Tat-tool

That's what she called it, her "tattool".

Yesterday I ran into Robin, a young woman walking up 8th Avenue, lugging a couple of garment bags, near Penn Station. She had a tattoo on her forearm that was extremely interesting:


Robin is in New York City working an internship as a Costume Designer on Broadway. She had attended the Art Institute of Chicago and obtained this tattoo there in the Windy City.

"I was tired of constantly looking for rulers," she mused, so she had one inked on. "It's to scale," she beamed, "My tat-tool". Definitely one of the most practical tattoos I have ever seen.

I particularly like the detailed flourishes at the ends of the ruler:


This piece was created by Allie at Tatu Tattoo in Chicago.

I initially noticed Robin's first tattoo, on the back of her neck, as she walked briskly by me. She has short hair, with a bare neck, so this small piece really pops off the skin. When I asked her about this:

she indicated that she has a twin sister with the exact same symbol on her neck. She was tentative about where, exactly this was done. Originally hailing from Eugene, Oregon, she thought it might have been done at High Priestess in her home town. She threw in a disclaimer that High Priestess might be only a piercing shop (it apparently is), so we're not sure exactly of the name of the shop where this interesting piece was tattooed.

Nonetheless, Robin was an interesting person to meet, very friendly, and the possessor of a very cool tattoo that serves as a measuring implement as well.

Thanks to Robin for her willingness to participate in Tattoosday!

Tattoo Regret

The following excerpt comes from this past Sunday's (9/23/07) popular "On Language" column by William Safire in the New York Times Magazine.

“As tattoos become more popular,” reads a headline in The International Herald Tribune over an article by Natasha Singer of The New York Times, “so does ‘tattoo regret.’ ”

On the other side of the world, in Brisbane, Australia, The Sunday Mail warned last year: “Think before you ink. That’s the message skin experts are preaching as ‘tattoo regret’ booms.” It reported that a Queensland athlete — embarrassed about a smiling devil’s face etched on his back — complained in rhyme of suffering “severe tattoo-rue.”

“The regret combining form is found in a lot of current writing,” notes Ann Rubin Wort, a former Times colleague. “Nowadays people are acting more impulsively; thus, regrets aplenty and the resulting need to nullify capricious choices.”

Regret about the permanence of skin illustration is rising. The Washington Post reported that a Harris Poll a few years ago indicated that nearly half the young women between 18 and 29 surveyed had at least one tattoo, and that 17 percent of all tattooed Americans who had tattoos regretted getting them. It seems that many of the aging former teenagers have had a skinful.

Etymology of the dermatology: Earliest use I can find of nostalgia for an unmarked epidermis is a headline above a 1989 Times column by Lawrence K. Altman, M.D.: “For Those With Tattoo Regret, Here’s Hope.” Back in that day, laser treatment was the great hope; now it seems that a new tattooing ink has been developed that, it is claimed, may make removal of tattoos by laser more practical.

This column’s interest, as Wort notes, is in the collocation combining form — the way a new phrase is made by substituting one element of a familiar phrase. (A generation ago, the lexical response to backlash was frontlash; applying that replacement technique to a phrase, a moderate critic of our present war policy suggested that the answer to the charge of “cut and run” should be a centrist approach of “cut and walk.”)

Tattoo regret is formed on the analogy of buyer’s regret, more vividly and widely expressed as buyer’s remorse. Until this collocation was formed, the idea took longer to express, as in this 1891 citation from a San Antonio paper: “They who bought winter hats . . . early in the fall are now repenting their rashness at leisure.” The same anguished repentance happened this year to early buyers of Apple’s hotly touted iPhone, who plunked down $600 only to find the item reduced to $400 a couple of months later, lowering the puissance of the status symbol.

Buyer’s remorse is a phrase probably coined in the auto industry a half-century ago. Grant Barrett, editor of the online Double-Tongued Dictionary, has a citation from The Los Angeles Times in 1946 reporting a customer’s complaint that her auto dealer “told her she had ‘buyer’s remorse’ and since she had signed the contract she had to stick to it.”

In 1957, Leon Festinger came up with a theory of “cognitive dissonance,” in which he posited the opposite of buyer’s remorse: Most of us tend to embrace the choice we make, so as to reduce the self-critical dissonance in our minds. When we buy a Ford, we read Ford ads and shy away from reading the ads of Toyota.

The regret or remorse combining form has an immediate future in politics. As the states play backward leapfrog with their primaries, we face a stretch of nine months of campaigning leading up to the national parties’ conventions next summer. As the political winds blow hot and cold, as candidates’ poll ratings rise and fall after each statewide election, primary voters and contributors will experience a kicking-oneself feeling when their candidate fades and they wish they had chosen the victor to oppose the other party’s choice.

And what will we call that sinking sensation felt by all the primary voters who failed to back the winning candidate of their party? Those afflicted with tattoo regret will have company: as we plod through the primaries, watch for voter’s remorse.

Tattoos I Know: Janet's Tat Trick

When I moved to New York in 1997, one of the first friends I made at work was Janet Loder (now Loder-Berthelon). Even though Janet left for greener pastures almost five years ago, we still talk and occasionally get together for lunch or a social jumble of offspring (i.e. our kids play together). Last Thursday, we met at lunch and Janet let me take some hasty shots in the sunshine of her three tattoos. All pictures were snapped on the steps of the New York Public Library, between Patience and Fortitude.

The first of Janet's tattoos was inked in Buffalo, New York when she was 19 or 20, approximately 20 years ago:


This pachyderm has been touched up twice in the twenty years or so since first decorating Janet's right shoulder blade (aka the posterior scapula). It was the first tattoo I saw on Janet, back in 1997 when tattoos were not as common as they are today. Janet has always loved elephants, and has a few collected, the first of which was given to her as a child by her much-beloved Aunt Claire, for whom her daughter is named.

Janet's love of elephants (and hence her tattoo) stems from their being majestic creatures that are matriarchal and intelligent. They are social beings that even mourn for their dead.

Janet's second tattoo was inked four or five years back at her friend Michelle's bachelorette party:

This simple yin and yang symbol, inscribed on the left side of her lower back, was added in the East Village, we're guessing at Andromeda Tattoos Studios. It is a symbol, for Janet, of her striving for balance in her life.

Her third and last (but not final) tattoo was also done at Andromeda, and is on the right side of Janet's lower back:


Janet is particularly proud of this one and thinks it has the best story of her three tattoos. I would agree. She had this done in 2004 when she had been traveling a lot on business between New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She began dating a guy in L.A. and was seeing him whenever she flew into town for work. As her California work projects came to a close, their relationship reached a crossroads, and there was discussion and soul-searching over the matter of relocation. He didn't want to leave L.A. Janet was born and raised in Buffalo and is a New Yorker through and through. I can't imagine her living in L.A. And neither could she.

As one might guess, her decision was solidified when she went and had this tattoo done which, "sealed the deal not to move to L.A." Once branded, she mused, there was no way she was leaving New York.

The rest is history.

Thanks to Janet for sharing her tattoos and accompanying stories! You know a friend is true when they'll let you blog about their tattoos!

Tattoos I Know: Comedy and Tragedy

My friend and co-worker David McDermott survived a bout with Hodgkin's Lymphoma many years ago and, as a gift to himself, got the following tattoo:


After he successfully completed chemotherapy and radiation, and survived this scare (I still sport a yellow "LIVESTRONG" wristband in honor of him, despite the fact that they are "out of style"), he felt that the metaphor of the comedy and tragedy masks best represented his struggle.

To him, the tattoo represents life. It is a badge of survival, and a reminder of the importance of humor in the face of the most dire of circumstances. I was only on the sidelines when David struggled. But through it all, he managed to maintain a strong sense of comedy. His sense of humor took a beating, but it never gave up, and it sustained him and let him remain positive. He acknowledges that that attitude had a place in the battle for his life.

The tattoo is discreetly located on his left calf. I say discreetly, because David is not one to wear shorts. I have always seen him in slacks or jeans, but never shorts.

He doesn't recall specifically where he had this inked, other than a shop in SoHo.

Thanks, David, for sharing your tattoo!

Mike McCready Talks About his Tattoos

Pearl Jam is releasing a DVD of concert footage from last year's tour as it passed through Italy. Their fan site has a clip from the video, in which guitarist Mike McCready discusses his tattoos. Check it out here.

Spit On a Stranger

Ever since I started blogging tattoos, I like to carry a folder with printouts and my camera with me, wherever I go.

So on Wednesday night, when I realized I had until midnight to return a video to Blockbuster (Rescue Me, Season 2, Discs 1-3, all unwatched) or face stiff penalties, I dragged my stuff with me, just in case. At that time of night (11:30 PM), I figured opportunities would be slim to none.

Let me clarify, I saw some cool tattoos, but figured it would not necessarily be the best idea to ask bar patrons out of the blue on the street to participate.

Anyway, video returned, happy with just a shot of a new look from The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge, I walked past, near the stroke of midnight, a harmless looking gentleman unchaining his bicycle . At first glance, he looked like he had a bicycle tattoo on his right forearm.

Not quite. Instead he had this:


Well, obviously, he agreed to participate in Tattoosday. So, what is this?

Well, the host, named Matt, offered up the following explanation (loosely paraphrased here). The tattoos is based on the cover art for Spit on a Stranger, a 1999 EP by the indie rock band Pavement. Take a look:


Matt is a resident of Williamsburg, but works in Bay Ridge. In retrospect I marvel at his midnight bike commute, although I hope he just rides to the nearest train station. Matt's tattoo was adapted from the Pavement EP, which was one of the band's final records. He says he gets a lot of comments and questions about it, and that people interpret it differently, yet all seem to be in the right ballpark when coming to their own understanding of it. Matt studied political philosophy in school and appreciates the vagueness of the piece, and the fact that it is able to be so widely interpreted by others.

This work was inked at Cherry Bomb Tattoo in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Thanks to Matt for talking to me and letting me take a picture so late in the evening.

Tattoos I Know: The Grim Reaper

This is the sole tattoo of my friend and co-worker, Tom Wacker.

Tom designed and drew the art upon which this tattoo was based.

The Reaper is posed on Tom's biceps/deltoid and has resided there since 1984, when its host was a young lad of eighteen.

This is Tom's only tattoo and he has no plans to get more. He is proud of the fact that, because he designed it and because he then tore up the original design, it is a one-of-a-kind piece. He said that it was very painful because of the amount of black ink that went into it.

The tattoo was inked by Dean at Lola's Tattoos, then in Cliffside Park, but now in Bogota, New Jersey. Tom got this tattoo "because it was cool," although the tattooer tried to convince him not to get it because it was "too mean" for him. Twenty-three years later, Tom says he has no regrets about his ink.

Thanks, Tom!

Jones Beach: Heaven and Hell, Alice Cooper, Queensryche

On Saturday, September 8, I saw Heaven and Hell, with Queensryche and Alice Cooper at Jones Beach. Like Ozzfest, there were tattoos everywhere. Like Ozzfest, asking people about their tattoos seemed to be inappropriate, dangerous (at times), and the epitome of dorkiness, especially since Tattoosday hadn't officially spun off yet.

Like Ozzfest, the best I can do is offer candids, although I did get a great shot of one of my favorite's from the show.

Here's a flaming skull on the forearm of an Alice Cooper fan:


I wish I could have got this one, front and back, but no such luck:

Here's a bit of a blurry sleeve:


Although I couldn't read the words during the show, I loved the symmetry of this piece:

I like the script and the hourglass shape that molds perfectly between the shoulder blades. Even better, when I got home and used my photo editor, I was able to isolate the text and read what was so inspiring as to get someone to ink into their back:


Ah, the bard! Not every day dost thou espy a Shakespearean tattoo:

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing." --From Macbeth (V, v, 19)

Basically, that's all I was able to get at the show. However, the Macbeth tattoo made it all worth it. I have no other concerts on the horizon, so that may be it for a while from the live music venues.

Introducing Tattoosday

On the second anniversary of my blog, BillyBlog, I have decided to launch a spin-off, called Tattoosday. I originally intended for the Tattoosday concept to be a once a week feature, with posts every Tuesday (or Tat-Tuesday, if you will).

I have copied my six Tatttoosday posts from BillyBlog over to this site for continuity purposes. My reasons for doing this are hazy. Primarily, I thought it would be easier to explain to people with tattoos that I had a blog called Tattoosday that featured them, as opposed to a blog called BillyBlog that had a weekly feature called Tattoosday. Simpler explanation, I think, if the blog is devoted solely to tattoos.

There's also less pressure, I think, to find people. Instead of needing them by a certain day, I'll post them as I find them. I can also post other tattoo-related items here, if I see fit.

So even if you see posts dated prior to September 8, 2007, they are dated to correspond to the "Tattoosdays" when they appeared in July and August.

Tattoosday #6: Going Mobile

Sorry for the delay in posting, I was worried I would have to improvise, but found two participants today. Last Friday I had my first rejection: a guy at 53rd and 6th Avenue sitting on a bench was the first person to decline. He had many colorful tats on both arms and seemed open at first, but was adverse to my taking any photographs.

On Tattoosday Eve, Labor Day, I still had nothing for the post. I stopped someone in front of my building yesterday with a really cool Hellboy tattoo. He seemed receptive but wanted to check out the blog first.

I found myself with many opportunities but passed, not necessarily out of lack of nerve, but because the tattoos were not so nice, old, faded, or blurred by too much sun. I
have seen a handful of dolphin tattoos like the one the Ancient One sent me.

Today was the kids' first day of school, so I took off from work. Around 11 AM, I decided to ride my bike, eventually making it to Coney Island, where I guessed I could find some good ink. Yet it was still sparse, I had ridden down the Boardwalk and had circled back when I found my first subject.

I approached two young ladies who were taking pictures. One of them had a tattoo on the back of her neck:


The Japanese characters spell out the woman's name, Fernanda. Unlike on the recently-aired episode of VH1's "Rock of Love," in which one of the contestant's gets Bret Michaels' name tattooed on the back of her neck, as a show of devotion, Fernanda has inked her own name. I see a lot of people that do their own names on their arms or legs (I work with many who have done so), and have never really understood the phenomenon.

But in Fernanda's case, I get the artistic expression a little more. These are Japanese letters that have a greater aesthetic impact than Roman letters. When I asked Fernanda why she tattooed her name, she merely expressed that she loved Japanese letters and Japanese culture. She was born and raised in Brazil and has only been living in New York for a year. She did not remember the name of the shop where she had the tattoo done, but narrowed it down to the Astoria section of Queens for me.

I have to agree, it's a pretty cool tattoo.

I made another pass and headed back home. Once I made my way to the Shore Road promenade, where I do the majority of my cycling. I have several spots along the several-mile route from which I can head home. I decided to go down to the 92nd Street footbridge. Standing on the bridge was a gentleman who seemed to be cooling off from running. He had earbuds in and a large biceps piece. He also had an ankle piece and another tattoo on his triceps.

I passed him while walking my bike and then headed back and said loudly, "Excuse me!" He removed his earbuds and I explained my mission. He was game. His name was Mike and he had 6 tattoos in all and didn't mind which one I photographed. I asked him which one was the most special and he held up his arm and pointed to the piece on his triceps. This one:


He explained it a tribal Native American designed mixed with the American flag which he got as a tribute after 9/11. The piece was done by Craig Cooley at Abstract Tribal Tattooing in Brooklyn. I asked him if he was a fireman, and he said, "No, a police officer." I thought, with the 6th anniversary of September 11 just a week away, it was a perfect punctuation mark to end a week of tattoo-spotting, and begin a week of reflection on this somber anniversary.

Thanks to Fernanda and Mike for their participation in this edition of Tattoosday!

Tattoosday #5: Dolphins, Shackles and Skulls, oh My!

So last week, BillyBlog received its first unsolicited tattoo submission. I had no specific policy on this, but decided that, due to a gloomy week in NYC, I could use all the help I could get. Tat number one is blogged by proxy, courtesy of The Ancient One, Blessed Be He. He is, after all, Dear Old Dad, so I couldn't possibly refuse. Well, I could, but that would just be silly.

Dad wrote:

If you are willing to accept photos from others, I have attached a tattoo photo taken ... of the lower leg ...[of] one Suze Campagna, an extraordinary stage manager whom I featured on the blog a month or so ago. I have seen this tattoo often but yesterday I asked to take a picture of it and have her permission to send it to you. I can't offer too much back story. Suze turned 40 recently (like you) and when I asked about the little dolphin, she said it was her first tattoo and that she got it in celebration of her 30th birthday.

Thanks, Ancient One!

So, as mentioned, it was a cool, rainy week and the preponderance of flesh, let alone inked flesh, was atypical of August in the Big Apple. However....

The sun came out late Thursday, followed Friday by a slew of tattoos.

I discovered early on that my old reluctance had returned. I saw some nice ink, but everyone seemed to be heading somewhere in a hurry. Imagine that, in New York City!

But late Friday I was headed to a Cyclones game (thanks, Atlantis Health Plan, for the free tickets!) and the prospect of heading to Coney Island excited the tattoo aficionado in me.

But on my way to the ATM before hitting the subway, I saw a guy standing in front of The Garden, smoking a cigarette. He appeared to be covered with tattoos. Without hesitation, I ambled up and introduced myself and he obliged to be the first participant in Tattoosday, part V.

The guy I met was in his 20's, maybe early 30's and said his name was John Adams. He has an even dozen tattoos. He offered me up two tattoos, with the following tales...

He said he was most proud of this one, around his left ankle. It is a shackle with a broken chain.

He elaborated on this piece's history (forgive me, I am paraphrasing):

I got married in Vegas and it was the worst mistake of my life....the marriage lasted about 2 weeks...the divorce is still going on....after the marriage ended, one of my friends suggested I get this, showing that I had been chained down by a bad mistake, but I had managed to break free....the more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed, and it's one of my favorite tattoos because it reminds me how I escaped from a bad situation.

Again, I paraphrased there. John, if you're reading this, feel free to correct any details.

John's shackles were inked at Chris P. Tooles Tattoo Incorporated in Vacaville, California. He is originally from Vacaville and he seemed delighted not only to learn I knew where Vacaville was, but also that I had stayed there on numerous occasions with old college friends.

John also offered up a second piece, on his right elbow.

Through a seres of events, John here had been living in Slidell, Louisiana two years ago, right before the birth of BillyBlog. A weather disturbance known as Hurricane Katrina rolled through town and like so many Louisiana denizens, John found himself relocated elsewhere.

He found himself in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and ran into a tattoo artist at a shop called Tattoo Zoo. According to John, the tattooer had designed the skull, but no one wanted it. It was an orphan design, looking for a host. The artist felt bad for John after Katrina, and offered to ink him for free. John requested he add a jester hat to the design, and the rest was history.


John noted that the piece was particularly sentimental because it had come on the heels of Katrina and it had been a generous gift from a sympathetic artist.

John was in New York just visiting. He was very cool.

Thanks John for your tattoos and accompanying stories!

Finally, as I headed home on the R train on Monday, I spotted a young lady with a nice koi tattoo on her left biceps. This was the first person I ever asked on the train to participate, and my luck has continued. No one has declined my invitation yet to be on BillyBlog, and this individual, although tentative at first, agreed once the train stopped at 95th Street, to let me take a picture of her arm above ground.

This piece, which is a part of a theme for her, is a carp, or koi, representing the element water. Her right biceps has a dragon on it, representing wind, and her back boasts a phoenix tattoo representing fire. She understandably told me that it would not be appropriate to show me the back tattoo, not that I was forward enough to ask, I figured as much.

Her carp, if not all of her art, was inked at Rising Dragon Tattoos, a shop only 7 blocks from my office, situated just downstairs from the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street. I imagine that this will not be the first tattoo I find from this famous shop.

We talked briefly about how I was lucky I caught her on a good day (I did, after all, interrupt her while she was reading). She acknowledged that she is occasionally annoyed by people asking her about her tattoos. I was surprised, as I have not seen a lot of people going out of their way to ask about tattoos. She thinks that women get asked about their tattoos more because it is more accepted for men to have tattoos, and because hers are so large on her arms, people tend to ask about them more than one would think.

I gave this nameless, yet friendly, subject a printout of a prior Tattoosday post and invited her to e-mail me when she had some color added, as she is thinking of doing.

That wraps it up for this week's Tattoosday. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Tattoosday #4: Ozzfest Edition

Well I had this all worked out. This week's Tattoosday was going to kick butt. I went to Ozzfest last Thursday and figured it would be a piece of cake to get a cavalcade of awesome tattoo shots. Hmmm.

One problem: I'm a dork. Going up to people twenty years younger than me and asking them if I can take pictures of their tattoos for my blog, Sephora and I agreed, would be the pinnacle of dorkiness. Not quite, we later acknowledged, when we saw a young metalhead going to his seat with his mother, who looked like she was there to chaperone, rather than enjoy the show.

The scale of body art was unfathomable. I imagined I would see an incredible range of tattoos, and I was not disappointed. We arrived around 3:30, and I decided around 5:00 that most of my tattoo shots would be candids, without the hosts knowing they were being photographed.

Here are some of the folks I shot whose tattoos didn't come out so well:







Snap enough random pictures of passers-by, and you'll get a few good candid shots:



A closer view reveals a pretty nice "Don't Tread on Me" tattoo:


But ultimately, I did get some fairly nice pictures, especially of one back piece after the concert when everyone was reeling homeward.

First, there was this cool tattoo from someone sitting a few rows ahead of me:


Then, there was this one on the shoulder of someone sitting a few seats over from me:

The detail and coloring of this Aztec piece is quite impressive:


There were so many amazing back pieces and sleeves that it would have been impossible to catch them all. As mentioned before, this guy was ahead of me as we exited after the show. The eyes are amazing. Not anything I would do myself, but still a bit awe-inspiring. Note his friends Misfits tattoo on the right:


I can only assume he meant to spell Alligator with an "e" instead of an "o".

Ultimately, though, I really missed the Tattoosday theme, which is to get back story on the pieces I photograph. Wouldn't you like to know who this guy is? And why did he do his back like this? How long did it take? Whose eyes are those? And did he mean to spell Alligater the way he did?

For those shortcomings, I offer my heartfelt apologies. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this week's edition of Tattoosday.

Tattoosday #3: BillyBlog Pulls a "Tat Trick"

Welcome to the third installment of "Tattoosday". They get better with age. First a quick recap of the week:

8/7: Interesting tidbit came in the form of a friend (Jill) sending me over to this blog, more specifically this post about the good and bad in a tattoo experience. Interesting read. I posted a comment inviting her to contribute to Tattoosday, if she wanted.

8/10: Rain in the forecast all day. Not the best for tattoo-spotting. In fact, by the end of the day, I realize that this little venture, difficult now, will be next to impossible once the mercury drops below me 60 degrees, 24-7.

8/12: Last Sunday was good to me so I had hope today. At the laundromat, a woman who works at the local bank and who I see occasionally at the laundromat, was sporting a nifty ankle tattoo. Jolee even spotted it and suggested I ask her. Despite many opportunities, I failed to ask. Later in the afternoon, I ran into her again down the block and this time asked her, finally, if she'd be interested in the project. She seemed receptive to the idea and said she'd let me know next time she saw me. She indicated she had designed the piece around her ankle herself.

8/13: (7:00 A.M.) I have decided that today will be the day. I will leave at lunch and find a cool tattoo. I will rely on the students of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) to supply me with the body art. Let's see if I can do it.

[Later that day....]

Ok, BillyBlog-ience, enough of my bellyaching. I just went out, under the deadline, and snagged a tat-trick (I love coining new words). I got not one, not two, but three subjects in less than sixty minutes (and managed to run some errands in the process.

I was walking back from the bank on West 27th Street when I passed a guy standing in the doorway with tons of tattoos. He had a King Tut on his right forearm. I walked past him and then said to myself that he looked pretty cool. I ambled up and said, "Hey, mind if I ask you about your tattoos?" He hesitated for maybe a split second and then said sure. I explained the concept of tattoosday to him and asked if I could take a picture of one of his tattoos. He said sure, and selected the one on his left leg.



He selected that one because it represented New York City and is one of his more recent pieces. It reads "Too Tough To Die," features a skull, and the New York skyline peeking up out of his sock.



I asked him how many tattoos he had and he didn't know. He has two full sleeves, tats on both legs, and he said on his chest and back as well. The tattoo I photographed, he said was an homage to the Ramones, from their 1984 album of the same name.


He gave his name as "Tops," and although he didn't disclose more about where he had the art done, he did look at one of the previous tattoosday posts and said he knew the owner of New York Hardcore Tattoos.

Well I was pretty proud of myself for finally jumping in the pool. Even though I didn't know James from last week, we had seen each other around and were familiar with one another. Tops was the first complete and utter stranger I approached. I was proud of myself for finally getting someone for Tattoosday.

Perhaps because the pressure was off, I walked with a lighter load. I headed back to 7th Avenue and decided to walk through F.I.T. over to 8th Avenue. Perhaps I would encounter some artistic student who would be approachable.

Sure enough, halfway down the block I saw a young lady approaching with two tattooed arms. I used the same approach, and mentioned BillyBlog. She gently kidded (I think gently, and I think she was kidding) about me asking her to be on my "nerdy blog". I have to remind myself that I am forty and your average F.I.T. student is in their early 20s, at the oldest.

Anyway, Jackie Alvo didn't mind giving me her real name, nor did she mind letting me snap shots of both arms. I found some of her design work here.

I noticed the cherry blossoms on her left arm first and she indicated that all her work was done on Long island because that's where "all the best artists are".



Her right arm, she joked, had to have a fashion theme, because she was at F.I.T. As cool as her left arm was, the dressmaker's form and other aspects were highly original and quite impressive. She let me know that her work was done at Timmy Tattoo in Huntington, NY (on MySpace here).



I thank her for her contribution and later saw her zip away on a bright metallic blue Vespa scooter.

The third tattoo was a bit of a surprise. I was in the plaza in front of the Borders at Madison Square Garden when I saw a woman with the following gecko tattoo above her left ankle.


She preferred to remain anonymous, but she is the first tourist tattoo on BillyBlog. The gecko design, which she searched for for years, has no specific significance. She just wanted a gecko tattoo. The piece was inked at Atomic Buddha Tattoos in Greeley, Colorado, from which our tourist hailed. Well, Colorado for sure, not necessarily Greeley.

We talked about geckoes a bit, especially the fact that, growing up in Hawai'i, I had them in and out of the homes I lived in. Shayna, coincidentally, just got a rubber gecko from a science museum last week. It went through the laundry on Sunday and she flung it at the ceiling last night and it stayed there until I pulled it down.

Thanks to the folks who let me take the pictures. Tops, I don't think, will be checking out the blog, but Jackie said she'd google BillyBlog and I gave a printout to our friend from Colorado. Please, feel free to add comments, questions, anecdotes, whatever. Or e-mail me if I need to clarify or edit any of the facts from my brief encounters with you.

Tattoosday #2: Dragons and Gargoyles

7/31: Last Tattoosday, the inaugural day, was a bust. First exhibitor Sephora was thrilled with her initial post and suggested I add some of her other tattoos to the post. We agreed to do so.

I looked, but found no worthy candidates. A woman in Starbucks had a tribal tramp stamp lower back tattoo peeking from the chasm between the bottom of her short shirt and her low-rise jeans. It wasn't very impressive and I'm not comfortable asking a strange woman to move clothing in order to photograph her ink. Co-worker Ian, when I told him of this later feature, said I should rename it "Tramp Stamp Tuesdays" instead. He said he would be more likely to come visit the blog. I agreed it would surely attract more viewers, but I don't see it as very positive.

8/1: Spotted a cool anime shoulder tattoo on a passenger on the A train. Alas, I was getting off at the next stop, so time was a factor, and the opportunity passed.

By 4:30, , it looked like the day was going to be a bust. So, I settled. I took an opportunity in the public domain. This person did not know I took their picture. One thing about New York, a camera doesn't necessarily make you conspicuous.



A closer look reveals a simple black tattoo that jumps off the flesh:

A cool design with the star in the center of a different star.

8/2: A promising day ended with a thud. A couple on the train were chatting, and the male, young in his twenties, seemingly a nice guy, had a very interesting piece on his right biceps, but I couldn't figure out what it was. They were deep in conversation and I didn't want to interrupt, when they abruptly got up and exited at the Prospect Avenue stop.

I did however, get a clearer picture of Sephora's om (go back to last Tuesday to see), along with her swastika on the back of her neck.

Came to the realization that stories of people telling me they don't want to participate will likely be more interesting than stories of me thinking about talking to an inked person, and then not following through.

8/3: No luck today, despite temperatures in the 90's. Not even any close calls!

8/4: Ditto. Even stepped into Body Art Studios, our local tattoo shop, but asking the guys that work there to participate seems a little bit like cheating, no? This is harder than I thought.

8/5: Sunday. I have a positive feeling I might find someone at the laundromat. Just a hunch.

Success at last!

At the laundromat, I saw a guy who I have seen in the neighborhood for years, and he had a gargoyle tattooed on his upper arm. His son was talking with my girls and, as it turned out, he is a year behind Shayna in the gifted and talented program at P.S. 104, so they have had the same teachers each year. I broached the subject about his tattoo, mentioned my "Tattoosday" project and asked him if he wouldn't mind telling me about it. He agreed and when I asked if I could take a photo of it, he said, "Sure, but it's big." He then pulled the sleeve of his shirt up to show me how it went up his shoulder and across over his armpit.

He then said he had another one, and turned around and showed me the one below his neck:


This one was his first tattoo, that he got about 12-13 years ago. Originally from Guyana, he explained that he understands it to be a Native American birth sign and also represents the water sign for Pisces. The artist was known as "Fallen Angel."

About the other, larger tattoo, it's actually a combination of three works that were done by an artist named Carmine based on three separate covers of Metal Edge magazine, or he, said, a magazine similar to Metal Edge. His wife at the time subscribed to the publication and they really liked the designs.


He indicated that the dragon over the armpit was extremely time-consuming, as there had been a lot of pain and sensitivity in that area.


I told James that the piece I first saw on him reminded me of the demon on the cover of one of Metallica's early singles, "Jump in the Fire".

He was quick to point out that what he had was not a demon (I guess his mother thought it was, as well), but a gargoyle which, he explained, are viewed as symbols of protection. They serve a design purpose as well, as water spouts, moving water away from the edifice.


He is particularly happy with the way the eyes glow:


We had a lengthy discussion about tattoos and how he initially would have gone further down the arm but, at the time, he was in school and considered studying biology, that he did not think it would have been a good idea, considering a potential career in medicine, to have the tattoo visible below the elbow. Of course, plans change, and James changed his career path and became an electrician, and is now a member of the I.B.E.W.

What I also found interesting was that none of this work was done at a shop, but was done at the artists' apartments. James explained that the rules regarding tattooing in New York State were different over ten years ago, offering greater flexibility for artists working out of their homes.

It was very cool talking tattoos with someone new. Later that day, I complimented a woman in line at Rite Aid and would have loved to snap her tattoos as well, but she was in a hurry, thanking me for the thoughts before exiting the store.

8/6: Nothing to report today. But a first week of tattoo-spotting was at least not a total wash, thanks to James. I'm hoping the relative success of getting my first person to offer up their tattoos for BillyBlog will make things easier in the future. James seemed to really like sharing his stories.

Thanks again to James and Sephora from last week for helping launch this feature on BillyBlog!