Kristina: Aon Grá

Over the summer, we were having a yard sale, when Kristina stopped by to peruse the goods. She shared this, one of her four tattoos:

Located on the inside of her right arm, the phrase "aon grá" is Irish for "one love". This decorative tattoo with a powerful message was tattooed by Rob at Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge. Work from the shop which, due to its close proximity to "home base" for Tattoosday, has appeared often over the years on the site, and can be seen here.


Thanks to Kristina for sharing her 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.

Emily Picks Her Poison

It's always interesting when I meet someone with a lot of tattoos, trying to guess, when you ask them to pick just one, which piece they will choose to share. A couple weeks ago, I met Emily, who has two full sleeves, along with her chest and back tattooed. She selected this tattoo on her right forearm for our readers to enjoy:

This is a take on the famous Sailor Jerry design, like the one seen in this post from 2008:

Emily created a male version of the classic "Posion" Sailor Jerry woman. She explained:

"I was a Women's Studies major an an undergrad and when I started getting a lot of tattoos, I thought, 'This'll be funny'. That's what most of my tattoos are."

The tattoo was done by Alex Franklin when he was at Sinister Ink in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Sinister Ink has long since closed (Revolver Tattoo is located in its place) and Alex has been working out of Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge for many years now.

Thanks to Emily 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.

Darya's Bi-Coastal Peacock and Cherry Blossoms

I met Darya coming out of the subway in Bay Ridge and asked if I could take a picture of her tattoo. She kindly allowed me to do so and share it here with everyone on Tattoosday:

Darya explained that she always wanted a peacock tattoo, and she has fourteen tattoos in all (not all peacocks). Joe Maggs at Brooklyn Ink tattooed the peacock.

The cherry blossoms, symbols of regeneration, were added by Illya at Studio City Tattoos in California.

Thanks to Darya for sharing her tattoos from both coasts here on Tattoosday!

Tattoo from a Francophile

Earlier this summer, I posted a couple of tattoos from Joe, seen here.

Needless to say, Joe became a fan, and updated me with a new tattoo, below:

Joe explains:

"The picture is fresh from the artist finishing it. It is "C077X" and is a nod to James Franco and General Hospital. He is my fav actor and I have been watching General Hospital for at least 21 years. It is the the tag that "Franco" sprayed on everything when he recently guest starred on GH as an artist/serial killer. His character's name is Franco, reflecting that art imitates life. A motto the actor and character believe, and so do I. That is why I got the tattoo. To prove art imitates life!"

Photo Credit: ABC via http://sn.soapnet.go.com

The tattoo was inked by Rob at Brooklyn Ink. Rob originally appeared here as a contributor here. And is one of several artists that has represented Brooklyn Ink over the years on Tattoosday. This label links all of the work from the shop previously seen on Tattoosday.

Thanks to Joe for sharing his new tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sara's Psalm Speaks to the Desires of Her Heart

I met Sara on the 36th Street subway platform in Brooklyn last month during the late afternoon rush hour commute.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for words and this tattoo looked poetic:

Sara filled me in. She has three tattoos and this passage "spoke to her". She wanted something religious for her 30th birthday.

This is an excerpt (verse 4) from Psalm 37 in the Bible.

The verse reads "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart" [King James Version]. Sara changed the thee and thine to read me and my, respectively, making the verse more personal.

This was tattooed by Alex Franklin at Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge. Work from Brooklyn Ink (and much from Alex) can be seen on this Tattoosday label here.

Thanks to Sara for sharing her source of inspiration with us here on Tattoosday!

Marie's Anchor of Hope

I met Marie outside of Penn Station last month after spotting her sleeve of naval designs. She picked this one on the inside of her upper right arm:

This tattoo reminds her the importance of "loving where you're from" and having "faith in where you live". The anchor and cherry blossoms are a nice blend of traditional tattoo designs from the East and the West.

The design is an allusion to a song called "Anchor and Hope,"  from the album Wall of People by alternative rock band Monty Are I, out of Cranston, Rhode Island.

Check them out in this video of them doing the song acoustically:



Marie is originally from New York, moved to Virginia, and has relocated back home to New York City.

The tattoo was done by Rob at Brooklyn Ink. Rob was a subject on Tattoosday a couple of years back. See his post here. And this tag will show you the work previously featured on Tattoosday created at Brooklyn Ink.

Thanks to Marie for sharing her cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Anthony's Dragon (and more!)

I spotted Anthony on the N train in Brooklyn and was happy to see him also switching for the local R train at 59th Street.

As luck would have it, both of us were headed home to Bay Ridge.

Anthony has a bunch of tattoos, and I snapped this photo of the dragon on his upper right arm:

It was inked by Joe at Brooklyn Ink.

He estimated that the work so far has been completed in about three two-hour sessions.

Work from Joe and other artists at Brooklyn Ink has previously appeared quite frequently on Tattoosday (all posts tagged as such here).

Anthony later emailed me photos of these shots as well:

The praying hands holding the rosary, I recall him telling me, were tattooed at Distinction Ink in Brooklyn. The tattoo reads "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned".

He did not tell me where he had this tribal sun done, but it's definitely an attention-grabbing piece and certainly worth a mention.

Thanks to Anthony for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

John's Tattoo Identity (With a Bonus Vendetta)

I met John recently in a local drug store in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.

I had actually seen John once previously in the store, but had been unable to speak to him at the time, so I was happy when I ran into him again.

His upper right arm is a Star Wars tribute, but I shot the left arm instead. He was laughing because he had just been questioned by several people at a nearby department store and now that he had escaped to a different shop, here I was questioning him about his work.

This is a shot of his left arm:

Like the Star Wars theme on his right arm, the left arm embraces outer space, what John called his "tattoo identity".

He did note that this had been reworked and represented the repairing  of a much smaller piece. He sung high praise to Alex Franklin of Brooklyn Ink, who did the majority of this work and made the piece what it is today. Alex and Brooklyn Ink are no strangers to Tattoosday. This link takes the reader to all posts tagged "Brooklyn Ink".

Before explaining that tattoo to me, however,  he had shown me something that had not been visible in the department store. He pulled up his shirt to reveal this awesome V for Vendetta tattoo in the top center section of his back:

John loved the graphic novel and the movie as well.

The character of V makes a striking tattoo. This was inked by the incomparable Designs by Michael Angelo in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Work from his shop has appeared previously here on the blog.

Thanks to John for sharing his incredible tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! We hope to bring his Star Wars sleeve to the site some time in the future.