Tattoosday Goes to Sweden, or Sweden Comes to Tattoosday

Walking down 7th Avenue on Friday, October 19, I spotted a sleeved arm approaching, Sorry, it was a couple. Man and a woman, young, in their mid to late 20's...(apologies if you are reading this and are younger).

Behold, the guy was game for talking tattoos. In fact, Jörgen Wiklund, visiting from Sweden, was extremely cool and patiently indulged me as I tried to write down names in his native tongue.

Jörgen wasn't sure how many tattoos he had...he guessed around 15 or so. I snapped two. First, since we are in New York City, this seemed apropos:


Jörgen characterized all his tattoos as whimsical, fun, spur of the moment decisions. This is a tattoo representing Dee Dee Ramone, as a duck. He elaborated that his girlfriend had a duck-like haircut and earned the nickname "Ducky," so this piece was a tribute to her.

The Ducky Ramone was inked at Evil Eye Tattoo in Stockholm.

Jörgen also let me take a picture of this interesting piece, which he says is an homage to the musician Roky Erickson:


It took some searching, but this tattoo is based on what I'm guessing is an out-of-print or special edition cover of Roky Erickson and the Aliens CD I Dream of Demons :

When I asked who Roky Erickson was, thinking he was perhaps a Swedish musician, he enlightened me, saying he was from Texas and that he was "the greatest musician that ever lived."

When he asked if I had heard of the 13th Floor Elevators, I said sure (one song on my BilliPod, "You're Gonna Miss Me," from the High Fidelity soundtrack. You can hear the song here, streaming on Erickson's website.

The whole demon motif ties into the storied history of Erickson and his past with drug use, electro-shock therapy, and mental illness.

Jörgen had this tattoo done in his home town of Härnösand, in northern Sweden, at a shop called Paul's Custom Tattooing.

Jörgen was a real treat to meet. He and his girlfriend (who is tattoo-less) are/were in town for a week. I suggested she get her first tattoo in New York to commemorate her trip here. The were both good sports and I want to thank Jörgen and his significant other for their participation in Tattoosday and the contribution of the first international contribution to the blog.

You Must Believe in Spring

I think that what makes Tattoosday successful are all the interesting, unusual, pieces that most people walk by, see, and wonder, "What the heck is that tattoo all about?"

I'm going a little bit out of sequence here, as I still have two sets of tattoos from last week (from Mike and Jörgen) that I am still writing up. This one, however, is a little less work so I am getting it out of the way first. I spotted this on the inner arm of a guy waiting outside of Starbucks at the corner of 92nd and 3rd in Bay Ridge:

It seemed pretty unusual so I stopped and asked him about it. He told me that it was an album cover. "Which one?" I asked. This one:

Clarence, the possessor of the tattoo, had this representational tattoo inked in honor of Bill Evans' 1980 album You Must Believe in Spring.

The piece was tattooed at New York Adorned.

I would have delved further into why this album was so important to him that he had it tattooed onto his arm, but the person he was waiting for came out with his coffee, and his dog started barking at other dogs, so I figured I wouldn't bother him anymore.

Clarence, thank you for your contribution to Tattoosday and, if you'd like, feel free to e-mail me
as to the significance of this record.

Link O' The Day

Remember the Hawaiian Tattoo in Brooklyn (read post here)?

Here's a related article about Hawaiian arm tattoos.

Atom Strange

On the way to work Thursday morning, I was passing through the Manhattan Mall from the subway whe I spotted a guy reading a paper at one of the tables on the bottom floor. This was peeking out from the bottom of his right sleeve of his t-shirt:


I walked up (after dodging a few commuters passing through the mall) and asked him if I could talk to him about his tattoo. He gestured to the empty chair opposite him and started chatting.
His name is Alex.

At this point, I had only really seen the bottom of what was a half-sleeve. The stars and black lightning blots were compelling enough to get me to stop. Then he pulled his sleeve up to his shoulder to reveal the whole of the piece:

The majority of the piece was done by Scott, who used to work at Dare Devil Tattoo on Ludlow Street. The bolts were inked in later at Venus Modern Body Arts on East 4th.

When I asked Alex what inspired this work, he said that he is a big science fiction fan, from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to more modern "hard" sci fi which has a deeper connection to hard scientific fact. I discussed my own appreciation of Philip K. Dick and talked about how, if you read too much of his work, you start to feel the author's reknowned paranoia, and it begins to affect the way one thinks. Here's a closer look at the piece:

I asked him about any other tattoos. He briefly flashed one on his upper left shoulder that he got when he was younger. He indicated that he was thinking of having it removed/covering it up and incorporating it into a themed piece spanning his back and connecting to the other sleeve.

He did have this tattoo on his inner forearm:



I assumed it to fit in with the sci fi theme, but he also indicated it referred to his band. Oh? What band?

He is in a band called Atom Strange.

He's the guy on the far left. I later learned he was the guitarist.

"What kinds of music do you like?" Alex asked.

I told him I liked pretty much everything that I used to say I liked everything but country, but then I discovered Lucinda Williams. He nodded in agreement. "Lucinda Williams is great," he added.

He reached into a bag and handed me Atom Strange's CD. The theme matched his tattoo. You can order the CD here. I''ll be reviewing it in the near future over on BillyBlog.

Here's a shot, not taken by me, in which you can see Alex and his tattoos in action:


I have listened to the CD once through and I like it, but will give it some more attention before writing about it in detail. Alex said that some people compare them to early Stone Temple Pilots. I certainly see (and hear) why.

Anyway, thanks much to Alex for letting me interrupt his breakfast and paper on Thursday morning.

You can hear samples and see the band profile on their MySpace page.

I reviewed the CD over on BillyBlog here.

The Phoenix and the Bulldog

Autumn has come to New York City, making the mission of Tattoosday slightly more difficult. Cold weather sends tattoos scurrying under longer sleeves and lengthening hem lines.

However, this week gave us a slight reprieve, and yesterday I spotted this nice piece in the plaza in front of the Borders at Madison Square Garden:

Actually, I only spotted the tail feathers of the phoenix dropping below the short-sleeved left arm of a New Yorker named Dave Sperandeo.

Dave said that the phoenix, which is a more common tattoo subject, represents his starting over after a divorce. This nice piece was inked by Peter at Peter & Cubo's Tattoing & Body Piercing in Ozone Park, Queens.

Dave offered up a second piece, on his left leg:


As you may have guessed by the bulldog with the fire hose, Dave is a New York City fireman. He had this inked five years ago when he graduated from the academy and became a member of the FDNY. I especially like the nice touch of the three blue water droplets at the end of the hose. This one was tattooed by Cubo at the same shop in Ozone Park mentioned above.

Thanks again to Dave for offering up his ink and keeping Summer alive for Tattoosday for a little bit longer!