Danny's La Pietà, for the Love of Art

I met Danny last month across the street from Verdi Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.


He had quite a lot of nice ink, and we focused on this piece, tattooed on the inside of his upper left arm:

This is based on Michelangelo's Pietà, the famous sculpture in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Why does Danny have this, and other classic art, inked on his flesh? I'll let him explain:

"To be honest with you, I'm really into the Italian sculptors ... all [my] gray-scale pieces are ... purely art-based decisions. The only tattoos I have that have real significant meaning behind them are the words, you know, anything that's got words. All the art, it's just because I love the art."

Danny also has tattoos that are based on the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

To recreate a masterpiece of Italian sculpture like La Pietà, in such fine detail, is truly remarkable.

Joshua Lord, at East Side Ink in Manhattan, is the artist who so skillfully created this tattoo. Joshua Lord's work has appeared previously on Tattoosday here and work from East Side Ink has been posted here several times, viewable under this tag.

Thanks to Danny for sharing his amazing work 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.

Holy Ship! Isaac's Vessel and a Biblical Quote

There are a few tattoo artists whose work is so good that, when I'm lucky enough to stumble upon one of their clients, I consider it a great day.

Such was the case on a Monday in August on the Upper West Side, when I stopped Isaac in Trader Joe's as he walked past me. I knew, even before he told me who the artist was, that this piece was special:

Isaac explained that this ship was inked by the amazing Amanda Wachob of Dare Devil Tattoo in Manhattan. Amanda was featured in a small post in the New York Times earlier this year here. I have been fortunate enough to stumble across her work personally once before, as documented in this post from last October.

Isaac explained that this ship was inspired by The Flying Dutchman, a painting by Albert Pinkham Ryder.

One of the amazing things about Amanda Wachob's work is how her tattoos look like they are painted onto the skin. Check out the front of Isaac's ship:

"I used to write 'I'm a Son' on my arm all the time," Isaac told me, "as in a son of God," so he refers to this as his sonship.

He also shared this piece on his left biceps:

This is a Biblical reference, from 1 Corinthians 13, Verses 4-8. The passage is

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."

Isaac and his wife have the same piece, with hers being on her right arm. I love the font that the artist used. He attributed it to Kelly at East Side Ink. Kelly is absent from the shop website, so must have been a former or visiting artist.

Thanks so much to Isaac for sharing these wonderful 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.

Three Tattoos from Sabrina

I met Sabrina on Penn Plaza back in June after stopping to admire her tattoos. She has three and talked me through them chronologically.

She explained , "I like to get [a tattoo] for every place I lived," and her first one was this butterfly armband:

Sabrina is from upstate New York. She went to one of the shops in Utica and spoke to the owner about getting an armband. He dismissed her initial request, saying "I don't do armbands anymore, they're too 1990". So, Sabrina explained, "he designed a different sort of armband and went with that ... ".

She added, "I like butterflies because I like things that fly ... I feel like I'm a free spirit." One of the butterflies is based on a necklace that she wore every day.

Her second piece is on her right forearm and is what she referred to as her "college tattoo":

Sabrina told me, "I just wanted another tattoo and I like Egyptian hieroglyphs." This is one of the symbols that really appealed to her, and she had this inked at a shop in White Plains, New York, near where she went to college.

Her third tattoo, also inspired by hieroglyphs, is the one she got after coming to New York City:

This owl tattoo is more realistic, although she wanted it positioned like a hieroglyph. It is a great horned owl and was tattooed by Bang Bang at East Side Ink.

Thanks to Sabrina for sharing her 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.

Michael and his Misfits Ink

I met Michael in Bay Ridge, at 92nd and 3rd Avenue, and he offered up these two tattoos on his forearm:

I recognized the top piece as a Misfits tattoo and asked why he chose it.

He responded:

"They are my favorite band of all time and when I say the Misfits, I mean the 1977-1983 Misfits. That to me is one of the greatest bands of all time and Glenn Danzig is my favorite singer of all time."

He credited Mark Harada, currently at East Side Ink, with tattooing this back in 2002.

The Danzig skull below the Misfits piece was done, he told me, by Chris Torres at Inborn Tattoo NYC in 2010.

Here's a little classic Misfits to get you going today:



Thanks to Michael for sharing his 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.

Sal's Tattoo Takes Wing

Today's tattoo comes to us courtesy of Sal, who is making his third appearance on Tattoosday. We first met him in 2008 when he shared this Guns N Roses tattoo, and then again, in 2009 with this quote, inked on his forearm.

Both times I ran into Sal at the video store where he works in Brooklyn Heights. He alerted me to the fact that he had new ink, so I just had to stop by and see in person:

The collage might not bring out the finer details as seen in a closer view:

The bird is an American Robin. Why this particular bird? Sal explains: "Robins mean a lot to me - not just for their beauty, but for their meaning of hope and new beginnings".

American Robin -- Humber Bay Park (East) (Toronto, Canada) -- 2005, by en:User:Mdf

The tattoo artist is the phenomenal Mark Harada at East Side Ink in Manhattan. Work from Mark and other East Side Ink artists has appeared previously on our site here.

Thanks again to Sal for sharing his awesome new tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Steve's Sleeve of Leaves Ushers in the Fall Season

Earlier this month, I met Steve on the D train, as we headed home to Brooklyn.

He had a veritable panorama of fall foliage on his left arm and he happily shared his autumnal tattoos with us here at Tattoosday.

It only seemed fitting that, as summer has ended, we celebrate the new season with some fall colors.

Behold, Steve's sleeve o' leaves:

The eleven maple leaves on Steve's arm were all inked free hand by Mark Harada at Manhattan's East Side Ink over four sittings.

Steve acknowledges that the leaves changing colors represent a change, and these colorful symbols remind him that change is good.

Happy Autumn to all! And thanks to Steve for sharing his fallen maple leaves with us here on Tattoosday!