I met Christine at the Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side yesterday evening and she shared these four tattoos:
Moving clockwise from the upper left in the photo above, we start with an outline of Brooklyn, in honor of the borough in which Christine was born and raised.
At the top of the other forearm is an om symbol, which captures her focus and has occasionally "helped with panic attacks."
The two butterflies on opposite arms were inked in honor of her nieces, who both love these colorful insects. The shade of each represents their favorite colors.
The Brooklyn piece was inked at Asylum Studios in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The om and the butterflies were done by artists at Three Kings Tattoo. Both shops are in Brooklyn and have had work appear on Tattoosday previously here (Asylum) and here (Three Kings).
Thanks to Christine for sharing these four of her eleven (!) tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!
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It's safe to say that Maida has been a fan of Tattoosday from its earliest days.
Over the last three years, a day generally doesn't go by without our discussing ink. As a co-worker, and a friend, she's a regular visitor to the site.
Which is why one might wonder why her tattoos have taken this long to appear on Tattoosday. I even recall discussing with her potential designs as she researched new ideas.
We always talked about me taking pictures, but it never came to fruition.
However, yesterday the stars aligned and we got our collective acts together. Let's take a look, shall we?
I'm starting with my favorite pair of the three she is sharing (out of four, in all):
These two are pretty cool, and the top one. a triquetra, I remember her spending a lot of time thinking about. She feels that it also acts as protection, warding off the evil eye:
Below that is a butterfly that is not your standard design. The wings' patterns resemble skulls:
Maida says this dual image, the softness of the butterfly and the roughness of the skulls, represents the two sides of life, and is a double-edged sword. The kanji represent the symbols for power (top) and strength (bottom).
Maida also shared this tattoo on the outside of her right calf, above the ankle:
Maida got this, along with her friend Kathy, as a testament to "the strong bond and love between two best friends". They each have it on the same spot, although Kathy's butterfly has lavender wings, whereas Maida's are turquoise.
All of Maida's tattoos above were inked by an artist named JStar, whose website is here. The site includes photos of more of her work and is well worth a look.
Thanks to Maida for sharing her tattoos with us here, finally, on Tattoosday! We look forward to seeing more in the future!
I burnt my past. I ignored the foreboding seeds of sprouting destiny. I waded through the strewn ashes of past & future fears.
I am the eternal present. I tore to shreds the cocoon of ignorance with the sharpness of my will.
I am thy...butterfly of eternity, sweeping through immeasurable time. The beauty of my nature-wings I spread everywhere, to entertain everything. Suns & stardust are spread on my wings. Behold my beauty! Cut all the silken threads of thy shrouding folly: follow me in my flight to myself.
The butterfly symbolizes transformation, a phase everyone goes through at one point or another in time.
Also among her twenty-two tattoos is this formula at the top of her arm:
Mari explained she loves math and generalized that, with this equation, "you can generate anything in the universe". In theory, at least. Here, it gets a little hazy for me. Part of this tattoo contains "f(z) = z^2 + c" which is described as a complex function. Then there is the part that equates the square root of -1 to the value i. This is a formula for an imaginary number. I'm bowing out here, knowing there's no way I'll be able to explain this part of the tattoo adequately. Readers are welcome to try in the comments section, below.
Mari's work was inked by Kevin at The Tattoo Shop in Lansing, Michigan.
Thanks to Mari for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!
Let's take a moment and pause from our regularly-scheduled programming this Veteran's Day to remember the men and women who serve our country bravely. I've dug into the archives and reposted a friend's tattoo, which appeared originally here on Tattoosday in January 2008. Be sure to thank a Veteran today, and to appreciate not only our soldiers at home and abroad, but their families who support and inspire them to serve our country courageously.
Tracy is a friend of mine who lives in Fort Drum, New York. She was in town last weekend, visiting family, and this was the first time I have seen her since Tattoosday was born over the summer.
I knew Tracy had at least one tattoo, because she and my wife have talked ink before. So when I saw her on Saturday, unexpectedly, I was happy that I had a couple of Tattoosday printouts in my pocket.
I explained the blog and asked if she'd like to participate. She was happy to oblige and, as fortune would have it, she was coming to an indoor soccer game the following day. Her nephew plays on the same team as my daughter Shayna.
After the game Sunday, I asked if she was ready. She lifted the back of her shirt to reveal:
I was surprised, honestly. I was not expecting butterflies, but expecting the one above it which, as fate would have it, is later in this post. But I wasn't about to pass up a cool tattoo, so I took a picture of this one as well.
Tracy is a mother of two boys, Matthew and Danny, and these butterflies represent each of them, as they flutter and transform, as ones children are apt to do, growing from infants into people. Tracy had these inked three years ago in Victorville, when she was living at Ft. Irwin. She said that they had been done at "Victorville Designs," which has either changed names or gone out of business, based on this link.
These butterflies are nicely inked and really seem to float over the skin. Definitely a nice tattoo, from design to execution.
Above the butterflies is the tattoo that I had heard about:
A simple, basic script. The arced triad of three pillars of strength in many people's lives: "Faith. Family. Friends."
In order to understand this tattoo, we have to take a little side journey.
Whatever one's politics may be, or however one feels about what we are doing in Asia and the Middle East, one thing must be acknowledged: the men and women in our military are there to do a job, to serve our country, and to fight to not only protect the people there, but here as well. Thousands of American men and women have given their lives and their souls to serve our country.
As one may have guessed by two prior references (Ft. Drum and Ft. Irwin), Tracy is closely tied to the United States Army, as she is married to Pete, who is a soldier with the 10th Mountain Division, Light Infantry.
On October 31, 2006, Pete's friend and fellow soldier, Major Douglas E. Sloan, was killed in the line of duty in the Wygal Valley in Afghanistan, while serving with Company B, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment. You can read more about Doug here at the Arlington National Cemetary website.
As every drop of spilled blood in the line of duty hits home, the loss of Major Sloan was devastating to his family and friends back in the States. The community of Fort Drum mourned Doug's passing and hearts went out to his wife Kerry and their children.
In December 2006, to pay tribute to Doug's memory, Tracy and three friends, including Kerry, went to Tattoos Forever in Evans Mills, NY, and each had the same inscription inked. In hindsight, Tracy recalls how funny it must have appeared, for four moms in minivans to drive up to the shop and collectively get tattooed.
It is a recurring theme on tattoo shows. Memorial tattoos are among the most popular types of body art. People mourn, heal, and remember through the art of the tattoo. And a piece of the loved one lives on, for years, in the flesh of the survivors, who gain strength and hold on to the memory of the departed.
The alliterative mantra of "Faith, Family, and Friends" reminds not only the tattooed, but those around them, of the most important things in life.
I want to thank Tracy for sharing her tattoos, and the stories behind them. I would add a special nod of gratitude to the memory of Major Douglas Sloan, who I never knew. Yet, by virtue of this tattoo, helped remind me of the sacrifice that our soldiers make day in, day out, and their families they leave behind.
Tracy's husband Pete subsequently returned from Afghanistan, but has since returned to duty overseas. On behalf of all of our Tattoosday readers, I want to thank Tracy and Pete, for their commitment and sacrifice, and for sharing this one story among thousands, with us here at Tattoosday.
I met Rebecca a couple months ago in Penn Station and asked her about her tattoos.
Of the eleven, she shared this one from her leg:
This beautiful, yet battered, butterfly is a memorial to her unborn child. She lost the baby when she was just nineteen. The cherry blossoms are often symbolic of the fleeting nature of life.
The tattoo was completed on October 13, 2007 by Nate Hudson when he was at Virginia Beach Ink. He now tattoos at Folk City Tattoo in Suffolk, Virginia. As today is October 13, I've been hanging on to this post, not only to correspond with the day the tattoo was finished, but also the due date of the baby that was lost.
We here at Tattoosday truly thank Rebecca for sharing, not only this poignant tattoo, but also for allowing us to relate the emotional story behind this butterfly.
