Craig Arnold Needs Our Help

Craig Arnold, whose tattoos were featured just last Friday here, has gone missing on an isolated island in Japan.<br /><br />He needs our help. The Japanese authorities are close to calling off the search, and we need to do what we can by contacting our elected officials in Washington to put pressure on the Japanese government to not give up on finding Craig.<br /><br />There's more info <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/04/craig-arnold-needs-our-help-urgent/">here</a>.

Craig Arnold Needs Our Help

Craig Arnold, whose tattoos were featured just last Friday here, has gone missing on an isolated island in Japan. He needs our help. The Jap...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Wrapping Up National Poetry Month

<blockquote>"Alas, I've done the uninkable"<br />-<span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.paulmuldoon.net/">Paul Muldoon</a>, February 3, 2009</span><br /></blockquote>That was Mr. Muldoon's response to my inquiry, in January, if he was tattooed. I've been wanting to include that somewhere this month, and finally found the spot. Thank you, Mr. Muldoon.<br /><br />As I wrap up National Poetry Month here on Tattoosday and BillyBlog, it all seems a bit unreal. I spent a good quarter of the year, since mid-January, assembling the host of inked poets that have blessed us with their tattoos over the last month.<br /><br />And there is more to come. There's a dozen or so poets who expressed interest, but never came through with photos. I continue to receive submissions from poets who have wanted to share, acknowledging that the deadline has passed.<br /><br />I invite all of you who may have just been checking in on the poets' tattoos to return and visit often. Tattoosday is dedicated to presenting the most interesting tattoos it can find on the streets of New York. Note that I say "interesting," rather than "best". For, sometimes, a simple tattoo is anything but- the story beneath the layer of skin that the ink permeates is often more fascinating than the design itself. I want to thank everyone who helped contribute to the success of the Tattooed Poets Project.<br /><br />First and foremost, <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/photos/about_us/3b49400r.html">Stacey Harwood</a> at the <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/">Best American Poetry blog</a>. Stacey was enthusiastic about the concept from the get-go, and <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/the_best_american_poetry/2009/01/this-just-in-show-us-your-tatts-.html">her call for submissions on the BAP blog</a> was a sign of legitimacy that I'm sure convinced many poets that the project was worthwhile and above-board. Her inclusion of Tattoosday on the BAP blog was a blessing, and the bit of html code that Stacey taught me will continue to be helpful in the future. I thank Stacey from the bottom of my heart.<br /><br />Extended from that, I also thank other poets affiliated with the BAP blog: <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/photos/about_us/smalldlonsubwayplatformfeb8_2009.html">David Lehman</a>, who has been series editor of <a href="http://www.bestamericanpoetry.com/">The Best American Poetry</a> since it's inception in 1988, BAP correspondents <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/photos/about_us/moirasmall.html">Moira Egan</a> and <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/photos/about_us/jill.html">Jill Alexander Essbaum</a> for their support and participation, and <a href="http://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/laux/">Dorianne Laux</a> who, although uninked, set me on a meandering path, introducing me to tattooed<br />poets who, in turn, introduced me to more tattooed poets, and so forth, and so on.<br /><br />And of course, I thank all of you, the readers. In the blogosphere, no one can hear you scream and the worst fear of a blogger is that his or her voice goes unheard. Your comments, e-mails, submissions, and even your votes were truly appreciated.<br /><br />April was our best month ever, in terms of traffic. As of this writing, we are on pace to eclipse the 25,000 hit mark for the month. I offer my thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to stop by.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br /><br />Bill Cohen<br /><br />And now, the final tattooed poet for the month! Enjoy.....

The Tattooed Poets Project: Wrapping Up National Poetry Month

"Alas, I've done the uninkable" - Paul Muldoon , February 3, 2009 That was Mr. Muldoon's response to my inquiry, in Januar...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: A Hand for Joy Harjo

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsB2VoaXj_G-VUQcbnEgz_YyDdqDb2cRpzxMKSRgu50dDEgnC_2qrdjwT9ndoP7D-JF4x2svP2kNvuueBkuyb3wHKEFKXGjkeG2XZLyZbOQjgtp-rk33actInJCjpKU74JO1yrSgynbY/s1600-h/joy1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330414808444406946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjsB2VoaXj_G-VUQcbnEgz_YyDdqDb2cRpzxMKSRgu50dDEgnC_2qrdjwT9ndoP7D-JF4x2svP2kNvuueBkuyb3wHKEFKXGjkeG2XZLyZbOQjgtp-rk33actInJCjpKU74JO1yrSgynbY/s400/joy1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 266px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />Our last tattoo for National Poetry Month comes to us from the wonderful poet <a href="http://www.joyharjo.com/Home.html">Joy Harjo</a>.<br /><br />I was surprised, to be honest, when Joy agreed to participate, because she seemed so busy. Despite the exchange of messages from her, aside from her permission to be a part of the project, I didn't get a lot of detail about the piece she offered. Fortunately for me and, by extension, Tattoosday readers, she has <a href="http://www.joyharjo.com/Home.html">a website</a> and an explanation about the tattoo there. I am reprinting it here:<br /><br /><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="line-height: 20.9px;"><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;"></span></div><blockquote style="font-style: italic;"><div class="paragraph_style_2" style="line-height: 20.9px;"><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;">The tattoo on my hand is a tattoo. It’s not henna. The style is from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesas_Islands">Marquesas Islands</a>. The Marquesas are north of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahiti">Tahiti</a>.<br /></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_3" style="line-height: 20.9px;"><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://www.roonui-tattoo.com/">Roonui</a>, a Tahitian artist, did the tattoo freehand in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorea">Moorea</a>, Tahiti. He is now living in Canada. </span><a class="class1" href="http://www.roonui-tattoo.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" onkeypress="window.open(this.href); return false;" style="line-height: 19.855px;" title="http://www.roonui-tattoo.com/"><span class="style_6" style="line-height: 20px;"></span></a><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;">It took two-and-a-half hours. (And yes, it hurt.)<br /></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_3" style="line-height: 20.9px;"><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;">I’d seen the tattoo there on my hand for sometime. The tattoo represents assistance for my work. I use my hands for music, writing, and everything else I do. The tattoo reminds me of the levels of assistance. I am also carrying a beautiful piece of art with me wherever I go.<br /></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_3" style="line-height: 20.9px;"><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;">Roonui says: "Polynesian tattooing is not a simple exercise in aesthetics. Polynesian carve into their body the symbols of their actions (past present or future), their promises, their games."<br /></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_3" style="line-height: 20.9px;"><span class="style_5" style="line-height: 19px;">The part inside my wrist, close to my heart, resembles ancestral designs of my tribal people.</span><span class="style_3" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div></blockquote>I encourage readers to explore Joy's website (linked above) and to head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/">BillyBlog</a> to read one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-30-joy-harjo.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: A Hand for Joy Harjo

Our last tattoo for National Poetry Month comes to us from the wonderful poet Joy Harjo . I was surprised, to be honest, when Joy agreed to ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Eileen Myles - "Poet, Take My Measure"

For this, our penultimate post in the April Tattooed Poets Series, we present a tattoo from <a href="http://www.eileenmyles.com/home.html">Eileen Myles</a>.<br /><br />Last week Thursday, I met Eileen on my lunch break at a Starbucks in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Square_%28New_York_City%29">Union Square</a>. For a blog based on meeting people with tattoos, it was refreshing to sit and chat with a poet in person. It was only the second face-to-face meeting with tattooed poets. All others have been based on e-mail submissions.<br /><br />Eileen is a fixture in the New York poetry scene, and has been a resident here since the early 1970's. She's also the first poet featured who I've actually heard read, so I felt like I was re-meeting with an old acquaintance.<br /><br />Eileen has three tattoos, and I opted to talk to her about the one on the inside of her left bicep:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2lxkzgFDmZTwvWPwG6wweCK8w814DWcONgZ6Wo468mk-M3vDeXw08oQ2pWuzwn0xmgYf9E1Cey8hFLwpSi8hoRGjuNqrfcVgi7jZFy2G0aST8t0rRZDnzrH8lsJAV7MPv34wrbAP5mQo/s1600-h/PICT1921.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330045996056968466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2lxkzgFDmZTwvWPwG6wweCK8w814DWcONgZ6Wo468mk-M3vDeXw08oQ2pWuzwn0xmgYf9E1Cey8hFLwpSi8hoRGjuNqrfcVgi7jZFy2G0aST8t0rRZDnzrH8lsJAV7MPv34wrbAP5mQo/s400/PICT1921.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" /></a><br />Eileen explained that she got this tattoo back in 2001 (before 9/11 - which led to a whole other conversation). The phrase is a quote from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri">Dante's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_%28Dante%29" style="font-style: italic;">Inferno</a> (translated by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pinsky">Robert Pinsky</a>), the first part of The Divine Comedy.<br /><br />In the Italian, the lines are:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"Io cominciai: "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Poeta che mi guidi</span>,</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />guarda la mia virtù s'ell' è possente,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> prima ch'a l'</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">alto passo tu mi fidi."<br /><br /></span> </span> <span style="font-size:85%;"> <nobr><b>Dante Alighieri</b>, <i>Inferno,</i> II. 10-12</nobr></span></blockquote><br /><br />Or, as translated by Mr. Pinsky:<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >"I commenced: "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Poet, take my measure now:</span></span><p> <nobr><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Appraise my powers before you trust me to venture</span> </span></nobr></p><p><nobr><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Through that deep passage where you would be my guide."</span><br /></span></nobr><span style="font-size:85%;"><nobr></nobr></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><nobr><b>Robert Pinsky</b>, <i>The Inferno of Dante</i>, II. 9-11 </nobr></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><nobr></nobr></span></p><br />Eileen got this line of poetry tattooed as a signpost for her embarking on a novel called <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Inferno-Poets-Novel-Eileen-Myles/dp/1593762119">The Inferno: A Poet's Novel</a>.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEFBHLl7xw8wR8CvEAj3BsKkbxhaty0xRLZGa7R0itBPv2OkOqVGDK0v174a4L0FeJzDIiTZVAMj5bX6YXj9JpAqxxPQi7-NE7b4dwqscwrNvU9FVMK7_nuVDpO8IwjLHFLz6pDmv4A2c/s1600-h/41wP5JBhcgL._SS500_.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330048078229568418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEFBHLl7xw8wR8CvEAj3BsKkbxhaty0xRLZGa7R0itBPv2OkOqVGDK0v174a4L0FeJzDIiTZVAMj5bX6YXj9JpAqxxPQi7-NE7b4dwqscwrNvU9FVMK7_nuVDpO8IwjLHFLz6pDmv4A2c/s320/41wP5JBhcgL._SS500_.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" /></a><br />The lines from the original work by Dante are spoken by Dante to the poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil">Virgil</a>, checking to see if he can handle the journey on which he is about to embark.<br /><br />Writing as a woman, she draws a parallel to the inferno of Hell with the life of a female poet.<br /><br />This tattoo was inked by <a href="http://stephanietamez.com/">Stephanie Tamez</a> at <a href="http://www.porcupinetattoo.com/">Porcupine Tattoo</a> on the Lower East Side. Both Stephanie and Porcupine have moved, Stephanie to <a href="http://nyadorned.com/">New York Adorned</a>, and Porcupine from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_East_Side">Lower East Side</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpoint,_Brooklyn">Greenpoint, Brooklyn</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Eileen for sharing this tattoo with us here at Tattoosday!<br /><br />Please head over to BillyBlog to see one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-29-eileen.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Eileen Myles - "Poet, Take My Measure"

For this, our penultimate post in the April Tattooed Poets Series, we present a tattoo from Eileen Myles . Last week Thursday, I met Eileen ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Meredith S's Interpretation of a Russian Prison Tattoo

As the end of National Poetry Month approaches, I find myself in an enviable position: too many poets' tattoos, too few days. So, I've decided to "double up" and make today a "Two for Tattoosday". I have also realized that this Tattooed Poets Series will have to continue, in one form or another, above and beyond National Poetry Month. Stay tuned for more details.<br /><br />In the mean time, Meredith S., a poet from Brooklyn, sent in the following photo:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwps1cwJUmTZz8teQgi2sl9O1j6y3SmfSj9ECBOcQTrxUjlYYoItLCw_g7i3t-lkicNPJNzB1P4lpu1tcBqKDAcTdsMURmYloHgeW7Lbxx7tf2n7HsvYR6SVWQDf5UEtxfmp0O3i0dJsQ/s1600-h/Photo+54.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329675756465699330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwps1cwJUmTZz8teQgi2sl9O1j6y3SmfSj9ECBOcQTrxUjlYYoItLCw_g7i3t-lkicNPJNzB1P4lpu1tcBqKDAcTdsMURmYloHgeW7Lbxx7tf2n7HsvYR6SVWQDf5UEtxfmp0O3i0dJsQ/s400/Photo+54.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />I know, I know, you can't see the whole piece in that shot, but it's pretty cool, and you can get some detail on the sparrow. Here's a more traditional shot:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS5dgP75JeC1qrgBhrALSaefz9ury76mVr0yDSC9S6FHTDjtHsdWVpkAVFhJ6rn7gFMZgq_-rNdEgHwFMkX9OK4AQEBlUZytDnJ3XOiPml5RH-Rf5JM0wWsaKzvDW2KQUea0LB7TV1Oc/s1600-h/DSCN1539.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328195042119832786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHS5dgP75JeC1qrgBhrALSaefz9ury76mVr0yDSC9S6FHTDjtHsdWVpkAVFhJ6rn7gFMZgq_-rNdEgHwFMkX9OK4AQEBlUZytDnJ3XOiPml5RH-Rf5JM0wWsaKzvDW2KQUea0LB7TV1Oc/s400/DSCN1539.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />Meredith explains:<br /><div></div><blockquote><div>"I happen to love tattoos as a intimately personal expression of ourselves...</div><div><br /></div><div>[This] ... is an interpretation of a Russian prison tattoo that families and lovers got when they were separated by prisons and Stalin's concentration camps. The tattoo is a traditional pair of swallows holding a three-piece banner with the Russian acronyms: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomsk" style="font-style: italic;">tomsk</a> (a city in Russia); <span style="font-style: italic;">vino</span> (wine); <span style="font-style: italic;">omyt </span>(whirlpool). The acronyms stand for: you alone have my heart; come back and stay forever; it is hard to leave me.<br /><br /><a href="http://alexmcwatt.com/">Alex McWatt</a> at <a href="http://www.threekingstattoo.com/">Three Kings Tattoo</a> did an amazing job at putting all the elements together. I decided to get this tattoo after losing most of my family members, but mainly after my mother, who is a drug addict, disappeared from my life 5 years ago." </div></blockquote><div></div><div>Meredith also submitted a poem about her mother that she composed after seeing a prison mugshot of her a couple of years ago. That poem is posted <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-28-part-2.html">here</a> on BillyBlog.<br /><br />Alex McWatt has had work appearing before on Tattoosday, <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2008/08/vickis-shamrock-tattoo.html">here</a>.</div>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Meredith S's Interpretation of a Russian Prison Tattoo

As the end of National Poetry Month approaches, I find myself in an enviable position: too many poets' tattoos, too few days. So, I'...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Ruth Kohtz Shares a Poema

Today's tattoo comes from Ruth Kohtz:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwRVMVd7EM8bSnvkip6DrZThdgDfRLERcoWceup4HVMuikSU9Sy4on-IU-cBhU2Z6zI_DfTZNPQc20k8L1_HqUsuPzg8pb4Dmb32KSGT1IcA_Ljnbbio0LRoGOcwE6ypTr3b-hyjVVtE/s1600-h/poemaRK.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329084053580023442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwRVMVd7EM8bSnvkip6DrZThdgDfRLERcoWceup4HVMuikSU9Sy4on-IU-cBhU2Z6zI_DfTZNPQc20k8L1_HqUsuPzg8pb4Dmb32KSGT1IcA_Ljnbbio0LRoGOcwE6ypTr3b-hyjVVtE/s400/poemaRK.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />Ruth explains:<br /><br /><blockquote>I got the "poema" tattoo on my birthday, November 9, in 2007, by Nik Lensing at <a href="http://www.myspace.com/fluidink">Fluid Ink</a> in St. Paul, Minnesota. I made the appointment about 2 hours before I got it, and I had the design all printed out already.<br /><br />I had been out of college for about six months and was struggling with lots of existential "what am I doing?" kind of stuff. I have spoken Spanish and written poetry for several years, and the word "poema" ("poem") expresses that I am writing my own life into existence - there's no one way a life has to be. It's a poem.<br /><br />And I got it on the back of my neck so I wouldn't have to work a job where I couldn't have a tattoo on the back of my neck. Someday I'm going to get "Ruth-less" across my knuckles...<br /><br />I also have a small blue star on the inside of my right arm because it is said that poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker">Dorothy Parker</a> (of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Round_Table">Algonquin Round Table</a> in the 1930s) had a similar tattoo back when it was not quite so popular...<br /></blockquote>Thanks to Ruth for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br />Please head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-28-ruth-kohtz.html">BillyBlog here</a> to see her performing one of her poems.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Ruth Kohtz Shares a Poema

Today's tattoo comes from Ruth Kohtz: Ruth explains: I got the "poema" tattoo on my birthday, November 9, in 2007, by Nik Lens...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: My First Tattoo

I'm going to be a greedy little poet/blogger today and share one of my tattoos (and a tattoo-themed <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-27-william.html">sestina</a> on BillyBlog). We're in our final week of National Poetry Month, and I thought it would be a good time to hop on the bandwagon.<br /><br />I was hoping to post a tattoo that I've recently had done, but the artist has respectfully requested that I wait to post it until after it has been fully completed.<br /><br />So we'll head back to 2003 and my first tattoo, on my right bicep:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_z3pRMLObddiZSr_avexx6Ywj8C3mc2GX5K_lCqECCAmBVeXyskW8ZySAec372GaIFwvUt9mxRgaBLPHZdN4UTJ-zvVd3uFm43Di6lqYvpLJdyqRJnKwJyMLElOW6BBBHZ5zguIGrhs/s1600-h/Lineka.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329077085506422722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_z3pRMLObddiZSr_avexx6Ywj8C3mc2GX5K_lCqECCAmBVeXyskW8ZySAec372GaIFwvUt9mxRgaBLPHZdN4UTJ-zvVd3uFm43Di6lqYvpLJdyqRJnKwJyMLElOW6BBBHZ5zguIGrhs/s400/Lineka.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 281px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />Back then, I was not so involved in tattooing, and I didn't really understand the process. I thought you just went to a shop, picked some flash, and had it inked. Had I known then what I know now, I may have approached the experience a little differently.<br /><br />The first tattoo is a representation of my oldest daughter, Jolee. She has a Hawaiian middle name, "Lineka," which one English-Hawaiian, Hawaiian-English dictionary told me means "lynx". Not that there are any lynx roaming around Honolulu, but she certainly has the personality and beauty of a lynx, and it just seemed right.<br /><br />A tattoo artist named "Sickie," who was working out of <a href="http://www.bodyartstudios.com/">Body Arts Studio</a> in Bay Ridge, took the flash, modified it by removing all the extraneous bamboo and other background art, and created this version of the wildcat.<br /><br />He was very proud of himself over the way the eyes came out. I tend to agree. They're pretty cool. Lest you think my younger daughter feel left out, she is also represented on me in the form of a tattoo, previously posted <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2008/07/keikikalani.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks for indulging me. Now head on over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-27-william.html">BillyBlog</a> and read my <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-27-william.html">sestina</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: My First Tattoo

I'm going to be a greedy little poet/blogger today and share one of my tattoos (and a tattoo-themed sestina on BillyBlog). We're in...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Claire Askew's Two Naomis

<span>Today's tattoos come from Claire Askew, a poet and editor who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland:<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqmO0uImxiGVJytlRFD7_FugD9-mOVSb1PIMIpQz-GrOVIEokHfneNVM9DjydhBYeTyB6XXFWO9C-X8ea1vkM06TCAnEE8l208GMPYH5opZ7Wl4ifZzPE2kHVUIX4etLW_xcJX207_iFQ/s1600-h/claire1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328955528498448722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqmO0uImxiGVJytlRFD7_FugD9-mOVSb1PIMIpQz-GrOVIEokHfneNVM9DjydhBYeTyB6XXFWO9C-X8ea1vkM06TCAnEE8l208GMPYH5opZ7Wl4ifZzPE2kHVUIX4etLW_xcJX207_iFQ/s400/claire1.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br /><span>Claire explains:<br /><br /></span><blockquote><span>My tattoo was inked by Roberto Seifert, who works out of <a href="http://www.herzblut-tattoo.de/">Herzblut Tattoo</a> in Leipzig, Germany. However, he tattooed me while doing a guest-stint at the fantastic <a href="http://tattoozoo.net/portfolio.html">Tattoo Zoo</a> (run by Gerry Kramer) in Victoria, Canada. It was summer 2008 and I originally went into the parlour with my boyfriend, who was getting his second piece of Tattoo </span><span>Zoo ink. Seeing the place and talking with the artists, I decided I also wanted t</span><span>o be tattooed there, and took the plunge -- this was my first tattoo.</span><br /><br /><span>The design is based on part of a painting by <a href="http://www.alanaldridge.net/">Alan Aldridge</a><wbr>, most famous for his Beatles sleeve art and illustrations. I like the sleeping faces because they're innocent, but because they're inside flowers there's also something slightly sinister about them, like Venus Fly Traps. Roberto worked on them a fair bit before inking them, and the two are ever so slightly different from one another -- one looks very pure and sweet<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_DOKQfhJlr_qJBG_zzvN008JeZ3NHofc-w_s9-dtGsKBQIvDE-S36n75w1b5X0DoZDQ0azf7M53974ROWhJuZd_PuwgQSOQ0HmyQRP0Z64CbcRBqK-pis4Lh66xf7MI_s3ItSBT41bE/s1600-h/claire+right.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328956359591902306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_DOKQfhJlr_qJBG_zzvN008JeZ3NHofc-w_s9-dtGsKBQIvDE-S36n75w1b5X0DoZDQ0azf7M53974ROWhJuZd_PuwgQSOQ0HmyQRP0Z64CbcRBqK-pis4Lh66xf7MI_s3ItSBT41bE/s320/claire+right.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a><span><br />while the other looks more menacing, like she's plotting something.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFbUdYEC5npfqs11l3jogFNj5X5uMJqgoWOuDWoOzygGVHww9g0SFypugI0xg9qqWk11KV9_lTdtqPXLUCCb3JuKWJlsPgrz3FhSuAK3_7LLbkWFtKzpJs4s_kFJeT2SfVWf6hYleE7U/s1600-h/claire+left.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328956154019543730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvFbUdYEC5npfqs11l3jogFNj5X5uMJqgoWOuDWoOzygGVHww9g0SFypugI0xg9qqWk11KV9_lTdtqPXLUCCb3JuKWJlsPgrz3FhSuAK3_7LLbkWFtKzpJs4s_kFJeT2SfVWf6hYleE7U/s320/claire+left.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" /></a><span> I have a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde character so this really seems to fit.<br /></span><br />I am planning to expand this into a full chest piece in time, although currently I am enjoying their delicacy and sparseness. I've nicknamed them the Naomis -- when I had them done, I had just finished an academic dissertation on the poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg">Allen Ginsberg</a>, and had become fascinated by his mother Naomi, an amazing woman, but a sufferer of paranoid schizophrenia. Perhaps fittingly, they got her name.<br /></blockquote>Thanks to Claire for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday.<br /><br />Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-26-claire.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Claire Askew's Two Naomis

Today's tattoos come from Claire Askew, a poet and editor who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland: Claire explains: My tattoo was inked by Robe...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Rachel McKibbens' Bookish Knuckle Tattoos

Today's tattoos were submitted by <a href="http://rachelmckibbens.blogspot.com/">Rachel McKibbens</a>, who knows, among others, Cheryl, whose <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2009/04/cheryl-maddalenas-beautiful-tattoo.html">beautiful tattoo</a>, appeared <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2009/04/cheryl-maddalenas-beautiful-tattoo.html">here</a> previously. These are, in fact, the first knuckle tattoos appearing on the Tattooed Poets Project:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToip3k07sLSwcYhtmCxJOfMif3r61fA9XWwO0URMEm-xh3HgoWGKSKCLfJ1rDMYsQFkAYnHYjuVEoV7LRG_yywDYYZXQVUJlBHxQIvt7DoBiVGTyK1W6EPRDxwtJ0HLukNPh3QVYi-as/s1600-h/mckibbens+bookworm.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328196094857743474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgToip3k07sLSwcYhtmCxJOfMif3r61fA9XWwO0URMEm-xh3HgoWGKSKCLfJ1rDMYsQFkAYnHYjuVEoV7LRG_yywDYYZXQVUJlBHxQIvt7DoBiVGTyK1W6EPRDxwtJ0HLukNPh3QVYi-as/s400/mckibbens+bookworm.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 258px;" /></a><br />Rachel, who is almost fully-sleeved, writes:<br /><blockquote><br /><div>I got this tattoo on April 30th, 2006, at the <a href="http://www.truebluetattoo.com/">True Blue Tattoo</a> studio while visiting Austin, TX. [Work from True Blue has appeared on Tattoosday twice before, click <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/search/label/True%20Blue%20Tattoo%20%28Austin%29">here</a> to see]. The artist was <a href="http://www.jonreedtattooer.com/">Jon Reed</a>. Next to my "ditches" [the inner elbows] this was the most painful tattoo I've gotten to date. I was running out of space on my arms and decided to finally go balls out and get my knuckles done. I was initially going to get " a s d f j k l ; " to represent the home keys of a typewriter, but I realized, since it would have to be upside down and backwards, it wouldn't match up with the actual fingers that rested on them.<br /><br /></div> <div> </div> <div>At the time, I was teaching poetry at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue_Hospital">Bellevue Hospital</a>, and I was always encouraging my kids to read. I would give them the books off my shelves, go to <a href="http://www.strandbooks.com/">The Strand</a> and buy in bulk, etc. I needed them to feel like they weren't confined to the hospital or their group home. One of the writing exercises was to have them come up with my knuckle tatts - two four-letter words that weren't dirty. They came up with some doozies, but nothing that really fit.<br /><br /></div> <div> </div> <div>I finally came upon "book worm" after my friend Leah's boyfriend suggested it. It was such a logical choice, but the two words never came to me in the months I was searching. It is one of my favorite tattoos. And it's the first thing people see (besides the teardrop below my eye) and, since knuckle tatts have come to have this "tough guy" persona, people always laugh when they see it.</div></blockquote><div>If you like knuckle tattoos, I encourage people to visit <a href="http://www.knuckletattoos.com/">Knuckletattoos.com</a>, where I occasionally contribute a piece I've spotted in New York. I would have sent Rachel there, but they posted a Book Worm tattoo knuckle piece <a href="http://www.knuckletattoos.com/bookworm/">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Rachel for submitting these here.<br /><br />Please head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-25-rachel.html">here</a>.<br /><br /></div> <div> </div> <div> </div>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Rachel McKibbens' Bookish Knuckle Tattoos

Today's tattoos were submitted by Rachel McKibbens , who knows, among others, Cheryl, whose beautiful tattoo , appeared here previously...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Craig Arnold - Ἔρως and ψυχή

Today's tattoos come to us from <a href="http://volcanopilgrim.wordpress.com/">Craig Arnold</a>, who I found by way of <a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/242">J.D. McClatchy</a> (who is un-inked, but suggested I contact Craig).<br /><br />He sent these to me from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakushima">Yakushima</a> in Japan, which, according to Craig, "has lots of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakushima">Princess Mononoke</a> landscapes but very little internet/phone service".<br /><br />Craig has two Greek words inscribed on his arms:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWqmCEKvmelPv0fimycL3nQv4cgZWj3QeXqew3efV2yghfXaIVPqf3aJ72r1zSUO2u1OOfnUTjvfgzVl7jDW8fhFOpNOxiN0TjCjwtzzAcfz6d8XNNuPtmz0Dv-ivnZddFqWOGNnsfTyM/s1600-h/ErosSM.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327847376825517442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWqmCEKvmelPv0fimycL3nQv4cgZWj3QeXqew3efV2yghfXaIVPqf3aJ72r1zSUO2u1OOfnUTjvfgzVl7jDW8fhFOpNOxiN0TjCjwtzzAcfz6d8XNNuPtmz0Dv-ivnZddFqWOGNnsfTyM/s400/ErosSM.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGW5e2EEw8AsF9JtZt2F8AjtRMqQ049LFG8KXuQdmNyNcHPZ-c7F5enYrrLEN3ikraST2DdzXhSC8JpYAsaaNYE_U9X6_zfubVX-S0GNdaic9tD2tZFhvNBnu3PK8i-ecJ5EXu6bb977Y/s1600-h/PsycheSM.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327847800499367778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGW5e2EEw8AsF9JtZt2F8AjtRMqQ049LFG8KXuQdmNyNcHPZ-c7F5enYrrLEN3ikraST2DdzXhSC8JpYAsaaNYE_U9X6_zfubVX-S0GNdaic9tD2tZFhvNBnu3PK8i-ecJ5EXu6bb977Y/s400/PsycheSM.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" /></a><br />Craig explains:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Both are Greek words: the right arm (<span style="font-weight: bold;" lang="el">Ἔρως</span>) is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros">eros</a>, the left arm (<b><span class="polytonic" lang="grc">ψυχή</span></b>) is <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%88%CF%85%CF%87%CE%AE">psyche</a>. They were acquired almost exactly a year apart from each other, right arm in August 2003, left in 2004, both at <a href="http://www.lostarttattoo.com/">Lost Art Tattoo</a> in Salt Lake City, Utah. I believe the artist was <a href="http://www.lostarttattoo.com/dean/index.html">Dean</a> ... He designed the lettering.<br /><br />In retrospect there's maybe not much of a story here, but I'll tell what there is of it.<br /><br />That summer, my then-partner and I were in the early stages of splitting up, after many years together. It used to be -- maybe it still is, in some quarters -- that people got tattoos together at the start of a relationship, to express the beginning of a shared enterprise. But we were never much for going about things in the right order. So, we got tattoos together as the end approached, to remind us of our "irreconcilable differences." On my right arm I got eros -- desire, especially sexual, libido, profane love, but also creation; I think of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman">Whitman's</a> '<span style="font-style: italic;">urge and urge and urge, / Always the procreant urge of the world.</span>' And on her left, she has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape">agape</a> -- I suppose you could call it divine love, Christian or selfless love, unconditional love,<br /><br />After a while, though, Eros got lonely and acquired a Psyche. In Greek, psyche can mean many things -- breath or life, spirit, soul, mind and self (thus, psychology). In some parts of Greece it's still used to mean butterfly. But Psyche is also the human girl who falls in love with the god Eros, in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_and_Psyche">fairy-tale</a> that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apuleius">Apuleius</a> tells in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Ass">The Golden Ass</a>, one of the earliest versions of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_beast"><span style="font-style: italic;">Beauty & the Beast</span></a>. The story is about what comes between them and how they finally succeed in getting back together; I think of it as one of the foundational myths, an allegory for the ways in which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_%28emotion%29">Desire</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_%28philosophy%29">Will</a> depend on and fulfill each other."</blockquote>Thanks to Craig for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday. To read one of Craig's poems, please hop on over to BillyBlog <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-24-craig.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://volcanopilgrim.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"></a>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Craig Arnold - Ἔρως and ψυχή

Today's tattoos come to us from Craig Arnold , who I found by way of J.D. McClatchy (who is un-inked, but suggested I contact Craig). H...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez Presents A Bat from Jersey and a Honeymoon Memento

Today's tattoos are presented by the poet <a href="http://loudpoet.com/">Guy LeCharles Gonzalez</a>.<br /><br />The first one is a bat:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9pmbwwDiNMM7s2aOctrjFzxmy54iuzJxDj2P8KZV-U5BCExj1A-XgmXIUcWfkVUkdmJU07wwOI1HzZTEhKQIsFIF9WU3drOgKG55ua54iLJwPffizd_2ZALTYYR_ullC8kDr9jIV6YA/s1600-h/guy-1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325669821312868722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9pmbwwDiNMM7s2aOctrjFzxmy54iuzJxDj2P8KZV-U5BCExj1A-XgmXIUcWfkVUkdmJU07wwOI1HzZTEhKQIsFIF9WU3drOgKG55ua54iLJwPffizd_2ZALTYYR_ullC8kDr9jIV6YA/s400/guy-1.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 318px; height: 309px;" /></a><br />Guy explains:<br /><br /><blockquote>"I got the first tattoo, a stylized bat, back in 1995 somewhere in New Jersey; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toms_River,_New_Jersey">Toms River</a>, maybe? I'd resisted the urge to get one while I was on active duty in the Army, not wanting something stereotypical that I'd hate or regret a few years later, but a friend of mine had finally psyched herself up, and convinced me and another friend to head down to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_shore">Jersey Shore</a> and do the deed as a group. Before we got to the Shore, which seemed much further away than we thought it was, we passed a small tattoo parlor on the side of the road and decided to go there instead. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman">Batman</a> has always been my favorite superhero, appealing on a number of levels, but I figured the logo would be too cheesy for a tattoo, and picked out a bat from the artist's sketchbook, tweaked it a little bit, and voila! I still love it to this day."</blockquote><br />The second tattoo Guy sent was this:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAZiKFHRl7i0km6ojK8a5WP5hTSQ5YxBy0HOu_jCwlejTfTbP1P9BRyOtQK_iIxNW0qYFxTed_mmIMmT2VhhUSCdPcVEqhuXQhgnO15j-cjTEJ-1cdihgzslTYgqgZiwTCaZVGtACYug/s1600-h/guy-2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325669874818741794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAZiKFHRl7i0km6ojK8a5WP5hTSQ5YxBy0HOu_jCwlejTfTbP1P9BRyOtQK_iIxNW0qYFxTed_mmIMmT2VhhUSCdPcVEqhuXQhgnO15j-cjTEJ-1cdihgzslTYgqgZiwTCaZVGtACYug/s400/guy-2.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 145px;" /></a><br />Guy continues:<br /><br /><blockquote>"I got the second tattoo, a pseudo-tribal band with my wife's name in the middle, on the second-to-last day of our honeymoon in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancun">Cancun</a> in July 1998. There was a tattoo parlor in one of the flea market/shopping districts up near the elbow of the strip that seemed pretty clean -- despite the handful of teenagers getting tattoos they would certainly regret a few years later -- and against our better judgment, we both decided to get our second tattoos, each incorporating the other's name. We'll celebrate our 11th anniversary this summer, and before then we both intend to have those tattoos tweaked; I'd like mine to be bigger and have more of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan">Mayan</a> flavor to<br />it as I've always felt a connection to that culture, even before our trips to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucatan">Yucatan</a>."</blockquote>Thanks to Guy for sharing these tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br />Please head over to BillyBlog and check out one of his poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-23-guy.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Guy LeCharles Gonzalez Presents A Bat from Jersey and a Honeymoon Memento

Today's tattoos are presented by the poet Guy LeCharles Gonzalez . The first one is a bat: Guy explains: "I got the first tattoo, a...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Cody Todd's Murals - Star Wars and an Interpretive Tribal

Today's tattoos come from Cody Todd, who was referred to me by <a href="http://www.carolmuskedukes.com/">Carol Muske-Dukes</a>:<br /><br />The first one is a back piece, still in progress:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2HtD-JnrcE5qQ2BvB0BG8NJgLPw8ZLKiCdM7DE16DiAFVyQZ9pl0jGVlGBtULcT2UwmL2mcRkSMiHV5gYW5Ic37uYiJG3FiSm2aX1bxDaSTMbMju5E3-ZG2D6sPB3Axrp1LabJIeiZ4/s1600-h/CodyToddBackTAt2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327081053716321682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2HtD-JnrcE5qQ2BvB0BG8NJgLPw8ZLKiCdM7DE16DiAFVyQZ9pl0jGVlGBtULcT2UwmL2mcRkSMiHV5gYW5Ic37uYiJG3FiSm2aX1bxDaSTMbMju5E3-ZG2D6sPB3Axrp1LabJIeiZ4/s400/CodyToddBackTAt2.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />Cody explains this as "a <a href="http://www.starwars.com/">Star Wars</a> mural--the <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Millennium_Falcon">Millenium Falcon</a> in front of a meteor pursued by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIE_fighter">TIE Fighter</a>, from <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_strikes_back">The Empire Strikes Back</a> </i>with the specter of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_fett">Boba Fett</a> looming above the chase." He credits an artist named Skip (since retired) at<a href="http://www.oldworldtattoo.com/"> Old World Tattoo</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvada,_Colorado">Arvada, Colorado</a> (North <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver,_Colorado">Denver</a>). This was primarily done in 1996.<br /><br />Cody expands on the piece:<br /><blockquote><br />...the one on my back is still in progress--I foresee at least 5-6 more sessions and touch-ups before I can say it is certainly complete. I like visual collages and pastiche, just as I like the poetic collage of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot">Eliot's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock">Prufrock</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Land">The Waste Land</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Moore">Marianne Moore's</a> Poetry, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Stanford">Frank Stanford's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battlefield_Where_The_Moon_Says_I_Love_You">"The Battlefield where the Moon Says I Love You"</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Clover">Joshua Clover's</a> <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=7txDtMiLvx8C&dq=joshua+clover+totality+kids&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=q77tSfj8FoejtgeB8a3BDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#PPP1,M1">The Totality for Kids</a>, are other examples. Poetry that synthesizes subject matter, speaking voices, speaking subjects, and stitch together otherwise independent and unlike things--unified by the mode of collage.<br /><br />Why a <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars</span> tattoo? Well, I guess I buy the argument lent forth in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell">Joseph Campbell's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces">The Hero with A Thousand Faces</a>, that the mythical embodiments of the epic, the quest, and the hero are not just culturally shared, but I think each generation has their own embodiment as well. Hokey, cheesy, and melodramatic --yes, but I still watch <i>Empire...</i> with great nostalgia, and I don't think enough credit goes to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas">[George] Lucas</a> and his literary homage paid to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquinas">Aquinas</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson">Emerson</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato">Plato</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer">Homer</a>, to name a few. However, the revisions of <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars</span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_wars#Prequel_trilogy">Episodes 1-3</a> are so bad I cannot watch them without getting sick. Maybe I am old now, but I just don't get them at all. Nevertheless, my parents still joke about the fact that I was conceived in the backseat of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto">Ford Pinto</a> while they were "watching" <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars</span> at a south Denver drive-in in the summer of 77."</blockquote><br />The second piece is a "tribal-esque mural," of sorts, and was tattooed by a friend of Cody's named Bryan in 1997, at Your Flesh Grappling (now known as <a href="http://www.yourfleshtattoo.com/">Your Flesh Tattoo</a>) in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durango,_Colorado">Durango, Colorado</a>. This piece was drawn by Cody and wraps around his left thigh:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kMS6vg5QscXfWkcIPge7b_tjwDAnFBsfA5o7iKHQgULHaSqaapaaVAcbtpSnLQ7YuZ2GFzm-oR_vJ8j1WSHFCCA-x7SN11w-mLJ6eKtqFccbjpRHex9ssGu43kRo0hPXAYDwKkhn2y0/s1600-h/CodyToddLegTat1.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327087728605969874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4kMS6vg5QscXfWkcIPge7b_tjwDAnFBsfA5o7iKHQgULHaSqaapaaVAcbtpSnLQ7YuZ2GFzm-oR_vJ8j1WSHFCCA-x7SN11w-mLJ6eKtqFccbjpRHex9ssGu43kRo0hPXAYDwKkhn2y0/s400/CodyToddLegTat1.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 336px; height: 400px;" /></a>Cody added:<br /><br /><blockquote>"The leg tattoo was a personalized redefinition of the "Tribal" tattoos that were the craze when tattoos were no longer isolated to deviancy. Loosely quoting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Ness">Mike Ness</a> of <a href="http://www.socialdistortion.com/">Social Distortion</a>, in the 1990's, kids could go to a mall and get their little "parts" pierced or walk out of there with a barbed wire tribal band around their biceps. I took a one-page graffiti collage from a notebook that I penciled of hooks, circles, ovoids, anemone-shaped and flame-shaped patterns with tentacles--my first name is actually on the upper left, and a small skyline of Denver with that wacky cash-register shaped building [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_Center_%28Denver%29">The Wells Fargo Center</a>] is just 1:00 o'clock from the family of bubbles or spheres centered in the band. I am going to amend this tat with another piece of similar solid black-ink graffiti to wrap a 4-inch band around my knee. That is the thing about tattoos--they are addictive; they beg to grow new limbs, and in that sense they are like little monsters."<br /></blockquote>I've been posting the tattooed poets' work over on <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-22-cody-todd.html">BillyBlog</a> and you can check out not one, but two of Cody's poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-22-cody-todd.html">here</a>. One is called "Boba Fett". But, as an added treat, I'm including one here, as well, because it just seemed appropriate:<br /><br /><div style="margin: 1ex;"> <div> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:130%;" ><b>Tattooed on the Backs of Eight Fireflies:</b></span><br /><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Under a dark loam of night, </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >pure barbed wire.</span><br /></p> <p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >*</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Apparitions dancing </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >dancing and dancing. </span><br /></p> <p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >*</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Some of us just might bite </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >the apple those cursed birds already did. </span><br /></p> <p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >* </span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Old story: cat bats us away </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >to reanimate or destroy.</span><br /></p> <p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >*</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Words are the ruse, flight </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >is the guise, and we are the fakers.</span><br /></p> <p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >*</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Return the favor: grace for </span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >sex or salvation for dust. </span><br /></p> <p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >*</span><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >Time is the knife. Gods the size</span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >of thumbs. Men with bloody hands. </span><br /></p> <ul><p> <span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >* </span><br /></p></ul> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >We captured our god, the sun,</span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:Garamond;font-size:100%;" >and feasted on him by torchlight. </span></p> </div> </div><br />Thanks to Cody for not only sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday, but for expounding on them at such length. It's always fascinating to hear people go beyond the literal meanings of the tattoos themselves, and explore the deeper significance of the art form as it pertains to themselves and society.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cody Todd's Murals - Star Wars and an Interpretive Tribal

Today's tattoos come from Cody Todd, who was referred to me by Carol Muske-Dukes : The first one is a back piece, still in progress: Cod...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Dese'Rae Stage and Some Poetic Tulips

Last Wednesday (April 15), I was trying to distract myself from having my back tattooed, when my BlackBerry chirped and I found a wonderful e-mail in my inbox. A poet and photographer named <a href="http://ifeelinfinite.net/">Dese'Rae Stage</a> had graced me with some photos of a few of her <span style="font-weight: bold;">fifteen</span> tattoos. What follows is my favorite of those pieces:<br /><br />The first piece is based on <a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/11">Sylvia Plath's</a> poem "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulips_%28poem%29">Tulips</a>":<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnzh9eH2Vw9F664LHBI7TPS7k574x2a5utGMb0n50us85B3FogRkZkfy38RuLtoPEJmFlgIXTt4QXLVQx0Owyp-afFX0uzLfq6SqazJVfmTjF5g0UHenu0ynPrFcc6YCbVdwKy_BVJAM0/s1600-h/plath.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326710553181695730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnzh9eH2Vw9F664LHBI7TPS7k574x2a5utGMb0n50us85B3FogRkZkfy38RuLtoPEJmFlgIXTt4QXLVQx0Owyp-afFX0uzLfq6SqazJVfmTjF5g0UHenu0ynPrFcc6YCbVdwKy_BVJAM0/s400/plath.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />The poem is below, with the lines extracted for the tattoo highlighted:<br /><br /><blockquote>TULIPS<br /><pre>The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.<br />Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in<br />I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly<br />As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.<br /><span style="color: red; font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.</span></span><br />I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses<br />And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.<br /><br />They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff<br />Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.<br />Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.<br />The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,<br />They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,<br />Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,<br />So it is impossible to tell how many there are.<br /><br />My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water<br />Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.<br />They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.<br />Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage ----<br />My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,<br />My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;<br />Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.<br /><br />I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat<br />Stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.<br />They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.<br />Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley<br />I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books<br />Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.<br />I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.<br /><br />I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted<br />To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.<br />How free it is, you have no idea how free ----<br />The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,<br />And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.<br />It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them<br />Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.<br /><br />The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.<br />Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe<br />Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.<br />Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.<br />They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,<br />Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,<br />A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.<br /><br />Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.<br />The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me<br />Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,<br />And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow<br />Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,<br /><span style="color: red; font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">And I have no face, I have wanted to efface myself.</span></span><br />The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.<br /><br />Before they came the air was calm enough,<br />Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.<br />Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.<br />Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river<br />Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.<br />They concentrate my attention, that was happy<br />Playing and resting without committing itself.<br /><br />The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.<br />The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;<br />They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,<br /><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes</span></span><br />Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.<br />The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea,<br />And comes from a country far away as health.</pre><br /></blockquote>Dese'Rae explains the background of this tattoo:<br /><br /><blockquote>"The interpretation is literal enough: it's a poem about suicide and I'd recently tried to commit suicide (I got the piece done back in November 2006 and the summer prior was particularly difficult). One of my oldest friends, Ryan Falcon, just happens to be a talented artist, so I took him a tiny line drawing of some tulips and a copy of the poem with the selected lines highlighted and told him to go to it. The only stencil he used was for the words. He drew a rough outline of the bulbs, but everyth ing else was free-handed. This piece is on my inner left calf."</blockquote><br />For the sake of brevity, I am only posting this one tattoo, of the five Dese'Rae sent me. It is, in my opinion, the best of the tattoos she sent me. However, I may post more in the future, with her permission.<br /><br />It should be noted that the artist behind this tattoo, the aforementioned <a href="http://%20www.myspace.com/ruen_did_it">Ryan Falcon</a>, is based in Miami, Florida and works at <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ruen_did_it">Almost Famous Tattoo</a>. Truly spectacular, and worth a second look:<br /><br /><pre><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCc3c6Se0VgITba-K8vw5KIsvZF-Ie4haPK5X9yKes2Nyq_9rq9bzhd5J9_lb3FSTFLWTcq0bB8yvYWXHvxDSc1T8_zOqueQk9nqWK_d1DfrtNdGLt208zw4H4SBdQZ73RCPaH3Y-yYpc/s1600-h/plath-horiz+1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326923934692876210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCc3c6Se0VgITba-K8vw5KIsvZF-Ie4haPK5X9yKes2Nyq_9rq9bzhd5J9_lb3FSTFLWTcq0bB8yvYWXHvxDSc1T8_zOqueQk9nqWK_d1DfrtNdGLt208zw4H4SBdQZ73RCPaH3Y-yYpc/s400/plath-horiz+1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 182px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></pre><br />Thanks to Dese'Rae for sharing her amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, as well as sharing the deeply personal story that accompanies it.<br /><br />Head over to BillyBlog to read one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-21-deserae.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Dese'Rae Stage and Some Poetic Tulips

Last Wednesday (April 15), I was trying to distract myself from having my back tattooed, when my BlackBerry chirped and I found a wonderful ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Moira Egan's Literary Ink, A Little Bit of Ireland, All the Way from Rome

Today's tattoo comes to us from across the Atlantic, contributed by <a href="http://www.moiraegan.com/">Moira Egan</a>, a poet living in Rome, Italy:<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDLITlP8uN9RK3LqTZ3pm9ZyB6HYJHifCQnphcFZkz45S2r9fqNsHNk6faMZXV2ZWrbRdxObcHpeo3NsaRARDNoyDZ57ok-OjrYSJQFwaNaxvcpAKIUKk6kF6MhIOnR2m_koFKA_ZDqI/s1600-h/Egan_ink.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323775206989612274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDLITlP8uN9RK3LqTZ3pm9ZyB6HYJHifCQnphcFZkz45S2r9fqNsHNk6faMZXV2ZWrbRdxObcHpeo3NsaRARDNoyDZ57ok-OjrYSJQFwaNaxvcpAKIUKk6kF6MhIOnR2m_koFKA_ZDqI/s400/Egan_ink.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br />Hers is a literary tattoo. Moira reports, it's:<br /><br /><blockquote>"A page corner from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells">Book of Kells</a> (an illuminated manuscript that's housed in <a href="http://www.trincoll.edu/">Trinity College</a>, Dublin), in this version, housed a couple of inches below my left <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavicle">clavicle</a>. <a href="http://vinniemyers.com/home.html">Little Vinnie</a> of <a href="http://littlevinniestattoos.net/portfolio.html">Little Vinnie's Tattoos</a> in Maryland is the artist, and this was done on Memorial Day of 1993. In fact, Vinnie was kind enough to open the shop that day for me and my brother and a friend. A good way to Memorialize a day."</blockquote><br />Moira added, "since I'm Irish-American, and a writer, well it seemed appropriate".<br /><br />Indeed, please check out one of Moira's poems, both in English and Italian, over on <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/">BillyBlog</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Moira Egan's Literary Ink, A Little Bit of Ireland, All the Way from Rome

Today's tattoo comes to us from across the Atlantic, contributed by Moira Egan , a poet living in Rome, Italy: Hers is a literary tattoo...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Adam Deutsch's Miltonic Tattoos

Today's tattoos come from <a href="http://adamdeutsch.blogspot.com/">Adam Deutsch</a>. We started with this photo:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" ><img height="320" src="http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=0cc7f0c66c&view=att&th=120a01b86fe955d7&attid=0.1.1&disp=emb&zw" width="218" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" >Photo taken by Lillian Bertram.</span><br /></div><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" ><br />A cool photo, and Adam explained the piece:<br /><blockquote>It's based on a <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9">Gustave </a></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dor%C3%A9">Doré</a> etching from his interpretations of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton">Milton's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost"><i>Paradise Lost</i></a>, the lines "He the Almighty Power/ Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky" (I. 44-45) when Lucifer is waging war, before the fall to Hell.<br /><br /><span><span style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" ><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2B8oo34KoyfMj4pl8qVw0GTbK8KMLewClj43rMQK0uZmZk06LsBH3G1nKJGc0iz0WtHwBPw8sGFAmym3XUbEt9Z2X_on9Q0qV4rgbHUGSqBSeC2a9_Nsv2p375hAjNzt-EPTqVVBlf-I/s1600-h/pl1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325802090293339746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2B8oo34KoyfMj4pl8qVw0GTbK8KMLewClj43rMQK0uZmZk06LsBH3G1nKJGc0iz0WtHwBPw8sGFAmym3XUbEt9Z2X_on9Q0qV4rgbHUGSqBSeC2a9_Nsv2p375hAjNzt-EPTqVVBlf-I/s400/pl1.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 317px; height: 400px;" /></a></span></span><br />White ink is incorporated in the rain, and on the halo over his head, as he's still an Angel. We've all got something we turn to over and over again; <i>Paradise Lost</i> is always there.</blockquote>The tattoo was done at <a href="http://www.larktattoo.com/westbury_artists.html">Lark Tattoo</a> in Westbury, New York. The artist was <a href="http://www.larktattoo.com/artists/sunday/artist_frame.html">Sunday Dawne-Marie</a>.<br /><br />Despite the awesome nature of this tattoo, I pressed Adam for something more, as it's a bit hard to make out the images of the tattoo in the photo, and I really want to showcase the work.<br /><br />Our discussion progressed and Adam ended up sending me photos of his leg piece, as well.<br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcltYsvdhb-O3MPi35BA7tIE_HuPRXseZT7CJDQDj9uolPg1MN3c-6E599rpJMbGNNe-VoRnxL-kx9VgIfxDCiyAhWnuROpaaOPzGY3fSLOozlgB0CDubYIHhz-e0znevBZ8M6bCQUMd4/s1600-h/leftinferno.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325812382909134898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcltYsvdhb-O3MPi35BA7tIE_HuPRXseZT7CJDQDj9uolPg1MN3c-6E599rpJMbGNNe-VoRnxL-kx9VgIfxDCiyAhWnuROpaaOPzGY3fSLOozlgB0CDubYIHhz-e0znevBZ8M6bCQUMd4/s400/leftinferno.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 140px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5d4lU59dVagFjQak26iLwht2OQo0siVepYvv2qAK9PRrPgs7EJ3JdE7HaKhFRNv4JsJgrRS3yOgLYwvjEJUYINdFc7_MqO-jLXwBX5P_aHyFzd7BxwfArmD7mUSHMce3fmU6TSWyH64/s1600-h/centerinferno.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325812297669680082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5d4lU59dVagFjQak26iLwht2OQo0siVepYvv2qAK9PRrPgs7EJ3JdE7HaKhFRNv4JsJgrRS3yOgLYwvjEJUYINdFc7_MqO-jLXwBX5P_aHyFzd7BxwfArmD7mUSHMce3fmU6TSWyH64/s400/centerinferno.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEnepxgire45HysfS3ujgCjwKg0wLOZ8Z9R7JUIOW_5DRSKuq9jhCpjC_veQmrzAJhWUR44-EUcrpi99Kq5XSHkzk3sD1zbrijg-LqVkNA9SrOT1GtFj8B8lRuQbUXaUk9yfIdyt01SI/s1600-h/rightinferno.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325812187163986642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEnepxgire45HysfS3ujgCjwKg0wLOZ8Z9R7JUIOW_5DRSKuq9jhCpjC_veQmrzAJhWUR44-EUcrpi99Kq5XSHkzk3sD1zbrijg-LqVkNA9SrOT1GtFj8B8lRuQbUXaUk9yfIdyt01SI/s400/rightinferno.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />Adam points out that this piece, on his right leg, is based on the depiction of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pand%C3%A6monium_%28Paradise_Lost%29">Pandemonium</a>, also from <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradise Lost</span>. This is the mock-cathedral in Hell where the fallen angels meet to decide what is next on their agenda:<br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ></span><blockquote><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" >Mean while the winged Haralds by command<br />Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony<br />And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim<br />A solemn Councel forthwith to be held<br />At <i>PandÆmonium,</i> the high Capital<br />Of Satan and his Peers (lines 752-757)<br /></span></blockquote>The detail in the piece is phenomenal:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVTZCiBS9EjiZaI0eHeRpAlmpLPhr5nCoUDh1NEPlqAT6a3kwVx9f4wKS8UBksLf6PmfP3v2nt9VsSjiYodK4o49D399LLEw68N3O3KomZjExCdGU40OCy2J-57vQ_v3-SEmH-dyIjDA/s1600-h/pandedetail.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326235981337748834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVTZCiBS9EjiZaI0eHeRpAlmpLPhr5nCoUDh1NEPlqAT6a3kwVx9f4wKS8UBksLf6PmfP3v2nt9VsSjiYodK4o49D399LLEw68N3O3KomZjExCdGU40OCy2J-57vQ_v3-SEmH-dyIjDA/s400/pandedetail.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />Adam notes that the two tattoos, both on the right side of his body, "talk to each other....it's a conversation between an angel & devil". He adds that, "in that context, my arm becomes Elijah, fallen, but re-risen."<br /><br />The arm took about two hours to complete, but the leg took approximately ten hours, in two sittings of four and six hours, respectively, about a month and a half apart. The two pieces seen here are among four "literary" tattoos Adam has. He also has a whole sleeve based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson">Emerson</a>.<br /><br />Head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-19-adam.html">BillyBlog</a> to check out one of Adam's poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-19-adam.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Adam for sharing his amazing work with us here on Tattoosday, with a special thanks to Jill Alexander Essbaum (whose literary feet kicked off the Tattooed Poets Project <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2009/04/jill-alexander-essbaums-poetic-feet.html">here</a>) for sending Adam our way!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Adam Deutsch's Miltonic Tattoos

Today's tattoos come from Adam Deutsch . We started with this photo: Photo taken by Lillian Bertram. A cool photo, and Adam explained th...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Rachel Mallino's Vine Entwines

<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Today's tattoo is from Rachel Mallino:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCiNxmoXRLIou4TYSNzYxr9QxYk-zU7CJUsWElVpzRRMp6D4juyHkhMwMJMEWW0bfb2bY19PnKmWW6rP2jxIkuiZHXz0oWpgruWt9n0rvGBKzeImI1GTXlwLQYlL5sQk6GKIk8mLeP-s/s1600-h/poet-tat.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325695635844990034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCiNxmoXRLIou4TYSNzYxr9QxYk-zU7CJUsWElVpzRRMp6D4juyHkhMwMJMEWW0bfb2bY19PnKmWW6rP2jxIkuiZHXz0oWpgruWt9n0rvGBKzeImI1GTXlwLQYlL5sQk6GKIk8mLeP-s/s400/poet-tat.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Rachel explains this tattoo:</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">"This piece was done in the summer of 2001, on a vacation to <st1:city><st1:place>New York City</st1:place></st1:city>. A friend and I were walking the Village together and I decided to stop at a random tattoo parlor- unfortunately, the name of the parlor escapes me. I had been playing around with the idea of getting a tattoo on my foot for several reasons, one of them being that the foot was not a popular place to have a tattoo at the time. I wanted something like a vine that symbolized my very unhealthy relationship with my mother, a subject I also write a lot about. I didn’t have anything sketched out, so I approached one of the artists and told her what I wanted. She was able to find a ready-made outline of a vine that looked similar to what I had imagined.<span style=""> </span>I told her to use the outline but directed her in which direction and how I wanted the tat to wrap around my middle toe, up the foot and around my ankle. For the record: it was really painful. Artistically, I don’t think the tattoo is spectacular. Conceptually, I’m pretty pleased. People ask me all the time what it means, and I never tell them. In fact, I haven’t really told you, either."</p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><br /><br />Thanks to Rachel for sending us this tattoo.<br /><br />Please head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-18-rachel.html">BillyBlog</a> to read one of Rachel's poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-18-rachel.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Rachel Mallino's Vine Entwines

Today's tattoo is from Rachel Mallino: Rachel explains this tattoo: "This piece was done in the summer of 2001, on a vacation to ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Raffaella Ciavatta's Trio of Amazing Tattoos

<span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:100%;" >Today's tattoos were submitted by Brazilian-born, New York-based poet <a href="http://ineuphorictrance.blogspot.com/">Raffaella Ciavatta</a>. She heard about the Tattooed Poet's Project earlier this month from <a href="http://getangrywithme.com/">Jackie Sheeler</a> at a local reading. Jackie's tattoos were featured earlier this month <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2009/04/jackie-sheelers-swirling-tribal-tattoos.html">here</a>.<br /></span><div style="font-family:verdana;"><div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Raffaela sent three photos:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie_BJI7qXA8B49_ZiwSSqlvJYlgt-860BCS2VrIJEYW-v63IcdMTyCQHNr-a2V2abMLMhTuYzlYrs2wB-sFuiyV1YsMw3x-NsLNsDFL20U8Hrdrnas1S1G5qqCkJFqlhW7uY8_JJRgkqU/s1600-h/liz.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325676748356519458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie_BJI7qXA8B49_ZiwSSqlvJYlgt-860BCS2VrIJEYW-v63IcdMTyCQHNr-a2V2abMLMhTuYzlYrs2wB-sFuiyV1YsMw3x-NsLNsDFL20U8Hrdrnas1S1G5qqCkJFqlhW7uY8_JJRgkqU/s400/liz.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 191px; height: 331px;" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Raffaela says that this is "my own design mixing a Chinese dragon, representing strength, and the lizard, for the soul's search of awareness, so that it could protect me and guide me through the eternal pursuit of knowledge.</span><span style="font-size:100%;">"<br /><br />This piece on the lower left side of her back/hip was her first tattoo, done at <a href="http://www.tat2.com.br/">Studio Tat 2</a> in Brazil.<br /><br />Next is a piece on the right side of her chest, near the collar bone:<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94dQLhxbP-kaznt5oqCQcLlK76i4gW00YCYHqDjoSHhj2JvkKxT1JI5eXXxjRW1pYckTR8EuJF1Vmr99uCu9ZSBiikU7-GBKesy0mTG4oqjF_279eZGc5KZI2A97-OIluL8VK8bQU-9M/s1600-h/Mater.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325676711914479954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94dQLhxbP-kaznt5oqCQcLlK76i4gW00YCYHqDjoSHhj2JvkKxT1JI5eXXxjRW1pYckTR8EuJF1Vmr99uCu9ZSBiikU7-GBKesy0mTG4oqjF_279eZGc5KZI2A97-OIluL8VK8bQU-9M/s400/Mater.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 288px;" /></a><br />The "mater" is the Latin word for mother who, Raffaella proclaims is "</span><span style="font-size:100%;">done for the most important person to me in this world, my mother, father, best friend!</span><span style="font-size:100%;">" This piece was inked at <a href="http://fabiotattoo.blogspot.com/">Fabio Tattoo</a>, also in Brazil.<br /><br />And finally, this last tattoo, which you get a small glimpse of in the first picture above, is just breath-taking:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_jnO_8utgPkuZ68SBF6CxghhiptK-GShz7giTQNRKlzOGMSE4qfxufFCEdHsa-ViYIOHMquQRuvrw8keM3TjXirCYedy_xXEa7z5v2lCiLyG1ZgQdz42JV6kn77wp63GE3apqj-LgPHI/s1600-h/wings.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325676668463249538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_jnO_8utgPkuZ68SBF6CxghhiptK-GShz7giTQNRKlzOGMSE4qfxufFCEdHsa-ViYIOHMquQRuvrw8keM3TjXirCYedy_xXEa7z5v2lCiLyG1ZgQdz42JV6kn77wp63GE3apqj-LgPHI/s400/wings.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 298px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:100%;">These are her angel wings, "done to achieve my dream of reaching New York." She adds, "I definitely flew from Brazil to NY." They were tattooed over six months. The tattoo was started by</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Eric Codo ("just the outline...he had to move to Rio de Janeiro) at <a href="http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2VFH">Steel Star Supply</a> in Sao Paulo and was finished by the "<a href="http://www.fotolog.com/fabio_renato/">Amazing Fabio Renato</a>".<br /><br /></span></div></div><div style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-17-raffaella.html">BillyBlog</a> to read <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-17-raffaella.html">one of Raffaella's poems</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Raffaella for sharing her amazing work with us here at Tattoosday!<br /></span></div>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Raffaella Ciavatta's Trio of Amazing Tattoos

Today's tattoos were submitted by Brazilian-born, New York-based poet Raffaella Ciavatta . She heard about the Tattooed Poet's Proje...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Nathan Logan's Tattoo Punctuates the Flesh

Today's tattoo was generously donated by Nathan Logan, who presents a tattoo on his left arm:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5RVNMp7B0piMfkf5U6JStTQ8qr4_87gjoH6WL4IUYuWIQ8-jsvguBieaAB0cYSKD2mjHL0dRMjHHIIrzWiiRwepHws4H0i2oEDfqNGT8pbikuhxHOkpRmRO0CHBgSWVgf37H_-cgnjo/s1600-h/semicolon.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324954605033777458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5RVNMp7B0piMfkf5U6JStTQ8qr4_87gjoH6WL4IUYuWIQ8-jsvguBieaAB0cYSKD2mjHL0dRMjHHIIrzWiiRwepHws4H0i2oEDfqNGT8pbikuhxHOkpRmRO0CHBgSWVgf37H_-cgnjo/s400/semicolon.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />Nathan explains:<br /><br /><blockquote>This tattoo was a gift to myself for getting into graduate school. I wanted to get a line of poetry, but the options overwhelmed me. I couldn't decide. So after giving it some thought, I chose my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semicolon">favorite punctuation mark</a>, which can be found in many lovely poems and pieces of prose. I think it covers all the bases. It was done in April 2007 by <a href="http://tattooindiana.com/nate/">Nate Harmon</a> at Ground Zero in Muncie, Indiana [now known as <a href="http://tattooindiana.com/">111 Arts Gallery and Tattoo Studio</a>].</blockquote>Please check out <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-16-nathan.html">one of Nathan's poems</a> over on BillyBlog <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-16-nathan.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Nathan for sharing his semi-colon tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Nathan Logan's Tattoo Punctuates the Flesh

Today's tattoo was generously donated by Nathan Logan, who presents a tattoo on his left arm: Nathan explains: This tattoo was a gift to...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Todd Heldt's Chicago Owl

Today's tattoo was submitted by the poet Todd Heldt:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKbqlmyLA1DM54k3lqAoxvz3Kc7FvWfTy08SWwtjqW9E9CQtYo-YEvz69h_UfDch_xdPCjGc3YP04MNJB9jYC6MJpjRvW6KofucPawKV8putroupxJoB91TwcFZj5A0M4ILulkhFGces/s1600-h/Todds+Owl.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324904012488869666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEKbqlmyLA1DM54k3lqAoxvz3Kc7FvWfTy08SWwtjqW9E9CQtYo-YEvz69h_UfDch_xdPCjGc3YP04MNJB9jYC6MJpjRvW6KofucPawKV8putroupxJoB91TwcFZj5A0M4ILulkhFGces/s400/Todds+Owl.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 298px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />This is on his right bicep and is based on one of his favorite Chicago landmarks, the owl perched on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Washington_Library">Harold Washington Library</a>, the central library for the Chicago Public Library system.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILMts3OBzDV7YQrZ4h-r0CVo5pdqycDBIR2n55JVaIdwmJ0P6mT8-t0xqzR4_-rvWWzx37E7SpeFJmEiXUPtpYJSE80jDsFpmP6SyN1R6wL4jKYVjyJiPZrfHVAZu_nWCbXrIVod1rNM/s1600-h/Chicago+Owl.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324906347540005378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILMts3OBzDV7YQrZ4h-r0CVo5pdqycDBIR2n55JVaIdwmJ0P6mT8-t0xqzR4_-rvWWzx37E7SpeFJmEiXUPtpYJSE80jDsFpmP6SyN1R6wL4jKYVjyJiPZrfHVAZu_nWCbXrIVod1rNM/s400/Chicago+Owl.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 347px; height: 332px;" /></a><br />The owl is often used as a symbol to represent knowledge.<br /><br />The tattoo was created by Esther Garcia at <a href="http://butterfatstudios.com/home.html">Butterfat Studios</a> in Chicago.<br /><br />Please head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-15-todd-heldt.html">BillyBlog</a> to read <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-15-todd-heldt.html">one of Todd's poems</a>.<br /><br />And, if you like owls, you must check out a blog dedicated entirely to owl tattoos <a href="http://owltattoos.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Todd for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Todd Heldt's Chicago Owl

Today's tattoo was submitted by the poet Todd Heldt: This is on his right bicep and is based on one of his favorite Chicago landmarks, t...

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Anthony's Skate and Destroy Tattoo

<span style="font-style: italic;">Just a brief note...despite the Tattooed Poets Project for National Poetry Month, I still plan on spotting ink on the streets of New York, and posting it here.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">This is one of those posts....</span><br /><br />I ran into Anthony outside of Madison Square Garden on Thursday, April 9, during the lunch hour.<br /><br />He is a skateboarder with four tattoos, the most visible of which curves around his inner right forearm:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2WGXA9bD46EQkBrFc2aPhbE_jX5y1D4f_N4GXWHrx_1ELfopYQJaOa0rzcYH__cv4QcXddLC3n3UuK0cF0ICVdbnSbdXk-MYmTPIDvd9u9at6GZTtH9CDVxGAVVDdeJgvZcOaph9_qU/s1600-h/skate-center2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324978881037447234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK2WGXA9bD46EQkBrFc2aPhbE_jX5y1D4f_N4GXWHrx_1ELfopYQJaOa0rzcYH__cv4QcXddLC3n3UuK0cF0ICVdbnSbdXk-MYmTPIDvd9u9at6GZTtH9CDVxGAVVDdeJgvZcOaph9_qU/s400/skate-center2.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 292px; height: 400px;" /></a><br />This tattoo features the pentagram logo for <a href="http://www.thrashermagazine.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1">Thrasher</a> magazine, a periodical devoted to the skateboarding lifestyle.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRe4Xsh1bWs7D-RDBWKH1t5NOURJlQZm7LQm6XWIjIhKhNirmO0kMxDzNwqs_an9QNBRLKQVRHTy02iFCji3hFwCkC0aO5bK41zb99o5p9vX7C3X4dOvP2FIqF75dCwr4QEd6_dMiZZOE/s1600-h/125110_SkateGoat.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324979366377347186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRe4Xsh1bWs7D-RDBWKH1t5NOURJlQZm7LQm6XWIjIhKhNirmO0kMxDzNwqs_an9QNBRLKQVRHTy02iFCji3hFwCkC0aO5bK41zb99o5p9vX7C3X4dOvP2FIqF75dCwr4QEd6_dMiZZOE/s400/125110_SkateGoat.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 350px;" /></a><br />He added the "Skate and Destroy" text to the banner below the design, as it is a popular creed among skaters, and graces some Thrasher merchandise:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdPgmCllRkQOALED5PWf3CkqeTykbNxZlkRgrb-QFWlZprnpCsdx_RZyiftN41r1ANpkAfzqffsG_9p1HOYe1G-QQ3IBACIiQOXvivOetSi919kqdYUh8cfIralGRVemT6b5cTKvI4iMU/s1600-h/127205_SAD25thBook.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324979844730827730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdPgmCllRkQOALED5PWf3CkqeTykbNxZlkRgrb-QFWlZprnpCsdx_RZyiftN41r1ANpkAfzqffsG_9p1HOYe1G-QQ3IBACIiQOXvivOetSi919kqdYUh8cfIralGRVemT6b5cTKvI4iMU/s320/127205_SAD25thBook.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" /></a><br />Anthony, who has been skateboarding for nine years, had this tattoo inked to commemorate his passion for the sport. The piece was created at <a href="http://addictedtoinktattoos.com/">Addicted to Ink</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Plains,_New_York">White Plains</a>, New York and tattooed by <a href="http://addictedtoinktattoos.com/content/mike.asp">Mike</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Anthony for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Plains,_New_York" target="_blank"><br /></a>

Anthony's Skate and Destroy Tattoo

Just a brief note...despite the Tattooed Poets Project for National Poetry Month, I still plan on spotting ink on the streets of New York, a...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Cheryl Maddalena's Beautiful Tattoo

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgij6dRtipAN-uVLqehToF21i3hWXAFPVrImjJHVuduSK-HEzQ4MbCnrP3tDADiBiTAKIs6h5HreWeYZ0w1ppI3gqJXRYGDjOuu_acfhDY_kLSi89AyNtrqejFnt05C3GaxX2QeXbxLSyQ/s1600-h/beautiful.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324475855866177762" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgij6dRtipAN-uVLqehToF21i3hWXAFPVrImjJHVuduSK-HEzQ4MbCnrP3tDADiBiTAKIs6h5HreWeYZ0w1ppI3gqJXRYGDjOuu_acfhDY_kLSi89AyNtrqejFnt05C3GaxX2QeXbxLSyQ/s400/beautiful.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 127px;" /></a><br />Today's Tattooed Poet is Cheryl Maddalena. Cheryl is a performance poet from Boise, Idaho.<br /><br />Although the photo above is small, the tattoo is big, bold and <span style="font-style: italic;">beautiful</span>.<br /><br />Cheryl writes:<br /><blockquote><br />"It had occurred to me, as a performance poet, that I could never read other poets' tattoos from the audience. Mine is 200 point lowercase Times New Roman, the same font as all my poetry but a larger size."</blockquote><br />The tattoo was done by Sean Wyett at <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=us&latlng=13270748375833644934&ei=rlnkScbFBYnKNZmkmasP&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=black+cat+tattoo+boise&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&view=text&latlng=13270748375833644934">Black Cat Tattoo & Piercing</a> in Boise.<br /><br />For a poem by Cheryl, not coincidentally titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Why I got the word “beautiful” tattooed on my arm in 200 point lowercase Times New Roman, </span>head over to BillyBlog <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-14-cheryl.html">here</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span> There's also a clip up of Cheryl performing.<br /><br />Thanks to Cheryl for sending us her amazing tattoo!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cheryl Maddalena's Beautiful Tattoo

Today's Tattooed Poet is Cheryl Maddalena. Cheryl is a performance poet from Boise, Idaho. Although the photo above is small, the tattoo...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Mike Sikkema's Tattoo Blends Natural with Mechanical

<span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Today's tattooed poet is Mike Sikkema, a friend of Gina Myers (whose tattoo appeared here), who sent him my way. His piece is not fully completed, but it is still completely interesting:<br /></span></span></span><br /><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRLYJlBgezH2C7Z4-SZXIJ8JYA41qrPaz4nfDGVAVj8QsChfCdh2zwRCFBB7PiDFcWTudw4VsW7wwzNlKHOhTuU0-xvEOnfXP5JENKdFyESbpLIdHsPVlJ9RhpS_2ho7wXHfZOx1sKs88/s1600-h/mike+sikkema+1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324108304855680994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRLYJlBgezH2C7Z4-SZXIJ8JYA41qrPaz4nfDGVAVj8QsChfCdh2zwRCFBB7PiDFcWTudw4VsW7wwzNlKHOhTuU0-xvEOnfXP5JENKdFyESbpLIdHsPVlJ9RhpS_2ho7wXHfZOx1sKs88/s320/mike+sikkema+1.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZc06G7FMX-KW_gjrYJa_nRIzTSlzDw40QqyVknOxhXWqp29JJ8Ag8jhADb-sdxtqHQtUIO_F1Bu_VMOav5jxc9qRtIljFMC4P25jTXwIeBIBI7tzSXu5Kt9Q_tus_IQVLas5wExyCwU/s1600-h/mike+sikkema+1b.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324108137414276962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZc06G7FMX-KW_gjrYJa_nRIzTSlzDw40QqyVknOxhXWqp29JJ8Ag8jhADb-sdxtqHQtUIO_F1Bu_VMOav5jxc9qRtIljFMC4P25jTXwIeBIBI7tzSXu5Kt9Q_tus_IQVLas5wExyCwU/s320/mike+sikkema+1b.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" /></a></span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><br /></span><br /><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><br /><br /></span><br /><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></span><br /><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />Mike explains the piece:<br /><br /></span></span><blockquote><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><a href="http://www.evahuber.com/">Eva Huber</a> began my birds at <a href="http://www.divinemachinetattoo.com/">Divine Machine Tattoo</a> in </span></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ><st1:place><st1:city><span style="">Buffalo</span></st1:city><span style="">, </span><st1:state><span style="">NY</span></st1:state></st1:place></span><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >, in the fall of 2008.</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >The combination of real and chrome apples, of real and mechanical birds points at where we’re at: the age of remote controlled spy beetles and “vegetarian” meat made from cloned cells.<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ2KL-GSuTlz5K2RPBKex9fZ-pOUUOi4NgOj8O85XA_r2RiExVBBeGS1bhx4_HW2GPKIQrLYze47U8-dxhLMFf0qglvShfQu9vIRnzIfxhFy6z5xcRFdhSdTCqwn4X6rUinBrvqfq1f7c/s1600-h/mike+sikkema+2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324111290346140162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ2KL-GSuTlz5K2RPBKex9fZ-pOUUOi4NgOj8O85XA_r2RiExVBBeGS1bhx4_HW2GPKIQrLYze47U8-dxhLMFf0qglvShfQu9vIRnzIfxhFy6z5xcRFdhSdTCqwn4X6rUinBrvqfq1f7c/s400/mike+sikkema+2.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >The apples and particular types of birds also point to my birthplace, northern Michigan.</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >Another fully robotic bird, as well as a musical staff are on the way.</span></span></blockquote><span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" ><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" ></span><span style=""> </span></span><br /><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" >On a side note,</span><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:100%;" > Eva Huber appears to now be tattooing at <a href="http://www.offthemaptattoo.com/">Off the Map Tattoo</a> in Easthampton, Massachusetts.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Mike didn't mention this, but the but his mechanical bird reminded me a lot of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruki_Murakami" style="font-family: times new roman;">Haruki Murakami's</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> wonderful novel </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle" style="font-family: times new roman;">The Wind-up Bird Chronicle</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb0SUAmL65CnKIojiV1BV2YTyQSZZovb7m6HLkYKSsf3RVDJxHm0r5KHy62-zRLzHqKbE9mRBesHS890hzMCMy0cADqPpcKY5cAW3ir51CenK7-_NbMZRNlCtnlRXdjsCA9uzbgNLr-Ks/s1600-h/mike+sikkema+3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324111509573505490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb0SUAmL65CnKIojiV1BV2YTyQSZZovb7m6HLkYKSsf3RVDJxHm0r5KHy62-zRLzHqKbE9mRBesHS890hzMCMy0cADqPpcKY5cAW3ir51CenK7-_NbMZRNlCtnlRXdjsCA9uzbgNLr-Ks/s400/mike+sikkema+3.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Thanks to Mike for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday. Please head over to </span><a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/" style="font-family: times new roman;">BillyBlog</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> to read <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-13-michael.html">one of his poems</a>.</span>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Mike Sikkema's Tattoo Blends Natural with Mechanical

Today's tattooed poet is Mike Sikkema, a friend of Gina Myers (whose tattoo appeared here), who sent him my way. His piece is not fully ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Rebecca Loudon's Bee Tattoo

The following tattoo was submitted by the poet Rebecca Loudon:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAq85ppwvrweSbFxwDYZBZF3ggsBzOAD6gwN2ZrwR14UgcnLHZxd6rzIP8HIjbblOxT_XwZ5g6Pzib-WiI8hgmvcoc5hS_V0Vq86WVkXnrvrxlo90xX-3EN4npU-8fZv8rYETQhWI6-4/s1600-h/RebeccaBee.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323398985723608002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAq85ppwvrweSbFxwDYZBZF3ggsBzOAD6gwN2ZrwR14UgcnLHZxd6rzIP8HIjbblOxT_XwZ5g6Pzib-WiI8hgmvcoc5hS_V0Vq86WVkXnrvrxlo90xX-3EN4npU-8fZv8rYETQhWI6-4/s400/RebeccaBee.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 156px; height: 153px;" /></a><br /><div id=":17w" class="ii gt"><div>The tattoo was inspired by her favorite poem, "<a href="http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=1689">The Lake Isle of Innisfree</a>" by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_Yeats">William Butler Yeats</a>:<br /><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div><blockquote><div id=":17w" class="ii gt"><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lake Isle of Innisfree</span><br /><br /></div> <div>I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,<br />And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;<br />Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,<br />And live alone in the bee-loud glade. <p>And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,<br />Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;<br />There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,<br />And evening full of the linnet's wings. </p><p>I will arise and go now, for always night and day<br />I hear the water lapping with low sounds by the shore;<br />While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,<br />I hear it in the deep heart's core. </p> </div> </div></blockquote><br />Rebecca adds that she will include the last two lines of the first stanza will be added "one of these days". The tattoo is on her right calf.<br /><br />Rebecca added:<br /><br /><blockquote>This tattoo was done by <a href="http://www.tracyzumwalt.com/">Tracy Zumwalt</a> <span> </span>in Seattle, in December of 2008, shortly after my book <a href="http://www.notellbooks.org/individual_title.php?id=41_0_1_0_C"><em>Cadaver Dogs</em></a> was published. Tracy used to work at <a href="http://www.myspace.com/anchortattooseattle">Anchor Tattoo</a> in Seattle, but now works privately by appointment only.<br /><br /><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I have other tattoos, but I had been talking about the bee tattoo for 20 years. I was waiting for something, something to celebrated, something to <i>mark</i>. Bees have always been my totem animal and they are prominent in all my writing. Once the book was complete, I knew it was time. I wanted the tattoo to be a scientific rendering but I let Tracy do the artwork. The bee is on the outside of my right calf. The photo isn’t very good because it isn’t really a photo. I just put my leg on my scanner because I don’t own a camera. You can still see Tracy’s fine work in the scan though."</p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"></p>Rebecca Loudon lives and writes in Seattle. She is the author of 4 books of poetry, the latest being <a href="http://www.notellbooks.org/individual_title.php?id=41_0_1_0_C">Cadaver Dogs</a> from <a href="http://www.notellbooks.org/index.php">No Tell Books</a>, several lyrics for songs for chamber orchestra and choir, and the libretto of a full length opera, Red Queen. She is a professional violinist and teaches violin to children. She has more than 6 and less than 10 tattoos. She practices writing at <a href="http://radishking.blogspot.com/">http://radishking.blogspot.com/</a><br /><br />Head over to <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-12-rebecca.html">BillyBlog</a> to read <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-12-rebecca.html">one of her poems</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Rebecca for her participation in the Tattooed Poet's Project!<br /><br />A Bonus: click <a href="http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=1689">here</a> to listen to William Butler Yeats reading the poem that inspired this tattoo!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Rebecca Loudon's Bee Tattoo

The following tattoo was submitted by the poet Rebecca Loudon: The tattoo was inspired by her favorite poem, " The Lake Isle of Innisfr...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Malaika King Albrecht Shares Her "Unambitious," Yet Meaningful, Tattoo

Today's tattoo was submitted by Malaika King Albrecht:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQn4AQP2D9_KcHvvsFwLWYDT10jhccOT3l_VexRqa3FqV94QEpGalK7GK0H3SBZoWp05W29GvS274Ae7UJblec8i0O65XphgwiAtlBg0ihVzWlBLEghcypY0SSpvfa5pwCQ2BXd2PT6EA/s1600-h/malaika.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323231983983332994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQn4AQP2D9_KcHvvsFwLWYDT10jhccOT3l_VexRqa3FqV94QEpGalK7GK0H3SBZoWp05W29GvS274Ae7UJblec8i0O65XphgwiAtlBg0ihVzWlBLEghcypY0SSpvfa5pwCQ2BXd2PT6EA/s320/malaika.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 237px; height: 320px;" /></a><br />I contacted Malaika on Facebook when I saw her profile photo, and that she had a visible tattoo. She was kind enough to not only accept my friend request, but also to submit the photo above, along with one of her poems, over on <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/">BillyBlog</a>.<br /><br />Malaika filled me in on this piece:<br /><blockquote><br /><span style="font-size:10;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I may have gotten this tattoo, my second one, at <a href="http://www.shawstattoostudio.com/">Shaw’s</a><a href="http://www.shawstattoostudio.com/"> [Tattoo Studio]</a> where I got my first tattoo. I was probably on Westheimer Blvd., was definitely in Houston sometime in the mid-80’s and was most likely in the good company of a guy named Nicki Sicki. The image is of a person meditating with wings and a heart, and is borrowed from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Dass">Ram Dass’</a> book <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Here_Now_%28book%29">Be Here Now</a>. </i>The sideways <i>8 </i>represents sitting in lotus position and is also the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity">symbol of infinity</a>. Though the heart has lost its red color, and the tattoo is an admittedly <span style="color:black;">unambitious one, the image still resonates with me. </span></span></span></blockquote>I love Malaika's modesty about the tattoo. Admittedly, it is not "spectacular," but tattoos do not have to be huge, multi-colored affairs in order to have significance for those that have them.<br /><br />Thanks to Malaika for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br />Please visit <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/">BillyBlog </a>to read one of her poems <a href="http://oxypoet.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-series-day-11-malaika.html">here</a>.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Malaika King Albrecht Shares Her "Unambitious," Yet Meaningful, Tattoo

Today's tattoo was submitted by Malaika King Albrecht: I contacted Malaika on Facebook when I saw her profile photo, and that she had a ...

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