This Weekend: The NYC Urban Tattoo Convention Hits Brooklyn!This weekend, just down the street from Tattoosday's home in Brooklyn, the 4th Annual NYC Urban Tattoo Convention will be held in Industry City (233 37th Street).Unlike previous years, when it seemed that this show ran the same weekend as the Roseland event, it's occurring separately, and I am atten…
Anna's Tattoo from an Indonesian AdventureA couple weeks back, you may recall, I was loitering on North 14th Street in Williamsburg, waiting for The Gutter to open so I could celebrate Sailor Jerry's birthday. To pass the time, I talked to a few passers-by about their tattoos. One person I stopped, Anna, had an interesting tree inked on her…
Asia's Ink Personifies AnxietyIt's so easy to be spoiled by reporting on spectacular tattoos, that one often loses sight of the fact that even rudimentary designs can also be really interesting.Take Asia, for example, who I ran into at my local laundromat. He has a simple black line drawing tattooed on his inner left forearm. It…
Hey Jude, Thanks for Sharing Your Tattoo!Sometimes, we don't get the whole story here on Tattoosday, but we share anyway, despite our best efforts to get the goods on the work we capture.Take this tattoo, for example:This tattoo belongs to Jude, who I met, briefly, on the subway platform at West 4th Street last month. She got off the downt…
Announcing Sailor Jerry Event Tonight at Tammany Hall!The good folks at Sailor Jerry are hosting another event tonight in New York and, yes, there's a shot you can score a free tattoo from Matt Van Cura of Invisible NYC.Word is that there will be only a handful of Sailor Jerry tattoos available, so best to RSVP and get there early. You might just be on…
Erica's Tattoos Help Her Through a Difficult OrdealI spotted Erica in my neighborhood earlier this month when I noticed a tattoo on her upper right arm. She was actually having some work done later in the week on it, so she offered up this quote on her forearm instead:When I asked her about these lines, "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest s…
Wear Your Dreams: My Life in Tattoos, by Ed Hardy - The Tattoosday Book ReviewTen years ago, only tattoo aficionados knew who Ed Hardy was.I still remember the moment I saw an Ed Hardy shirt for the first time. On Sixth Avenue in Manhattan on a hot, sunny day. Within months, it seemed they were everywhere.Honestly, my introduction to Hardy was an amazing volume he edited that…
Ashley Shares a Narwhal of a TattooLast week at the Sailor Jerry free tattoo event at The Gutter in Williamsburg (recounted here), I caught up with Ashley after getting my shark tattoo and before she had her cherry tattoo inked. I had met her earlier in line, as she was among the first couple dozen people to arrive and she had been t…
My First Sailor Jerry Tattoo, in Honor of His 102nd BirthdayIf Sailor Jerry were alive today, he'd be a ripe 102 years old.If you don't know who Sailor Jerry is, you likely don't know much about tattoos.It's an oversimplification, but Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins, who died in Honolulu in 1972, is the godfather of modern American tattooing. Based in downtown…
Ashley's Unusual Neck Tattoo Feature Frankenstein's Monster and His BrideA couple weeks back, I was walking on Broadway near 39th Street, when I spotted a woman sporting an unusual neck tattoo. Intrigued, I introduced myself and Ashley allowed me to take a photo of her month-old ink:Ashley, who is a textile designer by trade, explained how she came up with the ides for t…
Alex Shares a Straight Edge Tattoo by Adam BartonI spotted Alex passing through Penn Station recently and asked him about his tattoos. He has quite a few, so he opted for this piece on his lower left leg:Alex credited Adam Barton, who works out of Santa Cruz in Samuel O'Reilly's Tattoo Parlour, although, when this piece was done, it was out of the…
Revisiting Dan and Checking Out His New Half-Sleeve by Guido BaldiniOne of the things we don't talk about a lot here on Tattoosday are the friendships I have developed over the years with people I meet on the street. I'd say less than 10% of the people I interview become friends with me, but it is great to see their collection grow over the years.Dan is a prime exam…
More Tommy Montoya Portraits on Kate!Last year, I met Kate in Penn Station and, what luck! She had some amazing work by acclaimed artist Tommy Montoya (known to many via NY Ink). See those portraits here.Much to my surprise, I ran into Kate a year later, just last week, on the subway platform in my neighborhood out in Brooklyn. Initial…
Amy Honors Her Grandmother with a Brandon Maldonado Design (via Zac Brown)Last month, Tattoosday reader Amy was the lucky winner in our Brooklyn Tattoo t-shirt giveaway.We struck up a transcontinental conversation, and she offered to share some of her work with us, in what we call a little "tattoorism."Let's take a look:She credited the work to Tony Carey at Hold Fast Ta…
A Trio of Roses on Anna, in Memory of Amada, by Nikko HurtadoThe Monday after the New York City Tattoo convention last month, I was a bit sad, because I knew that finding quality tattoo work like that which I saw at Roseland Ballroom was going to be a lot more challenging. I was mulling this over while standing outside of my local laundromat in Bay Ridge, Bro…
