Buddhist Regret

The next piece featured here is a first for Tattoosday: a tattoo that its owner no longer wants.

I spotted this nifty tattoo on the back of the neck of Vicki at our local Rite-Aid store:


When I first approached her, she thought I was going to give her information on tattoo removal.

Vicki got this piece about 7 years ago when she was 20, at Butch's Tattoo Studio in Keyport, NJ.

She indicated that the symbols were part of a cartoon in a philosophy book and represented "the path to enlightenment". Vicki, however, stated that she is a Christian and has come to dislike the tattoo to the point of wanting to have it removed. It doesn't mean anything to her anymore.

She added that she probably would have started the process, but for the cost.

I mentioned to her the story of Tracy's tattoo, and suggested that she check with different tattoo artists to see if they would be able to design and ink a cover-up piece. That would be a) cheaper and b) more meaningful if a cover up could be designed to more accurately reflect who she is today. She nodded and said she had considered that, as the bottom of the symbols closely resembled a cross.

I was initially surprised that Vicki was willing to participate, considering how she felt about the tattoo, but she was a great sport about it and I wish her the best of luck with the piece, whether it be removal or transformation.

I know that some artists don't like to do cover ups as a professional and/or artistic courtesy, but that is in my opinion a better option and, from what I've heard, a cheaper and less painful one as well.

Here are some other Buddhism-inspired tattoos.

Thanks Vicki, I truly appreciated your contribution to Tattoosday!

p.s. On an unrelated, yet similar note, read what Charlie Sheen is considering doing with his 13 tattoos here.

Brazilian Butterfly

It was a long week and I was heading home. I had just hit the subway station at 34th Street/Herald Square. The entrance I was using, by chance, was the Southwest exit into the Manhattan Mall. A woman walked by me with this tattoo:

I couldn't help it. I had to stop and ask her what the story was. Butterflies are pretty common as tattoo matter, but this was the most unusual and stunning one I had seen. This butterfly is unique in that she designed it herself and then worked with the tattoo artist in Nyack over a three month period to perfect the design.

The butterfly body consists of the symbol for infinity, which I thought was a cool touch to represent the eternal.

She was totally open to me taking closer shots of each of the four quadrants of the wings, each of which was a slightly different size, by design, so that no two aspects of her life were the same.

Renata is originally from Brazil, and the two bottom sections have ocean elements because she grew up in São Paulo, near the sea. The left and right bottom sections each bear the first initials of her parents, M & A.



The top sections are beautifully-rendered representations of the sun and the moon, completing the worldly representations in the wings of the butterfly.


Thanks to Renata for her time as she explained this marvelous tattoo to me. I gave her my e-mail address so she can send me the information on the artist, so he can get credit for this lovely piece of body art.

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 5

I really hit my stride on Sunday when I approached a group of young guys hanging out at the street fair in front of the Rite Aid at 93rd and 3rd.

No offense guys, if you're reading this, but I most likely would have passed you up as possible Tattoosday subjects had it been any other setting. These guys were young, in the early twenties, and looked pretty tough. The mass of ink added to their hard edges.

I approached one of them and started explaining myself, but he seemed very reluctant. However, his friends joined in the discussion and, before I knew it, two of them had allowed me take some pictures and post them here.

I will start with John Candela. He was totally into participating. He first had a young lady lift up the back of his shirt to reveal a huge back piece:



The large cross is a tribute to his friends Rob and Frank.

He then showed me the tattoo on his left arm which was a tribute to the same guys and to a third friend, Smokey, who he called his guardian angels. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are three angels are around the edge of the piece (only the one at the top is visible).


Lastly, he showed me this free-hand graffiti-like piece, which spells out his last name, Candela, which is the Spanish word for candle, which represents flames, and merged with the fiery border design produces a nice effect.


John credited the work to an artist named "Steve the Butcher," who free-lances out of his house, and is not affiliated with any shop.

I did not ask, as he did not offer, what happened to Smokey, Rob and Frank that caused them to die at such an early age. Had he wanted me to know, I'm sure he would have told me.

The other tattoo I captured belonged to Jaimie, who I think had one of the coolest pieces of the day.

It's actually one piece that wrapped around his left forearm. I generally avoid tattoos that wrap around because it is hard to capture the essence of the piece in photographs.

But it's worth a try, so check these out:






The message is "Brooklyn, born and raised." The Brooklyn Bridge is represented, along with the Statue of Liberty. The best part of the piece, however, is the "and" represented by the letter N of the N train (on wich I am currently riding as I type this up). The N express services a big chunk of Brooklyn (as well as Manhattan and Queens). The "raised" is inked like graffiti on the N train, completing a sweet Brooklyn-themed tribute to the borough in which Tattoosday is based.

Jaimie credited this awesome tattoo to Angel at Hypnotic Designs in Sunset Park.

A hearty thanks to Jaimie and John for their participation in Tattoosday!

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 4

While my kids were bouncing around in the Moon Bounce-a-rama, a woman named Helen approached and her child joined my girls in their attempts to defy gravity.

Helen had this awesome tattoo on her right arm:


Helen explained it: The wolf, combined with the female symbol, and the letter A, or alpha, combined to represent that she is the alpha female in her family.

She had this tattoo done by the artist Dan Brown at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, a tattoo and arts convention in Maine.

The wolf was inspired by a woodcutting. She added the symbols for the alpha female. Her husband was the alpha male, but he sadly passed away two six years ago.

I then asked about her left arm, which had the following piece:


This is St. Francis, patron saint of the animals. The cat is present because Helen rescues cats, and currently has ten (10!) living with her. She credited Lynn Dulaney as the artists of this tattoo, also done at the Mad Hatter's Tea party. In fact, she advised me, all of her work gets done at Mad Hatter's.

I must have raised my eyebrows, as Helen appeared to have only these two tattoos. She revealed that she had 11 tattoos in all, not typical for a school teacher from Queens. These two were the only ones visible, and, had she been wearing a shirt other than a sleeveless one, you'd have thought she looked the part of a tattoo-less educator. She acknowledged that some times its best not to be seen as having tattoos by the students and/or parents. Although if one of my kids' teachers had tattoos, the family would think it was cool.

Thanks to Helen for talking with me and sharing her tattoo stories here on Tattoosday!

Update: After Helen posted her comment below, I updated Lynn's name with the correct spelling and linked her page at Moving Pictures Studio, in Wooster, Ohio. Also, I thought it would be nice to link the page from the New York Times "Portraits of Grief" with the blurb Helen's husband Liam. Helen, if you do not wish to have me link this, please let me know and I will remove it. Liam's brief portrait is at the bottom of the page and rolls over to the next.

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 3

In the continuing story of my Third Avenue Festival Tattoo scavenger hunt, we have a piece from the much-tattooed Kimmy, aka Lolita Ford, who passed me at the corner of 93rd and 3rd and, when I stopped her to ask her about her tattoos, was very friendly. Lolita is the blonde, second from the right, in the photo below, from her MySpace page.

She had much ink (13 tats in all) and like those folks that have a plethora of tattoos, I asked her what particular piece meant the most to her.

She had a friend pull down the back of her shirt to reveal the following small tattoo below her neck:



Kimmy explained that this tattoo was inked about ten years ago in honor of her grandmother, who had recently passed away. Her grandma had a china doll collection and, upon her passing, left all of her dolls to various members of the family. Kimmy received one doll, which she cherishes to this day. The tattoo represents her grandmother as a guardian angel, holding the china doll that she passed on to her.

Lolita Ford is head "jeerleader" of the Gotham Girls Roller Derby and is captain of the Royal Pains Jeerleaders who are allied with the team, the Queens of Pain.

This particular tattoo was inked in Pittsburgh, at Inka Dinka Doo. The artist was Tony Urbanek.

Thanks to Kimmy, aka Lolita, for sharing this tattoo with me and the Tattoosday community.

Good Tattoos Ain't Cheap

I am dedicating this article to the 2 different kinda people in the world. The first, those who want to have a good tattoo but at cheap cost. The second, to the scratchers who tattoo at home and think they are the best in the world and think that they are so undergound and everyone worships them because of some linework done which looks like a 5 yr old kid has done it.

All I can say to them is, "You can go and fuck yourself."

There is a saying, "The bitterness of a poor-quality tattoo will linger long after the sweetness of a cheap price is forgotten." Or in other words, " Good Tattoos Ain't Cheap, Cheap Tattoos Ain't Good".

I am sure everyone is aware of that phrase or have seen it in tattoo parlours everywhere. But I still wonder, why is that everyone wants a cheap tattoo.

I have encountered 100s of them walking in over the past few months, bargaining the price of tattoos like they are bargaining for fish in the market. This is a Tattoo Parlour for God's Sake!! And to those who don't know what that means, You need to wake up !!

I know I sound kinda pissed off at this issue. Well, every professional tattoo artist should be, and would agree with everything I have to say in here.

Quote by Karen Hudson

"If you really want a tattoo from a particular artist, why are you going to let a price tag hold you back? You do realize you'll be wearing this tattoo for the rest of your life, right? If you don't think that's worth a few extra dollars, don't get it! "But I can get the same tattoo from my buddy for half that price!" Fine - you go see your buddy and don't come looking for a shoulder to cry on when you end up with a lousy tattoo or get some kind of disease or infection from improper sterilization."

I have customers who wanna bargain a $100 tattoo, all the way down to $20 !! Are they high on some cheap drug which cost them only 5cents? God !! There are even some who show off their badly done tattoo, ( probably done free by some scratcher cum junkie ) and say, "This big one only cost me $10". Damn right, its only $10 because it comes along with HIV, HEP B, Permanent Disfigurement to the skin that bloats up. "3D EFFECT", Literally. Man, You really got a good deal !!

"Don't choose any artist based on price alone. Look at the portfolio. Ask around to see if they have a good reputation for good work. Check out the competition and compare quality, not prices!"

You only get what you pay for. Don't expect a good quality tattoo even if its a professional when you bargain prices all the way to the ground. You piss us off, we will make you pay for the rest of your life. I am very sure you don't want to be tattooed by a pissed off tattoo artist do you? And don't come running back saying the tattoo is badly done. Don't expect the whole cake when you only pay for a slice.

But on the other hand, there are also artist who charge alot for a tiny tattoo where you can get triple the size elsewhere, still with good workmanship. Why is this so? Number one reason - We all have rents to pay !! Some places have higher rents - They have to charge higher for the tattoos too. And seriously, I have seen some bad tattoos (Not once, but many times) which cost a bomb, done at "famous" tattoo shops.

The best part - Tattoo Artist Wanna-bes, have their own shop, acting all professional but charging more than half the price lesser, than that I am charging. I have 2 kinda people in this kinda situations.

Firstly - Comparing prices. Saying, "I did this in that shop, the guy only quote me $80". Where I would charge maybe, $150 for the size and design but I would do it free if I were to do in that quality !

Secondly - People who regret. Saying, "I did this in that shop, the guy spoilt it. Can you do something bout it?". I would be pleased to do what I can do to the badly done tattoo, but sometimes I do turn them down, cause they are way beyond coverups at times.

If a person can pay so much for something which is not permanent, why not pay for tattoos which will follow you till grave.

By now, I am very sure to piss alot of people off who read this article.

Remember - Only those who are guilty gets pissed off. So, if you are pissed off, get off my fucking blog !! Hehe !!

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 2

The next tattoo I photographed at the Third Avenue Festival belonged to a guy named Chris.

Chris has a leg piece that is an American flag emerging from under his skin. He wanted something patriotic, but didn't want a regular American flag. The result is pretty cool:



Chris was walking with a guy in an eagle costume, who was at the street fair to promote the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a local paper. While I was snapping these shots, the Eagle, who knew Chris, kept telling me to take a picture of Chris' other tattoo, and kept trying to lift Chris' left sleeve.

Chris was game and showed me his other one:


This is the artist's rendering of this famous photograph:


That's 1963, when Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc self-immolated in 1963. Chris advised that the monk tattoo represented self-sacrifice.

Chris had these done at Brooklyn Ink. The artist is Joe-Mags.

Thanks, Chris, for your participation!