Marilyn Hangs Ten

I met Jenny last month in Penn Station and was thrilled when she allowed me to photograph her half-sleeve, which is one of her fourteen tattoos:

 

How cool is that? This piece represents about twelve hours of work. Jenny had the basic idea and went to Jonathan Leonhardt at Something Wicked Tattoo in Roseville, California. The rest, as they say, is history.

The concept behind this is simple. Jenny is a surfer and she loves Marilyn Monroe. Why not combine the two to create a unique tattoo to make a statement? This is such a cool piece, I was honored to get tp share it with everyone here at Tattoosday.

Thanks to Jenny for sharing her amazing work with us here on the site!

William's Museum of Art

I met William on the A train one Sunday morning. He was covered with tattoos. When I asked him how many he has, he replied that he had "never counted".

As many of my subjects can attest, when I meet people with a lot of ink, I ask them which one they'd like me to post on the site. William offered up a tattoo he has of Marilyn Monroe, as seen by Andy Warhol. But, as such a tattoo has appeared here before (see Nina's ink here), I asked for something else. He let me choose this piece, a tattoo of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat:

A closer look:

This is based on Basquiat's artwork, which is most recognizable from its appearance on the cover of a Maya Angelou children's story.

William also let me take a picture of his name on his hand, which appeared in Ina Saltz's Body Type 2:

William credited the Basquiat tattoo with David Sena at North Star Tattoo in Manhattan. Work by David Sena appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to William for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Happy Birthday, John...

On what would be John Lennon's 70th birthday, we'll pay a tribute with this tattoo I spotted back at the end of July:

This tattoo belongs to Julia, who I met on Penn Plaza outside of Borders near Madison Square Garden.

This is her first tattoo, and it is based on John Lennon's artwork, one of his self-portrait sketches.

Julia is named after the Beatles song "Julia," which Lennon wrote about his mother.

The tattoo was inked at Tattoo Seen & Body Piercing on East Tremont in the Bronx, New York.

It seemed appropriate to hang on to this post until John's birthday, as a special way we here at Tattoosday could honor the great musician's memory.

Thanks to Julia for sharing this tattoo with us and allowing us to honor the memory of the Great John Lennon on what would have been his seventieth birthday!

Jackie's Bouncing Lyrics

At the beginning of the week, I posted Jackie's beautiful tattoo and didn't include some work on her wrists that I also photographed:

These lyrics, "What are dreams for anyway/without the guts to live your life that way," are from the song "Highway Kings" by The Bouncing Souls, from their 2003 album Anchors Aweigh.



Thanks to Jackie for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Jessica's Floral Half-Sleeve

A trip to the Fairway market in Red Hook last month was not only remarkable for the experience with the cheese monger, but because I met Jessica, the owner of this beautiful tattoo:

 

I love the variety of flowers, colors, and textures:

Jessica credited this work to Greg at Planet New York Tattoo in Poughkeepsie.

Thanks to Jessica for sharing this beautiful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!