The Tattooed Poets Project: Kevin Patrick Lee

Our next tattooed poet is Kevin Patrick Lee, who had initially expressed an interest last year in our project, but we had to wait for 2013 to run his submission.<br /><br />We're running this post on a Tat-Tuesday, because, as Kevin explains, he sent us "two poems ... regarding the subject matter of each [tattoo]." And because, "each poem gives insight into the respective tattoo," he adds, "...further explanation isn't needed."<br /><br />First, the tattoos, side by side on Kevin's inner forearms:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15JztPVmTJgmaZOS6wy_g-AsTt6Ow7WsNu6W5F1WFqgofvErwEjtf1tsLxcv8ZYfiFDKjKRrPa_nnauTneYtEYfLzu8dZs68-H4ptpCbx4DO0hrTYvqL3Lo26tQVnh0A_srg8b73pONM/s572/PopsFrida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15JztPVmTJgmaZOS6wy_g-AsTt6Ow7WsNu6W5F1WFqgofvErwEjtf1tsLxcv8ZYfiFDKjKRrPa_nnauTneYtEYfLzu8dZs68-H4ptpCbx4DO0hrTYvqL3Lo26tQVnh0A_srg8b73pONM/s640/PopsFrida.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><br />We'll start with the tattoo on  the left (Kevin's right), which is a portrait of his father. Followers of the television series <i><a href="http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/la-ink/about-la-ink.htm">L.A. Ink</a></i> might remember this piece, which was featured on the show and created by <a href="http://www.sixfeetunder.com/">Corey Miller</a> at <a href="http://www.highvoltagetattoo.com/">High Voltage Tattoo</a> in West Hollywood.<br /><br />This is the accompanying poem:<br /><br /><br /><b>The Reality</b><br /><br />My father died in my arms<br />early on a Thursday morning.<br /><br />I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t even sad.<br />there was no time or room for that;<br />that was my mother’s job.<br /><br />At the time, my brother and I<br />worked in the same warehouse,<br />the same dirt, the same grime,<br />the same bullshit from corporate pricks.<br /><br />The day after my dad died,<br />my brother was back at work,<br />and I made it in the day after that.<br />We probably worked harder those few days,<br />than we ever had before.<br /><br />And we got a lot of awkward looks,<br />uncertain stares that said,<br />“Hey, what are you doing here?<br />You should be at home, wilting and weeping.”<br /><br />But like our hard-working Irish father,<br />we are blue-collared through and through,<br />until one day we too kick the bucket<br />butt naked on the cold linoleum<br />of the bathroom floor<br />some unsuspecting morning.<br /><br />And though we have a lifetime to mourn,<br />the truth is,<br />bills don’t stop for death<br />and rent is always due on the 1st.<br /><br />===========================================================<br /><div><br /></div><div>The tattoo on the right (Kevin's left) is based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo">Frida Kahlo's</a> painting "<a href="http://www.learner.org/courses/globalart/work/57/index.html">The Broken Column</a>" and was tattooed by <a href="http://www.theartoflondon.com/">Brittan "London" Reese</a> at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VaticanStudios">Vatican Studios</a> in Lake Forest, California. The poem accompanying this tattoo is "Hooked":</div><br /><br /><b>Hooked</b><br /><br /><br />When I walked out of our apartment for the last time,<br />I grabbed every roll of toilet paper.<br />I took the clips that tacked down the cable wire.<br />I picked up all the damn bobby pins that miraculously<br />flew out of my wife’s hair and onto the carpet.<br /><br />I stripped everything, except 2 hooks on the wall.<br />The two hooks that held up a painting that brought my wife and I together;<br />It was Frida Kahlo’s Broken Column.<br />There is nothing romantic or sexy about the painting,<br />except perhaps Frida’s bare breasts,<br />which I’m sure weren’t as perfect as<br />Salma Hayek’s breasts which played the part of Frida’s breasts<br />in Julie Taymor’s 2002 amazingly colorful film.<br /><br />I don’t know what my wife’s attraction to the painting was,<br />and I still don’t,<br />but I identified with the nails scattered all over her body<br />and the literal broken column of her spine.<br /><br />There were times in my mid-twenties where I couldn’t<br />roll over in bed to turn off my alarm clock because the discs<br />in my back were angry over their current living situation.<br />My doctor asking me, “So when do you want to schedule surgery.”<br />I never took her up on her offer,<br />instead popping pain pills and muscle relaxants when needed.<br />Luckily I have never been the addict.<br /><br />And I have nothing to complain about,<br />as so many people have it worse.<br />I know a woman who had something<br />implanted in her that would permanently<br />block the pain receptors going to her back,<br />because without it, she would have hung herself.<br /><br />This was our favorite painting separately before we met,<br />and perhaps it just goes to show that sometimes<br />pain and suffering leads to extraordinary things.<br /><br />I left the apartment and those two hooks,<br />and wanted to beg the landlord to keep them there,<br />so that perhaps it would bring inspiration to two more people<br />to hang something on the wall together,<br />the walls that hold them together,<br />the walls that keep them safe together,<br />so that they could fall in love here,<br />make a family here,<br />so that they could one day move on<br />and beg the landlord to leave the hooks in the wall.<br /><br />===========================================================<br /><br />Kevin Patrick Lee is the husband of a beautiful blue-eyed woman, and the father of a cool blue-eyed boy. He hosts a monthly poetry series called <i><a href="http://aorticbooks.wordpress.com/readings/">The Hump Readings</a></i>, was a founder of <a href="http://lbpoetryfestival.blogspot.com/">Beside the City of Angels: a Long Beach Poetry Festival</a>, and runs <a href="http://aorticbooks.wordpress.com/">Aortic Books</a>. His work has appeared in book collections and many great small press mags. A book is forthcoming in 2013 by <a href="http://worldparadebooks.wordpress.com/">World Parade Books</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Kevin for sharing his poetry and tattoos with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.963522638194263" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit </span><a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://tattoosday.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span></span></b><br /><br />

The Tattooed Poets Project: Kevin Patrick Lee

Our next tattooed poet is Kevin Patrick Lee, who had initially expressed an interest last year in our project, but we had to wait for 2013 t...

Read more »

Jessica's Chest Piece and a Tale of Two Tigers

There may be eight million people in New York, but it's still, at times, a small world town.<br /><br />Last month in the Amtrak section of Penn Station, I spotted Jessica, a young woman with a beautiful tattoo across her chest:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Yceq7wTNzX89eDOu67jx2QFwcQCx-yNCObMgo7Hcqc9-VDZ2Ie13FioqvR6fDekH62B7IBR9tDlvNLekUVhuMuJ6vsYy8Q0S3FRyDf7AA5K0iVyZcIzOMi5bA5ymsLLAf6BBGVHw/s1600/never+love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Yceq7wTNzX89eDOu67jx2QFwcQCx-yNCObMgo7Hcqc9-VDZ2Ie13FioqvR6fDekH62B7IBR9tDlvNLekUVhuMuJ6vsYy8Q0S3FRyDf7AA5K0iVyZcIzOMi5bA5ymsLLAf6BBGVHw/s400/never+love.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />This piece even was our banner here for a few weeks, thanks to Jessica.<br /><br />The inscription reads "Never Love, Never Lose," which is certainly thought-provoking, a slight spin on the aphorism, "It is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all." It also recalls an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claddagh_ring">Irish claddagh ring</a>, with two hands holding a heart. Feathers on the ends of the hands were added to even out the design.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuoS9-kV4p3_wk6hRb1rnQuZ9e4pil7Jrt75MXNzQgqlSV9NYGEfeo4_9f0v4UuL8dzEkuCGDLjvEzg-nTNbXeGyU4QOhcsBph6WnEz09PFNrF4nTpKLtLlR99Ikfy5oeXdvoTwbY/s1600/feather+hands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuoS9-kV4p3_wk6hRb1rnQuZ9e4pil7Jrt75MXNzQgqlSV9NYGEfeo4_9f0v4UuL8dzEkuCGDLjvEzg-nTNbXeGyU4QOhcsBph6WnEz09PFNrF4nTpKLtLlR99Ikfy5oeXdvoTwbY/s320/feather+hands.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />I particularly like the fact that Jessica is wearing a key around her neck and, in the photo, it is lying across the keyhole at the center of the heart.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvth_eCDoLoKKhR4dwlJ8YF7G3RvcMsBt-lmDfPgGAgbvZlzHkUqOq6hdV5Il4JLZngy4D4QF0Qnb9i4WpueN5Otp9Ji_qmmQm-Cfm3HgWRebaZrMhRr5omKeQzMh-WgTBZ9HDHl0X/s1600/never+love+key.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvth_eCDoLoKKhR4dwlJ8YF7G3RvcMsBt-lmDfPgGAgbvZlzHkUqOq6hdV5Il4JLZngy4D4QF0Qnb9i4WpueN5Otp9Ji_qmmQm-Cfm3HgWRebaZrMhRr5omKeQzMh-WgTBZ9HDHl0X/s400/never+love+key.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><br />Jessica collaborated with the artist known as <a href="http://www.goodoldfashionedtattoos.com/">Ollie XXX</a> in Montreal. If you look at his portfolio on <a href="http://www.goodoldfashionedtattoos.com/">his site</a>, slide 87 shows a brighter original version of the tattoo when it was first completed.<br /><br />When I asked her how many tattoos she had, she said, twenty-two, and showed me her most recent, a Peanuts tattoo. When I inquired where she got it, she said <a href="http://www.thickerthanwatertattoo.com/">Thicker Than Water</a> on the Lower East Side. "Oh," I commented, "you got one of the $50 specials?" I knew that the shop had done a $50 tattoo event the previous Saturday. Jessica confirmed that she had, in fact, attended with a friend.<br /><br /><br />I continued, "<a href="http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#%21/Djoner?ref=ts">Shon Lindauer</a> was the artist for <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/01/tyger-tyger-burning-bright.html">my tiger</a>,"and I rolled up my pant leg to reveal <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/01/tyger-tyger-burning-bright.html">the piece</a> Shon had inked at the beginning of the year when they were in "<a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/01/year-o-tiger-has-begun.html">Year of the Tiger</a>" mode. Well, you could have knocked Jessica over with a feather and her aunt, who Jessica was seeing off at the station, was also surprised. Why?<br /><br />Jessica pulled down her right sleeve to reveal a familiar, but more feminine version of my tiger from my calf.<br /><br /><br />Shon had inked a variation on the tiger for her in February. Jessica's aunt insisted we pose with our tigers together.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvO2H68fy8zw0R-wjAPbrPJVW9InpXZpg50HPiRETWcSDQab2oOtvQtkshMGoZC75TjWcHI10LIcUBUkMAZrW4HW_ogaI9h3cjjAVd_hA2-SwJLy_-tG9uMI1By6smiWgUV0_MfvQB/s1600/106_0106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvO2H68fy8zw0R-wjAPbrPJVW9InpXZpg50HPiRETWcSDQab2oOtvQtkshMGoZC75TjWcHI10LIcUBUkMAZrW4HW_ogaI9h3cjjAVd_hA2-SwJLy_-tG9uMI1By6smiWgUV0_MfvQB/s400/106_0106.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikpLLj_D_j-JQUfh2aLLQ1NQ_ocxzuD_rATeBkUdYXULLHuuXh4x9ASaEHZVZy9FqijK52l_3BGkyVbLUPH7zO3vSWc4lSi6znQPuJF1MVtRNdbdZ4UNR7CNO1awRWw82aMvxT-0-1/s1600/two+tigers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikpLLj_D_j-JQUfh2aLLQ1NQ_ocxzuD_rATeBkUdYXULLHuuXh4x9ASaEHZVZy9FqijK52l_3BGkyVbLUPH7zO3vSWc4lSi6znQPuJF1MVtRNdbdZ4UNR7CNO1awRWw82aMvxT-0-1/s400/two+tigers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />I love how the designs are so similar, yet hers is much more feminine (or mine is much more masculine).<br /><br />Granted, inkspotting certainly reduces the odds, but nonetheless, our paths crossing still seemed incredibly amazing.<br /><br />Thanks to Jessica for sharing her work with us here on Tattoosday!

Jessica's Chest Piece and a Tale of Two Tigers

There may be eight million people in New York, but it's still, at times, a small world town. Last month in the Amtrak section of Penn St...

Read more »