Melinda's Medusa

Last month I met Melinda on the <a href="http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/stations?221:3176">West 4th Street subway platform</a>, a location I came to appreciate this past summer for its diversity of interesting tattoos.<br /><br />Our conversation began on the platform in Manhattan and ended in Brooklyn after a trip on the <a href="http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/dline.htm">D train</a>.<br /><br />Melinda has two tattoos and she shared this one, from her inner left forearm:<br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_p-XkqB5yO_Nzzw1tK7BE2U_XL7JesW9duL3FxGdU86xrSsuUyX08nsHBAo75_a5TlaM1WwL88JVOz-8W_Z12UIPpIJOaeKtFwU516sLjkncO-I5NcIjO6MIGPu8xWsZP7QCfiEhH/s1600/Melinda+Medusa+wm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_p-XkqB5yO_Nzzw1tK7BE2U_XL7JesW9duL3FxGdU86xrSsuUyX08nsHBAo75_a5TlaM1WwL88JVOz-8W_Z12UIPpIJOaeKtFwU516sLjkncO-I5NcIjO6MIGPu8xWsZP7QCfiEhH/s400/Melinda+Medusa+wm.jpg" width="348" /></a></div><br />She explained that this tattoo is based on the shield of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerva">Minerva</a> (in the Roman pantheon) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena">Athena</a> (in the Greek pantheon).<br /><br />The shield features the head of the serpentine-tressed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa">Medusa</a> who, if you didn't know, could turn creatures (men, mostly) to stone with a simple gaze.<br /><br />Melinda loves the contrast between the Minerva and Medusa figures and the relationship between the two mythologies.<br /><br />The tattoo was inked by <a href="http://www.louchelink.com/pages/page14kellykrantz.html">Kelly Krantz</a>, of the now defunct Hold Fast Tattoo in Brooklyn. Kelly now tattoos by appointment only, and more details can be found on his website <a href="http://www.louchelink.com/pages/page14kellykrantz.html">here</a>. Work by Kelly has appeared previously on Tattoosday <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/05/erics-tattoo-zero-fool-and-obsession.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Melinda for her good company on the D train back in August, and for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Melinda's Medusa

Last month I met Melinda on the West 4th Street subway platform , a location I came to appreciate this past summer for its diversity of inte...

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