Thursday, October 20, 2011

Phoenix Tattoo Pictures: Meanings And Cultural History

The phoenix tattoo is a sign of rebirth. It is the sign of longevity and long-lived prosperity and strength. This symbolism comes from the mythological origins of the phoenix. This mythological bird has been a prominent figure in folklore across many cultures, including Greek, Egyptian and Chinese cultures. It has even been associated with Catholicism, as a symbol of the rebirth of Christ.

The basic myth is that the phoenix lives for up to 1,000 years, then builds its own nest of twigs and ignites in flames. Once the entire nest and firebird burn away, an egg appears and the phoenix is born again. There are many variations on this basic myth, depending on the cultural reference you study.

In the modern world, the phoenix tattoo is among the most sentimental available. It is almost exclusively used to symbolize some type of rebirth or turning point in life. Almost every person who gets some creative form of a phoenix tattoo has a personal story behind the design.

Phoenix Tattoo Pictures:
The tattoo represents something deep that has happened in their life. In this way, no two phoenix tattoos are the same. The actual design of the bird and the colors chosen may be very similar in some cases, but the meaning that the tattoos hold for the person wearing them is almost always different.
In some cases the tattoos will represent a personal transformation while in other cases they may symbolize the belief that someone who has passed away still remains on earth in some form.
Phoenix tattoos can portray colorful birds with lots of beautiful feathers, but they can also be very minimalistic. They can appear as a tribal design in some instances, since they are etched in black and white in a pattern similar to many tribal tattoos. The basic symbolism stands behind them for most people, but great creativity can be used in the design process.
Picture of flaming phoenix in a striking position located on the back of the calf.
Picture of a high quality three dimensional bird with wings spread and extended tale. Design located on the back of a man.
Large masterpiece located on the right hip, ribcage and torso of a woman.
Here we have yet another picture of a excellent flaming phoenix tattoo. Breathing fire and located on the shoulder and upper arm area.

Ysabel's Devil Girl

I met Ysabel last month on 34th Street across from Macy*s, and she shared this tattoo from her upper left arm:


Ysabel got this devilish girl purely as a decorative piece (no hidden meanings here!) and this is one of her thirteen tattoos.

This was inked at New York Hardcore Tattoos by Ronda Biondi. Ysabel told me that Rhonda is no longer there, and I was unable to find her on the web, so if anyone knows where she can be reached, please let us know so we can link her properly in this post. Xanthos.

After this post went live, I did receive a confirmation from the artist, Ronda Xanthos, who clarified, "I did do that pin-up (not the back-round)," when she was at New York Hardcore. You can check out some of Ronda's work here on Facebook.


Thanks to Ysabel for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!



This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kim's Floral Arm

I caught Kim in Penn Station one day after work last month, just as she was getting ready to board her train. She shared this floral tattoo that graces her upper right arm:


This bouquet of daisies, sunflowers, and lotus, with a hummingbird thrown in, to boot, was tattooed by Junior Ibanez, who tattoos independently on Long Island.

Thanks to Kim for sharing her ink with us here on Tattoosday!


This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Two for Tattoosday: Elise Remembers Paris and Shares a Cardinal

These next tattoos would not be here on Tattoosday were it not for signal problems at the Jay Street subway station in Brooklyn.

For it was an e-mail alert about those problems disrupting train service which sent me away from my normal routine and directed me last week to the Herald Square subway station to catch a D train.

It was there on the southbound platform that I met Elise who displayed some cool ink on her arms. We chatted a bit and, because her top partially obscured sections of her tattoos, she told me she'd email me photos. Not everybody who says that means it, or follows up, but Elise did not disappoint and sent me the following photos later that evening.

First, is this interesting tattoo on her upper right arm:


Elise calls this “Paris in a Woman,” which is inspired by the fact that she was born and raised in France. The idea of including the Parisian cityscape came from Charmaine Olivia, an artist based out of San Francisco. Elise included the Eiffel Tower in it. The tattoo was done by John Poverty, who tattoos out of Goose Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Lower on her right arm is this amazing bird tattoo:


Elise explained:
“The cardinal by Mike Adams [of True Sight Tattoo Company in Detroit] was inspired by family. Once all my siblings and I ‘flew the coop,’ my parents took up bird watching, and are now avid cardinal lovers.  Mike inked this out of Thicker Than Water in Manhattan, [where he] will have a short residency in the beginning of December.”
Work by Mike appeared over the summer on Tattoosday here.

Thanks again to Elise for sharing these wonderful tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.



If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Tattoosday Giveaway! Ed Hardy - Tattoo the World

[This Contest is Now Closed]


We here at Tattoosday have in our hot little hands, a brand-spanking new DVD copy of Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World.

It's yours for the taking. All you need to do to win is leave a comment on this post, or on the post on the Tattoosday Facebook page, sometime this week and a winner will be selected from among those entries.



The winner will be announced Saturday along with my review of the movie.

More information about the film, including additional clips, can be found on its website here.

Negative comments will disqualify entries. You are certainly entitled to your opinions, but we want to keep things positive, folks!


This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. Video clip ©2011 Wabi Sabi Productions, LLC.

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, October 16, 2011

Lourdes on Lourdes

Back at the end of August, I met a woman in Borders Penn Plaza who shared this tattoo:


This tattoo depicts Lourdes (officially, Our Lady Of Lourdes) and the woman who shared it, also named Lourdes.

She was in a hurry, so I couldn't get much more information. She credited the artist as "Sugarbear".

Lourdes promised to contact me with additional information, but I haven't heard back from her.

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



This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

The Tattoosday Book Review - Tattoo Sketchbook: Since 1966

We like to review books occasionally here on Tattoosday and wanted to say a little bit about Jim Watson's Tattoo Sketchbook, published earlier this year by ArtKultre, an imprint of Wolfgang Publications.


There's nothing fancy here, just 95 pages of solid tattoo flash by Jim Watson, who came up in the tattoo business long before it was a "respectable" multi-billion dollar industry.

Having cut his teeth in the legendary Cliff Raven's shop in Chicago in the late 1960s, Watson moved to his first shop in Denver, eventually landing in Phoenix, Arizona, where he owns Artistic Skin Designs and where, in 1991, he co-founded Superior Tattoo Equipment.


If you picked this up in a bookstore, it might not be on the top of your list as the tattoo book to buy, as it has a limited appeal to the general reader. But it seems like it would be an invaluable reference to the developing artist who is studying the art of tattoo. The flash is all crisply classic in its execution, and would fit right in with any tattoo artist's reference library.

Wolfgang Publications has a whole series of books that fit this category geared more to the mechanical side of tattooing. This volume fits in nicely to that genre and is a excellent snapshot of the sketch portfolio of the "classic" tattoo artist.

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.


If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.