Tattoo Days Gallery

Monday, August 15, 2011

Adrian's Ink Celebrates His Heritage

I met Adrian last month on a fluke - I was on the D train headed to Brooklyn going to a dentist's appointment, having left work early.

I approached him about his ink and we had a really great discussion about tattoos and art.

Adrian is a wonderful artist and his work can be seen here at Viajero Art (dot) com. Take a look at this exhibit, a mixed media piece that just looks amazing.

He shared two of his tattoos with me. First, this piece:

This tattoo, on the inside of Adrian's right arm, is a Puerto Rican mask. Adrian's family hails from the small town of Loíza, in northeastern Puerto Rico. In the festival of St. James, the Apostle, people wear traditional masks like these as part of the celebration. Adrian explained that St. James was known, among many things, for helping the Spanish fight back invading Moors. One of the functions of the masks, he explained, was to scare people into going back to church, where the masks represented the terrifying Moors.

Adrian also shared this piece from his right forearm:

This tattoo, he told me, represents the women in his life. The fact that she is depicted as a gypsy is for good luck. The detail in this tattoo is astonishing:

He told me that the artist, the talented Marcus Kuhn, used the image from a popular brand of jalapeno peppers, La Morena, as a model for the woman in the tattoo. You can see the resemblance:

Marcus Kuhn tattoos out of Red Star Irons when visiting New York.

Thanks to Adrian for sharing his amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! I look forward to seeing more of his art in the future!

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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Kate Reminds Us: Two Calves Are Better than One

I met Kate last month and she shared these two, of her eleven tattoos:

Kate says these don't have specific meanings behind them, she "just liked the art". Nothing wrong with that at all.

On the left calf, Kate has an exquisite black and grey piece by Benjamin Moss at Apocalypse Tattoo in Seattle.

The romantically morbid idea of two skeletons sharing an eternity in the same coffin is a haunting image.

On her right calf is this dagger:

The phrase "MORTE PRIMA DI DISONORE" translates to the expression "Death Before Dishonor". This tattoo was created at Addiction NYC on St. Mark's Place in Manhattan.

Thanks to Kate for sharing these great tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Lisa and Her Brooklyn Flytrap

Today's entry is a reader submission from a fellow Brooklynite named Lisa, who sent in this photo:

Lisa tells me:

"[This tattoo] was done a few months ago by an artist named Alex Perez, owner of Tat2sRus located at 5409 4th Ave. in Sunset Park Brooklyn. He has been tattooing for over 20 yrs and is totally awesome. This piece was done freehand just like all his pieces are. I love my tattoo and get many compliments on it."

I know this is a Venus Flytrap, but I'll call it a Brooklyn Flytrap, because it looks like it's a plant you definitely don't want to mess with!

Thanks to Lisa for sending this in to us here at Tattoosday!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Juliana's Hibiscus

I met Juliana last month and, although there's a section of her tattoo that is "in progress," she agreed to share it here:

Juliana explained:

"I took the picture of the flower myself. The hibiscus means eternal beauty, which I though was really cool. And the symbols [kanji] are respect, love, strength and energy ... so I call it my Keep Truckin' tattoo."

The artist is Ed Knowles, who is currently at 12 Tattoos in Groton, Connecticut. Work by Ed has appeared previously here on Tattoosday.

The kanji are, on the left side strength above energy and on the right side, respect above love:

Thanks to Juliana for sharing her tattoo-in-progress with us here on Tattoosday! Keep truckin', Juliana!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Two Peacocks for a Tuesday

Back in June, I met two women on separate days who had peacock tattoos.

First was Charlotte, a filmmaker who I spotted on the uptown 3 train. I snapped these pictures when we got off the subway at 72nd Street:

Charlotte credited Daniel Albrigo as the artist, who did this when he worked at Brooklyn Adorned. He now tattoos out of Three Kings in Brooklyn.

She explained that she "wanted something beautiful to offset the Kali tattoo on her right shoulder".

A week later I met Emily near Penn Station, who had this different perspective on the peacock, inked on her calf:

Emily explained:

"My mother used to work at a school in Dallas, Texas, where I'm from, that has peacocks that roam wild on campus ... when I was a child I used to go play with them (or just watch them)."

Emily told me she "drew it and designed it with the help of Dave Wallin." Dave tattooed this when working at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but he now works out of Eight of Swords Tattoo Studio.

Thanks to both Charlotte and Emily for sharing their very different peacocks here on Tattoosday!

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