Anna's Marriage Tattoo

With inkspotting, timing is an essential part of the luck in finding interesting tattoos.

I was about to leave the James Farley Post Office when Melanie called me on my cell. During the several minutes that we spoke, a woman named Anna walked up next to me and started preparing an envelope for mailing. Had Melanie not called, I would have been out on the street, completely missing her.

Anna has a remarkable tattoo that travels up her arm, over her shoulder, onto her back, and down her side. Representing a species of kelp, the tattoo which honors her father, a marine biologist, was both too large and partially covered, for her to share with us here at Tattoosday.

Rather, she allowed me to photograph this tattoo on her right biceps:

This tattoo, which looks a lot like a woodcut, is a representation of an ink drawing of a farmer in the city which, in turn, was inspired by the Scott Walker song "Farmer in the City (Remembering Pasolini)" from his album Tilt.

Take a listen:



Rather than exchange wedding bands, Anna and her husband instead got matching tattoos. "Farmer in the City" is their song, and the tattoos are matrimonial bonds that are in their flesh, rather than on their hands.

It's quite a lovely idea and reminds me of what our friend Carrie and her husband did (read about it here) after their wedding.

This tattoo was inked by Zee at Studio Zee in New Haven, Connecticut.

Thanks to Anna for sharing her matrimonial tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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!