Tattoos I Know: Anna's Culinary Ink

Several months ago, one of my co-workers, Anna, wanted to commemorate the completion of her externship from culinary school.

It was funny, because at the time, she didn't realize I wrote Tattoosday and then discovered the site through googling. She stumbled upon this post that featured a chef's knife.

Anna liked the idea of using a knife, but wanted a whisk too. She spotted this piece and met with Vinny Romanelli at Red Rocket Tattoo in Manhattan, giving him the several source images she had found and explaining what she wanted.

He designed this for her and then completed the tattoo for her in about twenty minutes. She had him stick with black and gray and wanted him to emphasize the shading. This is the end result, positioned just above her ankle:


Other work from Red Rocket has appeared on Tattoosday here.

Thanks again to Anna for sharing her culinary ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Tribal Tattoo on Ankle

Neal's Foo Dog

This winter has been an especially cold one here in New York and, as any loyal reader can confirm, I haven't reported on many tattoos that I have glimpsed in the city.

However, last night at the grocery store around the corner, I met Neal, who let me take a quick snapshot of his foo dog on the left side of his neck:


Foo dogs are traditional Asian-style tattoo designs, and have various meanings and interpretations. Click here to see some other posts on the site that have featured foo dog designs.

Neal told me that this was inked by Koji at Studio Engima on Avenue U in Brooklyn many years ago. Work from Studio Engima has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Neal for sharing his foo dog with us here on Tattoosday!

Tribal Tattoos #1

Angel Tattoos designs

Looking for your next tattoo? Well if you are then you will want to stay right here for a few minutes. You will find a ton of great angel tattoo designs and pics all organized into a gallery. Angel wings and angel tattoo are hot right now and only growing in popularity.
Angel tattoos are great becuase they can be used by both men and women and can vary between sweet cherub angels to more menacing designs of guardian angel tattoo that are often done in black and white. It is also very common for people to get angel tattoos as a memorial of a loved one who has passed. This masculine angel covers most of this female’s back, with huge wings covering both the left and right hand side.Whatever your reasons are for considering an angel tattoo there is a wide vareity of styles and designs to choose from and angel tattoos make a wonderful finished work of art.

Angel tattoos-Great angel tattoo design

Beckham has his sons' names and a Guardian Angel tattooed on his back

Tattoos I Love: Sweethearts for My Sweetheart

So what does an inkblogger get his sweetheart on Valentine's Day?

Why, a love-themed tattoo, of course.

Lucky me, the good folks over at Thicker than Water Tattoo had a Cupid special, $14 tattoos on February 14.


A lot like the Dare Devil Tattoo Friday the 13th Special (one of which is documented here), the lucky tattoo recipient can choose from an assortment of day-themed flash.


Here's what my lovely bride Melanie had to choose from:


When we got to the shop, Melanie signed in #53, and they were averaging a dozen or so per hour, so we knew we had a little bit of a wait.

I specifically selected Shon Lindauer, since he did such an awesome job with my tiger tattoo.

It was nice that Melanie got to meet Shon and the piece she selected was one that he had drawn up.

He tattooed her in the middle of the back and took just about fifteen minutes:


She was very happy with the end result:


When we left around 3:45, the waiting list was over a hundred, so they looked like they had a long night ahead of them.

Thanks to Shon and the staff at Thicker Than Water for another great tattoo experience!

Tattoos I Know: Paul's Love, Over His Heart

On this Valentine's Day, I'm sharing a tattoo that my friend Paul had recently done. He showed me when I was taking the latest set of photos on the cover-up her is working on.

He pulled down the top of his shirt to reveal this simple message:


Paul's message to his wife is simple, but it is what is not spoken that is most remarklable. Paul always swore up and down that he would never ink a woman's name on his body. When he showed me this, I was surprised, but love can make us express ourselves in such ways, especially when we love getting tattooed.

Paul had this done by Pierre at Fort Apache Tattoo Studio, just around the corner from where we work in Manhattan.

Happy Valentine's Day from Tattoosday to Paul and Ana. Stay tunde, as there may be more Valentine's ink on the horizon!

Eric Bali Tattoos - Girls Tattoos

Full Girls Body Tattoos

Cartoon Tatoos Designs

Markjames' Knuckles

Last week I posted this great owl tattoo belonging to Markjames, a Pennsylvania-based tattoo artist.

Prior to sharing it, however, I also snapped his knuckles:


When I asked what this meant, he said "just a feeling". What is particularly cool about these knuckles are the traditional anchor and horseshoe standing in for the letters "T" and "U", respectively.

These were inked by Russell Kelley at Silk City Tattoo in Hawthorne, New Jersey. Work from the shop has appeared multiple times before and can all be seen under Silk City's Tattoosday label here.

Thanks again to Markjames for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

Palm Tattoos

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i am sure that everyone here realizes by now that I am the ringer. Usually the ringer is a hidden expert, such as a well trained soprano, who sneaks into a school chorus and sings like an angel, and I am certainly not that, but instead I am here to hold down the end of this lecture series, and attempt to leave you with the pleasurable experience of looking at pictures, as some sort of antidote to all the spoken words that this class has depended upon. I have ended up here today because of a deep failing on my part, which manifests itself with my inability to keep my mouth shut. At a pleasant lunch one day last year at the President’s office Rick Levin and Tony Kronman, two of the lecturers in this series, were outlining their proposed DeVane lecture series to accompany the University’s Tercentennial celebration. They rolled off all the names of the distinguished Yale faculty members who would speak, and when they finished I couldn’t help pointing out that there wasn’t an artist among them, except for the presence of David Gelertner, and even he, I worried, would speak about the computer and democracy instead of art and democracy. My comment resulted, of course, in Tony and Rick calling me up a day or two later with an invitation to join the series.

" In most places it wouldn’t be surprising to find art left out of an academic discourse. Whenever curriculums are planned, and courses of study are laid out, visual art and its audio sibling music always hover at the fringes, ready to be cut or eliminated if the budget becomes tight. At Yale, however, this should never be the case, because in this institution we all believe that the pursuit and study of art are central to our examination of the world; art doesn’t hover at the fringes here, but instead shines brightly at the center of all our activities. Pictures, of course, have vital importance in the realm of art. This lecture series is about democracy, and the challenge for me is to attempt to describe the role of pictures in relation to this social construct. I have chosen pictures as the central subject because I have spent all my working days with them- making them, fixing them, wrecking them and reproducing them, and now I had been called upon to back up my love of these visual objects by making a compelling case for their importance in our society ".

Tattoos I Know: Paul, Part 5 or, The Great Cover-Up of 2008, continued...

In December 2008, we posted about our friend Paul getting some cover-up work done on his upper right arm. Revisit the report here.

We checked in with Paul again this past November to see the progress (here). And, just last Friday, he updated us again on the latest efforts by Horisei, who has one more session before this cover-up is done:


Horisei tattoos out of the Chelsea Tattoo Company, formerly the home of Rising Dragon.

Thanks again to Paul for sharing. I'm guessing we'll see the finished product later in 2010!

Two Tattoos From John: One for Superstition, One for Courage

Last Friday, I met John, who was in Penn Station in a t-shirt and shorts, certainly brave, considering the cold temperature outside.

He has four tattoos, and shared two with us. First, a four-leaf clover on his right elbow, which he got because he is superstitious:


And this Latin phrase "sine metu," which means "Without Fear" on his left forearm:


Both tattoos were inked by Eric Barrett, who currently works at Orange Tattoo Company in Annapolis, Maryland. Please note, I previously attributed this to a different artists named Eric in Annapolis. My apologies for the mix-up.

Thanks to John for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Markjames Helps Start February with a Hoot

February 1st found me scowling optimistically.

I was pondering how I had managed, since Christmas Eve, to only post ink-spotted tattoos only twice. Some days over the summer I easily eclipse that total on my lunch break.

But this is the heart of winter and, when the temperatures haven't been cooperating, things go slowly.

I was passing through the New Jersey Transit section of Penn Station and was about to head back to the office when I spotted Markjames.

He had tattoos on his hands, neck, and head and answered affirmatively whenI asked if he was a tattoo artist.

After taking a picture of his knuckles to share with the good folks at KnuckleTattoos.com, he offered up this wonderful neck piece:


He wanted a bird of some sort on his throat and collaborated with the artist Matt Rosenthal at Tattoo Nation in Wayne, New Jersey. Work from Tattoo Nation has appeared previously on the site here.

The owl as a symbol of wisdom is a popular tattoo motif, as is evident from the folks over at Owl Tattoos and their site dedicated solely to owl ink.

Markjames works out of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and will be tattooing at Triple VI Tattoos, beginning in April.

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