Caroline's Sabre-Toothed Skull

Back on June 23, I spotted Caroline walking in Penn Plaza, with this fascinating tattoo popping off of her right thigh:


This is Caroline's second tattoo and is based on a sketched she drew of a sabre-toothed tiger skull. She is a visual artist whose website can be seen here.

The tattooer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, did a phenomenal job in under an hour, "capturing the cross-hatches and lines that [she] was so picky about".

I sent her an e-mail with a follow-up question about her choosing her thigh for the tattoo, which seemed unusual for someone who didn't have a lot of ink. She wrote back with the following response:

"I think I chose my thigh because I wanted a bold graphic placed on the most powerful part of my body. I was working as a truck driver/trash collector on an island at the time, and my body was toning up and changing; I became aware of muscles I didn't knew I had. So when I drew the sabre-toothed tiger and decided I wanted it as a tattoo, I was drawn to the hinge of the thigh for placement. Something functional and flashy, but not in the standard spot. It's a flirtatious without being trashy."

Thanks much to Caroline for sharing her awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Horror Goulash with a Side of Power Mushrooms

I was passing through Century 21 Department Store when I spotted Jason, a web designer who estimates he is 50% covered in tattoos.

He offered up this sleeve, which he worked on for six sessions with the tattoo artist Sean Sweeney at Lola's Tattoos in Bogota, New Jersey:


Sean has subsequently moved to Virginia.

They called this piece "Horror Goulash" as it was a big pot of ideas for a sleeve, with an emphasis on the dark and macabre. Over the period of its creation, they collaborated to add ideas to it.


Jason also had this piece tattooed on the back of his left calf:

These are, for the uninitiated, the power mushrooms that are sought after in the Nintendo Super Mario Bros. video games.

Jason loves Nintendo and admitted, it was a "spur of the moment" piece tattooed "somewhere in the Village".

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

Cody's Message of Recovery

These arms belong to Cody, who I stopped outside of Madison Square Garden on June 23.

What caught my eye was a beautiful religious piece on his forearm, but it was still healing, so we went with these tattoos instead.

Cody explained to me that he is in recovery, and that the strength he gets from this message, "Dealing with the Cards Life Dealt Me," is invaluable. "No matter what life throws at you," he told me, "We're powerless over life. We can't control it."

In other words, take things one day at a time, and face the challenges you meet as they rise up against you. Like in cards, you get dealt and a hand, and you make the best of it. And sometimes you win, and other times you lose.

This is the second recovery-themed tattoo we've seen recently (see Audrey's ink here) and I imagine we'll see more, as tattoos make great anchors for people, in recovery or not, as they face the struggles in life.

Cody's tattoos were inked by Justin at Skin Illustrations in Cookstown, New Jersey.

A Traditional Sailor Jerry Pin-up for the 4th of July

When I saw Paul standing in Borders, inked up with nineteen tattoos, I couldn't help but ask to take a picture.

Not much of a story here, but a hell of a tattoo:


This is an old school Sailor Jerry pin-up design that Paul had always loved. So, he finally had it inked by J.P. at Rising Dragon Tattoos in Manhattan. Work from their shop has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Paul for sharing his awesome tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Joe's Martini Girl

I spotted Joe outside of Madison Square Garden after work last week.

Joe is not sure how many tattoos he has, but offered up this one, on the back of his right forearm:


Joe said that this tattoo is "the first one I ever wanted to get, but the last one I ended up getting."

The piece was inked by Tom Yak at New York Adorned. Tom did add a bra and panties to the pin-up reclining in the martini glass, for the sake or propriety. Work from New York Adorned has appeared on Tattoosday previously here.

Thanks to Joe for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Mason's Gypsy, with a New Orleans Twist

I met Mason at the 7th Avenue Street Fair in Park Slope on Father's Day.

He has "twenty or so," tattoos, mostly accumulated from different artists from different places he has visited.

His offering for Tattoosday, however, was inked here in New York. It is a take on the traditional gypsy tattoo which I have been seeing a lot of lately:

Mason went to Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massepequa, Long Island, with a general idea for this piece, which is something he wanted to get for a while.

The artist, Grez, added a Fleur-de-Lis to the piece, per Mason's request, as a nod to the city of New Orleans where he grew up.

Thanks to Mason for sharing this fantastic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Elvis and the Saint

I met Kristin and Jason at the 7th Avenue Street Fair in Park Slope on Father's Day.

Street fairs in New York City generally occur in the summer months and, to an inkspotter like me, they are heaven on earth.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate. They are also hot, crowded, and dangerous. I have seen many a fair-goer clipped by a slowly-moving baby stroller. But I digress.

There were tattoos aplenty at the street fair, and one is so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of great ink, it is often paralyzing to pick just one. Compare it to letting a child lose in a candy store, and tell them they can have all the candy they want, as long as they spend just a dollar.

So when I saw a few people walking along that were festooned with tattoos, I stopped them as soon as I could wend my way through the crowd and get their attention.

When someone has "lost count" of how many tattoos they have, it is safe to say that they have a lot.

Kristin offered up her inner right forearm:


She loves Elvis Presley and this portrait, based on a shot of him from the film Girls! Girls! Girls!, is wonderfully done.

She noted that this was an older Elvis, but definitely pre-Vegas.

Jason, who was walking with Kristin, and also incredibly inked, offered up his right forearm as well:


Upon returning from a trip to India several years ago, Jason brought home a poster of a Hindu saint. He loved the poster so much, he decided to have it tattooed.

I'll be honest here. I was initially disappointed that these were the tattoos that Jason and Kristin offered. Not that they're bad tattoos. Far from it. But, they had other work I admired more.

However, I do ask people which tattoos they'd like to share, so I certainly have no right to complain.

But, in the week or so since I shot these photos, I've come to appreciate the level of skill and artistry with which these pieces were created.

Both were inked by Josh Carlton at the Great American Tattoo Company in Indianapolis.

If you look closely, he has infused each tattoo with colorful highlights that really accentuate the tattoos with an extra element of artistry.


It's a brilliant effect.

Thanks to both Kristin and Jason for sharing these two amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!