Timothy Shares a Luis Royo-Inspired Tattoo (and More!)

When I met Timothy in Penn Station last month, I approached him because I noticed a tattoo on the back of his calf. But when I introduced myself, and explained what Tattoosday was all about, he rolled up his right sleeve to reveal a much better tattoo:

Freedom

As for the butterfly, Tara told me that her butterflies "symbolize change and freedom."

Sleeve Illustrates A Vision of Life on Earth

I met Tim back in April in Penn Station and took several pictures of his left arm, which is fully-sleeved. What follows is a presentation of the work, from top to bottom:











There's a lot going on here, but Tim summed the theme of the sleeve as "Hell is the world we're living in, and we're all trying to escape Death." The top of the arm features the angel, Gabriel, watching over us.




The city that is burning is based on Boston, where Tim is from.




Tim estimates that this sleeve took twenty-seven hours, in three nine-hour sessions. Yes, you read that right, nine-hour sessions! That's commitment! He credits Dan Soule at Milltown Ink in Bondsville, Massachusetts with this incredible work.

Hands Express Faith and Doubt

I met Jay in Penn Station, stopping him because he had a whole lot of tattoos. He estimated that he is probably 60 to 70 percent covered. He offered up his most recent work (as of May 31, 2011), the following tattoos:

                   


Jay explained that, as a Christian, and as a pastor at the Revolution Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, faith and doubt are two things that he deals with on a regular basis. Jay expounded on this for me:





"I got [these tattoos] because of this quote by Paul Tillich [a German-American theologian] that says doubt is not the opposite of faith, it's merely an element of it. And to me, being a believer, a Christian, having a church and a bar ... I deal a lot with crisis of faith, even in my own life ... So, I decided to embrace doubt, because I think embracing doubt allows you to embrace your faith much more. And it's not about belief then, you know, it is actually faith and everyone doubts ... I think there is this kind of idea that if you doubt, you're bad or something, so it kinda has to do with that."

Jay's hand tattoos were inked by Bailey Hunter Robinson, a freelance artists in Brooklyn.




You can learn more about the Revolution Church at Pete's Candy Store at http://www.revolutionnyc.com/.




Thanks to Jay for sharing his tattoos and thoughts of faith and doubt with us here on Tattoosday!



This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

Elemental Sleeve

I met Vaughn in the Borders in Penn Plaza and he shared this half-sleeve with us. It's one of four tattoos that he has. He wanted a sleeve representing the intermix of the elements fire and water, and John Clarke at Holeshot's Premium Tattoo & Body Piercing in Amherst, Massachusetts came up with the design. Work from Holeshot's has appeared once before on Tattoosday.


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

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

 

Tattoorism: Brian's Ohm

Brian explains:


 

Honors Generations

The tattoo depicts himself, seen from the back, standing in reverence at the graves of his grandfather "Giff" and his uncle Giff Jr.

It's a nice way to memorialize his family. This was inked by Aaron at Red Rocket Tattoo East, in Levittown on Long Island.
                   

Tiger Versus Viper

Arabic

The script is the transliteration of her name, Alyssa, which she said means "flourishing" in Greek.

Salvatore Shares a Family Heirloom

Located on his upper right arm, Salvatore explained that his family emigrated from Europe several generations ago. His grandfather joined the service when he was a young man and served in World War II. His travels brought him, at some point, through Honolulu where, according to Salvatore, his grandfather received the original version of the tattoo above, from none other than Sailor Jerry himself. The design above is a replica of Slavatore's grandfather's tattoo, a Sailor Jerry original.




Not only is he carrying a piece of traditional tattoo history on him, he is also honoring the memory of his grandfather. How cool is that?




Salvatore is a chef at One if by Land, Two if by Sea, a restaurant in New York's West Village. He is also a personal chef for several mixed martial arts fighters.

Three Clowns

I met Ian on the West 4th Street subway platform last month and spotted this tattoo on the outside of his right leg:

Lucky Cat and a Sailor Jerry Design

I met Delphine last week and she shared two of her tattoos with me. First is this piece:

For those of you who do not recognize this image, it is a common piece of ceramic sculpture popular in Japanese culture called the "

Maneki Neko," or Lucky Cat. It is a good luck charm, and is often seen in Asian-owned stores as a totem of good fortune. Delphine explained further that this was her most recent piece and that "I have always loved the Japanese Lucky Cat. I felt that this would be a great time to get it (due to the economy - cat has a prosperity in Kanji) and as a tribute to the Japanese that were affected by the Tsunami)."


She credited her Lucky Cat to artists Megan Wilson at Picture Machine Tattoo in San Francisco.


On her other forearm is this tattoo:

 


This tattoo is attributed to Anthony Gonzalez at Lucky Stars Tattoo in San Jose, California. Delphine explains, "My father and I are Marine Vets. I saw this Sailor Jerry piece and loved it to honor my father and me. On the original piece it says 'Never Again'. I updated this to 'Never Forget' - the 'forget' is done in red to look like spray paint."

Piece

This, of course, is the value of π (pi), which mathematicians have determined, possesses an infinite number of decimal places.

Whole

I spotted Dina's runic tattoos outside of Borders on Penn Plaza, late one Friday afternoon:

jared tatto

Jared explained that this tattoo has two origins. First, it was inspired by lyrics from a group called Living Legends. More specifically, the words "I'm so fly, even my shadow has its own friends."

Birdhouse Reminds Her of Home

I spotted Kathryn in Penn Station earlier this month and asked her about her tattoos. She shared this one, which jumped out at me from across the room:

CTR Tatto

Matt has twenty-three (23) tattoos and he offered up this simple trio of letters:

The CTR represents the expression "Choose the Right," a common thread in the ideology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly referred to as the Mormon church.


In essence, Matt explained, it means "follow the right path". Its akin to a mantra eschewing sinful activities frowned upon by the church like drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, doing drugs, and, yup, you guessed it: getting tattooed.



Matt finds great power in this tattoo because it represents an oxymoron: the letters CTR stand for a way of life that is contradicted by the fact that they have been tattooed on flesh. It would be like a Jewish person having the phrase, in Hebrew, "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or imprint markings upon you: I am the Lord" tattooed on them. As a tattooed Mormon, this is Matt's way of addressing,and coming to terms with, the disparity between faith and his love of tattoos.

Roses and a Tombstone

Always prepared, I had a flier and my camera with me, just in case, and I spotted a woman ahead of me on the sidewalk with an interesting-looking tattoo on the back of her right arm.





I was however, without a pen, so she lent me hers. Fortunately, she later e-mailed me a fuller explanation of her work, reiterating what she told me in the street:

TATTOO GAPLEKI

New Mode GAPLEKI TATTO just have fun for that.. we never know what the most great to be pain tatto in our body.