with need,
expecting her return, but I don’t let her go
until I get into the house. I read
the auspices—the way she flutters against
the wallpaper’s moldy roses means
all can be lost. How she skims the ceiling
means a storm approaches. You should see
her in the beginnings of her fear, rushing
at the starless window, her body a dart,
her body the arrow of longing, aimed,
as all desperate things are, to crash
not into the object of desire,
but into the darkness behind it.

~ ~

Traci Brimhall is the author of Our Lady of the Ruins: Poems (W.W. Norton), selected by Carolyn Forché for the 2011 Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Rookery (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry) (Southern Illinois University Press), winner of the 2009 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, Slate, Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She was the 2008-09 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and currently teaches at Western Michigan University, where she is a doctoral associate and King/Chávez/Parks Fellow.

Thanks to Traci Brimhall for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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 Tattooed Poets Project: Jo Langton

Say what you will about the Tattooed Poets Project, but it has been dominated by Americans these past four years. Unless I'm forgetting someone, we've only had one poet featured from outside the U.S., and that was Claire Askew, whose ink appeared back in 2009 here.

Well, this year we are expanding a bit more, including a few more poets that reside outside of the States, and our first such shining example is Jo Langton.

Jo is sharing two tattoos, both of which were done by artists at Affleck’s Palace, in Manchester UK. She doesn't remember the artists' names and explains,

"I got both of these tattoos in a bit of a grief stricken haze. I did not form a relationship with the artists in question, I turned up on the day and they slotted me in there and then. I didn’t want the artist or the tattooing experience to overshadow the meaning."

This first tattoo was done in the spring of 2008:

Jo elaborates:

"The inspiration for this tattoo came, in part, from my over-indulgence in the song 'Let Go' by Frou Frou (featured on the Garden State soundtrack) and equally from the death of my Grandad. I wanted something visual to remind me to let go of my past misdemeanours and lack of motivation, and to signify a push forward in my life that sprung from my Granddad’s last words to me 'keep on keeping it up' in relation to the study of my degree."

She also shared this tattoo that was inked last summer, in 2011:

Jo Continues:

"When my Grandpa died a couple of years later, it felt only natural for me to once again, signify this time in my life. I had completed my degree and achieved a First Class Honours. Neither of my grandfathers were around to see this, but I know they both would have been proud to know I had made it. I was proud of myself, and proved that holding on to what I wanted from life would have fruitful effects, just as my Grandad had said three years earlier."

Here's a poem from Jo:

SAY IT W / POIS [ON]

she tried
silent
He pursed

‘Perhaps’    crisply,

pressing it against her        and resentful        unexpectedly

found another, eh ? you say, we go inside.

Indoors he bent over the doll
seemed singularly loath to touch
kind of stuff before the ox heart
answer and

surprised, you know
know anything about these horrible things
[I haven’t told her / if that’s what you mean]
admitting ?

folding his pale soft hands together
them on his turquoise knees
see the doll
its chief disfigurement
deliberately inflicted

either / a / sharp / knife / or / scissors

the human shape of the thing made it particularly sinister.

~ ~ ~

Jo Langton is a poet from Manchester, UK, currently studying her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Salford. She had her first chapbook published with Liverpool-based small press Erbacce and it can be found here. She has since gone on to be published online in Bare Hands, The Railroad Poetry Project, Streetcake and 3AM Magazine. She has a set of hand sew tea bags with word-leaves forthcoming from Zimzalla. 

Thanks to Jo for sharing her poem and tattoos with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.
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.

Orphans

Call them what you will, what I will go with is “Orphans”.

I have a handful of posts that have lingered “on deck,” so to speak, that are, by themselves, sad little bits that were never completed, or, for whatever reason, didn’t pass muster with Tattoosday’s editorial board.

However, by packaging them together, I can cross them off my list once and for all, and move on. A Spring Cleaning, if you will.

So let’s get down to business:

Last March 25, I posted this New York’ish piece on Jonathan. A few days later, Jonathan got another tattoo and sent me a preliminary photo:

I asked him if he could send me a better photo of this pretty awesome owl tattoo. I asked again at the end of April, and again at the end of May.  I followed up again in October, at which point Jonathan said he would send me a new photo soon.

Look, things happen, and I hardly see Tattoosday as the center of the universe. There comes a time, however,  when I’m going to have to assume that it’s fallen by the wayside, and move on. This means, of course, that Jonathan will email me a crisper photo tomorrow.

~~

At the end of last April, I ran into a guy named Nick on the West 4^th Street subway platform. I snapped this photos:

The reason I balked at posting this originally was because the piece is a cover-up of a cross, and the original tattoo is fairly visible in its new incarnation.

I was concerned that a stand-alone post would incur the wrath of the tattoo purists and the story that this was a memorial piece for Nick’s grandfather would be lost.

Thus, it ended up in Tattoosday’s home for Orphan Tattoos.

Thanks to Nick, nonetheless, for sharing it with us.

~~

Also last April, I met a guy named Johnny in Penn Station. I noticed as I was passing by  that he had script peeking out from under his shirt at the top of his chest and I handed him a flier and a card. In May, he sent me the following two photos and the accompanying description:

Hey Bill,

We met in Penn Station a couple of weeks ago. I finally got some pictures of a couple of my tattoos. Both of these were done by Krista at Empire Ink in Akron, OH. 

The pin-up girl was drawn by my grandmother when she was 16 for my grandfather while they were dating. The other was an original design.

The Latin quote at the top of the heart is a quote from Julius Caesar. It translates to "From the bottom of my heart". Thanks for the interest in the tattoos and letting me share. 
Johnny

Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t post these originally. As time passed and the e-mail traveled to the bottom of my inbox, it became an out-of-sight, out-of-mind submission. Thanks to Johnny for sending these in originally, and for waiting so patiently to see them appear on the site.

~~

At the end of June 2011, I met a woman named Christina in Penn Station, whose ink did make the site a couple months later, here. At the time, she was accompanied by two other people, one whose name was Damion. I took a picture of Damion’s tattoo, but it never made the site, until now. Part of the reason Damion’s work never went live was due to the fact that it is an unfinished work, an orphan in more ways than one. Here’s the shot.

Damion loves these wings, calling them his “prize possession”.  Why are they unfinished? He credited the artist Carlos Alfonso at Rising Dragon Tattoo, formerly located under the Hotel Chelsea on 23^rd Street. But, Damion informed me, Carlos passed away. It’s not so easy to have another artist finish the work of a deceased tattooist. Damion’s not the only one who was so affected, as you might imagine. The story rang a bell with me, as I had also featured Carlos’ work in a 2009 post with the ink of performance poet Jackie Sheeler here.

A belated thanks to Damion for baring his back and showing off his wings in Penn Station!

~~

As summer waned, I had a couple of unsuccessful encounters in September, in which the quality of the photos I took were substandard, and e-mails to the contributors went unanswered.

For example, Chris shared this cool octopus on his leg: 

Can you tell it’s an octopus? There’s the issue. Chris’s leg hair and the glare of the sun renders this poor octopus almost invisible. It was inked by a Thai artist namedTong, working out of Tatudharma in Sydney, Australia. Chris was travelling and he “likes octopi,” recognizing that, “as far as invertebrates go, [they are] probably the most intelligent of them.”

In a weird twist of this orphan post, the Tatudharma web site indicates that the shop is closed permanently, a result of it having been firebombed last April. The artists can still be contacted through the website, however.

A couple weeks later, my camera was programmed on the wrong setting, so I ended up with these two washed-out shots of interesting tattoos:

The host of these pieces is Lindsey, a Southern Californian who had both tattoos inked in San Diego.

The plant was done about 8 or 9 years ago by an artist named Alethio.

“I had my boyfriend draw it,” she explained, “I told him I wanted a dictionary-style type of flower, so he kinda came up with a design, so it’s not an actual plant, it’s fictitious … I wanted something organic to be represented on me.”

The bird on her other arm was done by Gary at Ace Tattoo. “That was the beginning of a sleeve that never happened,” Lindsey said with a sigh.

Thanks to Chris and Lindsey for sharing their tattoos and for hopefully forgiving  my camera for betraying them.

~~

And last, but not least is this piece from December:

Jen acknowledged that it wasn’t done very well, but she said she had a good reason for getting it. I did send an email as a follow-up, but more than one reeks of desperation. Maybe one of these days Jen will find my card or flier and finally e-mail me back to explain what wanderlust means to her. Until then, we’re left with this orphan.

~~

Believe it or not, we still have a few 2011 photos left in the tank, but this entry takes out a good chunk of our backlog. Thanks for giving these orphans a home, even if its just for a minute or two.

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.comand 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.

Tattoosday at the Cincinnati Airport: Patrick’s Ink

Happy New Years from us here at Tattoosday! We still have some old 2011 encounters to recall which, for one reason or another, got postponed until now.

Regular readers may recall that I went briefly to Covington, Kentucky at the end of April and I spotted a few tattoos in my travels.

On my way back to New York, I was navigating the maze that is the TSA security checkpoint when I spotted a guy with a lot of interesting ink. However, common sense dictated that a crowded airport checkpoint was likely not the best place to start taking pictures and interviewing people.

So I put on my shoes and headed off to the gate. I just missed the little shuttle that transports travelers 150 yards or so from one section of the airport to the gate section of the terminal, so I waited, and who should walk up and stand next to me, but the guy I saw at the security checkpoint.

Knowing I couldn’t possibly ignore a clear sign from the fates that this gentleman should be on Tattoosday, I started up a conversation about his ink and five minutes later we were at the airport bar, talking about his tattoos, as I snapped photos of his sleeve, between sips of a very tall frosty glass of Shocktop Ale.

Patrick was kind enough to not only answer all my questions, was also nice enough to buy my beer for me. He works as a bartender on a river barge in the Cincinnati area and has a full sleeve, along with a separate piece on his left biceps. The work was finished in 2004 and took about four to five years due to the fact that he took some breaks between ink sessions.

Patrick is a Christian, and many of his tattoos are reflective of his faith.

For example, this quote, that reads, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart/with all your soul/with all your mind/ And with all your strength”.

The text on the forearm says “that was/to the/Rose/make/tenfold”.
 

  
The roses reflect the rose of Sharon.

The kanji on Patrick's right biceps, he told me, symbolize “truth, love and happiness.” The bird inked nearby is a dove.

The triangle at the top of the arm represents Christianity’s Trinity. And obviously, the crosses are also representative of his faith.

The tattoo on Patrick’s left biceps is a design representing the eye of God.

He got that tattoo in 2003 from Kenny Smith at Karmic Tattoo in McDonough, Georgia. Kenny Smith and Kenny Thompson, also of Karmic, are the two artists responsible for all of Patrick’s ink. It should be noted, however, that both Kennys are not listed as staff on the current Karmic website

Thanks to Patrick, not only for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday, but for buying me the beer, and helping me pass the time at the airport.

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.

Jasmin's Phoenix Keeps Her Grounded

As the year winds down, I am clearing out the cobwebs - a hodgepodge of posts that just didn't make the grade. What causes an encounter from May to be delayed over seven months? Several things, like, in this case, a photo that just didn't make the grade. Further problematic is a subject's non-working e-mail address, and a credited artist who is not listed on the attributed shop's website.

Still, I hate to just totally abandon a piece, so we'll just go with what we have...

I met Jasmin just outside of Penn Station and she let me photograph this tattoo:

This is a phoenix that Jasmin got in 2010. It doubly keeps her grounded and represents her rise from the ashes.She told me she wanted the "girliest-looking phoenix," something "light and wispy".


The two phrases in the banners are "Ut prosim aliis" and "Il buon tempo".

"Ut prosim aliis" is the motto on her family (Jennings) crest and translates to "that I may be of use to others," or, in Jasmin's words, "that I might profit others".

She told me that "il buon tempo" meant "each new day is bright," but it is more commonly translated from the Italian as "good times".

She credited the work of this tattoo to an artist named Zack at Psycho Tattoo 2 in Atlanta.

Thanks to Jasmin for sharing this 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.

Kristina: Aon Grá

Over the summer, we were having a yard sale, when Kristina stopped by to peruse the goods. She shared this, one of her four tattoos:

Located on the inside of her right arm, the phrase "aon grá" is Irish for "one love". This decorative tattoo with a powerful message was tattooed by Rob at Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge. Work from the shop which, due to its close proximity to "home base" for Tattoosday, has appeared often over the years on the site, and can be seen here.


Thanks to Kristina for sharing her 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.

Southpaw in the Subway

A couple weeks ago, I met a woman on the West 4th Street subway platform after I noticed her last name inscribed on her back. This tattoo, however, I found particularly cool:

I don't have a lot of information regarding this tattoo, as the young lady took my card as her train rolled in and never got back to me.

Nonetheless, I wanted to share this "Southpaw" tattoo on her left arm. She is, as you might guess, a proud left-handed person.

I thank her for sharing this 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 can contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Elliott D. Smith

I met Elliott D. Smith at the Union Square Barnes & Noble last month and took pictures of his tattoos for The Tattooed Poets Project. I also met his roommate Jared, whose work will appear here tomorrow.

Elliott has quite a bit of work, including a sleeve-in-progress, which is being constructed by the wonderfully talented Joy Rumore at Twelve 28 Tattoo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Check out this composite of Elliott's right arm:

This still-incomplete tattoo is part of a sleeve based on a mural at the Morgan Street stop on the L train in Brooklyn.

Photo by Elliott D. Smith

The sleeve has the Alice in Wonderland figure at its center, but a lot of other images, like the banana as well. Elliott pointed out in the photo above that the banana (lower right corner) is much smaller. For the purpose of the art of the tattoo sleeve, its scale has been increased significantly.

Elliott added that he visually enjoys the image of the mural, and his "own little Alice in Wonderland dream land" is slowly taking shape on his flesh.

Also on his right arm with the sleeve is this quote from "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," by Audre Lourde:

The quote is "I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior."

There are times when a writer's words resonate so loudly in your ears, they shake you to your core. Elliott told me that he "read it [these lines] one day and the next day got the tattoo."

He offered up this interpretation of the line: "it's easy to think of yourself as victim," he said, but succeeding in life is about "surviving and fighting through victimhood".

Elliott also has these words on his outer wrists:

This is the third poet this month with "poet" inked on his or her flesh. However, the combination of "freedom poet" adds another dimension to the corporeal text.

This was a "spur of the moment" tattoo, Elliott told me, elaborating that aside from the obvious "poet," he is "holding freedom in his hand and facing out".

Finally, we don't get a lot of lower back tattoos here on Tattoosday, but when we do, they are extraordinary:

Elliott took a couple of photos into Joy and she crafted this design. The concept is a spin on the "power to the people" idea, but with an emphasis on urban people. "Most Americans live in cities," he explained, "but [they] don't have power". This is a spin on the frustration that many feel, that the values of the citizenry of the American cities are not represented by the government.

As for poetry, Elliott offered us this work:

EARNING STRIPES

I own thirteen striped shirts.

I have known the misfortune of wearing lines on skin,

stretch marks and self-hate carve flesh in convincing fashion.

No lover has ever asked me why

I have known the misfortune of wearing lines on skin,

razor blade reminders tattoo thighs with teenage dreams.

No lover has ever asked me why

it was so easy to steal from myself.

Razor blade reminders tattoo thighs with teenage dreams,

this belly, a thanksgiving turkey for carving--

it was so easy to steal from myself

when I didn’t believe I had anything to give.

This belly, a thanksgiving turkey for carving.

Sliced up white meat

when I didn’t believe I had anything to give.

Mother doesn’t know there’s blood on the stairs.

Sliced up white meat,

stretch marks and self-hate carve flesh in convincing fashion.

Mother doesn’t know there’s blood on the stairs.

I own thirteen striped shirts.

~ ~ ~

Elliott D. Smith reps Louisville, Cincinnati, and Brooklyn. When he's not  working with formerly incarcerated people or conducting research on masculinity, he drinks whiskey and talks too loudly. He believes in the power of tattoos, reference books, and matching music with the weather.

Thanks to Elliott for sharing his ink and his poetry here with us on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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 Tattooed Poets Project: Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

In the first post of this year's Tattooed Poets Project (here), Vicki Iorio described watching today's tattooed poet, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, recite verse while being tattooed. Here is that tattoo, along with some others:

Photograph by Mark Wells

The word "poet" in the center of the back is self-explanatory and was inked by Syxx, at Wyld Chyld Tattoo Studio. Above that is the name "Joey," who is Tammy's husband. That was done by an artist named Kenny at a shop called Z Connection. The piece on the right is a rose, with the names of Tammy's three children and their birth dates, inked by Bob at Tattoo Lou's on Long Island. Dave at Tattoo Lou's also did the memorial cross for Tammy's son Mike, who was killed in 1995. Tammy also has this tattoo on her foot:

That cat paw is for Tammy's cat, Maude, who passed away last October 10, and was done by Jimmy at Wyld Chyld.

Tammy also shared some of her poetry:

POEM#6

I am not the coca cola girl,
the Cheez-It tidbit waiting for you to taste,
the limo ride to the Yankee’s game,
the wrangler jeans chick baking in the New Mexico sun,
and I never was or will be Sunday mornings in spring.

I am the time-ticking-away second hand,
the flat tire on the side of the road,
the too high door jam,
the worn-out tooth brush,
the 59 cents in the ashtray,
the Lunch Poems dog-eared book,
and the who never forgets to tell the truth.

~ ~ ~

SPOONS

I remember when you spoon-fed me ice-cream as we lay in bed on that rainy afternoon
and the way your fingers tasted and your neck had a hint of sweat and I closed my eyes
and you drove away the dark and I called your name in a low, soft moan.

I remember when you spooned sugar into your morning tea on that sunny Tuesday
and I watched you drink as if you were a foreign film I could not understand
and your smile told me my poetry made you hunger for more than a nine-to-five life.

I remember when you spooned dirt into the flower pot and filled it with mums for me
and I was peeking out the window seeing you bent down working away humming
and I decided then that I was not who I wanted to be without you in my days and nights

And I remember how after you left I packed away all the silverware, including those
spoons and I gave the box to the Salvation Army, hoping for some salvation of my own
and I drove away from our town knowing I would never see another sunset like you.

~ ~ ~

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is a very busy woman. She was appointed Suffolk County Poet Laureate for 2009 – 2011. She is founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene, Inc. and The North Sea Poetry Scene Press. She was nominated for Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for her poetry book, Let Me Tell You Something. She is
listed in Poets & Writers, has penned 4 chapbooks, is Poet-in-Residence at Southampton Historical Museum, an adjunct Professor at Briarcliffe College, the editor of the Long Island Sounds Anthology. She hosts TNSPS’s Arts Forum TV Show on Channel 20 on Cablevision in Riverhead, N.Y. and serves as the Lead Poetry Jurist for the East End Arts Council, Riverhead, N.Y.

Currently, Tammy is creating an archival/arts center (www.lipoetryarchivalcenter.com) for Long Island poetry that will be a gathering place for poets. She is also currently working toward an M.F.A. at Southampton Stony Brook University.

Thanks to Tammy for sharing her work, both written and tattooed, here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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 Tattooed Poets Project: Lorraine Conlin

Today's tattooed poet is Lorraine Conlin, one of several Long Island wordsmiths featured this month on the Tattooed Poets Project.

Lorraine offers up this beautiful tattoo on the upper right side of her back:

Photo courtesy of Lorraine Conlin

Lorraine gives us the background of this lovely La:

"My first and only tattoo (so far), was self-designed with a bit of enhancement by Syxx, of Wyld Chyld Tattoo in Merrick, NY, where I co-host poetry events in their adjoining café.  La is the Lilliputianized form of my original nickname, Lala.  Before I said Mama or Dada, as most babies do, I uttered Lala and from that day forward, my family referred to me as their “little Lala”. 

Photo courtesy of Lorraine Conlin

The name stayed with me and friends and business associates starting calling me “La”.  While hosting the open mic at Wyld Chyld Tattoo & Café, I met Syxx, (Raymond Obrien) who is with the Metal Group, “The Saints of Pain”.  He signed up to read one night and read something he had written.  We started talking and I asked if I had any ink.  I told him I was afraid of infection and I was allergic to lots of foods and meds. He asked me which ones and when I said sulfur, he said I could get any colors except yellow or any that had yellow in their composition.  He was so reassuring, knowledgeable and gentle that I went home that night and started thinking about what to get and where I wanted it.  I sketched it out and brought him the sketch.  We made a date, he made the stencil and the rest is history."

Lorraine was kind enough to share this poem with us: 

A Wannabe Fantasy

I told my shrink I wannabe a back warmer

sit on a bitch pad behind a biker guy

wrap my arms round his ape-hanger grip

straddle his bar-hopper bike on Friday nights

ride with a big bearded chromosexual guy

cruise the big road to nowhere…

I wanna goggle the horizon -- eat asphalt

let my puppies hang loose

wear black leather chaps

and a purple skid lid

“I don’t think you do.” He said

Yes, I do

I love bikers

especially the B.U.G.s

the bigger, uglier the guy

the harder they try

the better they make me feel

told him I rode hard and long with a few

before these confession sessions

He said. “We have to stop now.”

I found a new therapist

she loves to listen

to my biker-chick fantasies

rides along with me

always asks

“How does that make you feel”…

~ ~ ~

Lorraine Conlin is a US Customs Broker at JFK Airport. She is on the BOD of The Long Island Poetry Collective, hosts “Tuesdays With Poetry” for Poets in Nassau, and co-hosts for PerformancePoets Association at Wyld Chyld Tattoo & Café in Merrick, LINY. Her work has been published in PPA Literary Review(s), LongIsland Sounds Anthology(s).  Lorraine initiated and hosts Super Poem Sunday, where folks gather to celebrate the sport of poetry on Super Bowl Sunday.  She is also the founder of the Long Island Poets for Darfur.  Lorraine is currently working on her first book of poems.

Thanks to Lorraine for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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 Tattooed Poets Project: Vicki Iorio

We're kicking off this year's Tattooed Poets Project with a tattoo that seems, ahem, apropos-etic:

This poetic foot belongs to Vicki Iorio, a New York poet. She explains the tattoo:

"My group of Long Island poets have the pleasure of reading at the Wyld Chyld Cafe and Tattoo Parlor in Merrick, NY. I watched Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, the poet laureate of Suffolk County get "poet" tattooed across her shoulder blades. [Tammy will be appearing on the site later this month.] She recited poetry while her back was bleeding, I knew at that moment I would have to get one!

It was a cold January night, Sixx tattooed my right foot with a beautiful scripted "poet." It was a beautiful moment and I love my tat and all it signifies. A slew of woman poets have been tattooed by Sixx. A tattooed sisterhood, indeed."

Here is a poem from Vicki:

Tattoo 56
 
I will get a tattoo next birthday
no one will care
it won't be like birthday 13
when I dyed my hair purple on a shoplift heist
shaved off eyebrows
pierced frozen ears with a needle
hacked off bushy black fur under stockings

I will find an illustrated man
his head bald and shiny
eyes so blue I will see straight through
to his good heart, diamond stud in one ear
massive arms shocking to the touch.

My spider will go willingly to his fly.
I will tell him what I want
where I want it.

After validating plastic worth,
my pirate will lead me to his table
gift me with little hurts
celebrate me electrically
wrap me in gauze
sing the praises of Bacitracin
wish me a happy birthday.

~

Vicki Iorio is a Long Island poet who hangs around tattoo parlors. Her poems have been published in various publications including hell strung and crooked. She is saving up for another tattoo!

Thanks to Vicki for sharing her poetic tattoo and tattoo poem 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.

Amanda's Irises (and a Quote)

This start-of-the-year post is courtesy of Amanda, who I met at the end of October in the Borders at Columbus Circle.

It was her sleeve of irises that first captured my attention:

These are inspired by the work of Vincent van Gogh, perhaps this one:

The tattoo was done by Dennis Halbritter when he was at Incognito Tattoo in Pasadena, California. He has since moved to High Voltage Tattoo, Kat Von D's shop on L.A. Ink.

Dennis also inked this on Amanda's inner right bicep:

This quote "IO FU QUELLO CHE VOI SIETE E QUEL CH'IO SON VOI SARETE" is taken from an Italian fresco credited to Masaccio. This is the artwork in question:

The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint John and donors, in Florence

If you look at the bottom of the fresco, right above the skeleton is the phrase Amanda has inscribed on her arm.

The phrase is translated as "I once was what you are and what I am you also will be".
These words remind her of her own mortality.

Thanks to Amanda for sharing these lovely tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Chris's Tattoos Motivate and Inspire

I met Chris earlier this month in Penn Station and he shared his 3/4-sleeve. He is the owner/operator of the Muscle Maker Grill at 92 Eighth Avenue in Chelsea.

His sleeve is a collage of designs that motivate and inspire him, with a skull design thrown in, to boot.

He has the phrase "Live Now. Shoot for the Stars" inked on his biceps. This motto is a nod to his ambition as a business owner.

The three pawprints tattooed below the elbow, on the left side of the photo, above, represent his three dogs (2 Cocker Spaniels and a mutt).

The cross and the prayer, "Lord, Protect Me" are based on his Catholic faith.

In all, Chris figures he's had about 10 hours of work done.

He also gave me permission to share this photo from his Facebook page:

Photo Courtesy of Christopher Almazan

I had hoped to show a better shot of the peacock that is on his back, with feathers that come up over his shoulder, but could not get a clear enough picture. The shot above gives a great idea, however, of his tattoos.

All work is credited to Rick Schreck at the House of 1000 Tattoos in Middlesex, New Jersey. A piece from Rick appeared earlier this Fall on the site here.

Thanks again to Chris for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Visit the Muscle Maker Grill website here.