Jubail Celebrates the Midnight MileI met Jubail on the corner of 34th and 6th Avenue, and he shared this awesome tattoo:"Midnight Mile" is a song by Bouncing Souls, and it reminds him of coming home to New York City.Jubail, who has "nine or ten" tattoos, was a student at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.He was about t…
Where The Wild Thing Tattoo IsThe day after I met one Jared, I met another, out in front of Madison Square Garden.With a tattoo like this:how could I not stop him?As one would imagine, Jared loves the book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.The tattoo displays, on Jared's right forearm, one of the "Wild Things" that is…
Jared Shares His Vegan TattooI met Jared while he was waiting for a train in Penn Station.After the Manhattan Mall food court closed last summer, I discovered this wide expanse of Penn Station (especially the Amtrak area) was great for inkspotting when the weather made normal traipsing about unappealing.Jared's ink runs down th…
Tattoosday Boxcars: A Leonine Tattoo and Wearing One's Heart on One's SleeveI met Jeff and Jeanie in Penn Station as they were about to board an Amtrak train out of the city.I've been trying to come up with clever terms for different inkspotting phenomenon, basically creating my own lexicon.I'll call Jeff and Jeanie "boxcars". Meaning, I approached the two of them and gambl…
Gina's Mayan DesignEarlier this month, I met Gina in Manhattan at the corner of 31st Street and 7th Avenue and I asked her about these tattoos:The main element is a the piece she had inked in January 2007, on a trip to Mexico.She went on a cruise to Mexico with her mother. While exploring some Mayan ruins, she made a …
Mark's Gypsy Tattoo Pays Tribute to the Female Singer-SongwriterI have mentioned before that I tend to shy away from approaching subway commuters about their tattoos.However, like most of my self-imposed guidelines, I always make exceptions for work that is transcendent. That is, if the tattoos are supremely blogworthy, I will solicit, for the sake of the reader…
Leesa's Memorial TattoosThere are certain signs I look for when I am scanning a crowd for tattoos. Colored hair and/or facial piercings are good, but not always reliable, indicators that someone may be inked. A guitar case, you would think, also favors the theory that its possessor has tattoos, but it's not always the real…
Sarah Shoulders Her Slavic HeritageA couple of weeks ago, I had a very productive Wednesday, speaking to five different people about their tattoos.Sarah is the last of those five that I an posting, and was my favorite of the group that day.This tattoo was her sixth (she has thirteen or fourteen) and is an homage to her Slavic heritag…
My Third Tattoo: A Hand Steeped in FaithLast June, I wandered into a 711 and met a tattoo artist named Pete, who works under the moniker Sweetpea. Like most artists, he himself has amazing work. However, I was camera-less that day, so I gave him a flier and we went our separate ways.Later that week he e-mailed me and we scheduled to meet…
Jake's Redd Foxx Tattoo Helps Us Celebrate Father's Day!Last week, I posted about a trio of friends that had recently moved from San Francisco to New York, all of them inked.Jake was the first of the three to share his tattoo with us, and it is such a good piece, I saved it for a special occasion, Father's Day:This is, of course, a portrait of the great …
Ashley's Trio of TattoosI've always said that Tattoosday is 50% about the tattoos and 50% about finding them. But once in a while, tattoos just present themselves and I can't contain myself.Ashley is a case in point. She was at the laundromat the same time as I was, and she had two small tattoos inked on her feet. Out on t…
Amy's Variation on a Sailor Jerry ClassicI met Amy one day a few weeks back, outside of Madison Square Garden.She estimates she has spent about 36 hours being tattooed, and that her body is "a work in progress".She offered up this tattoo on her left arm, which is a modified version of a classic Sailor Jerry design:The original concept is y…
A German Gypsy in New York CityI met Dominic a couple of weeks ago out in front of Madison Square Garden in Penn Plaza.He was visiting from Cologne, Germany, and was displaying an arm with tattoos:Dominic has seven tattoos, most of which are based on traditional flash art.We looked specifically at his gypsy tattoo, which Dominic …
Three Tattoos from Mary: Marilyn Monroe and Robert Frost, Fire and IceWhat jumped out at me when I saw Mary in front of Penn Station, on a drizzly late afternoon during Rush Hour, was this amazing tattoo on her left bicep:Marilyn Monroe tattoos are not incredibly unusual (click here to see those that have appeared on this site previously), but this one strays from the…
Two for Tattoosday: Some Traditional Work Imported from CaliforniaLast week I spotted a young tattooed woman chatting with a friend outside of the Chelsea Whole Foods store. I hesitated because I was running late, but doubled back across the street and introduced myself. As it turned out, Krista and her two friends, Ryan and Jake, had recently moved from San Franc…
Matt Wears His Heart (of Bacon) on His SleeveI first met Matt a year or so ago when he and his wife Allison opened the gourmet grocery Robicelli's in our neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (there's more on Robicelli's here).It was only recently, however, when I popped in to pick up some of their incredible gourmet cupcakes (the "Irish Car Bom…
Mike's Tribute to His Thai HeritageThere are generally two kinds of Tattoosday subjects (and by subjects I mean people):Those that let me take a picture or two and I never hear from them again, and those that send me nice messages and a correspondence more or less develops.Last weekend I met a guy named Mike at the laundromat (which …
