Kat's Mucha Tattoo, With a Twist of Lemony Snicket

At 31st Street and 7th Avenue, I stopped Kat to ask about her ink.

She was happy to see me and had been wondering, having previously read Tattoosday and knowing she worked in the same area as I did, if our paths would ever cross.

She has seven tattoos (and a cool blog here), but we focused on the large tattoo on her upper right arm:

 Or, looking at it as a whole:

The art is based on the work of Alphonse Mucha, who has inspired a couple of other tattoos appearing previously on Tattoosday here and here.

If that second link looks familiar, it is because both Kat's tattoo and Delissa's are inspired by the same work, "Monaco".

 

Kat's tattoo is interpreted a little differently, translated with brighter colors, which, in Kat's words, were "amped up to be on my arm".

The plan is eventually for this tattoo to expand to be a half-sleeve.

The phrase "the world is quiet here" is a nod to a motto for a secret organization known as V.F.D. in A Series of Unfortunate Eventsby Lemony Snicket. These books are favorites among Kat's list of much-loved titles.

Her work was created by the artist Joy Rumore at Twelve 28 Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Kind thanks to Kat for sharing her work with us here on Tattoosday!

Sarah Channels Emma Goldman

I recently had the intense displeasure of discovering that my camera had broken. For someone whose spare time is spent taking pictures of other people's tattoos, this was a harrowing experience, especially since my BlackBerry's camera is flash-less and takes good pictures under only specific lighting conditions.

So what's a poor inkspotter to do? Pass out his card and hope for the best.

And despite dozens of cards distributed to many people with cool tattoos, the only one who has really come through for me is Sarah, who I met last Friday on the subway platform at West Fourth Street, as I waited for the D train to Brooklyn.

Possessor of several tattoos, the one of Sarah's I spotted was on her inner left forearm. My photo was blurry and, as the D pulled into West Fourth, she handed me her card so I could follow-up with her. Thankfully, she is a woman of her word, and sent me this photo yesterday:

Since Sarah is a writer and journalist, I'll let her do the talking. You can check out her work at  her website ohyouprettythings.net and/or read her blog at champagnecandy.tumblr.com. Sarah explains:

It says "It's not my revolution if I can't dance to it"

The tattoo is my most recent, and it's a paraphrase of a possibly-apocryphal Emma Goldman quotation. It's a line that spoke to me the first time I heard it. I'm a political journalist and a feminist activist, and Goldman's always been someone I looked up to. Also, I became a political person through music, and dancing and music have a particular significance for me.


It was done by Ryoko at Brooklyn Tattoo [who we most recently saw inked Julie Powell's tattoo here] and she's super-awesome...

As a lover of type tattoos, I had inquired about the font used and Sarah did not disappoint: "the font is Garton and the words revolution and dance are in Miama".

Thanks to Sarah for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Jeff Simpson

Today's tattooed poet found us by way of Adam Deutsch. Jeff Simpson offers up this cool arm tattoo:


Jeff, a tattooed poet from Oklahoma tells us:

I started reading Horace in grad school and soon grew to be a fan of the odes. The quote, pulvis et umbra sumus—taken from the ode to Torquatus—is commonly translated as, “We are dust and shadows,” but I prefer David Ferry’s version: “we’re nothing but dust, we’re nothing but shadows.” The line offers such a blunt beauty to our mortality, I thought it would serve as a good defense against procrastination, etc. The tattoo was done by David Bruehl at Think Ink Tattoos in Norman, OK. David is an incredible artist. I basically gave him the quote, said I dig skulls, and he nailed the design on the first sketch. This was my first tattoo (I was a late bloomer), and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I’ve already booked another session to start working on a sleeve.

Head over to BillyBlog and read one of Jeff's poems here.

Born and raised in southwest Oklahoma, Jeff Simpson received his MFA from Oklahoma State University in 2009. He is the founder and managing editor of The Fiddleback, an online arts & literature journal that will launch its first issue later this year. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Copper Nickel, Harpur Palate, The Pinch, and H_NGM_N. His first full-length collection, Vertical Hold, will be published by Steel Toe Books in 2011.