Megan's Empress Impresses

I spotted Megan at the end of September walking down West 23rd Street in Chelsea.

She has an amazing sleeve-in-progress but, because it is still unfinished, she offered up this tattoo, on her upper right arm, instead:

This tarot card is significant because her mother is from the Caribbean and she grew up with Santerían religion in her household.

She has a profound respect for tarot cards and based on the time and date of her birth, has what she refers to as a "weird numerology".

This card is known as L'Impératrice,or The Empress, and has a very positive meaning. As interpreted by one site (here):

The Empress seems to be sure of herself, calm, intelligent, worthy. This major arcana represents the capacity, the Empress clothing is luxurious and invaluable.

This arcana is extremely positive...
...In the right position the Empress represents the intelligence, dignity, the authority, the mother, the wife, the right decisions.

The detail in this tattoo is amazing:

The art was inked by Annie Lloyd at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn. Work from Three Kings has appeared previously on Tatoosday here.

Thanks to Megan for sharing this lovely tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Garrett's Peacock Recalls the South

I met Garrett back in June in Penn Station when I was still reeling from the loss of my camera.

I had yet to replace my photographic equipment and I had yet to receive the loaner from my awesome friend Jill.

So, I did the best I could with a flash-less BlackBerry camera to capture Garrett's awesome sleeve:

Yes, folks, it's another peacock in our midst, in a summer during which we have been treated to a variety of peafowl.

Garrett's choice to get this tattoo stems from his love of these birds, combined with an appreciation of fashion, and how the peacock speaks to that sensibility. He also likes how the males are the fairer of the two sexes.

What's especially remarkable is that this is a black and gray tattoo, with no plans to take on any color ink.

The inclusion of magnolias, azaleas and violets, all in homage to the South, make this potentially dizzyingly colorful tattoo more remarkable in its basic palette. Rather than explosions of color, we are rewarded with subtleties of shading.

Credit goes to Myles Karr at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn. Work from Myles has previously appeared here on Tattoosday.

Thanks to Garrett for sharing his amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Recap of Matty No Times Fundraiser at Yes Gallery

My trip to the Yes Gallery in Williamsburg on Saturday for the launch party of the Matty No Times benefit was complicated by the weekend suspension of the G train.

Rather than a 1-transfer commute from South Brooklyn, the trip involved a lengthy trip on the R train which took me through Manhattan and into Queens, where a shuttle bus skirted me back to Brooklyn. Are you kidding me?

But I didn't want to miss this event, not only because it was for a good cause as the NY tattoo community rallied to help one of their own, but because it would give me the chance to see some amazing art and possibly meet some of the artists behind the work.

I shed my backpack and just brought my notebook, stuffed with fliers, although I didn't necessarily expect to do the Tattoosday thing at the event. But you never know, and it was a long (1 hour, 28 minutes, according to HopStop) trek. Who knows who I might meet along the way?

I arrived relatively early, just in time to catch Thomas Hooper exiting the gallery. I have long admired Mr. Hooper's work (even his web site is art) and was hoping to meet him.

I introduced myself and he was soft-spoken and polite. I would have loved to chat with him further, but he was headed elsewhere and seemed to be in a hurry to go.

Inside, the Yes gallery's air conditioning was a welcome relief, as I started looking at the hundred-plus works of art that had been donated by artists from all over to help Three Kings' artist Matty No Times recover from staggering bills that resulted from an emergency liver transplant last Fall.

I introduced myself to Matty (Mr. No Times sounds weirdly formal) and chatted briefly as he ran the table where people paid for the art, left donations, and entered the raffle. He is a very nice guy and seemed genuinely appreciative of the turnout.

The list of artists who contributed their work was staggering. Check it out:



One of the bonuses in going to the event, for me at least, was seeing the work donated by Peter Caruso, who is the artist who created  my third tattoo.

And whereas, I had discussed with Matty and several other guests the etiquette of taking close-up photos of the art hanging on the walls, I did have Pete's permission to post his painting, which we were all excited to see sold early on.



I was pleasantly surprised to run into one former Tattoosday contributor, Elizabeth, along with her husband. We chatted awhile as they made their way around the gallery.

I also talked with Magie Serpica, who I ran into last year at a Needles & Sins event, and who made her own Tattoosday contribution here. An artist at Bound for Glory Tattoo on Staten Island, she had contributed a painting, as well:

As the crowd swelled, I began to become overstimulated. Do I look at the art on the walls? Or do I look at the amazing art on the bodies? Most folks would have assumed I would have gone hog-wild taking photos of peoples' tattoos, but remember, I tend to embrace the random encounter aspect of the Tattoosday mission, and just like one doesn't see a lot of photos from conventions and tattoo shops, I avoided interviewing people about their tattoos. It just didn't seem sporting to do so. I did however, take a couple of shots of Peter's tattoos, to be unveiled at a later date here on the site.

I didn't receive a call from Matty on Sunday, so I will assume I didn't win the raffle. No worries. I wasn't in a position to invest in any art, so I did my part to help raise funds for this worthy cause.

You can support Matty through Three Kings Tattoo, where he works, and you still have time to visit the Yes Gallery, at 147 India Street in Brooklyn, and check out the art through Friday, July 23.

Thanks to all the artists who participated and made for such a wonderful  visual experience, and to all the extended friends of Tattoosday who made the event more enjoyable for me, especially Pete and his wife Maria, who let me tag along with them at the gallery and spared me the subway after the show with a much-quicker ride home!

Cenk's Skeleton Tattoo Pays Homage to Yukio Mishima and St. Sebastian

I met Cenk where I meet so many Tattoosday volunteers, outside of Penn Station on the plaza adjacent to Madison Square Garden.

He shared this, one of his four tattoos:

This is an interpretation of the depiction of St. Sebastian, as seen by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima, one of Cenk's favorite writers. A variation of the St. Sebastian imagery graced one of the many covers of Mishima's Confessions of a Mask:


Mishima even posed for a publicity photo as the martyred St. Sebastian:


This piece was tattooed by Myles Karr at Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn. According to his website, he has since left Saved, and opened Three Kings Tattoo Parlor. Mr. Karr's work has appeared previously on Tattoosday here and here.


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

Ashley's Two Little Birds

Last July, I met two tattooed women, Becky and Ashley, outside of Borders (Becky's post is here, Ashley's is here) on Penn Plaza.

A few months later, in one of my more embarrassing moments as an ink-spotter, I approached Becky again, outside of Macy*s, and asked her about her tattoos. She reminded me that she was already featured on Tattoosday, and I reddened, apologized, and moved on. In my defense, the tattoo I featured was on her foot, and it was covered in the subsequent encounter.

Flash forward to the last Friday in April, and I spotted both Ashley and Becky again, outside of Macy*s. I wasn't sure, but something seemed familiar, so I approached cautiously. Becky had dyed her black, so my failure to identify the two of them immediately was again explainable.

But unlike the previous encounter with Becky, this time I wasn't embarrassed and Ashley volunteered her two newest tattoos.

Ashley, a make-up artist, about two months ago, had two small "Mom" and "Dad" tribute tattoos inked behind her ears. Mom is on the left:


And Dad is on the right:


The birds remind her of something that her mother would tell her when she was a little girl. She would tell Ashley that if she wasn't good, the birds would get her. That, combined with the small forget-me-nots, make these small, pretty, tattoos nice tributes to her parents.

The work was done by Mohawk John at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn. Work from Three Kings has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Ashley for re-visiting us here on Tattoosday and sharing her newest tattoos!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Meredith Sugarman's Interpretation of a Russian Prison Tattoo

As the end of National Poetry Month approaches, I find myself in an enviable position: too many poets' tattoos, too few days. So, I've decided to "double up" and make today a "Two for Tattoosday". I have also realized that this Tattooed Poets Series will have to continue, in one form or another, above and beyond National Poetry Month. Stay tuned for more details.

In the mean time, Meredith Sugarman, a poet from Brooklyn, sent in the following photo:


I know, I know, you can't see the whole piece in that shot, but it's pretty cool, and you can get some detail on the sparrow. Here's a more traditional shot:


Meredith explains:

"I happen to love tattoos as a intimately personal expression of ourselves...

[This] ... is an interpretation of a Russian prison tattoo that families and lovers got when they were separated by prisons and Stalin's concentration camps. The tattoo is a traditional pair of swallows holding a three-piece banner with the Russian acronyms: tomsk (a city in Russia); vino (wine); omyt (whirlpool). The acronyms stand for: you alone have my heart; come back and stay forever; it is hard to leave me.

Alex McWatt at Three Kings Tattoo did an amazing job at putting all the elements together. I decided to get this tattoo after losing most of my family members, but mainly after my mother, who is a drug addict, disappeared from my life 5 years ago."

Meredith also submitted a poem about her mother that she composed after seeing a prison mugshot of her a couple of years ago. That poem is posted here on BillyBlog.

Alex McWatt has had work appearing before on Tattoosday, here.