Adam's Tattoos Honor God and Country

On April 28th, I was walking across Penn Plaza, outside of Madison Square Garden, and saw a couple of guys taking pictures.

This is fairly common outside of "the world's most famous arena".

Depending on the event going on that day or night, one can get an eyefull of tattoo ink. When there is a rock concert scheduled, there is quite a few visible tattoos on the plaza, when the Westminster dog show's in town, not so much.

On this particular day, there was a WWE wrestling event at the Garden, and the guys I saw taking pictures were waiting for the show to begin.

I approached and met Adam, who had this very cool tattoo on his right bicep:


The piece is designed to flow with his musculature and falls under what I call the "torn flesh" category of tattooing. That is, the tattoo takes on an additional dimension, as it is inked to appear as if the flesh is ripped away, allowing the viewer to see what lies below the skin.

In Adam's case, he bleeds red, white and blue in the form of the American flag. His patriotism is exemplified by this tattoo. As a member of the United States Air Force, he serves our country proudly, and his tattoo is a symbol of how his love of our country runs deep.

Adam also wanted to show me his back piece, a religious-themed work that reflects his faith:


The cross takes up most of the space, and is anchored by a banner that proclaims "May God Have Mercy".

There are also two biblical verses on either side of the cross at the top of the back.

The left is from the book of Joshua, Chapter 1, Verse 9 (New Revised Standard Version):

"Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

The right is from lines 14 and 15 of Psalm 91 (also NRSV):

"Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them..."

All the work shown here on Adam was inked by Adrian at Ken's Underground in Dover, Delaware.

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

Jeremy's Patriotic Tribute to His Father

I spotted this patriotic and paternal piece earlier this week at Penn Station.

Jeremy explained this straight-forward tattoo, which is inked on the inner part of his left bicep. The design is a tribute to his father, who died on the 4th of July, 2001. Dad had served in the U.S. army in the Korean War and it seemed fitting to Jeremy, who has six tattoos in all, to honor his memory with this piece.

The tattoo was inked at Bob's Crystal Blue Tattoo & Body Piercing in Shirley, New York.

Thanks to Jeremy for sharing this tribute to his father with us here on Tattoosday!

A Patriotic Tattoo for Patriot Day

I ran into Rob in my neighborhood in late August and he gladly shared his patriotic tattoo.

Rob is a Revolutionary War buff and has a distinct interest in American history.

He wanted an "old school" tattoo back in 2000, and wanted something patriotic back "before it was fashionable". He's referring of course, to the explosion of post-9/11 red, white and blue ink. He wasn't disrespecting or being critical of patriotic tattoos done after 2001, he was merely clarifying for me that his piece was not a product of the huge wave of emotion that surged through the country after that day of infamy seven years ago.

Rob's "Land of the free, Home of the brave" banner with the original 13-star flag was inked by Darren Rosa at Rising Dragon in Manhattan. Work from Rising Dragon has appeared on Tattoosday previously here.

Thanks to Rob for sharing his red, white, and blue patriotic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday on this occasion.

New York City Marathon

Ok, so I am late with this post.

I live a half block from an early point in the New York City marathon route. Everyone is fresh and cheery, and the Kenyans are more of a blur than they are at the end of the race.

This year, I endeavored to see how many tattoo candids I could snap of runners as they passed by. I did not have high hopes. The mass of humanity that is 30,000 souls is a blur and by the time your brain registers something interesting, it is already gone in a trail of cells just starting to sweat.

I snagged one partial shot. (Don't forget, one has to factor in the photographer's ineptitude and the several-years-old technology of a Kodak Easyshare camera.

Of course, I'm not counting painted on flags like this one:

That's Pia Larsson from Sweden, by the way.

Anyway, I did catch this guy as he blew by:

I know what you're thinking...."What tattoo?" Take a peek at the guy on the right side of the photo and see what I salvaged:



And then lightened:


And then blew up:


I don't know exactly what it is, but there is definitely a patriotic theme here.

That's the best I could do. Sorry!

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 2

The next tattoo I photographed at the Third Avenue Festival belonged to a guy named Chris.

Chris has a leg piece that is an American flag emerging from under his skin. He wanted something patriotic, but didn't want a regular American flag. The result is pretty cool:



Chris was walking with a guy in an eagle costume, who was at the street fair to promote the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a local paper. While I was snapping these shots, the Eagle, who knew Chris, kept telling me to take a picture of Chris' other tattoo, and kept trying to lift Chris' left sleeve.

Chris was game and showed me his other one:


This is the artist's rendering of this famous photograph:


That's 1963, when Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc self-immolated in 1963. Chris advised that the monk tattoo represented self-sacrifice.

Chris had these done at Brooklyn Ink. The artist is Joe-Mags.

Thanks, Chris, for your participation!