Jason's Lucky Devil

I spotted Jason walking among the crowds during the annual Bay Ridge Fifth Avenue Festival.

He had sweet tattoos on his forearms but he chose to share one, near and dear to his heart. His wife chimed in that it was her favorite as well.

Where once there was a "bad tribal/skeletal dragon," there is now this phenomenal new tattoo on his left bicep:


This was, he told me, his groom's gift, a tattoo commemorating his marriage, and the fact that he is a "lucky devil".

The piece was inspired, in part, by the artistic style of Coop, and includes a lucky seven (rolled on the dice) juxtaposed by the lucky number 13.

This cool tattoo was inked by Johan Florendo at Mean Street Tattoo Studio in the College Point section of Queens, New York.

Thanks to Jason for sharing his awesome lucky tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Jenny's Interpretation of Yin and Yang

I was camera-less on Sunday when I breezed through day 2 of the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) 2008 Art Festival. The whole time I kept thinking wow, cool, awesome, as I beheld the expectedly fantastic body art on multitudes of comic artists, fans, and publishers.

As fate would have it, two days later I ran into Jenny, who was in attendance at the same event.

I spotted the above piece, and when we started talking, and she mentioned her comic, Too Negative, did I think to ask her if she was at the MoCCA event.

This tattoo was designed by Jenny and inked by Sophie Crumb (daughter of the legendary master of comix R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb), when she was apprenticing at Suerte Studios, in Brooklyn. Sophie has moved on and Adam Suerte moved his shop (Brooklyn Tattoo) from State Street to Smith.


The yin and yang symbols, a staple in Chinese philosophy, are popular emblems for countless people, and Jenny's design infuses the recognizable art with her own dark spin.

The circles in the standard yin and yang have been replaced with X's, a nod to one of her main characters in her comic, whose eyebrows are represented with a set of X's, as Jenny elaborated, "like a Manson girl who got over-zealous".

The flames surrounding the symbol refer to the devils that populate her comic. The blood dripping down is a nice touch, as well, definitely heightening the tension between Jenny's vision and the popular interpretation of the yin and yang harmony. Jenny's work is dark and twisted, and her influence on a design often associated with peace and balance, is unsettling and perfectly tailored to her artistic style.

Be sure to check out Jenny's site here. Her work Too Negative appears in the Comix section.

Thanks to Jenny for pausing during lunch on a blisteringly hot day to share her ink here on Tattoosday.

Devil Angel

I spotted this tattoo on the left arm of a guy hanging out in Starbucks on Monday, October 8.

I was doing some laundry, and saw him smoking a cigarette a little later outside the store. I went up and introduced myself and Tattoosday.

The owner of this tattoo is Steven. He refers to it as "D.A.," which stands for Devil Angel. She was inked around 1998 at Studio Enigma on Avenue U in Brooklyn. The artist was a guy named Michael, who is no longer listed with the shop.

Steven said the tattoo is based on a design that was on the wall of the shop and, like many tattoos, a few adjustments were made, and this was the final product. There was really no inspiration behind this particular design, there's no real life person behind the Devil-Angel persona.

This tattoo is showing some age, but it still is a nice piece that was intriguing to see peeking out from Starbucks.

Thanks to Steven for sharing D.A. with all of us here at Tattoosday.