The 2011 Tattooed Poets Project Recap

When I first started The Tattooed Poets Project in 2009, I was flying blind. Now, three years and 96 posts from 90 poets later, I feel truly blessed. To say it is a labor of love is an understatement. The Tattooed Poets Project may run for only one month, but I start working on it three months earlier, and getting thirty poets to participate is a challenge. E-mails back and forth, Facebook messages, and the sublimation of my worry that I will seem stalker-esque and creepy.

I simply could not do this without the people I call my champions: Stacey Harwood and David Lehman with the Best American Poetry blog, the incomparable Dorianne Laux who is an uninked poet, but seems to have an endless list of poets she does know with tattoos, and Adam Deutsch, my West Coast connection. This year, Patricia Carragon, who curates the Brownstone Poets reading group in New York became the latest in a growing list of talented individuals who sounded the clarion call for submissions.

To these folks, as well as all the participants who contributed this year, I raise my arms in a gesture of praise and thanksgiving. Without all of you, this little venture, which next year will eclipse the century mark in both submissions and contributors, would be fruitless.

Remember, you can see who has participated this year, as well as in years past, here, in the Tattooed Poets Project Index.

Again, thanks to all who have sent me their work, both written and inked, and to all of you who have been checking in daily. And for all of you Tattoosday fans who have been waiting patiently for our "regular" programming to resume, tomorrow we will start posting regularly again, and, boy, do we have some great stuff to showcase in May.

With gratitude and humility, I thank you all.

Bill Cohen

The Tattooed Poets Project: Debbie Kirk

I always like to finish up the Tattooed Poets Project on a strong note, so today's tattooed poet, the last of this year's series, is the heavily-tattooed poet Debbie Kirk.

It also happens to be Debbie's birthday today, as we check out one of her tattoos. More specifically, let's look at the top of her left arm:

This piece, complete with straight razor, brass knuckles and cherry bomb, bears a banner that proclaims "Bow to your elders, you Emo Fucks."

I mean, what more can I say about that?

In discussing which tattoo of Debbie's to use, this exchange took place:

Tattoosday: "I hesitate to use the emo one because of the language and because I'm sure people will not understand why you would get it, but that makes me want to use it more".

Debbie: "its a favorite with peeps...it has been declared the sexiest tattoo ever..."

Tattoosday: "I love tattoos but they are generally so benign nowadays, so it's nice to see one with a true fuck-all attitude."

Debbie: "Yeah, that defines me what you said right there....and why I got the tattoo. I think that single tattoo is the most ME. I can be a bit honest...which is why people like my poetry."

Where'd she get the tattoo? Debbie recalls " I just remember I got it in Venice 5 years ago from a girl who proposed to me when I told her my idea...I still tell that story. I KNEW it was good with that reaction and she was hot."
 
Debbie gave us several poems to choose from, and the one we selected, she says, is very representative of her work:

Little Frankenstein girl

 

Little Frankenstein girl

has the hands of a pianist

And the heart of a broken organ

With thorns, glass

Bats and Indian ink

Seeping thro…

Sewn together

Crookedly stitched

Like a pastel valentine heart

Filled with mismatched parts

Little Frankenstein girl

Has the right brain of a killer

Her right hand is dominant

While her left foot always faces away

Wanting to disconnect

To run

To be free

To not be part of this

Fucked up experiment

Dreamt up by

A genius dressed in rags

And chased by demons

The kind that really scratch and bite

When you are fast asleep

Little Frankenstein girl

Is not a little girl anymore

The curls in her hair

Dreaded up in the sun

Medusa in the wind

Her loud strong voice

Muffled under the stitches

That firmly binds her lips together

Bondage bringing pleasure

Only to those who wish

To keep her silent

(and they are many)

The little Frankenstein girl

Can’t count the stitches on her wrists

From all of those nights

With her right hand doing

What her left foot

Wanted to walk away from

And her not understanding

That she was never really alive

In the first place

Little Frankenstein girl

All mixed up

And

Mix matched

Returning every evening

With fresh wounds to be sewn

From another vain attempt

To be mortal for just a few seconds

Before the fall

Little Frankenstein girl

Stolen parts

Come with stolen lies

Maggots and flies.

The gravedigger, looking to make a buck

Steals her a kiss

The moistness quenches her lips

He promises more kisses tomorrow

She scurries home

Knowing full well

She’s damned to a life of stolen kisses

And malfunctioning hearts

that spit in the moonlight.

~ ~ ~

Debbie Kirk has published 6 chapbooks and been in 12 anthologies and hundreds of print and online zines. She lives in Santa Cruz with her dog Dr. Gonzo.  She has a website she rarely updates at tntkirk.com but she can be best located lurking around Facebook!  Also check out http://tntkirk.com/.

Thanks to Debbie for sharing her tattoo and poetry with us here as we close out the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday. Also, we wish her a very happy birthday today!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Lizzie Wann

Here, on the penultimate day of the Tattooed Poets Project, our contributor is Lizzie Wann:

Lizzie explains:

As I came into my poetic self in college, I knew I wanted a tattoo to symbolize that. My friend, Kevin, designed it for me and I carried it with me for a while. For spring break in 1993 or 1994, I went to Seattle with 4 of my best friends at the time. We happened into a cool tattoo shop and 4 of us got our first tattoos (the 5^th person didn’t want one).It was great because we each got something that symbolized who we were at the moment but also who we hoped to be in the future.

Here's a closer look at this quill and ink bottle tattoo:

Lizzie shared this poem, as well:

Grace

she lives here with me

but she comes & goes as she pleases

never tells me where she’s going

never leaves a note

it’s typical that she’ll come in

just as I’m falling asleep

I catch glimpses of her sometimes

usually when there’s music

we used to be inseparable

I didn’t think she’d ever leave

now, daily happenings of my life

rarely interest her

but sometimes they do

and she’ll spend time with me

when that happens

I remember how good it feels

her company is like an avalanche of

warm towels out of the dryer

I could stay there all day

© 2010 Lizzie Wann

Lizzie Wann started reading at open mics in 1995. She soon became an integral part of the development of the San Diego poetry scene, facilitating workshops at the Writing Center, creating her own readings and producing original shows that featured poets and musicians. She earned a spot on the 1999 Laguna Beach national slam team that competed at the National Poetry Slam in Chicago of that year, and from there, helped make slam poetry become a San Diego fixture. She was on the 2000 San Diego team that went to the West Coast Regionals in Big Sur, served as coach for that same team in 2002, and co-hosted the fledgling San Diego slam, held at the Urban Grind, until 2003. Her work appears on CDs (A Wing & A Prayer and A New Leaf), in chapbooks including Familiars, Naked Wrists, and Complicated Skies and in anthologies including Comstock Review, Incidental Buildings & Accidental Beauty, A Year in Ink, volume 2, So Luminous the Wildflowers, The San Diego Poetry Annual, and Don’t Blame the Ugly Mug.  She also founded the Meeting Grace house concert series which ran from 2000-2008. One of her CD’s can be found at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/lizziewann.

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

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: David Jonathan Newman

Today's tattooed poet is David Jonathan Newman, who sent along this photo:

Dave explains:

"The tattoo is fairly literal; the state of Florida is burning, with the words "Til The Bitter End" aside it.  I moved to Miami for 4 years to pursue a relationship, and saw it out to its unfortunate conclusion.  The tattoo is born out of that experience, and I got it to help me put a finishing stamp on what happened there and what brought me back to Long Island.  None of us are perfect, but we can become stronger people if we have reminders of our mistakes and put them to good use to make sure they don't happen again.  This piece, along with most of the work on my body, was done by Chris Koutsis of Da Vinci Tattoo Studio in Wantagh NY.  I told him exactly what I had in mind, and between my ideas and his talents I was very happy with the outcome."

The following is my favorite of the several poems David sent me to choose from:

hello, atmosphere.

I keep the eyes of a rapist in a jar by my bed
walk lightly
for that part of the room is glass
modern-day sorcerer, am I
blueprints and otherworldly photographs in my drawers
beakers and tubes filled with dust
the cold makes it feel like home
and when the mirror talks to me, it only says
"I will wrap you in a sheet before this night is done."
well so says you, my sweet, but look what you've become
all my furniture, ghosts
rooms rife with other lives
no doors
my paintings are stolen from churches and are hanging backwards and are numbered one to infinity.

~ ~ ~

David Jonathan Newman has been a poet and vocalist/lyricist in bands, both on Long Island, NY and in Miami, FL.  He currently is working on a collection of poetry, writes music as a solo artist and has a blog (http://captainselfdestruct.blogspot.com) where he posts both his solid works and stream of consciousness ideas.  He's been winning poetry contests since 6th grade, and the poem above, "Hello, Atmosphere" won a writing contest at the SUNY College Of Old Westbury which was featured in Harmonia, their on-campus writing publication.

Thanks to David for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Kimberly Mahler

Today's tattooed poet is Kimberly Mahler, who sent along this tattoo:

Kimberly credits this bright colorful work to artist Erik Rieth, co-owner of Seventh Son Tattoo in San Francisco. The poem below is an unpublished work she is including in a manuscript centered around her raising her 11-year old autistic son, seen in this photo with the tattoo above.

The poem relates to her getting her first tattoo:

Stigmata of Spring

In a room full of men I remove my shirt and lie down.

Feel but don’t meet their gaze.

The needle whirrs a little, a test.

Close my eyes and see mother working at the Singer

December afternoons before bartending nights,

tired of us looking thwarted and poor.

Smell my blood mix with ink and adrenaline.

Arousing to be the object of keen attention.

For hours I am a still nude.

As girls my friends and I would trace letters

on each other’s bare backs with our fingertips.

Excuse to give affection in our parentless homes.

I surrender to the electricity and his tender hands

that sketch and sew an iris and its purple vulva

into my back and blade.  No words. The needle’s hum

is a vow, drowning jerry-rigged lovers and son,

flogging my flaws and scars. To bear the sacred

and taboo: an iris ardent enough to flavor gin.

He cleans and bandages my back like a hurt child.

Instructions, a swirl of pride and empathy,

for now it’s mine to carry, heal, and love.

Eventually, the iris bleeds, crackles, shimmies out nubile,

my stigmata of spring.  It draws the hands of lovers

and my son, who puts his lips to it and whispers “tattoo.”

~ ~ ~

Kimberly included a small photo of the piece in question, as well:

She elaborates:

"The iris was my first tattoo completed in 2007. It was a one session--four hour odyssey of sorts. I had never seen someone get tattooed, and was pondering why Erik was using so much red ink for a purple flower... yep, that was my blood, not ink. Over the years Erik and I developed a friendship and continued work on my shoulder in 2008 and the cherries February 2011.

I know the next one is going to be a large hip/thigh sea dragon piece, but that's a ways off. 

For me to be ready to get a tattoo, three elements have to be in line: my artist Erik has to want and like the idea, I have to be ready (both financially and emotionally) and the time commitment and passion for the design have to be there. When all are in line, it's a magical sort of experience. I give him ideas, he designs the piece and then we get down to work. I couldn't have anyone else do my work now; it just wouldn't be the same. [...] He co-owns a shop in San Francisco that just did a benefit for Japan, raising $7,000. Cool place. http://www.seventhsontattoo.com. Erik and the shop Seven Son Tattoo are both also on Facebook. 

There's definitely a connection between tattooing and writing for me. This is the only poem that I've written that is about tattooing (at least on the surface). However, both writing and getting a tattoo require a leap of sorts: a stepping off of the known. Both require a loss of control which lay the foundation for original art both on the body and the page."

Thanks to Kimberly for sharing her tattoos, poetry and photos with us here on Tattoosday!

Kimberly Mahler’s recent work has appeared in, 5AM, DMQ Review, My Baby Rides the Short Bus anthology, Naugatuck River Review, The International Psychoanalysis Poetry Monday and Cimarron Review.  She recently received a residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Chicago. Kimberly has taught college-level writing and literature in the San Francisco Bay Area for 17 years and is the director of The International Poetry Library of San Francisco.  She lives on the coast, a few miles north Half Moon Bay, CA with her son Harrison.

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Christina Continelli

Today's tattoo comes to us from poet Christina Continelli. This is part of the lower half of her arm sleeve:

Christina explains the origin of this piece:

"The tattoo is from the front cover of a vintage Heavy Metal comic book my ex-boyfriend used to have. The sleeve was adapted from the drawing by Avelino Avilia at Spirits in the Flesh Tattoo Studio in San Francisco. I had the work done in 1997. There was no deep meaning behind it. I simply found the original image aesthetically pleasing."

What follows is Christina's poem "Charity, " which, she says, "was supposed to be published in [another magazine] this year, but they fell off the face of the earth." Their loss is our gain, I say, and they haven't responded to her queries about the poem, so this would mark it's first publication, I believe.

Charity

This person who requires

very little of me

wrecks the neighborhood

in spirits and crushed feathers               

I wheedle the ajar door

just give a push

and enjoy the feel of it giving

Let loose on the night

with you clawing behind me

feral, whip-tailed, gentle man

a shriek of rubber on wet pavement

and questions

so many questions

I feel two things:

the smoky grit of the upholstery &

the constellation of insects in my veins

Lust is the arch of the moon

in the stomach of a middle-aged woman

perverse and sterile,

a sprinkling of glass and lacquer

from a childhood memory

of dark sex and rage

I keep hearing you talk to me

It sounds like a sugar cube

muddled in brandy

 ~ ~ ~

Christina Continelli is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist. She cut her poetry teeth in the San Diego spoken word scene. In 2004 she moved to Oakland, California to attend the MFA program at California College of the Arts. Her work has appeared in Goodfoot Magazine, Slice, How2,  and Monday Night Lit.

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

~

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Grisel Acosta

Today's tattooed poet, Dr. Grisel  Y. Acosta, sends her submission in from Texas:

 Grisel explains this body art:

The Mets are kind of responsible for the tattoo I have on my arm and shoulder.  See, my husband is obsessed with the Mets and when we moved to San Antonio from the East Coast, he lamented not being able to see his team on a regular basis.  He was so puppy-dog sad that when he planned a trip to Houston purely on the basis of seeing the Mets play the Astros in Minute Maid Park, I couldn’t help but enthusiastically agree, just to see the wonderfully happy look on his face.  But, I said that if he was going to have a cool experience on the trip, I had to have one, too: I was to get my next tattoo at the famous Texas Body Art, known for countless features in tattoo magazines and highlighted appearances at tattoo shows across the country.  I wanted a skull with blue roses coming out of it but I was wavering about the idea.  Then, a dear friend reminded me of the literary connection of the image in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, one of my favorite plays by one of my favorite writers.  Ah, yes, the idea was perfect—and the trip was, too!  The Mets won in a record 17 innings!  And I won a professional work of art that was designed on the spot in a matter of minutes by the skilled artists at Texas Body Art.  Sweet!

For people not familiar with The Glass Menagerie, one of the characters, Laura, has the nickname "Blue Roses".

Grisel also sent along this poem:

Trash

Papi threw out all my artwork.

Derek’s carved open chest,

blue-black heart and orange skin in

Design marker scrawl,

condemning our underground afternoon of

Southside sad lust.

A spotlighted box of cereal called “Health”

in a room with a grass floor, pine tree

decoration, and chopped lumber sitting neatly.

Acrylic nature.  I miss this one the most.

I am reminded of it every time I shop at Whole Foods.

Even the two-bits.  Tiny 2x2 art,

entered in competition, or sold.

Two of mine won awards.

One of them, my first sale, was bought for $5.

It was a multi-colored, swirling cathedral called “My Bed.”

I placed all the work under the bed

in the guest room.  By my next visit,

it was gone,

except for “Insane Bridget.”

She is framed and in the living room,

face turned away, bony back

curved at the viewer, harsh

charcoal on brown paper.

Dark copper sadness, winner of a gold prize.

Papi values winning.

Anything else is trash.

And this is why, today, he is so afraid,

scared that retirement means he, too, is trash,

wary of children who might find him useless.

But artists make beauty out of trash.

We roll in the discarded and live with its decline,

listen to it crumble and make the sound song,

cradle it in our hands and sculpt it useful.

 ~ ~ ~

Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta recently graduated from the doctoral program in English at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she was also the managing editor of UTSA’s art and literature journal, SagebrushReview.  Some of her creative work can be found in After Hours, Pembroke Magazine, MiPoesias, the NAACP Image Award nominated Check the Rhyme, PrivateInternational Photo Review, and Voicesde la Luna.  Some of her scholarly work can be found in African AmericanWomen’s Language, Western AmericanLiterature, The Handbook ofLatinos/as and Education, and the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature.  Her influences include her Cuban/Colombian heritage, Chicago—where she was born, house and punk music, sci-fi and cyberculture.

A sincere thanks to Grisel for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Jared Singer

Yesterday, we enjoyed the tattoos and poetry of Elliott D. Smith. Today, we get to check out the work of his roommate, Jared Singer.

I met Jared, along with Justin, last month at the Barnes & Noble flagship store. Like Elliott, Jared's tattoo is a work "in progress" inked by the incomparable Joy Rumore at Twelve 28 Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Check out Jared's upper right arm:

Jared explained that this tattoo has two origins. First, it was inspired by lyrics from a group called Living Legends. More specifically, the words "I'm so fly, even my shadow has its own friends."

The other motif in this piece comes from the lyrics in "9-5ers Anthem," by Aesop Rock, that proclaim, "I tend to underestimate my own average."

Jared says he originally conceived of the piece consisting of "shadows with other shadows". Joy drew up the design and said, "How about this instead?"

The rest is history. Well, sort of. As mentioned at the top of the post, this sleeve-to-be is still a work in progress.

Jared shared this poem with us:

The Last Love Letter from an Entomologist

Dear Samantha,

I’m sorry, we have to get a divorce.

I know that seems like an odd way

to start a love letter, but let me explain.

Its not you,

it’s definitely not me,

it’s just, human beings don’t love

as well as insects do.

I love you far too much to let what we have

be ruined by the failings of our species.

So instead,

I’m going to leave you now,

while I can still remember you fondly.

I saw the way you looked at the waiter last night,

I know you would never do anything,

you never do, but still I

saw the way you looked at the waiter last night.

Did you know that when a female fly

accepts the pheromones put off by a male

It rewrites the way her brain works,

destroys the receptors for pheromones.

Sensing the change, the male fly does the same.

When flies love each other,

they do it so hard,

that they can never love anything else ever again.

if either one dies before procreation

both sets of genetic code are lost forever.

Now that is dedication.

After breaking up with Elizabeth

we spent three days dividing

everything we had bought together

like if I knew which pots were mine,

like if I knew which drapes were mine,

the pain would go away.

When two praying mantises mate,

the nervous system of the male

begins to shut down.

While he still has control over his motor functions,

he flips onto his back

exposing his soft underbelly to his lover like a gift.

She then proceeds to lovingly

and I do mean lovingly

 dice him into tiny pieces

which she  shoves carefully into mouth

wasting not a single morsel,

even the exoskeleton must go.

She does this so that

so that when their children are born

she has a first meal to regurgitate to feed them.

Now that is dedication.

I could never do that for you.

So I have a new plan.

I plan on spending the rest of my life committing petty injustices.

I will jaywalk at every opportunity

I will steal things I could easily afford

I will be rude to strangers

I hope you will do the same.

I hope reincarnation is real.

I hope that these petty crimes cause me to be reborn as a lesser creature.

I hope we are reborn as flies.

So that we can love each other as hard as we were meant to.

~ ~ ~

We also have the good fortune of having video of Jared performing this piece at the Bowery Poetry Club in 2009:



Jared Singer is a poet and audio engineer who lives in New York City. While he may have physically grown up with his peers, he has never forgotten the imagination, magic, and nerdiness that were corner stones of his childhood. He hopes to remind others of these more creative times. He has been published by The Legendary, Union Station Magazine, The Spoken Word Almanac Project 2010 and has also appeared on the Indiefeed Peformance Poetry Podcast. He is the NYC Urbana 2009 Grand Slam Poetry Champion, The 2009 NYC Louder Arts Individual World Poetry Slam representative and a member of the 2010 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Poetry Slam Team.

Much thanks and appreciation to Jared for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Stephen Caratzas

Today's tattooed poet is Stephen Caratzas, who was sent our way via Jillian Brall, a tattooed poet who has appeared on the Tattooed Poets Project twice before (here and here).

Stephen sent along this cool photo:

The tattoo in question is on his wrist. For a closer look:

Stephen explains:

"The tattoo is a griffin, inspired by an image of a griffin holding a Walther PPK automatic pistol on the cover of Ian Fleming's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The artist, whose first name was Mike - don't recall his last name - decided to make the gun into the griffin's paw, which I agreed was a sensible idea.

I got the idea for a tattoo on the inside of my wrist from one of the characters (Casper, I believe) in Larry Clark's film, Kids. I liked the idea of having a visible tattoo even while wearing a long-sleeve dress shirt."

The tattoo is among eight Stephen has, and was inked at Fun City Tattoo on Macdougal Street in Manhattan back in the late 1990s.

Stephen sent us several poems, but I liked this one best:

THE NEW CORONERS

I never felt so good as when a waiter

in Amsterdam called me monsieur

after ordering beef champignon

putting his pen to his lips and looking off

“I believe monsieur has ordered the better dish”

so then you ordered it too

in a place called De Oude Doelen

(the old aims the old targets the old goals)

a drunk at the bar sang along with the jukebox

for years afterward I searched for the song

it wasn’t Elvis but it was sad

the song and the drunk and it was our last meal

when we two parted it was inevitable

it always is it always is

~ ~ ~

Stephen Caratzas is a writer, musician and visual artist living in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. His writing has been published in Terra Incognita, Maintenant 5, the tiny, and many other journals.

Thanks to Stephen for sending us his tattoo and poems! We here at Tattoosday are grateful for his contribution.


This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Seth Berg Returns

Last year on the Tattooed Poets Project, the best ink we saw belonged to Seth Berg, hands down.If you don't believe me, check it out here.

Seth has the honor of being the only previous tattooed poet to return to the site this year. And he has sent us a quintet of tattoos, choosing the theme of "tattoos which have faces on them." And away we go:

Photo by Ashley at http://ashleybergphotography.com/

Photo by Ashley at http://ashleybergphotography.com/

Seth explains that "the two faces depicted in Audrey Kawasaki paintings are part of a half sleeve on my right arm."  Why does he have Kawasaki art inked on his flesh? "Audrey Kawasaki is one of my favorite living painters and the half sleeve is a tattoo combining two of my favorite paintings of hers," says Seth. "I have seen other Kawasaki tattoos," he continues, "but I am quite impressed with this double-painting-half-sleeve blend."

Next up is this Lego piece:

Photo by Ashley at http://ashleybergphotography.com/

Seth says "the Lego head is on the back of my left calf ... [and is]  one of the few 'walk-in' tattoos I have. I had just purchased an Exo-Force Lego set and was quite amazed at the progression of facila expression." He adds, "I decided to honor the old school original on my leg. I grew up wanting every Lego piece on the planet. I couldn't not get a Lego tattoo."

Next up is this piece:

Photo by Ashley at http://ashleybergphotography.com/

Seth says "the skull is on the lower front of my left bicep...I had always been drawn to a refined black and gray skull and cross bones."

Detail of photo by Ashley at http://ashleybergphotography.com/

"Plus," he adds, "pirate flag depictions are pretty cool."

Finally, we have a jack-o-lantern on the inside of  his left bicep:

Photo by Ashley at http://ashleybergphotography.com/

Seth explains: "I am a sucker for Halloween--my wife and I had a Halloween-themed wedding the Saturday of Halloween weekend and we host a Halloween bash every year--thus, the Jack-o-lantern was a natural addition to the collection." In case you're wondering about the word "rain" in the photo, it is not a word in Shelley Jackson's Skin Project, he just loves the rain, and this is one of a "multitude of font and literary tattoos" that he possesses, so we know what Seth is giving us next year!

Seth explains that "all of the tattoos, with the exception of the skull and bones, were completed by Claudia "Billy" Baca at Saint Sabrina's in Uptown, Minneapolis." He notes, "however, she currently works in Austin, Texas at Bijou Studio."

As for a poem, this is what Seth has offered to share with us:

"Constructing a Proper Torch"


Douse the head of a cat tail

into a soapy mixture

of Dawn brand dish detergent

and gasoline;

reinforce the stem

with a steel rod or femur;

set the head ablaze;

open your face to the air.

When paper cranes

spill from your mouth,

remember to light the dark,
  
sew feathers to your fingertips.

When the cranes,

spilling and multiplying, 

request grain and berries,

snacks of rodents and amphibians,

tell them that hunger is an essential

component of flight.

When, from the ground,

they are unable to ascend,

lend them your stitched fingertips

and take to the sky on fire.

 ~ ~ ~

Seth Michael Berg earned his MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University in 2003 and since has been bouncing around the country teaching, tending bar, sculpting, writing, and occasionally snowshoeing. His poems and fiction can be found in Connecticut Review, Lake Effect, Word Riot, JMWW, 13th Warrior Review, Chiron Review, BlazeVOX, Pike Magazine, and Disappearing City Literary Review, among others. His first book, Muted Lines From Someone Else's Memory, was winner of Dark Sky Books book contest in 2009 and rolled off the press summer of 2010. He has since been city-hopping on lecture book tour and will next be in Chicago at the end of April. Berg lives in Chaska, MN with his photographer wife, Ashley, their supernatural son, Oak, and their Saint Bernard, Icarus. When not working, Berg can most likely be found indulging his addiction to hot sauce or slowing down somewhere in a forest. Here is a book link with audio poems and other goodies: http://darkskymagazine.com/books/seth-berg-muted-lines/.

Thanks to Seth, once again, for his invaluable contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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: Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

In the first post of this year's Tattooed Poets Project (here), Vicki Iorio described watching today's tattooed poet, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, recite verse while being tattooed. Here is that tattoo, along with some others:

Photograph by Mark Wells

The word "poet" in the center of the back is self-explanatory and was inked by Syxx, at Wyld Chyld Tattoo Studio. Above that is the name "Joey," who is Tammy's husband. That was done by an artist named Kenny at a shop called Z Connection. The piece on the right is a rose, with the names of Tammy's three children and their birth dates, inked by Bob at Tattoo Lou's on Long Island. Dave at Tattoo Lou's also did the memorial cross for Tammy's son Mike, who was killed in 1995. Tammy also has this tattoo on her foot:

That cat paw is for Tammy's cat, Maude, who passed away last October 10, and was done by Jimmy at Wyld Chyld.

Tammy also shared some of her poetry:

POEM#6

I am not the coca cola girl,
the Cheez-It tidbit waiting for you to taste,
the limo ride to the Yankee’s game,
the wrangler jeans chick baking in the New Mexico sun,
and I never was or will be Sunday mornings in spring.

I am the time-ticking-away second hand,
the flat tire on the side of the road,
the too high door jam,
the worn-out tooth brush,
the 59 cents in the ashtray,
the Lunch Poems dog-eared book,
and the who never forgets to tell the truth.

~ ~ ~

SPOONS

I remember when you spoon-fed me ice-cream as we lay in bed on that rainy afternoon
and the way your fingers tasted and your neck had a hint of sweat and I closed my eyes
and you drove away the dark and I called your name in a low, soft moan.

I remember when you spooned sugar into your morning tea on that sunny Tuesday
and I watched you drink as if you were a foreign film I could not understand
and your smile told me my poetry made you hunger for more than a nine-to-five life.

I remember when you spooned dirt into the flower pot and filled it with mums for me
and I was peeking out the window seeing you bent down working away humming
and I decided then that I was not who I wanted to be without you in my days and nights

And I remember how after you left I packed away all the silverware, including those
spoons and I gave the box to the Salvation Army, hoping for some salvation of my own
and I drove away from our town knowing I would never see another sunset like you.

~ ~ ~

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is a very busy woman. She was appointed Suffolk County Poet Laureate for 2009 – 2011. She is founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene, Inc. and The North Sea Poetry Scene Press. She was nominated for Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for her poetry book, Let Me Tell You Something. She is
listed in Poets & Writers, has penned 4 chapbooks, is Poet-in-Residence at Southampton Historical Museum, an adjunct Professor at Briarcliffe College, the editor of the Long Island Sounds Anthology. She hosts TNSPS’s Arts Forum TV Show on Channel 20 on Cablevision in Riverhead, N.Y. and serves as the Lead Poetry Jurist for the East End Arts Council, Riverhead, N.Y.

Currently, Tammy is creating an archival/arts center (www.lipoetryarchivalcenter.com) for Long Island poetry that will be a gathering place for poets. She is also currently working toward an M.F.A. at Southampton Stony Brook University.

Thanks to Tammy for sharing her work, both written and tattooed, here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poem is reprinted here with the permission of the author.

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.