Monday Jul 31, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Coqui Frog
"I have traveled a lot in my life; it’s one of my passions. During the year, I work my butt off as a bartender and a taxicab driver. During the rest of the time, I am in film school to become a producer of gender based indie films. My name is Carissa Camarena, and my last film was A Dykes Drag Documentary.
I save my money all year and travel for two weeks in the summer. I have gone many places, but when I first went to Puerto Rico, I realized that I had discovered my spiritual home. I am not Puerto Rican but moved a lot as a kid and this is my place.
In Puerto Rico, there is a frog that you can hear all over the island. It is a symbol for the native Indians there. It’s called the Coqui frog.
One of the first times I visited, I met a native Indian who was a surfer and a tattoo artist. I talked to him about the Coqui frog, and he showed me this symbol which is the hieroglyph for this frog in the native language.
He did the tattoo in his kitchen. I chose my belly because my love of Puerto Rico is a gut feeling."
Friday Jul 28, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
Friday Jul 28, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Goddess
I have a habit of keeping the images I want to have tattooed on me in my wallet for a year before I get them. The image on the back of my neck is a goddess image. I got it for my grandmother.
I was raised for most of my life by my grandmother, and she is a wonderful person. We are of Mexican descent, and my grandmother got herself educated while her dad worked in a coal mine, which was not an easy thing in those days.
A friend of mine, actually an ex-girlfriend, drew this out for me and I love the image. For me, the goddess has all the qualities that I love about my grandmother.
Though she is a devout Catholic, she is all-inclusive with her love, she doesn’t mind a bit that I am gay and have tattoos. She is full of an ancient sort of knowledge that I am celebrating with this tattoo.
Wednesday Jul 26, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Black Rose
"There was a time in my life where I was partying a whole lot. Maybe too much. In some ways it was fun, but I had had a bunch of terrible things happened to me in a very short period of time.
My husband died unexpectedly just a few months after my sister-in-law was murdered. After that, I nursed my mother-in-law though cancer but she died a couple of months after that. The upshot was that I ended up with a house, a bunch of money, and a lot of friends who liked to party but nothing else of value.
One night I was out with a dear friend who had similarly difficult situations in his life. His wife had left him and he had a devastating motorcycle accident. We stayed up all night long talking about what tattoo we wanted to get to make a statement about our life. We decided we wanted something old school, and we decided on a rose. The rose however, would have to be black.
We stayed up until the next morning and went to get the tattoos done. Life is much better now, but I will always have this reminder of a time when I was playing and laughing outside, but crying on the inside."
Wednesday Jul 26, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Star-gazer
This is a cover up of a tattoo I got when I was nineteen. The original tattoo was on the top part,, the part that is colored. I got it done in Flagstaff, Arizona with my best friend at the time, Rachel.
Rachel and I had known each other since we were in seventh grade. We were incredibly close. We had moved to the Grand Canyon together, and it was a real boding experience.
The original tattoo is a sun/moon. I feel it is somewhat emblematic of our relationship. We were sort of hippies at that point, and we thought everything about the sun and the moon was cool. When we went to the tattoo place, Rachel (who is a great artist), freehand drew the tattoo on my neck.
During the years, we have really lost touch. She became a Mormon (actually, she always was, but not strictly). She married a Mormon guy who was not a very nice person. Rachel had always been a very impressionable girl, and her husband was not a good influence on her. She kept trying to leave him because he was abusive, but then she would come back and have another baby.
Though I really care about her,, I ended up feeling as if I could not help her and thus lost touch quite a while ago.
I started this tattoo last year, and then I got pregnant with my beautiful little daughter who was just born a few weeks ago. I want to get it colored in and finished, but I don’t want to do it until I finish breastfeeding.
In a funny way, re-doing this tattoo is negating my relationship with Rachel, but although having your friend draw a tattoo is an amazing gesture of friendship, the tattoo itself was uneven and asymmetrical. Inn a way this was somewhat prophetic about our relationship.
Though I am sad to let this relationship go, I am also very happy to have this beautiful tattoo, and new memories to go with it."
Tuesday Jul 25, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Jane’s Cardboard Box
I was living in Seattle with some friends, living in their attic. And I wanted the attic to look more like a room. This wasn’t going to be a problem because I love to go dumpster diving. But before I get to that, I want to say one thing: I once tried to pick up a raccoon because I thought it was a cat.
I went out and got rolls of carpet from the carpet outlet dumpsters, and scraps of plywood from construction sites, and cardboard boxes from someplace. I put the plywood and carpet down on the floor and made walls out of the cardboard. I turned one of the cardboard walls into a wall of scabs. We actually called it The Scab Wall. Basically, I collected scabs from my friends. Whenever one of my friends had a scab, they would give it to me, or I would take it from them, and put it on the wall. The Scab Wall. And there weren’t just scabs on The Scab Wall. There was also a tooth. And fingernails. And earwax. And when my friend’s tattoo scabbed over (it was a tattoo that spelled POOP), she gave me the scabs and I put them on the wall. So not only did I have a tooth and fingernails and earwax on The Scab Wall, I also had POOP, only it was spelled out. In scabs on The Scab Wall, of course.
Sometimes, my friends would make a contribution. One friend actually nailed a bran muffin (stolen from Starbuck’s) to one of the walls. It actually hung on the wall for like six or seven months, where it hardened. And some friends created paintings on the other walls of cardboard. It looked like a cabinet, or a cubbyhole, I don’t know. But at least it was a real room. And my housemates liked to visit it. I guess they liked it. They are the ones who nicknamed me Nature’s Bandit. Because I had created this little room, you see, from dumpster diving. I guess I’m kind of like a raccoon. I like to scavenge for things."
Monday Jul 24, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
Monday Jul 24, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Tats from South Africa
"My dad is originally from South Africa. Eighteen years ago, after he got out of the army, he backpacked around the UK. After that, he decided to come to the states. First, he went to Florida, and then he packed all around the US and ended up in California.
My parents met in a bar in California. He father was saying something about my mother in Afrikaner which is a language that is a derived from Dutch. My mom speaks Dutch, and so she answered him. I guess they hit it off…
They have since separated, but my dad still lives in California. I had not met my entire other South African family since I was a tiny baby.
I just got back from visiting them this week. It was so unbelievable- I met all these people who I didn’t know, but that looked like me, and I knew Were like me. It was an amazing feeling.
It was my birthday while I was there (I just turned sixteen). The money in South Africa is called rands, and there are about seven rands in one dollar. My father gave me two thousand rands as a birthday present.
I spent most of it on clothes and things, but then I decided to think about a tattoo. I know I wouldn’t have another chance, because they are very strict about age in the states. In South Africa, it is easy to get a well done tattoo.
I chose the cherries because I have always loved cherries, but I thought the placement was more unique for cherries than a hip or the lower back. I am very happy with the way it turned out."
Monday Jul 24, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Legalese
"Around 1997, before I had my kids, I got in some legal trouble. My brother had been washing illegal checks, and though I wasn’t involved, had asked me to go and cash one of them at a bank. I did, and got charged for second-degree commercial burglary. I ended up in the LA county jail for eighty-four days.
It was a really weird place. I had imagined that jail would have bars everywhere (like you think of in movies). Instead, it was all glass, and we were all enclosed in various rooms that the guards could see into, and lock off according to the time of day and what was going on.
People were very sensitive in jail. Things that wouldn’t even be an issue outside, became a huge deal. For example, if you had money on an account, you could get treats and better shampoo, things you didn’t get in jail. If anyone had too many extras, it could become a problem. I learned to mind my own business.
While I was there, I had a close friend who did tattoos. Doing tattoos in jail is not an easy business. First, we had to sharpen a paperclip (there are no needles), wind a piece of thread from our clothes, and rub the thread in powdered graphite. My friend gave this tattoo to me.
I am going to cover it up sometime, however. Though the experience of the tattoo was not a bad one, it would be hard to explain this to my kids if they asked. I just returned from Hawaii, and I’m thinking of getting a Hawaiian flower over this.
Friday Jul 21, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Sacred Heart
In 1994, I planned to take a trip with my father to Paris. I had the privilege of growing up with two parents who supported the arts, took me to museums, and were strong supporters of culture. I very much looked forward to this trip.
Unfortunately, my father became very ill. It was a terrible time for both of us. He is a tough guy though, and nothing stops him from doing the things that are important to him. In 2000, we decided to re-try our trip to Paris. It was my thirtieth birthday, and I was just about to open my first tattoo shop called Temple Tattoo, in Portland, Oregon. It was a celebration of many things.
My father was still very ill at this point, and losing his eyesight, but he had a great time and we went all over Paris. At one point, we were in Montparnasse, and my father saw a tattoo shop. I checked it out; it was called Tin Tin Tatouage. See http://www.tin-tin-tattoos.com/.
My father declined to be tattooed, as did my mother before. I think they both didn’t take tattooing seriously as an art form until I had really proved myself. As for the content of the tattoo, I was brought up in a gentle style of Catholicism. My mother is from Japan, and she is Catholic, but Japanese Catholic. In this tradition, Catholicism is less rigid and leaves room for the local religion of shinshuism.
This tattoo is a sacred heart, an iconic symbol of Catholicism. I thought of it though, because the tattoo shop was down the street from Sacred Coeur Cathedral. So, it was a nod to my heritage as well as a reminder of my trip.
As for the number, that is an entirely different story. Anytime people chose to recognize a number (such as thirteen or any other number) as special, they will begin to see it more and it will be in their atmosphere more often just because of their notice.
For me, forty-seven is a number that has followed me around my life. Numerologists say it is the bridge. Four means death is many cultures, and seven means luck. Together, these numbers mean change through adversity.
I originally considered getting my ex-partner’s name in the middle of the heart as a romantic gesture, but I talked to her on the phone right before I got the tattoo (though I had already drawn it out) and out of the blue she asked if I had gotten her name tattooed on myself yet. Her attitude kind of settled it, and I decided on forty-seven instead…"
Thursday Jul 20, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Tiger
I started this tattoo last Tuesday. It’s going to be a full sleeve when it’s finished, and I’m sticking to a Japanese theme throughout the piece.
My boyfriend, Gene Hannan @ www.happygoluckyart.com has been a tattoo artist for ten years. This is the first tattoo he has ever done for me. Next week is our year anniversary, and the tattoo is celebrating that.
I really like tigers a lot, but I have let him design the tattoo. Tigers represent strength in Japanese culture. This one is unusual in that it has a third eye. My friends say that the tiger reminds them of me when I’m angry …
In tradition Japanese tattoo art, the images are generally more cartoonish. I wanted this one to be a little more realistic than that.
We are going to add wind bars as well (the black and gray swirls and filler in Japanese tattooing). Also, he is going to do a lot more flowers. I said to him “Baby! Give me flowers!”
These are flowers that will last forever. Who else can give you that??"
Thursday Jul 20, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Formula for Life
There is a short answer and a long answer about the meaning of my tattoo. The short answer is that the two fish are at the top of the surface- that is, this is a tattoo of two fish; plain and simple. The other explanation is a bit more complex.
Most of my life, I had the strong belief that life came from the sun. The sun was the thing that life started from with chlorophyll, and photosynthesis. The whole idea of evolution and life was based, for me, on the sun as a first step.
A couple of years ago, I read something about these vents deep in the ocean floor. They are geothermal vents, and let off heat and gases. There is a whole ecosystem based on these vents and many animals living within this other circle of life.
I love thinking about this. If the sun went out tomorrow, there would still be life on our planet. Within this tattoo are the symbols for all of the planets, water (which is the true formula for life), and the double helix."
Wednesday Jul 19, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Break Dancin’
I have had a lifetime interest in tattoos. My parents met because they were both in punk bands, and I remember when I was little, many of my parent’s friends had full tattooed sleeves. I always liked the tattoos a lot.
After I finished high school, I traveled for a while in Europe, but as soon as I was back in the US and over eighteen, I got my first professional tattoo. Tattoos were never a rebellious thing for me; I just like the way they look on the skin. The first tattoo was on my back and it’s a reference to the comic ‘Jonny and the Homicidal Maniacs’. My tattoo is a Z with a question mark, and is an insomnia joke from the comic. I’ve had bad insomnia since I was a young teen. I actually forget that I have this tattoo, now, because it’s on my back.
The tattoo in this picture was originally an image from an old liquid crystal display watch. The imagery is similar to early game graphics. My parents were not into video games when I was a kid, so I just started getting into gaming culture in the last few years. I really like the old graphics a lot.
This design of break-dancers was appropriated by my favorite band, Mindless Self Indulgence, from NYC. I’ve been into this band since I was about thirteen, and the tattoo is really about liking the band more than anything else.
You can find this image on their tee shirts, CD covers and other places. I got this tattoo a couple of weeks before I went to New York to see one of their concerts. I live on the West Coast, but have been to see them at least eleven times.
I took my mom to see them once, and she thought they put on a good show and were ‘amusing’… My dad hasn’t said much about them. My dad still plays out from time to time with the Miss U’s, but I haven’t had many opportunities to see him because I just turned twenty-one!:
Wednesday Jul 19, 2006
Every Body Has a Story : Thai Mermaid
"I first stumbled across Jimmys shop in Bangkok in March 2004 by chance when I was looking to have some ink done while I was on holiday. I had once heard of this famous tattoo artist having a shop just off Sukhumvit Road from another tattoo artist in Bangkok, but it wasnt until I met Jimmy and got to know him and see some of his work that I put the two together.
One of my personal favorites that Jimmy has done is the one of a Thai Mermaid, a mythical Thai-style design on the inside of my right arm. I had all these oriental-style tattoos alreadykoi, tiger, dragon, and two Japanese Geisha, but what was missing was a Thai-style tattoo. I wanted something special that would be uniquely Jimmy Wong. And thats exactly what I got. The outline took nearly five hours to do and it took just as long to color it in. We still need to add some background highlights, which will also incorporate some more Thai designs like lotus and water. Since then, Jimmy has done a few more Thai-style designs including the outline of a major chest piece of mythical characters from the Thai epic poem Ramayana all of which are a testament to his tattooing expertise.
Once, when I was at Bangkoks Don Muang airport in the departure lounge waiting for my flight back to Seoul, a fellow traveler sporting some ink took notice of the tattoos on my armone of them a most recent addition from Jimmy.
Thats some really cool ink, he said. Get them done in Bangkok? Yes, I told him.
Looks like something Jimmy Wong would do, he said.
I smiled."
Wednesday Jul 19, 2006
INKED Tonight on A&E
Tuesday Jul 18, 2006
Emancipate Yourself..
Photo nicked from Piel Canel's Flickr page here.
Tuesday Jul 18, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Stormy Love
"I don’t know if it’s true, but it is said that the artist Thomas Woodruff used animal hearts as studies for his Cardiomegaly series of paintings, which is where this image comes from. I guess he kept the animal hearts in a refrigerator. Woodruff’s painting was featured on the cover of TattooTime, and I thought it to be a very powerful representation of the Three of Swords tarot card. The three daggers going through the heart. The card came up when a friend was doing a tarot reading, and I remember my friend describing it as Stormy Love. But I also like the placement of the tattoo in the fold of my arm. I like the way it draws on the tension of strings.
I have had a passion and love for tattoos for a long time. So much that I decided to direct my therapy practice around them: www.myinkedshrink.org. I think the main thing I wanted to accomplish was to offer a non-traditional counseling site that de-stigmatized some aspects of the therapy profession. Most people of my generation don’t want to go see someone who are their parents’ age or some professional who is all dressed up. I want people to know, especially my clients, that I am another human being just like them. I imagine the typical client to be someone leaving their therapist’s office in chin-duck position—walking out and trying not to let anybody see that they’ve been there. So I had my therapy site designed to look more like a tattoo shop than some place where you might feel degraded. Tattoos are a massive imprint on a person’s life. I think it’s a good starting point in getting to know someone.
But my therapy practice is more goal-oriented, as opposed to dealing with past issues, though I think those are important as well. I’m just more concerned about the question: Where do we go from here? It’s a shift in counseling perspective, a philosophy that acknowledges that tattooing and therapy can be transformational, a form of healing.
This tattoo was done by Timothy Hoyer at Alive Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.
Tuesday Jul 18, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Buck Stops Here
I got this tattoo three years ago, when I was about twenty-eight or twenty-nine. I got it from this guy named Lyon who was a friend of a friend but ended up becoming a good friend of mine after the tattoo.
Lyon came over to my house and he did the tattoo in the living room. I told him what I wanted in the tattoo, and he did it freehand.
This tattoo means a lot of different things to me. The way I see it, you’re born alone, and you die alone. Everybody and everything in between is just interacting with a person’s essential aloneness. When two people have a conversation, when you rehash later, the two people rarely have the same take on what was said. We live in our heads.
I grew up with my stepmother and never had a family or many connections. When I hear about other people losing their mothers or fathers and that great sense of loneliness that they feel, I guess it came to me quicker than other people. In a way, it makes it easier. Everything I have or have done or have learned, I have accomplished on my own.
A lot of those things were in pursuit of the dollar. A friend of mine was always asking me what I was doing and where I was going at all times of the day and night. He didn’t understand the drive to try and get by anyway possible. I work by buying and selling things. Anything. I’ve worked at markets, with individuals and every other way to make living.
Some of those ways landed me in jail in the past. In the tattoo, you can see the prison bars. The other thing is the web, which represents feeling trapped. One thing that I really liked that Lyon did on the tattoo (I didn’t ask him too, he just did it), was to put in a keyhole underneath the bars. I swear this has helped me many times."
Tuesday Jul 18, 2006
Dear INKEDblog: What About Temporary Tattoos The Last Six Months?
Hi INKEDblog!
First of all, props on an amazing website...
I wanted to ask, a couple of months ago in a magazine, saw a feature on temporary tattoos that last for up to 6 months. I can't find the article and I’m trying to find out whether or not this is actually possible. (I live in South Africa but I travel to London frequently). I realize that a temporary tat sounds really wussy, but I want to make sure that I’m committed to it.
So yeah, basically, I want to know if it’s possible to get a temporary tattoo, not those henna things or those kid ones, but a for-real-yet-6-month tat.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Amy
Dear Amy,
No, no, no and no!! This is a complete scam, practiced only by Charlatans of the tattoo field.
(For those uninformed about the infamous Six-Month Tattoo, this is a tattoo that is supposed to disappear after six months.)
The idea behind it is that the ink is applied very shallowly under the skin, and is supposed to be absorbed by the body after a period of months.
The fact is that when ink is under the skin, it stays there. If done poorly (i.e. using the six-month technique), it will fade and become blurry sooner rather than later.
Rather then a tattoo that you don’t have to commit to, you will be left with a terrible tattoo (often unrecognizable), forever…
Temporary tattoos are not wussy. There are some beautiful, true temporary tattoos on the market that last for a week or so. I would try something like this. Otherwise, Be Sure that you can commit to your image before you make your final decision!
Monday Jul 17, 2006
EveryBODY has a Story: Dorothy and the Poppies
“Suicidal Tendencies was scarified on my arm, and I was tired of looking at it. On my calendar, whatever month it was, was a picture from The Wizard of Oz—Dorothy standing in a field of poppies. So I brought that into a tattoo shop and began the cover-up process, a 180 degree turn from the punk rock inspired scars.
Ironically, the tattoo artist who did the job had his own story to tell. Once, he found his grandmother passed out in a field of poppies. And his mother owned a prized dress that was worn in a movie by Judy Garland, the actress who played Dorothy.”
Monday Jul 17, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Love of Souls
“This tattoo is an interpretation of The Love of Souls, a painting by Jean Delville, who was a Belgian symbolist painter. Most of his work is pretty dark and this is probably his most romantic piece. A lot of people confuse the image with the work of William Blake.
Turning it into a tattoo took some work. At first, I wanted to put it on my calve. We went so far as to stencil the image and imprint the purple rain on my skin, but the bodies wrapped too far around and it didn’t look very good. So we started over, decided to change body parts, and gave it a try on my thigh where it grew. This was my first really big tattoo.
I like how the bodies come out at the top and melt together. There’s also a lot of cool movement because of the thigh muscles, the way it moves the blue sky and the fire of the sunlight. To me it is a timeless image.”
Friday Jul 14, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Heart and Crossbones
"My sister and I are identical twins and wanted to get identical tattoos. So we walked into this tattoo shop one day for a consultation but couldn’t think of what image we would like to put on our bodies. That’s when my sister pulled her favorite barrette from her hair (the barrette she wears all the time) and we decide to go with it: The heart and crossbones. Identical twins are said to be mirror images of each other, and for the most part, we are very much alike. But what is interesting is that being a mirror image is also like being the opposite. So we decided to get the tattoos on our wrist so that when we were facing each other it would look like we were looking into a mirror at our tattoos. So this tattoo is on my left wrist, my sister’s is on her right. We also have mirror image nose rings.
Obviously, we share a lot in common. We both work at a Bishop’s hair salon, only at different locations. We both have orange cats. But there are things that are different. I bite my nails, my sister doesn’t (otherwise, our hands look very similar). I like to read a lot, not so for my sister. And I like thunder...and my sister doesn’t. I guess she’s more carefree than me. I think where we differ the most is with our favorite color. My favorite color is red, my sister’s is blue. So when we got the matching tattoo, we had the colors inverted. Mine is blue with a red outline, hers is red with a blue outline. That way when I look at the mirror image of myself—my sister—I see that my tattoo is red, my favorite color."
Thursday Jul 13, 2006
Na$ty
Photo by Mark The Cobrasnake
Thursday Jul 13, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: The Whale
"I wanted a tattoo since my Navy days. One particular mission I was involved in had its own mission design that had a whale with wings who was spouting water. I always regretted not having that tattoo. A few years after the tatto, I still wanted a tattoo and was interested in a sea creature, like a whale, dolphin, whatever. It was at this time my grand parents disclosed a "dark" family secret. They told us that two of our great grandmothers were Cherokees. Grandpa and Grandma wanted to let the family know before they passed on.
This sparked an interest in Native American art, culture, myth, religion, life. I have lived most of my life in the Pacific Northwest and feel closer to the Native tribes of Salish, Spokane, Nez Perce, Haida than I do to the Cherokees who live in a part of the country I've only been to once. At some point I decided on a native art design and I liked the Haida motif the best.
The whale is symbolic of wisdom and is seen as a protector of the people. This seemed to fit with my chosen profession of Public Defender. I spent a couple of years looking for the design I had pictured in my head.
One day on vacation in the San Juans, I went into the Whale Museum and saw this coffee cup with a Haida whale design by Joe Wilson. That was it, exactly what I'd been looking for. I bought it, took it to Atlas where Jamie Billig adapted it and put it on my left shoulder two years ago.
I haven't yet regretted having a tattoo. I can prove that my coffee cup is really mine. I am considering a Haida raven for my right shoulder. I'm just looking for the right design"
Thursday Jul 13, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Melting Butterfly
"I spent many hours yesterday getting this tattoo done, and some of today. A lot of the time yesterday was spent making the picture, though.
I am getting this tattoo from Josh at Raven tattoo. He is drawing the picture, and some of it, he is free-handing directly onto my skin.
My husband and I are both getting tattoos this week. My husband’s tattoo is going to be a series of guitars (he is a guitarist in a band). Playing music is his passion.
For me, my tattoo is flowers and butterflies, but not necessarily lifelike flowers and butterflies- more exotic and unique. I especially wanted a curled and bent leaf in the tattoo because it makes it all the more mine.
I love nature and arts of all forms. Specifically, I make glass beads No one showed me how to do it, I just watched someone once, and got a book. You can buy the beads at my friend’s shop- ShearPower in Kennewick, Washington.
Josh started making this image look like it was melting, and I really liked that. It fit with my glass work. He asked me what my favorite type of flower is, and I made him laugh because I could not think of a specific flower name. I like it when they look wild and not like any other flower.
I also wanted an image that would fit the contour of my arm and flatter the shape of it, rather than putting the picture square on a piece of skin. I am planning to fill in this picture with color, but I am waiting a few weeks until it is not so painful."
Wednesday Jul 12, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Water Lilies
"I don’t actually remember getting these tattoos, though I know that I got them about four years ago after the crash. It was a really bad time in my life. My wife left me, and two months later I was riding to work on my motorcycle and got into an accident.
A woman made a wide unexpected turn, and I t-boned right into the side of her car. I was sober, wearing full leathers, and a full-face helmet at the time. I still can’t figure out exactly how I landed, but I was thrown forty-five feet. I didn’t break a single bone, but I had brain injuries.
The next year or so, I had to see doctors two or three times a day. My frontal lobe was swollen, and my cognitive thinking mechanisms were impaired. What this ended up meaning was that I could not remember what happened a half-hour after it happened. It was a bad time not to have a girlfriend…
I have a dog named Ace, and he kept tricking me that he was hungry and so I kept feeding him. He ended up getting pretty fat. All this combined with an unbelievable headache that lasted for a year… Not fun.
I got this tattoo from Mathew Nightshift at Tiger Lilly tattoo. I have a lot of tattoos, but these are some if the most pretty and serene images at I have.
When my mom saw these tattoos, she decided that she wanted one too. She had never gotten a tattoo before, and I got it for her forty-ninth birthday present. I was real proud of how she did.
I still ride my cycle, and it’s taken a while, but the headaches etc. are much better. If I ever crash again though, I gotta break my record of forty-five feet- I’m going to fly at least fifty…"
Wednesday Jul 12, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Stag's Head
"I moved to Portland, Oregon from Vermont when I was about twenty, and within the first week I got my first ear piercing and my first tattoo: A stag’s head on my right arm and shoulder. I was raised in a religious family. My grandparents were hardcore Catholics and my parents were Unitarians. By age nine, I knew I wasn’t down with Christianity (though if they put couches in churches instead of wooden pews I might consider going again).
I had a growing interest in Paganism. And so with the first tattoo, I wanted an animal totem, a wolf or something like that. I decided against getting the wolf because I’m not a predator, but I still wanted something masculine. And I wanted the symbol to reflect different cultures and philosophies. At the top and bottom of the Stag’s Head are the Greek symbols of the sun and the earth. And the antlers that come down around the sides symbolize Order & Chaos—one antler is shaded, the other is not.
The tattoo that hangs below the Stag’s Head is a cross between Native American feathers and Irish knot work. I am Irish, after all. The tattoo was done by my friend Chase while I was in college. He later died in a motorcycle accident."
Wednesday Jul 12, 2006
INKED Tonight on A&E
Here's a preview of tonight's episodes of INKED on A&E:
First, at 9PM/8C, "Jumping the Gun ”
Jerome agrees to let Lilly apprentice, on the condition that she get her own equipment to practice tattooing. Short on funds, the only thing Lilly can think of to raise money is to sell some of her art--to which she is very attached. She is forced to decide between hanging on to pieces of her past, or selling them to move into an art form for her future. Dizzle's position in the shop takes an interesting turn when Carey and Big B surprise him with a new set of wheels.
and then...
At 9:30 PM/8:30C - "Jenn-uine Trouble ”
New hire Jenn Dabbs is off to a rocky start and Carey & company are quick to wonder if they made a mistake with their 26th hire in the past 2 years. Will the revolving door of receptionists spin Jenn out of H&H or will she survive another turn? Meanwhile, H&H alum Thomas and Monica start their new life with twins. It's a new beginning for some old friends.
** INKED on A&E is a sponsor of INKEDblog.com
Tuesday Jul 11, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Unicorn
"I haven’t been shy in a long time, but when I was about six or seven I remember having a crush on this little girl at school. Somehow, my dad and I got into a conversation about what you say to girls to get them to come over.
He said that if I really wanted her to come over, to tell her that I had a unicorn in my backyard. There isn’t a woman in the world that could resist that.
My dad had a few tattoos, but all hand done, and none of them unicorns. Though I was too shy at the time to tell my six-year-old crush about my imaginary pet, the thought stayed with me. I got this tattoo about two years ago from Cheyenne at Oddball tattoo. When I told him I wanted a male unicorn, he started drawing up images.
Each image we looked at didn’t seem quite big enough, though. When we finally got to this one, it was a matter of finding out where to fit it onto my body.
The sides are a seriously painful place to get tattooed. Usually, I can go for three-hour sessions before I get the feeling I’d like to punch the artist, but with this one, I could do two, maybe two and a half max.
The whole thing three sessions, and worked like a charm. My dad was right: there isn’t a girl in the world who can resist a unicorn…"
Tuesday Jul 11, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Diamond
"I was in Spain with a friend of mine, playing music and helping to run this hostel a few blocks from La Rambla. We were both into tattoos at the time, and had this idea for a tattoo that we wanted.
Every tattoo studio we went into was totally lame though. Blaring Nine-Inch Nails, and no sense of humor for our tattoo idea.
The tattoo we had in mind was based on an old sailor Jerry tat from Hawaii. The original, is a monkey that says Aloha. Since we were in Spain, we wanted the monkey to say ‘Hola”, and the ‘O’, as in the original, was created with part of the monkey’s anatomy…
Finally, we found this Argentinean guy, named Kikay, who worked at a studio called Rose Tattoo. He was a great guy. After we told him our idea, he went home, thought about it, and couldn’t sleep all night because he was laughing so hard.
He tattooed me and my friend and we hung out together a lot going to discotheques, drinking absinthe and staying up all night. Kikay had tattoos on both of his palms, and naturally, we spent a lot of time talking about tattooing.
I had always wanted a tattoo on my palm, but wasn’t exactly sure which image to get. All of a sudden, I was called back to the US for a family emergency. We had five days until our plane left, and Kikay told me that he was going to give me a palm tattoo as a going away present.
I’m in a band called Diamond Tuck, and Diamond is one of my nicknames. I gotta diamond so I’d be rich the rest of my life- not rich with money, maybe, but a rich life.
Kikay told me that when you do palm tattoos, you have to do them in dots, then double them over so the line blends together. By the time he was getting done, the car was waiting for me outside. We had so much sh-t to carry, all on my newly inked palm. Not just our packs and guitars, but a sword I got for my kid and a suitcase full of unopened adult toys we had found after some shop had closed.
Getting through customs was tough. The sword ended up being the hardest thing to bring in, but they let me put it into the guitar case. So it goes…"
Monday Jul 10, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Declaration of Intention
This tattoo says: Without hope, I have nothing. Without upholding the convictions of my heart, I would be nothing.”
This phrase was originally part of a letter I wrote to a woman with whom I had a year long correspondence. She lived in Prague, and I lived in the US.
We had spent several letters discussing a problem that she was having, and she wrote me back to thank me, and asked, “How is it that you are the way you are?”
The words of this tattoo were my response. I am a poet, musician, and writer by trade and as soon as I had written that phrase, I knew that I wanted it as a tattoo. It took three years, however, to actually decided to do it.
Though I know that I want this as the declaration for my life, I had concerns about my ability to follow my own mantra. I sat with the idea for those three years, thinking about the meaning implied, placement, and intention.
My housemate at the time was a Latin major. He was the one who translated it for me, and he did it in an extremely thoughtful manner. He explained to me the significance of each word in Latin phraseology, and the way he translated it became a poem in its own right.
I decided on the placement because I liked the way it was centered, and it referenced the chakra of my gut feelings.
At this point, I am in several bands (Like Fireflies We Float, is one of them), and I am finishing a book of twenty poems that will have photographs to accompany them.
There was no deciding act that made me realize that I was ready for this tattoo, but it feels right to me."
Monday Jul 10, 2006
Dear INKEDblog: Tattoo Fade
I was a good friend of Waylon Jennings and after he passed, I got a Waylon wing tattoo with bright southwest colors (taken from a design on a shirt he gave me).
It's a beautiful tattoo, but the tattoo crusted and all the bright color tones came off so it's now pastels. The girl that did this (while I lived in Phoenix) said my skin wouldn't hold the brighter colors. Is there any way I can get an expert opinion on this? I'd really like it to be the colors of the original design.
Debby
Dear Debby,
The intensity of the colors in your tattoo will be affected mainly by three things: your skin tone, the quality of your tattoo aftercare, and the tattoo’s amount of exposure to sunlight.
If you have a dark skin tone, colors will not be as bright as they would on a lighter skinned person. The pigment acts as a sort of filter. This is why white ink tattoos do not show up very well unless the wearer is extremely pale.
If your tattoo became very scabby during the healing process, it is also possible that your aftercare was compromised. If you have it filled in later, remember to wash the tattoo Very Gently with mild soap each day, dry it, apply a Small amount of lotion to keep it moist, and Do Not go swimming, hot tubbing, or soak it in water. (Showering quickly is all right).
As for the sun exposure, this is the primary reason tattoos fade. Wear loose fitting clothes covering your tattoo when you are outside at all times during the healing process. After that, ALWAYS put sunblock on your tattoo.
It is certainly possible to have a tattoo artist fill in or re-do the color that you have lost.
Best of luck,
INKEDblog
Saturday Jul 08, 2006
Photo of the Day
Photo by Mr Yrland
Friday Jul 07, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
Friday Jul 07, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Aries
"When I was born, my parents had my astrological chart done for me. So in a sense, I suppose they planted the seed for my future interest in the subject. Until I was about nineteen, however, it had been nothing but a vague interest. At that point, I got an amazing book on astrology that really changed my understanding of it.
Most people realize that Astrology readings are generally vague, and can be fit to work for nearly anyone. When you look up the specifics of the alignment of the planets at your birth, however, and entirely different story emerges. The picture becomes something that is highly individualistic.
Some time after I read this book; I went to see an astrologist to do my chart. I highly recommend it. I don’t wish to speak about the specifics of that experience, but just that she talked to me as if she had known me all of her life and I left feeling like I was a changed person.
This tattoo is a representation of the Aries symbol. I drew about seventy percent of the image, and the artist did the rest. I had been in art school (Academy of Art, in San Francisco), but left after about a year. I found that they were more interested in teaching people how to make money in the industry rather than supporting one’s individual voice. It was very discouraging, and at the time, I felt as if I was finished with the art world.
When I got this, I had originally thought of starting here, and putting the rest of my chart on other parts of my body. The artist drew two sketches- one, a hieroglyphic-looking Aries sign, and two, a realistic-looking pair of ram’s horns (the ram is the animal symbol of Aries). I mixed the two designs together, creating this image.
Friday Jul 07, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Love Story
This tattoo has a banner in Latin that says: Love has nothing to do with order. This phrase was actually from a letter written to the pope by an Irish priest named Columbanus, regarding the absurdity of a Roman doctrine decreeing the manner in which one ought to love god.
I got it last November from Jacob at Oddball Tattoo. I highly recommend them there. The concept I came up with originally was a little different from how it ended up looking. I guess, in a way, it’s the tattoo of the hopeless romantic, but I wanted a snake in a circle around the heart with the dagg. My plan was to get a new dagger through the heart each time my heart was broken...
I told the artist about my idea several weeks before our appointment. He didn’t call me and the day before I gave him a call. He asked me if I minded they he made a few alterations to my design idea. He explained how he thought it would look cool to have the winding snake weave through and around the heart.
When I saw the drawings, I really liked it a lot. It gives the piece a sort of three-dimensional quality it wouldn’t have had otherwise. Though I have never seen an image like this before, the bold colors and the heart and infinity snake give it a very classic look.
I guess the meaning of this tattoo is that I want to remember to learn from my experiences, and remember that love is a never-ending source of chaos. Sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.
Thursday Jul 06, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Temperance
My husband and I met at my birthday party on October 28th, last year. We had friends in common, but had never actually met each other.
That night, we stayed up until seven in the morning. We were both intrigued by each other, but going though some intense conflicts in our lives. We didn’t actually see each other again for another month. That night, my husband-to-be came over, and we talked all night long. He actually never ended up leaving again.
We are both writers, and we sensed in each other a sort of missing link we had been longing for in other relationships: the empathy of the writers’ unbalanced balance. My husband has a particularly ironic book out now (to the point of either hysteria or repulsion according to your personal constitution), The Greatest Show on Earth. He’s got another on the way. Check out www.danielscottbuck.com.
Four days after our fateful second meeting, under the influence of much alcohol and true love, we decided to get married. Not Legally married, but a sort of commitment ceremony, written and preformed by ourselves with a set of vows penciled onto Powerball lottery tickets we found in the bar.
This however, did not seem enough. We decided to get married ‘fer reals’. Thus it was that having had known each other for a maximum of three weeks, we solidified our commitment to each other in a legal ceremony.
Not long after that (like the next morning, unsurprisingly), we started thinking about Temperance. As the both driven but often irrational beings that we are, we developed a strategy to maintain our balance.
What? A tattoo, of course.
In tarot, the temperance card is not at all like the temperance of prohibition… It is the card of alchemy and the arts. The idea is not to Stop doing anything, but to mix each thing in the correct amount that would result in artistic creation.
It has taken us (in typical form), about five months to get around to getting this tattoo. We got them together tonight, and it was the most meaningful tattoo I have ever experienced.
This is also my husband’s first tattoo. We got them done by Sage at www.sage-ink.com. We highly recommend him and he travels to do work.
Wednesday Jul 05, 2006
INKED Tonight on A&E
Wednesday Jul 05, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Black Arm Sleeves
"A couple of years ago my husband started working on a black arm sleeve. He started it around the same time we opened our tattoo shop, Forbidden Body Art Tattoo.
I really liked the way the sleeve looked, though it was a seriously labor intensive process. Last year we decided to get matching black sleeves. I started mine about six months ago, and my husband has been doing the work for me.
We work on it for about two hours at a time, but it’s taken a pretty long time. I am covering up a lot of other tattoos that I have underneath, but that isn’t the point of this tattoo. For my husband and I, this tattoo is a symbol of our commitment to each other. It’s a difficult and long process to be in a marriage, but we intend to keep it solid forever.
This particular kind of tattoo is very, very stable. Even when we are old these tattoos won’t have the smudged lines that tattooed names (for example) end up having.
I am happy to take my time about getting this tattoo because I know I will always have it."
Wednesday Jul 05, 2006
Every BODY Has a Story: Irish Crest
"When I was a kid, my dad had a tattoo that said ‘Fighting Irish’. I didn’t know what I wanted, but from that time on I knew that I wanted a tattoo. Both my parents are Irish, but not entirely, none of my grandparents were directly from Ireland.
Nevertheless, being Irish is something we celebrated. Mostly on St. Patrick’s day with parades and barbecues, and pints…
My aunt by marriage got really into genealogy. She researched her family to a long way back, and then started on our family. She traced our family from Ellis Island, to New York, to Oklahoma, to California, to Oregon.
We all got pretty interested in it after she started the research. One thing that she found was our family crest. This is what I had tattooed over the Irish flag. After I got it, my dad asked me if I was sure the crest was really the one for our family and I got a little nervous.
I went to Seaside, and talked to this ancient guy that does genealogy and crests. I didn’t tell him about my tattoo, just asked about the crest for my name. He started to describe it right away. I guess my aunt got it right!
Today, I want to somehow incorporate the American flag into the Irish one. Though I’m a lot Irish, what I really learned from my aunt’s research was that I’m 100% American."
Monday Jul 03, 2006
"Seen At The Clubs" - Photos by Mark The Cobrasnake
More from Mark here.
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INKEDblog takes you beneath the skin of today's tattoo culture. Our mission is to celebrate tattooing as a modern art form which incorporates art, fashion, style, and pop culture. While paying homage and respect to the past, we look to present a contemporary take on the present and future of skin art.
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