The Tattooed Poets Project: kathryn l. pringle

Our next tattooed poet is kathryn l. pringle, who sent us this tattoo on her left arm::

kathryn offered up this background of the piece:

"when i was 18 years old, i decided to get a tattoo of a spider on a purple web on my right shoulder. only, it never really looked like a spider on a web. it looked more like a peacock. so, at 26, very sick of people asking me about the wimpy peacock on my shoulder, i went into Monkey Wrench tattoo shop in Santa Rosa, CA and talked to Billy the Pope about my options. he said only two things would do the trick: a panther or a dragon. intrigued more by the dragon option, i asked him to draw up some ideas and o, by the way, can you tattoo these chinese characters for wu wei [from Taoism] on my arm before i go home? and so he did. 

two weeks later i go back in, and there's my dragon - carefully drawn out on very thin paper. we started work: it took 9 2-hour sessions. Billy was so excited, he was beside himself. he got to do something more creative than the usual rose or sailor. and i got to cover up that ridiculous peacock."

kathryn sent us this poem:

from civil engineering

what do you know
of my lungs

what of my breathing
my expansiveness
or pulmonary life

in the pockets of yr lungs
the tiniest fragments
penetrating
careful not to puncture

a stick in the ribs

that’s what it feels like

a stick in the ribs

to care about humans

~ ~ ~

kathryn l. pringle lives in Oakland, CA. She is the author of fault tree (winner of Omindawn’s 1st/2nd book prize selected by C.D. Wright), RIGHT NEW BIOLOGY (Heretical Texts/Factory School), The Stills (Duration Press), and Temper and Felicity are Lovers.(TAXT). Poems can be found in Denver Quarterly, Epiphany, Fence, Mrs. Maybe, Phoebe, and fiction can be found in Manor House Quarterly and Horse Less Review. Her work can also be found in the anthologies Conversations at the Wartime Cafe: A Decade of War (WODV Press), I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues), and The Sonnets: Translating and Rewriting Shakespeare (Nightboat Books). In 2013, she was a very grateful recipient of a gift from the Fund for Poetry.

Thanks to kathryn for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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Teegan's Dragon Tattoo Wraps Around Her Leg

I met Teegan at the end of July in Penn Station after spotting her cool dragon tattoo that wraps around her leg:

She credits this work to Adam Jeffrey at the Baltimore Tattoo Museum.

The concept of the dragon wrapping around the limb is pretty cool and Teegan explained that she and the artist "worked on the design together... going back and forth."

She appreciated the fact that dragon tattoos have a whole array of traditional meanings, which contribute to her appreciation of the tattoo.

Thanks again to Teegan for sharing this piece with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Amy Rafferty

Today's tattooed poet is Amy Rafferty.

Amy narrates her history of getting tattooed:

 "I've never been that sure why I got my tattoos and to be honest I'd probably put it down to poor impulse control.

I got my first when I was seventeen. Me and my friend Suzy were wondering around bored one day and we found ourselves looking in the window at Terry's Tattoo Studio. We could see all the big, hard men in there, grimacing and posing, with their arms covered in thistles and doves and black panthers.

To us it looked dead exciting and grown up and 'cool' and so we snuck in for a closer look.
An hour later we came out, all red-faced and tearfuI, me with a butterfly on my stomach and Suzy with a flaming heart on her shoulder.

We thought we were pure rock 'n' roll but we were too scared to tell our parents what we'd done. We both left it at that but then, ten years later, I got a Chinese good luck symbol on my back, ostensibly to bring me good luck but mostly it was to impress a sailor I was keen on.

My dragon was next and that was to show I was brave (or getting braver) and the flowers on my leg started off as a single bud from when my friend Polly and I went to get tattoos together and over the years the bud has grown. I think there's some meaning in that.

In 2007 my Dad died suddenly and I had this strange instinct to let him know that I was okay, that I was coping, and so I think that's why my flower grew as it did. 

And if somehow my Dad was aware of all this? Well he'd probably be shaking his head and saying ruefully "daft lassie, what are ye up to now?"

I love the idea of that. He thought when it came to making big, life-changing decisions that I was an idiot and yes, he was probably right but he also showed a grudging and loving admiration for my impulsive side. 

For now, I think I'm done with tattoos, but you never can tell when I'll take a wee notion for another."

It's cool seeing the evolution of this, Amy's floral tattoo, that has grown along with her.

She sent us this lovely poem:


Directions.

What you remember of them most is

that they could not stop talking,
and that the road from Inverardran veered left,
and took you from the kirk by the Toll
of Atholl to the Shoulder’s Choke
where you heard them both,
heralding their own as the worst.

Then by Stob Binnien,
shrouded in cloud and the eldest,
who sucked black mints,
black-tongued, bright-eyed and spry.
She picked at stitches and thought aloud
if it had been made in ‘Ehberdeen’
then it would have been made fitter
for its own purposes.

And the younger, the witcher,
the one you loved,
all hook-eyed and pleasure driven,
passing the pretty lace between them.
She pulled it through but worse
this time, tighter, the threads biting.
She winked at you, slowly, dropping a lid
and said “it just depends who you know”

And then Ben More and the great pools,
the flooded lights of Saint Fillan,
patron saint of the mad and the over-bound

and between them, a circle of pretty white lace,
holding them both together.

~ ~ ~

Amy Rafferty is a Glaswegian living in the West Midlands. Her poetry and prose can be found in several anthologies and publications, both on-line and off.

In 2009 she received a highly-commended mention for her poetry collection, Pétursdóttir and the Land of Tiny Voices and in 2010, two of her poems were short listed for the international Fish poetry prize. Amy is a postgraduate student of Creative Writing at Glasgow University and sings with the cult, Glasgow band, The Recovery Club. She is also the baby in the graveyard scene of the original Wicker Man movie but she doesn't like to talk about it. 

If you should wish, you can hear Amy singing here.

Thanks to Amy for sharing her words and ink with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission. 


 If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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Cecelia's Trio of Bats, or, The Girl with the Dragonlance Tattoo

Back in October, I met Cecelia on the D train in Brooklyn, and she shared these tattoos on her left forearm:

Those three bats, named, from top to bottom, Ralph, Roberto, and John, were a birthday present from her friend Dan. Roberto, in the middle, was named after a fruit bat that appears in a couple of books by Christopher Moore (namely, Island of the Sequined Love Nun and The Stupidest Angel).

The bats were inked by Steve Kane, owner and artist at A List Industry Tattoo, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Cecelia also told me about another tattoo she had, but it was not one she could show me on the train, as it wasn't the day of the No Pants Subway Ride.

Fortunately, she did send us a cell phone photo later with this piece on her left thigh:

She explained:

"This tattoo was inspired by a Dragonlance book, The Dragons of Winter Night. Started in '95 by an artist from Buffalo, it was finished 10 yrs later by Seven O'Brien @ Tattoo Mania [Staten Island]. He is now at another shop.  He came up with the fantastic background and border."

Thanks to Cecelia for sharing her trio of bats and her dragon tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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Colleen Returns to Share Some Lovely Ink

I spotted a woman with some really great tattoos out on Penn Plaza and, after talking to her a brief moment, realized it was Colleen, who appeared on Tattoosday once before, back in 2009, as chronicled here.

Colleen shared two tattoos that grace her upper arms:

Colleen loves this tattoo and I can't say I blame her. As a Buddhist, she appreciates the symbolism of the lotus and the om on the skull. She explained:

"the lotus comes out of the mud at the bottom of the water and blooms out of that and that's ... birth. And the skull [represents] death."

The piece encompasses the cycle of life and death. She credits this wonderful work to Patrick Conlon at Graceland Brooklyn.

Colleen also has this work on her right arm:

Colleen explained that the dragon was there first, and then Patrick added the fire and pansies, to make it a much more beautiful tattoo.

Thanks to Colleen for sharing her tattoos with us (again) on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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Two from Samanatha, Including a Tattoo for Bubbie

I met Samanatha last month in Penn Station and asked her about her many tattoos. She's 26, and has been getting inked since she was 18, and appears to be going at a steady clip, because she has a lot of great work.

She was kind enough to share two of her tattoos, both from her right arm. The first piece is this hamsa:

Samantha explained that she got this tattoo in memory of her grandmother, or "bubbie," as they're known among many Jewish grandchildren. Samanthha's bubbie passed away a few months ago. I asked her what she thought of her tattoos and she replied, "Well, being a Jewish bubbie, I don't think she was too excited about them, but I always asked her if, as long as she still loved me, then it was okay; and she always said, "ach, yeah."

This hamsa, a symbol often associated with luck and warding off the "evil eye," was inked by Josh Schlageter at Hand of Doom Tattoo in Buffalo.

Samantha also offered up this dragon tattoo:

She got this from Steve Boltz at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn, explaining:

"It's called a  spaulding dragon - it's old sailor flash ... I just wanted to go to one of the guys that could do one really, really well. Everybody in the tattoo community up in Buffalo that I know said, 'you gotta go to Steve Boltz', so I traveled down here to got see him."

Thanks to Samantha for sharing these cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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Dispatch from the 2011 New York City Tattoo Convention (A Recap)

 

Yesterday I spent a half dozen hours at the Roseland Ballroom, where the New York City Tattoo Convention was holding court. This was my third trip to the show, and each year, I have a different experience, as Tattoosday has evolved as a site (read about 2009 here and 2010 here).

In years past, I have only highlighted one or two pieces, as I go into sensory overload. What, outside of a convention's setting, would normally pique my interest, seems commonplace and ordinary. This year, however, I took many more photos, and actually interviewed four people, so this will be Convention Recap Week.

I do want to say the best part of the show was hanging and chatting with Marisa and Brian from Needles and Sins, as well as with Nathan from Knuckle Tattoos. It's not a portrait of future world domination, yet, but here's the three of us, masterminds of three of the best tattoo sites around, and hands and above, the best three inkbloggers at the show:

Nathan, Marisa and Me (photo by Brian Grosz)

That moment of self-adulation aside, I spent the first few hours talking to vendors about advertising, chatting with colleagues, and saying hello to people I've met in years past, like Greg who was the high point of last year's show for me.

I also like to introduce myself to artists whose work has appeared on the Site before, so I said hi to Adam Rosenthal of Th'Ink Tank in Denver, and Vinny Romanelli at Red Rocket in NYC.

I also took a slew of photos of people I didn't interview, so I will just throw them up here. Unfortunately I can't credit any of the amazing artists responsible. However, if you see your work here, shoot me an email and I can give you your proper due. Many of these shots were taken during the first round of the contest, which centered around black and gray work:

This one was one of my favorites, especially considering the woman's reflection in the blade of the knife:

And this Star Wars leg was totally cool:

Finally, through social media, my friend Ben in Hawai'i requested a shot of "80s West Coast punk rock logos." I thought I had failed in my quest until, as I was leaving, I captured this tiny Black Flag tattoo on a guy named Crash, who works for Tattoo Artist Magazine:

Mini-Black Flag Bars Tattoo by Oliver Peck

and this incredible Misfits piece to boot:

Tattoo by Frank Lee at Tattoo Blues in Ft. Lauderdale

Yes, we know, Misfits are an East Coast band. But it was too nice a tattoo to not photograph. Can you blame me?

Check out the Tattoo Artist Magazine blog here.

Check back throughout the week to see what four tattoos I found most blogworthy for us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

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