As alluded to in the previous days' posts, I got a little carried away with a Friday the 13th tattoo experiment and opened up the idea to readers who contributed the funds for a tattoo ($13 special plus lucky $7 tip).
I had seven people send me money (thank you Ginger, Jen, Sean, John, Jenise, Janet and Nicole!) and then vote on the design out of five sheets of flash (seen here).
the flaw in my plan was not collecting the money, but dealing with the votes. I asked everyone to vote for three choices, and assigned 5 points to 1st choice, 3 for 2nd and 1 for 3rd. Fifteen different designs were selected, and only four were selected twice.
The winner was this classic, simple design by Derik Snell:
I was early and first in line, so I got the first tattoo of the day at Hand of Glory's sister shop, down the block, called The End is Near.
Brian Faulk was the assigned tattooer and he made quick work of the design:
Photo by Zoe
The end is result is a little messy, but it should heal nicely:
Thanks to all the kind people at Hand of Glory/The End is Near for their help this morning. I am planning on returning later with Melanie for her addition. We'll see how it goes....
I met Marie outside of Penn Station last month after spotting her sleeve of naval designs. She picked this one on the inside of her upper right arm:
This tattoo reminds her the importance of "loving where you're from" and having "faith in where you live". The anchor and cherry blossoms are a nice blend of traditional tattoo designs from the East and the West.
The design is an allusion to a song called "Anchor and Hope," from the album Wall of People by alternative rock band Monty Are I, out of Cranston, Rhode Island.
Check them out in this video of them doing the song acoustically:
Marie is originally from New York, moved to Virginia, and has relocated back home to New York City.
The tattoo was done by Rob at Brooklyn Ink. Rob was a subject on Tattoosday a couple of years back. See his post here. And this tag will show you the work previously featured on Tattoosday created at Brooklyn Ink.
Thanks to Marie for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!
On this final day of the Tattooed Poets Project 2010, we have a double treat - the tattoos and poetry of both Jeanann Verlee (here) and her friend Eboni Hogan.
What follows is a tat-alogue of Eboni's body art.
She prefaces her work with the following proclamation:
"A Note About The Artist: A majority of the work (the shoulder piece, the peacock and the cherry blossoms) on my body were done by an amazingly talented artist named Craig Spencer out of Whatever Tattoo II on St. Mark's Place who was also my boyfriend of almost four years until fairly recently. Yay! It's a sado-masochistic love story! Some liken this to getting a man's name tattooed across my boobs but I can say he is truly one of the only artists I trust with my flesh."
And now the ink:
"This shoulder piece is a custom design that took the most amount of tweaking before I actually got it inked. There are three quill pens, a skeleton key and a key hole, all tied together with ribbons. I'd had a strange dream one night in which a creepy old woman handed me a set of keys, tied to three feathers and told me that if I could find the door, the key would let me out...
...In my dream, I draped the key over my shoulder for safe keeping (dream logic...) but when I finally reached the promised door, the key and the feathers were adhered to my skin. The image stuck when I woke up and I talked to the artist about designing a similar piece. He suggested that the feathers be quill pens to pay homage to my love of poetry."
Next we have an image linked inexorably to the history of tattoos in the West, with its background in naval history. It was inked by an unidentified artist at Capitol City Tattoo in Madison, Wisconsin:
"I adore old school tattoos of the Sailor Jerry variety. I am also really active in the poetry slam community and every team I have ever been coined "the anchor"- the poet put up towards the end of a slam to (fingers crossed) make a home run. At the 2008 National Poetry Slam in Wisconsin, I decided it would be suitable to get this piece on my ribs."
Next up we have some cherry blossoms on the back of Eboni's right biceps:
"Blossom on the tree you know how I feel. Text by unknown artist, Addiction Ink, St. Mark's Place, cherry blossoms by Craig Spencer. If my life were a television series, Nina Simone's song "Feeling Good" would be the theme song. On my worst days, this is the never-fail anthem. The particular phrase that I decided on just happens to be the line in the song that feels infinitely more magical when sung at the tops of one's lungs. Try it."
And last, but not least, this lovely peacock:
"Peacocks are symbols of renewal and are revered by multiple cultures across the world. Furthermore, let's face it- they got a whole lotta swag. I found a vintage painting of a peacock that I loved though it's not the traditional green and blue image people are used to seeing. I got it on my left hip so that it could also serve as a cover-up for a pretty awful tattoo I got when I was 17 and foolish."
Thanks to Eboni for sending along so many tattoos for us here at Tattoosday. Be sure to head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems, dedicated to poet Jeanann Verlee, here. Jeannann's tattoo (here) precedes this post, and her poem is dedicated to Eboni.
24 year-old poet, actress and Bronx native, Eboni Hogan, has performed in over 30 U.S. cities and facilitated workshops from refugee camps to prestigious universities. She studied theater at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She is the winner of the 2010 Women of the World Slam Poetry Slam, the 2008 Urbana Grand Slam Champion and a two time representative of the Nuyorican Slam Team. She is published in the anthologies His Rib and Double Lives and recently released her first collection of poetry entitled Grits through Penmanship Books.
Her hull was forged with steel salvaged from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
It's a momentous occasion indeed, and several crew members were in attendance with dignitaries earlier this week at the World Series.
As is happens, I noticed a gentleman in uniform outside of Madison Square Garden earlier in the week and he had this tattoo on both hands:
Turns out, the tattoo was modeled after this naval pin, which represents the rank of Boatswain's Mate, worn on the lapel:
The gentleman, whose name is Fred, serves on the USS New York, as the more commonly-known title of Ships Bos'n, and it seems appropriate to post this tattoo today as the ship officially enters the naval fleet.
Fred has been in the service for 26 years, and has seven or eight tattoos all told.
As Ships Bos'n he works with mission systems on amphibious maneuvers.
The crossed anchors are traditional naval insignia and, even though he drew this design himself and they weren't inked in a traditional tattoo shop, he recognizes the crossed anchors as symbols of his dedication to the trade.
I thank Fred for his service to our country, as well as his willingness to contribute to Tattoosday. We wish him well as he serves with pride on the USS New York!
