Adam(Maroon 5) Levine Body with Tattoos

 

 

 As the lead singer of ulra-popular pop/rock quintet Maroon 5, Adam Levine has won multiple Grammy Awards; hit the top of the charts with songs like “This Love”, “Harder To Breathe”, and “Wake Up Call”; and secured himself a gig as a vocal coach on the hit reality show The Voice. Adam Levine is a full fledged rock star, and part of being a rock star is getting tattoos, and Levine has done that plenty. Amongst his tattoos are a tribute to his mom on his left forearm, triple “2”s on is forearm to represent the first studio Maroon 5 recorded in, a paw print, a shark representing his nickname, “Los Angeles” on his right shoulder to represent his hometown, a guitar on his forearm, a large tiger on his forearm, the roman numeral “X” to celebrate his bands ten year anniversary, a dove and cherry blossoms in rememberance on 9/11, a a bird on his sternum (perhaps to commemorate when he broke it), and some other various designs throughout his body.

 

 

2012 NYC Tattoo Convention

This past Saturday, May 19, I attended the New York City Tattoo Convention at Roseland Ballroom near Times Square.

This was the fourth year in a row that I have gone and I have to say, it finally feels like home. I’ve always felt out of place and have always been overwhelmed by the sheer sensory overload. What follows is a loose recap of the event with some photos I took with both the camera and the Droid. I plan on expanding a few of these encounters in separate posts.

First of all, I must give a shout-out to Marisa and Brian from Needles & Sins. They’ve always been friendly faces that I can gab with to no end, and every year I spend more and more time in their company. They were the first people I saw and, much to my delight, I ran into them on the subway platform on my way back to Brooklyn. A hearty thanks to Marisa and Brian for their hospitality. If you haven’t checked out Needles & Sins, I encourage you to do so.

So obviously I saw a lot of tattoos in the five or so hours that I was ensconced in Roseland. But remember, we’re not just about gawking at amazing body art, but meeting and appreciating, as well. So we are very particular about who we photograph.

There are a few artists I want to acknowledge. I had a nice chat with Matt Van Cura, who is over at Invisible NYC on Orchard Street. Matt was familiar with Tattoosday from a post that featured his work here.

I also spent some time by the Sacred Tattoo booth, talking to shop manager Kevin Wilson. Jon Mesa was hard at work and I got to chat with him and tell him how well I thought he had done on Oxygen’s Best Ink competition (he was the runner-up). A general discussion of tattoo reality shows broke out which many of you already know is a topic of great interest to me.

I also had the honor of meeting an artist whose work I have admired for quite some time. When I snapped a photo of this phenomenal back piece, I also captured its creator (in the green shirt) David Sena.

Based out of North Star Tattoo, Sena is opening a new art space soon, with a private studio for tattooing, and was excited to be showing off his handiwork.

It’s also fun to run into people I’ve interviewed at previous shows. For example, I featured this back piece from Jessica last year and I ran into Steve who shared a really cool Celtic tattoo last year here. He had new work, also by Agent at Screamin’ Ink in Fair Lawn, which again emphasized his Irish heritage:

What also is really neat is seeing work that I had spotted outside of the convention, on the streets of New York, like when I recognized a memorial cat tattoo on the arm of Niki, who I met in July 2010.

And then there’s the new tattoos I see, like this awesome Coney Island-themed back piece on Tiffany, who sells art jewelery here.

This is a collaborative effort, Tiffany told me, of two incredible tattooists, Michelle Tarantelli and Chris O’Donnell, both of Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Then there was Kate, who shared a tattoo that will appear on Tattoosday in a future post. She was a client of North Star’s Becca Roach, who was receiving a lot of attention first due to her phenomenal sleeves, and then when she stripped down to allow Becca to add a revolver to her side, which I captured here. Note the amazing work on her arms as well.

Speaking of gun tattoos, on the day before I attended the convention, I ran into a model named Melissa on Broadway in the mid-30s. She was heavily-inked but running late, and as she had plans to go to the convention, we agreed to meet up at the show. During one of the contests, she took the stage to display her left leg, sleeved by Gene Coffey at Tattoo Culture in Brooklyn.

You can see her right leg is tattooed with a gun in a thigh holster. Earlier in the day, I sat down with Melissa and interviewed her about the gun and its back story. Stay tuned for that in a future post.

In years past, the biggest crowd seems to draw around the artists from Japan, using traditional tattoo techniques in a booth up on the Roseland balcony. I didn’t really watch them this year, but did admire the work of Brent McCown, who was using traditional Maori techniques down on the main floor.

While hanging in the bar with Marisa and Brian, I also got to meet Phil Padwe, whose childrens' book Mommy Has A Tattoo is a must have for kids with inked moms.

 

He has a series of coloring books as well, which will get some more attention from me in a future post.

You can check out some additional photos over on Needles & Sins here, which includes a shot of me sharing my Heather Sinn tribal piece from Ink Master. You'll also see Damion Echols, one of the recently-released West Memphis Three, who I had the distinct honor of meeting. This was a tremendous surprise to see him at the show and I had the pleasure of talking to him briefly at the Sacred booth. Despite it not being tattoo-related, it was one of the highlights of the afternoon for me.

Thanks to to all of the artists, subjects, and other assorted folks who yet again made my trip to the New York City Tattoo Convention a wonderful time!

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.

It's a Small World: Steve Shares Some Amazing Tim Kern Handiwork

Last June (yes, you read that correctly - I've been sitting on this post a while!), I attended a book release party at Sacred Gallery in Manhattan.

While perusing the art hanging on the walls, I noticed a fellow attendee who had a lot of tattoos. To be honest, that pretty much described everyone in attendance, but what jumped out at me was a familiar-looking piece on this gentleman's leg:

photo by Janet Loder-Berthelon

What was surprising about this tattoo is that I had seen it before - just not in person. It had, however, appeared on Tattoosday, two years earlier in this post, courtesy of my friend Janet, who spotted the host on the subway and unwittingly submitted one of the few "guest spots" we have ever had.

I introduced myself and learned that the gentleman's name is Steve Prue, a very talented photographer (click through his name to see some amazing work). Needless to say, he remembered meeting Janet, and offered up to me some of his amazing work on his left sleeve:

These wonderful tattoos are the handiwork of Tim Kern of Tribulation Tattoo. The robot face (above) and what Steve called his "robo-Kali" (below) are truly phenomenal and it is almost criminal that I have been sitting on these photos for so long.

This "small world" story ended up letting us experience segments of  two "out of this world" tattoos.

Thanks to Steve for sharing them 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.

"Ladies, Ladies" Art Show at Tattoo Culture in Brooklyn Tonight!

Tonight at Tattoo Culture in Williamsburg, the second annual "Ladies, Ladies" Art Show is kicking off with a big launch event.

It was at a Tattoo Culture event several years back that I first met one of the curators of this show, Magie Serpica (who shared this tattoo).

Here's a work by one of the show's 100+ artists Itoyo Kinoshita:

Whereas last year's show was a tribute to "old school" female tattooers, this year's event has more of a New York-based slant, with an emphasis on female artists in the Big Apple. That said, I recognized, among the list of contributors, at least a dozen artists whose work has been featured on Tattoosday over the years.

I encourage you to attend if you are in NYC tonight and, at the very least, visit here to get a closer look at the Ladies, Ladies extravaganza.

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.

Shroomtastic!

Yesterday I was walking around Penn Station during lunch, as is my normal workday routine. I saw quite a few tattoos, but nothing seemed to impress. I was hoping to chance upon something a little more original than flowers, dragons and skulls.

I spotted a young woman talking to a few other people and a few of them had tattoos. I sauntered on over, figuring between them, I'd see something interesting. I wasn't disappointed.

Among the group was Mark, who shared this tattoo on the back of his calf:

Those are mushrooms. More specifically, psilocybin mushrooms, which have hallucinogenic properties.

The artist was the woman I initially spotted, a freelance "underground" tattooist from Oakland, California who gave her name as Steiner Ella.

Thanks to Mark and Steiner for sharing this cool 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.

The Great Big Banksy Post

I'd like to assume everyone knows who Banksy is, but then again, there was a point not too long ago when I didn't.
One of the nice things about this site is that it also acts as a personal timeline for me. Case in point: when I met Sarah and she shared this Banksy tattoo, I then became aware of the entity that made a name for himself (quite literally) by spray-painting graffiti around London.

How serious is this Banksy? When his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was nominated for an Oscar a couple years back, and he was in Los Angeles for the awards, he struck his graffiti claws into the City of Angels.

Art collectors were prepared, and within hours of his work being discovered, they had at it with jack hammers and chisels, removing the public display for private collectors, presumably at great profits.

I have since become familiar with Banksy through additional tattoo sightings (like this one) and from reading a few of the lovely books on the subject.

Last fall, I found two new books, companion volumes, that are exceptional introductions to Banksy, and also great companions to Banksy aficionados.

The two volumes, Banksy Locations & Tours Volume 1: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs in London, Englandand Banksy Locations & Tours Volume 2: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs from around the UKare great companion pieces that help one discover the work of Banksy. The author, Martin Bull, is a photographer who led walking tours of Banksy's public art in various English locales. He has taken great pains to catalog every Banksy piece, many of which have been demolished, painted over, or extricated from their original homes.

We even get GPS coordinates, so a true connoisseur can visit Banksy's ghosts.

Bull gets a little repetitive bemoaning the "theft" of the originasl and cursing those that profit from their sale. But I was able to look past that, and chalk it up to his uncompromising love of his subject.

These are not glossy tomes, but handy little guidebooks that would be worthy travel companions on any Banksy fan's pilgrimage to London.

And why am I rambling and reviewing these books here on Tattoosday?

I did mention two previous Banksy inspired posts and, it should come as no surprise, I have two more to share from 2011, as we come very close to the end of our backlog.

The first is from Natasha who I met in the now-vacant Borders bookstore on Penn Plaza. She has this piece on her arm:

One of Banksy's signature pieces is the rat, and he has multiple sequences of street art that involve rats, which are perfect vehicles for shining lights on society. This particular piece from Natasha is a "helicopter rat".

She credits Hexx, formerly at Fort Apache Tattoo Studio in Manhattan. 

Natasha told me, "I was actually surprised when I got this that more people didn't recognize it, because so many people know Banksy now." The rat using a helicopter blade to paint in a presumably inaccessible location is a classic Banksy motif.

The second Banksy piece we're appreciating today is from Taylor, whose ink has appeared previously in Tattoosday here.

Since Taylor first appeared on Tattoosday, she's had a lot of work done, but most impressive is this Banksy piece on her lower back:



This tattoo is based on this amazing Banksy piece:

When I asked Taylor why she chose this particular piece of art, she replied "The way it's raining underneath the umbrella, I feel like it's always raining on me."

She credits Angel at Puncture Tattoo Studio in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, with inking this on her back.

Thanks to Natasha and Taylor for sharing their work with us here on Tattoosday. And, of course, thanks to Banksy for providing the inspiration.

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.

Jesse's Tribute to Pee-wee

On a Saturday back in March, I was passing through Penn Station when I spotted Jesse, who had quite a few tattoos. He shared this great Pee-wee Herman tattoo on his foot:

Why did Jesse get Pee-wee inked on his foot? He explained, "When I was growing up, the only good thing that was happening in my childhood was watching his TV show [Pee-wee's Playhouse] ... so I felt like I owed it to him".

He credited this incredible piece to Blake Brand, a California-based artist who occasionally comes out to the East Coast and tattoos out of at Philadelphia Eddie's Chinatown Tattoo.

Thanks to Jesse for sharing this amazing piece 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.

Good Sparrow, Bad Sparrow

Last month along Eighth Avenue, I spotted Phillip, who had a ton of traditional ink. In fact, he had just had work done on his neck, rocking these two tattoos:

These two sparrows combine to represent a take on the good versus bad consciences that people have.

Phillip says he has "hundreds" of tattoos, and he credits Baz at New York Hardcore Tattoo with these pieces.

Thanks to Phillip for sharing these tattoos 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.

Wrapping Up The Tattooed Poets Project, Volume 4

Well, it’s May, which can only mean one thing here on Tattoosday - I’m exhausted.

Every year, I put together the Tattooed Poets Project in the month of April and it’s a labor of love. Toward the end of the month, however, it’s more labor and less love, and I am relieved when another National Poetry Month has passed.

So, I’m going to take a deep breath, and pause briefly, before we resume our normal programming here on Tattoosday.

However, before doing so, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who helped out with this year’s installment.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank all of the poets for their contributions. For a list of this (and previous) year’s inked scribes, you can visit the index at www.tattooedpoets.com.

Next, I’d like to thank David Lehman and Stacey Harwood from the Best American Poetry blog. They’ve been supporters of the project since its inception, they help publicize it every year and, in 2012, they helped even more by re-tweeting several of my posts.

Part of my process is to reach out to poets in the literary world, soliciting their submissions. Often, poets may not be tattooed, but they certainly know some who are. For that reason, I want to thank Tony Barnstone, Amy Newman, and Tim Donnelly, three un-inked poets who tipped me off to other poets who ended up in this year’s group of 35 contributors.

And of course, I want to thank the readers of Tattoosday, who continue to support the site through their appreciation of the site. In four years, we’ve featured 123 different poets, eight of whom have submitted work in multiple years. If no one visited, we’d be lonely indeed, and Tattoosday scored a record for April with 50,000 hits and a monthly high 89,643 page views (but who’s counting?). I am humbled by your interest and am motivated to make next year bigger and better for lovers of poetry and tattoos, everywhere.

Thank you again,

Bill Cohen

The Tattooed Poets Project: Puma Perl

Our final installment of the fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project is from a repeat contributor, Puma Perl. Puma graced us last year with this contribution.

 Puma wanted to share her newest tattoo with us, and I couldn't possibly turn her down after I saw it:

Puma explains:

"This tattoo was just finished ... on Saturday 2/18/12. It is a companion piece to the mermaid with the Wonder Wheel on my back, which I sent you last year. I guess the Coney Island Theme will continue as Coney Island is torn down, or 'redeveloped.' Both pieces were done by Emma Griffiths, who now works out of Tattoo Culture."

As I live in south Brooklyn, near Coney Island in Bay Ridge, I can't help but be partial to Coney Island-themed tattoos.

Puma sent us a Coney Island-themed poem, to boot:

CONEY ISLAND FEBRUARY
 
He leaves,
the sounds
of a concrete
boardwalk
trailing behind him
 
and I dream
of bass players
and Coney Island,
broken benches
and Coney Island
 
and I dream
of warm peaches
and Coney Island
burlesque babes
and Coney Island
 
I dream
I dream of
Coney Island
 
and I wake,
hands filled
with pussy,
 
unsatisfying,
but I go on
because
progress
must continue.

~ ~ ~

Puma Perl is a NYC-based writer, performance artist, and curator. Her poetry and fiction have been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. 

She is the author of the award-winning chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, and a full length collection, knuckle tattoos. 

She lives and writes on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison. She is a founding member of DDAY Productions, which presents poetry and performance events. Link to her blog for info about book purchases and events: http://pumaperl.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to Puma Perl for her contribution and for rounding out this year's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2012 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Shana Wolstein

Our penultimate tattooed poet is Shana Wolstein, who sent us this photo:

Shana explains:

The word 'always,' was the first tattoo I got. It's on my left-wrist, facing me. The song 'Always,' by Irving Berlin, was what my mother used to sing to us when we were sad as children. My sister got a similar tattoo and when my dad asked what my mother would have said, we both had to sheepishly grin because the answer was always 'Wait until I'm dead.'

I got it while I was studying abroad in China and visiting Hong Kong, a few months after she passed away. I wrote [the following] poem after visiting Tai Shan or Mount Tai, one of the 'Five Sacred Mountains' in China. According to Wikipedia 'it is associated with sunrise, birth, and renewal.' "

My Journey of Over 6,000 Steps

The best way to cure a cold
is to climb up the tallest mountain
you can find. Spot as many lucky
birds, rest on every turn, and when
a man offers to carry you—refuse.

When you think you can't go any further,
you will. Like the bird pacing
the ground and shuffling dirt
with his beak, you need patience.

When you close a lock, throw the key
down the mountainside, it can only make
the bond stronger. Forget about food,
or what you thought it was, question

the safety of bottled water, watch old
women climb faster than you, watch
the clouds erase your time, the sun
write it on the walls, the dry stones bleach.

 ~ ~ ~

Shana Wolstein has her MFA from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where she was the 2011 recipient of the Herb Scott Award for Excellence in Poetry. She has been published by Third Coast Magazine, Anomalous Press, Hinchas de Poesia, OVS Magazine, and more. Still in Kalamazoo, she works as Coordinator for the Prague Summer Program and Managing Editor of the academic journal Reading Horizons.

Thanks to Shana for sharing her poem and tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project : Joolz Denby

Our second tattooed poet today, Joolz Denby, hails from Great Britain. Not only is she a tattooed poet, she is a tattoo artist, as well, tattooing out of her shop, Studio Bijoux, in Bradford, UK.

Joolz sent us this photo of one of her tattoos:

Joolz explains:

"This tattoo is from the Dylan Thomas poem Do Not Go Gentle and it is a facsimile of my handwriting. It was done by one of my tattoo masters, Adam Dutton at Lifetime Tattoo in Derby UK where I did my apprenticeship. I had it done in memory of my father, Captain Ron Mumford of the Highland Light Infantry and the Territorial SAS. I loved and still love him very much indeed. He was a soldier, a scholar and a gentleman." 

Here's Joolz performing a poem:



You can also read and hear more of her work on her website here.

We're honored to have Joolz contributing to the Tattooed Poets Project. As one can tell from her wikipedia entry, she's an accomplished figure in England both in poetry and tattoos.

Thanks to Joolz for participating!

This entry is ©2012 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Ali Jacs

On this, the penultimate day of our fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project, we will be featuring a pair of tattooed spoken word artists.

First up is Ali Jacs, who shared her tattoo in its sketch stage

and in its final state:

Ali explains:

"I got the ... tattoo in January 2010 after a bit of a dark yet very enlightening stage in my life ... The tattoo artist Elton Buchanan is trained in the Maori style of the Te Arawa tribe in New Zealand. There is fair bit of symbolism in this - frangipani flower petals symbolize personal awakening, of which I did a fair amount in 2009! There are fish scales which symbolize the 'taniwha', or mythical Maori protector who dwells in the ocean, there is weaving to symbolize strength in family and friends and there are two Manaia - guardian spirits of the earth, sea and sky. Blending in some contemporary culture, there is a treble and bass clef to highlight my connection with music. 

Which ties in quite well with my poem, which I've provided [below] ... most of my poetry these days is focused on performance poetry and this particular piece focuses on the music that we hear in every day occurrences and the sounds that bring this world alive." 

Here is the poem that Ali has shared:

   

Ali Jacs is a performance poet from Wellington, New Zealand. After getting involved in the spoken word community in the Canadian prairies, Ali returned home to New Zealand in 2010. She won 2nd place in the 2011 Going West Writer’s Festival Poetry Slam in Auckland and in October 2011, won 2nd place in New Zealand’s inaugural National Poetry Slam. Having travelled extensively across Canada and Europe, Ali’s poetry is inspired by people, landscapes and cultures encountered on the road, exploring themes of politics, sexuality, social and environmental justice and the madness of these crazy times. Ali runs the monthly performance poetry series Poetry in Motion in Wellington, New Zealand and has recently finished her first chapbook Romantic Pragmatism. You can also check her out on her new website www.alijacs.com.  

Thanks very much to Ali Jacs for her contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The tattoo is reprinted with the poet's permission. 

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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Danielle Shutt

Our next tattooed poet is Danielle Shutt., who sent us two photos.

First is a shot from right after she got inked in June 2007:

And then, a close-up of the tattoo:

Danielle explains:

"My wrist tattoo came out of my own mindless notebook scribblings. It's two intertwined S's, representing my younger siblings' first names. We've been through a lot together. I got the tattoo when I was 23 and living in Richmond, VA. There was a particularly strong surge of family-related peril and tumult back then, and I found myself wanting something that would keep my brother and sister close to me--something less morbid than the black cloth bracelet I'd been wearing. I knew the drawing was exactly 'right,' but it took me a while to commit anyway. I'm the kind of person who needs to be bitten by impulse before I get my body involved in anything. (This includes dancing and doctor appointments.)

In this case, a grande margarita and my friend Kristen did the trick. Kristen accompanied me to River City Tattoo, where a nice guy named Reverend Bob tattooed the symbol on my wrist in less than three minutes. I was happy with it. I always will be.

I get asked all the time about what the tattoo means, which is cool because I love talking about my sibs. I still think of the tattoo as a comfort, but more often these days it reminds me of my brother and sister's hard-fought survival, which in turn reminds me to stay strong, too."

Danielle shares this poem, as well, which originally appeared in thINK, a letterpress book published by Bowe Street Press at Virginia Commonwealth University:

Sometimes I Have to Go Around Will’s Curb

Barbed wire reached to scratch a warning at his window;
or, the slaughter-cows flicked their tails like traffic guards,
and in dusk a roadside tree flashed him old scars
        to beg off new bruises.

But really, there's nothing looking dead there. No car parts
or patches of uprooted grass, none of his teeth half-ground
into the pavement. The wooden stretch of new fence
        isn't as stark as I'd expected.

I guess he kept all the mess of it with him, smashed under
his face, caulked behind his eyelids; or, it's in the red dirt
and bone dust sent up by the tractor hitched to his lungs,
        pulling slow on these back roads.

~ ~ ~

Danielle Shutt completed her MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, WA, where she taught writing courses and served as a poetry editor for Willow Springs. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Hayden's Ferry Review, Redactions: Poetry & Poetics, PANK, Copper Nickel, DIAGRAM, and Hotel Amerika.

Thanks to Danielle for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 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.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Francesco Grisanzio

Every year I meet at least one of the poets featured on the Tattooed Poets Project. Francesco Grisanzio lives in New York and I got the chance to personally photograph his tattoos, which he offered up for us here on Tattoosday:

Francesco explained:

"My tattoos are of the characters from a comic strip I draw, or at least used to draw.

It's been a few years since I made a new strip. The comics haven't been published, but I did receive a great rejection letter from the paper at UMass Amherst when I was a student there.

They said something along the lines of 'We love the art, but you know that this content is unpublishable. Clean it up and we'll talk.'

The tattoos were done in Woonsocket, RI at American Art Tattoo."

Francesco offered up this poem:

Teenage Heaven

After Eddie Cochran

The Coupe, phone, big city—
freedom, Eddie, is what it boils down to.
Sharp crew cut cardigan,
our dearest son,
patriot, toe tap child rebel against homework,
enjoy the benefits of citizenship.
You’ve earned it.
Here’s three dollars.
Have a swell weekend.
We trust you not to make a mess.

But it’s not just youthful ignorance
or innocence where you choose to do what’s right on your own.
We’ve been to the drive in show,
seen peacock letterman, gorilla arm not content on headrest.
How dare you chuckle.  She’s just a child.
My God, Eddie, there’s nothing “little snack” about six hotdogs.
That’s beyond ingestion.  Where will they all go?
What are your intentions with our daughter?
We know she’s beautiful, but show restraint.
Little lady, you’re young.  This is heaven.
You can run.  This is America.
Please.  He’s an animal.  A beast.
And, Eddie, we’re very disappointed in you.

~ ~ ~

Francesco Grisanzio is currently working on his MFA in poetry at The New School. He earned his BA in English from UMass Amherst. His work has appeared or will be appearing in Word Riot, Fawlt, Why I Am Not a Painter, Strange Machine, and Interrobang!? Magazine.

Thanks to Francesco for his contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

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


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