Wake up Tattoos: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Tattooed Poets Project, Volume 4

It seems incredible to me that this April, in 2012, we’ll be celebrating National Poetry Month on Tattoosday for the fourth year in a row, by showcasing the tattoos of poets. Not necessarily literary tattoos, but tattoos of the literary.

When the idea first struck me in early 2009, I didn’t know if a) it would work, and b) if I would be able to pull it off. Every year, somehow, I manage to execute at least thirty days of inked poets, and, with apologies to Lennon/McCartney, I get by with a little help from my friends.

2012 is slightly different. Faced with a big family event in February, I got an early start and went from worrying about not filling the calendar to the heretofore unimaginable - too many contributions? Someone posted the call for submissions on a UK writer’s board, and I was flooded with e-mails offering up their poetry and ink. I started - gasp!- to decline inquiries.

The end result is a month packed with tattooed poets. There will be days with double posts so, if you are in the habit of checking in daily, you may want to visit back in the evenings, as well, so as not to miss anyone. Of course, I always point people to the Tattooed Poets Project Index (www.tattooedpoets.com) to get the complete rundown.

Thanks for checking in, and happy national poetry month!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Celebrity Tattoos - Lady Gaga

The Poker Face singer is probably best known for her outlandish outfits and crazy hair and fun dance songs. But Lady Gaga real name, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. But do not dare call her that, she only responds to Lady Gaga or Gaga. Well Lady Gaga is also no stranger to the tattoo gun. Lady Gaga has a total of three tattoos.The one tattoo that most everyone has seen is the black peace symbol located on her left wrist. If you look at it, it looks upside down but from Lady Gaga's view it is right side up. She says she got this tattoo because of John Lennon. She is a huge John Lennon and Beatles fan and she grew up two miles from the imagine memorial.

When one thinks of the, I kissed a girl singer the last thing that comes to their mind is tattoos. This is the best thing about tattoos. People who you would never think to have one has one. This also just goes to show that the stereotype on tattoos couldn't be more wrong. It is usually those shy, good girls from next door that have a secret love for tattoos. With that being said, Katy Perry does have a tattoo of her own and it just so happens to be in a rather visible place.Katy has a tattoo on her left wrist. Her tattoo is a text tattoo, that simply says Jesus in black ink. No word on why Katy decided to get this tattoo.

The former Disney star has stayed out of trouble and scandals and has been able to hold on to a good girl, wholesome image. She has worked hard to stay out of trouble and to live her life in privacy. She has admitted before when she turned 18 years old that she wasn't interested in getting a tattoo because she felt she would be bored with it. She also admitted that she wasn't sure she would be able to take the pain that's involved with getting a tattoo. She was also quick to let everyone know she didn't have a problem with them.

But it looks like Hilary had a change of heart because she has been sporting some ink here recently.Hilary decided that it was the right time in her life to get a tattoo. She has "Let it be" written in black right under the outside of her right ankle.

The child star probably is most well known for her role as Wednesday in the Addam's Family movies has several tattoos of her own. Christina's tattoos range from text tattoos, to traditional tattoos, to girly tattoos and so on.

Since it is Wednesday it's time for my weekly installment of Celebrity Tattoos. This week I decided to go with Brad Pitt, mainly because so many women and men think he is the sexiest man alive and that a lot of people are not ware that Brad actually has tattoos. To be honest you will probably be shocked to how many Brad has.The first tattoo of Brad's I'm going to start with is the one on his back.

When one thinks of Ben Affleck the first thing that comes to mind is a Hollywood hunk not a man that has several tattoos covering his shoulders. arms and back. Most people are not aware of Ben's little tattoos collection, the main reason behind that is Ben is ashamed of his ink now. He admits he got most of his ink when he was around 16 and wishes he would not have chosen half of the designs he did.

People don't seem to understand that just because you are a good girl and don't party or do drugs doesn't mean you can't get a tattoo. There has been a negative stereotype on tattoos since day one when sailors, bikers, and criminals were the only ones to have them. However, times have changed, it is 2009 after all. Tattoos have come a long way since the dawn of time. Because tattoos have become so mainstream it's not uncommon for a goody goody if you will to have one or more tattoos.

Tattoos are a form of self expression and people should stop looking at them as a bad thing.Well Disney star Ashley Tisdale is the latest Disney star to go out and get a tattoo. It is not known when Ashley got her tattoo, but she was seen coming out of Shamrock Tattoos last Sunday.

Celebrity Tattoo Removal - Stories of Tattoo Regret

Today, more than ever, celebrities are running to tattoo parlors in an effort to express themselves. Body art has become an accessory to many such as teacup dogs and expensive purses. The number of celebrities with tattoos is on the rise. In the old days, it was prominently the metal and punk rockers and athletes that were heavily inked.Nowadays, ink can be found on celebrity bodies from the cat walk, to the small screen, and to the red carpet and the big screen.

However, not all celebrities heed the advice of picking the right tattoo that they won't one day regret. Therefore, as number of celebrities get tattoos rises, so does the number of tattoo regret and tattoo removal.One of the main reasons that people, including celebrities, goes into see a laser tattoo removal specialist is because they have the name of a former lover inked on their body or they may have matching tattoos inspired by an ex. There are plenty of examples of celebrities that have had tattoo regret for just this reason.

Celebrity Tattoo Regret - Angelina Jolie

For some people the reason they refrain from getting a tattoo in the first place is because they feel they will regret their tattoo decision or they just simple can't comprehend the idea of having inked embedded in their skin for the rest of your life. However, that is just a chance you are going to have to take when you get a tattoo.But don't fret you are not a lone in the tattoo regret department. It has been said that more woman than men regret their tattoo decisions, mainly because woman are judged more often than men when it comes to tattoos. However, if you do regret one of your tattoo designs, you are not alone at all.

The incredible Angelina Jolie has several tattoos that she has regretted and gotten covered up and lasered off.Here's a pretty lengthy list of the tattoos that Angelina has regretted and gotten covered up.

1. A dragon on her left arm (She has been lasering it for some months now but it can still be faintly seen).

Celebrity Tattoo Designs

With what tattoo pictures do famous people decorate their bodies? Celebrities always created fashion for clothes, hairdo and of course tattoos. In modern Hollywood there is hardly any star without a tattoo left. Celebrities themselves say that tattoos have become not only pictures decorating the body but a way of self-expression with the help of symbols that carry a deep meaning.

Popular singer Rihanna is found of tattoo designs. Recently she made a tattoo design on her right wrist. Rihanna explained that a sign on her hand is a symbol of power and live. Angeline Jolie surely has a passion for tattoo designs . In different periods of her life she made more than thirteen tattoos. She herself says that tattoo designs are moment of her life. Once she made a tattoo at night in Scotland and she doesn't regret it because it will always remind her of that moment. The most know Angelina's tattoos are: a Roman number thirteen meaning that she doesn't believe in bad luck, a dragon and a window, showing that she travels a lot and never sits on one place.

Movie stars, hip hop artist and pro ball players with tattoo artwork are likely to be very celebrated with each year that goes by. Today it's normal to look at VIP's from the world of movies, professional athletes and the music industry showing their tattoo designs and body paintings. This is now become the way these icons are choosing to express themselves.But there was a period when getting "inked" were frowned upon with disgust specifically amid the popular famous stars at that time. Somebody who got a tattoo was commonly thought of as being an outcast in the population.

Celebrity Tattoo Designs - Popular Tattoos for Girls

The art of tattoos has a great history. Tattoo designs were made since ancient times and with the development of civilization they only became more popular and widely spread. More than that, today tattoos are top fashion. Fashion tendencies are mostly created by celebrities and the love for tattoos is not an exception.

There is hardly any Hollywood star without a tattoo and celebrities tattoos become the most fashionable today. Here are the most popular celebrity tattoos for girls.

Lady Gaga is found of tattoo designs. The meaning of them is not always easy to understand because the singer herself rarely talks about her tattoos. But Lady Gaga often shows her tattoo designs and is proud of them. Her first tattoo a treble clef, but she made it really early - when she was only seventeen. Later on Lady Gaga changed it with far more beautiful tattoo - three white roses decorated with vines.

Celebrity Tattoos: Who's Wearing WhatThe beautiful and famous women in Hollywood are hitting the Red Carpet not only decorated with flowing gowns, dazzling diamonds, and brilliant jewels many are also bejeweled with colorful tattoos designs.With the word "Tattoos" one of the top keywords searched on the Internet today, and the basis of two popular TV reality shows, it's no surprise America's hottest fashion runway is on fire with female celebrity tattoo designs.Tattoo popularity began to take off after debuting on the stages of musicians and rockers, then spilling over into pop culture celebrities.Tattoos are seen on many beautiful celebrity stars such as Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears, Charlize Theron, Gillian Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christina Ricci, and Janet Jackson.Oscar winners such as Marisa Tomei, Melannie Griffith, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Julia Roberts are all intriguing, fascinating, and yes tattooed. And Actresses are not the only beauties baring ink.

Angelina Jolie & Robbie Williams Tattoos - Most Popular Celebrity Tattoo Designs

Every one of us agrees that Celebrity Tattoos are the reason for popularity of the tattoos. Without them, they would never be known to the public. Even though tattoos were seen decades back, it has gained importance and recognition when celebrities started adoring them.More than it being popular, it became a highly controversial subject when women tattooed their favorite designs. But celebrity tattoos totally changed the scenario. In fact, the concept of tattooing took a new turn when celebrities started getting tattoos and demonstrating them publicly.Earlier tattoo lovers used to search for tribal tattoos, dragon tattoos, butterfly tattoos, star tattoos, cross tattoos but now the situation has totally changed.

Now more and more people are looking for hot Celebrity Tattoo Designs. Due to the interest of celebrities in getting tattoos, more and more classic and stylish celebrity tattoo designs are being evolved regularly.If one thinks about celebrity tattoos, then the most common name linked with it is "Robbie Williams Tattoo". Unarguably, Robbie Williams is the king of celebrity tattoos. He has 14 plus tattoo designs on his body featuring celtic cross, tribal tattoo, lower back, angel, heart and many more.

RoBear Shares a Pin-Up

A familiar face passed me in Penn Station a couple weeks back and I jumped at the opportunity to talk to him - it was RoBear, from the TLC series NY Ink.

For those of you not familiar with the show, RoBear is the floor manager at Wooster Street Social Club, the setting for the show.

I first encountered RoBear last May, when I was one of the lucky people selected to take part in "Roosterfest," a fundraiser segment of episode seven on season one. $50 rooster tattoos were on order and I got, in my opinion, the best one - from Megan Massacre. I documented the experience here.

So, here I was, talking to RoBear in Penn Station and, well, I had to ask, would he mind sharing one of his tattoos?

Much to my happiness, he was game and, after a moment of thought, rolled up his right pant leg to reveal this tattoo:

RoBear explained that the pin-up is based on his long-time friend Natascha de los Angeles, and he elaborated by e-mail:

"I got the tattoo to commemorate my friendship to the girl who named me Robear when I was sixteen. We met at a BIGLNY (Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian NY) youth group back in the day at the Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center on West 13th Street and right after meeting she said I was 'cute, a little furry and that she was going to call me Robear.' It totally stuck and she has never one since called me by my birth name, which is Robert.

So, after getting the job on NY INK, since the name was so catchy, I wanted to thank [Natascha] and celebrate our friendship that has spanned almost 20 years now ... my artist, Tony Silva of High Roller Tattoo in NY, and I came up with this pinup specifically for her. [Natascha] is a pastry artist and chef in Manhattan, so I did the bakers hat, apron and her holding one of her own cakes she has made. Her website is Artesenal Sweets ... She is a constant inspiration and muse for me and all I do with my fashion, interior design and culinary arts, since she emcompasses everything that is beautiful and creative to me. A truly unqiue and special woman that will be in my life forever."

RoBear was also kind enough to send a crisper photo of the tattoo

Pin-Up by Tony Silva, Photo Courtesy of RoBear

and a picture of him with Natascha for reference below:

Natascha de los Angeles & RoBear, photo courtesy of RoBear

I want to thank RoBear for sharing this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday. It's obviously a piece with a lot of deep personal meaning, and he was kind enough not only to let me take a photo in Penn Station, but also to send along more pictures and give me a complete back story.

You can catch RoBear on repeats of NY Ink on TLC. Still no word on whether the show will be picked up for a third season. You can also become a fan of RoBear on his Facebook fan page here.

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.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Matt's Skull

It's always a bonus when I run into a tattoo artist somewhere other than a tattoo shop.

For example, I spotted Matthew Adams on the platform of the 34th Street Station, waiting for a downtown A train last week.

Like most artists, he had a lot of ink, so he picked this one piece to share:

And on the back side of the forearm:

Matt works at Sacred Tattoo in Manhattan with Lalo Yunda, who is the artist that inked this incredible skull.

As it turns out, I have featured Matt's work on the site before here and here, as well as this piece by Lalo.

Thanks to Matt for sharing this great tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Marianna Shares the First Rose of Spring

Today is the first day of spring! It's always a joyous time here at Tattoosday, as the temperatures rise and all the tattoos of my fellow New Yorkers come out of hibernation.

Last week we were experiencing a lovely end-of-winter day with warm temperatures and I encountered this lovely first rose of spring on the F train:

This rose, on the upper left arm of a woman named Marianna, was just popping off of her skin having been freshly inked the day before by the talented Eli Quinters at Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn. Eli's work has appeared previously on Tattoosday here and here.

Marianna had a lot of other interesting work in progress going on, so perhaps we shall see more from her in the future. In the mean time, however, we have this lovely rose which she offered up in celebration of the end of winter.

Thanks to Marianna for sharing her beautiful flower 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.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Musician Monday: Camille Harp's Bird Flies Free

It has been a while since we celebrated "Musician Monday," but the early onset of spring has brought out the tattoos and last week in Penn station, I met Camille, who shared this part of her left sleeve:

We focused on this segment in particular:

Camille told me she went to her artist, Fernando Casillas, at Think Ink Tattoo in Norman, Oklahoma, and just told him she wanted a bird flying out of a cage. "I just like the idea of setting yourself free," she explained. Work from Think Ink has appeared on Tattoosday previously, here.

It wasn't until the following day, when I noticed that Camille had followed us on Twitter, that I realized that she was a musician. I had caught her while she was heading back to Oklahoma, and was nervous about catching the right train and making her flight in time.

Camille, as it turns out, is Camille Harp, a singer-songwriter from a musical family, who has an album forthcoming called "Little Bit of Light". If you go to CamilleHarp.com, you can download her song "One by One". It's a lovely song that only makes me wish I could hear her in concert. She has a wonderful voice and soulful tone.

You can also grab her record "Like the Rain" here.

Thanks to Camille for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday! Please check out her website and/or her fan page on Facebook and support this wonderful artist!

We'll leave you with a performance from 2010, in which Camille sings with her mother in Oklahoma City:

Friday, March 16, 2012

Jason's Two Stars Lead the Way

Last week, I spotted Jason walking through Penn Station and took the opportunity to ask him about some of his tattoos. He says he has about twenty-four in all, so I took a picture of his forearms, from the photo here you can see six of them, including a Celtic knot and the phrase "Let it be...".

However, Jason drew my attention to the two stars, which were his first two tattoos. I'll let Jason explain, in his own words:

"The crumbling star was originally meant for my broken aspirations, something I dreamt up when I was a kid. And then, the outline of the green star ... the green, for me, it means rejuvenation, you know, new ideas, new paths, just different things to inspire me."

The two stars were not done at the same time, but the crumbling star was inked at Addiction NYC in the East Village. The green star followed a couple weeks later and was completed in Brooklyn, at Inkman Tattoo Studio.

Jason told me he likes to get new tattoos when he travels, what I like to call a "tattoorist," if you will. New ink is always a great way to commemorate places one has visited.

Thanks to Jason for sharing these two stars with us here on Tattoosday!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Steve's Zombie Apocalypse - In Progress

A couple weeks back, on an unseasonably warm and sunny February day, I spotted Steve on Penn Plaza, wearing a short-sleeve shirt, with some pretty cool ink peeking out from his arm.

Intrigued, I approached him, and started up a conversation about his tattoos. He showed me several pieces, including this, a back piece that is in progress:

Take a closer look - this is pretty cool. I spoke to Steve at length about his work. He had recently left the U.S. Marines, where he had been stationed overseas in Japan. It was there that he chanced upon an artist named Aya, at a shop called Silent Ink, located in the city of Iwakuni.

As Steve, explained it, Aya is a deaf-mute (thus the shop name) and he became a huge fan of her work while serving in Japan. "It's a full zombie apocalypse scene," he told me, and he plans to fly out to Washington State when Aya next travels to see her fiance in the U.S., so she can complete the work.

I always defer to the contributor, as to whether they want to share work in progress, and Steve had no qualms about letting us see this early stage of the back piece. I was able to get a closer look at the completed sections:

I just love the colors and shading behind the tree that borders the upper right arm:

Steve estimates that she has already spent approximately 38 hours on his canvas over several sittings. "I like to sit for a long time," he told me. I certainly look forward to hearing back from him when Aya has completed this work!

Thanks to Steve for sharing his ink 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.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Inkbursts: Spring Awakening

So I'm digging these inkbursts for now. This is the third in the series, each piece composed on the New York City subways.

On Thursday it was 60 degrees in the Big Apple and, I read somewhere that this has been the fourth warmest winter on record. You wouldn't know that from the paucity of posts these last few months, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.

We had a bat mitzvah to throw in February, and I have been working behind the scenes recruiting contributors for our upcoming fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project in April. To which I can exclaim, "More poets! More tattoos! More FUN!"

I used to feel guilty about letting a day go by post-less. I pictured inked fans worldwide waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, only to be gravely disheartened by yet another day gone by without a new Tattoosday post. No more. This blog is neither the center of my universe, nor a viable way to help support a family of four. I have come to terms with that.

But, with spring rapidly approaching and blog traffic at an all-time high (50,000+ visits per month in January and February!), I am in high spirits and am hoping to do a lot of great things with Tattoosday in the months to come. Thank you for checking in and checking us out!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Danielle's Mother Walks with Her

Last week I met Danielle in Penn Station and spotted this tattoo on her left foot:

She explained that November 7, 1958 was her mother's birth date. Danielle was just a little girl of eight years old when her mother passed, and she got this, her only tattoo, to memorialize her mom.

The reason she got it on her foot was because her mother's funeral card had the famous "Footprints" prayer:

“Footprints:
One night a man had a dream. In it he was walking along a beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the final scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints and realized that they came at the hardest and saddest times of his life.

Bothered about this, he questioned the Lord, saying "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most burdensome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you the most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

She had this done at a tattoo convention by an artist from Long Island's DaVinci Tattoo Studio.

Thanks to Danielle for sharing this very personal tattoo with us here on 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.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Inkbursts: I See Your Tattoo but I Won't Ask You About It

I take pride in the fact that I can sit on a train and spot tattoos.

I'm not talking about the obvious, but the subtle.

Remember, I have been inkspotting for over four and a half years (!). I am adept ar detecting scribbles on feet, a word on an inner wrist, and the edges of sleeves peeking out from under sleeves.

Does this help me? Rarely. My general rule is, if I can't identify it, I won't ask someone about it.

Imagine, someone walking up to you and asking to see more of your barely visible ink. It reeks of creepiness, a characteristic I so desperately want to avoid, as it is well-documented that the world is full of people who do not respect tattooed people's boundaries, and often demand to see someone's tattoos, as if it is their right.

But, I digress.

This all started because I spotted an interesting shape on a guy's inner left wrist on the R train this morning. I wanted to ask him about it, but I didn't.

It was way too early for that.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Inkburst: Commenting on Tattoosday

I am writing this post on the subway, on my Samsung Galaxy S II's Blogger app, in what I will call an "Inkburst." That is, a small, mini-post, that I hope people find interesting.

Readers may notice that there aren't a lot of comments on this site. I have a filter set up that requires my approval before a comment sees the light of Tattoosday.

I tend to approve benign and positive statements, and reject ads, spam and, more controversially, negative remarks.

Why won't I allow negative feedback? I think it's counter-productive and it goes against the grain of this site's philosophy - meeting and appreciating tattoos.

So, when a recent reader named "Anonymous" dropped comments blasting two posts, they didn't make the cut. And, I agreed with his or her opinion about one of the posts!

But this site is not always about museum-quality body art. Sometimes, bad, or merely average ink is interesting, too. If you want nothing but high end work, I recommend Tattoo Snob.

The way I see it, if I hand a flyer to someone on the streets of Manhattan, and they're on the fence about contributing, they'll be less likely to participate if they think there's a chance of getting flamed by a inktroll.

I do occasionally let a constructive comment through, however, if I feel it is relevant to a piece's flaws, and it is written objectively, and not soaked in sanctimonious venom.

Feel free, however, to praise away! And thank you again for visiting us here at Tattoosday!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Never Say Never, and Never, Ever Give Up

Readers of Tattoosday first encountered my friend Brooke's tattoos here (in 2007) and here (in 2008).

I work with Brooke, as well, and we often chat about tattoos. A year or two ago, she had told me she was done getting inked. But, you know what they say, never say never.

So I was not terribly surprised a few months back when she and I talked about new work she was thinking about.

Then, out of nowhere it seemed, Brooke returned from a trip to San Francisco with a fresh tattoo, She provided me with this photo, which added kanji vertically on her back:

I sat down with Brooke last week and asked her to tell me how this new ink came to fruition. Here's the story, in her words:

"My grandfather and I decided about six-plus years ago that we were both going to get tattoos. And he doesn’t have any tattoos. So, we thought it would be cool - one quote that he’s always said to me over and over again was Winston Churchill's 'Never, never never give up.' So, we thought, all right, it would be really cool to get this tattooed on us, but let’s do it in Japanese, or Chinese, or something, so we both started doing some research and trying to find someone we trusted ... neither one of us could really come up with anything that we felt comfortable with. So, we just never did it and then he got sick … he’s been in and out of hospitals for five years now. He ended up in the hospital in the beginning of December, so I went and saw him at the beginning of January - they weren’t sure if he was going to make it or not.

I wanted to try and get the tattoo before I went out there, so I scrambled - you know, something to kind of cheer him up and make him happy and I couldn’t really pull it together, so I just didn’t do it.

One night [in San Francisco] when I left the hospital, I went looking for something to eat and found myself in Haight-Ashbury and decided to pull over and just go walking around and I walked past a tattoo shop [Soul Patch Tattoo] and I just went in to browse - I didn’t go in thinking I was going to do anything. I just started looking through the artists’ work and the guy asked me if I needed help and I said, 'Naw, I’m okay,' then like, 'You know what, actually...do you have anyone who can do Japanese kanji?' He’s like, 'Yeah,' and points to the girl next to me and he said, 'she can'."

Fortunately for Brooke, she had found Wakako, a Tokyo-born tattooist whose specialty is Japanese art. If you're going to have someone give you a kanji tattoo, and you want to feel 100% comfortable that what you're getting is proper and correct, she certainly fits the bill. Brooke continued:

"I told her the story that I was doing this for my grandpa and the hope was one day he’d get better and he’d get one, as well. So I asked her how long it would take her to draw it up and she said, 'ten seconds' ... She had her coat and she was getting ready to go out the door ... so we started talking about, 'all right, I’m in town for a few more days, when can you do it?' [and] when [I was] available and the next thing you know she [said] 'well, what about we just do this now?'

So the next thing you know she goes in the back and draws it up and I’m grtting a tattoo. I mean, it happened so quickly and so I was really happy … the next day I was able to go back and show my grandpa in the hospital ... he was really happy with it and loved it. The cool part is that I got it done, I got it done by someone I trusted and he was able to see it and he loved it."

And how does Churchill's famous speech translate into Japanese? Brooke told me it had to be simplified, "It’s just never give up," which was the essence of "his favorite quote that he used to say to me all the time.”

Unfortunately, Brooke's grandfather, Bill Rhodes, passed away a few weeks ago on February 8, just weeks after seeing his granddaughter's tattoo, which had made him so happy to see. You can read his obituary here. His spirit lives on in the lives of many, one manifestation being the line of kanji running down Brooke's back.

Brooke summed it up best: 'it kind of was kismet, it worked out perfectly that I was there. He got to see it right then and there, fresh.”

Thanks again to Brooke for sharing her tattoo and the wonderful story behind it here on Tattoosday! And thanks to Bill Rhodes, for helping inspire this tattoo.

Wake up Tattoos