Emperor Tattoos

Monday, January 9, 2012

Cecelia's Trio of Bats, or, The Girl with the Dragonlance Tattoo

Back in October, I met Cecelia on the D train in Brooklyn, and she shared these tattoos on her left forearm:

Those three bats, named, from top to bottom, Ralph, Roberto, and John, were a birthday present from her friend Dan. Roberto, in the middle, was named after a fruit bat that appears in a couple of books by Christopher Moore (namely, Island of the Sequined Love Nun and The Stupidest Angel).

The bats were inked by Steve Kane, owner and artist at A List Industry Tattoo, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Cecelia also told me about another tattoo she had, but it was not one she could show me on the train, as it wasn't the day of the No Pants Subway Ride.

Fortunately, she did send us a cell phone photo later with this piece on her left thigh:

She explained:

"This tattoo was inspired by a Dragonlance book, The Dragons of Winter Night. Started in '95 by an artist from Buffalo, it was finished 10 yrs later by Seven O'Brien @ Tattoo Mania [Staten Island]. He is now at another shop. He came up with the fantastic background and border."

Thanks to Cecelia for sharing her trio of bats and her dragon tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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 http://tattoosday.blogspot.com 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.

Cecelia's Trio of Bats, or, The Girl with the Dragonlance Tattoo

Back in October, I met Cecelia on the D train in Brooklyn, and she shared these tattoos on her left forearm:

She explained:

"This tattoo was inspired by a Dragonlance book, The Dragons of Winter Night. Started in '95 by an artist from Buffalo, it was finished 10 yrs later by Seven O'Brien @ Tattoo Mania [Staten Island]. He is now at another shop. He came up with the fantastic background and border."

Thanks to Cecelia for sharing her trio of bats and her dragon tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Cleaning Out My Inbox: January Edition

One of my New Year's resolutions is to share more of what gets sent to me from various parties looking to promote their tattoo-related projects. What follows are a few items that have been lingering in my inbox, and may be of interest to our readers:

This is "Pencil and Ink: A Film About Justin Klein":

Pencil & Ink : a film about Justin Klein from DannyGregory on Vimeo.

Justin Klein is a New York-based tattoo artist. You can see some of his work here on his Facebook gallery.

~~~

Occasionally I get e-mails introducing me to new shops, or at least shops that are new to me. Suzanne Sawyer is co-owner of Relentless Ink Custom Tattoo in Newburgh, New York. She writes:

"...Thought Id let you know about a newish (March of 2011) local tattoo studio in Orange County, NY, that my husband and I own. Not sure how you get your inspiration for the blog posts and I notice you do write several! Just wanted to point you over to http://www.facebook.com/RelentlessInkTattoo. We have several artists, a couple of whom have been published in tattoo mags or become Featured Artists on sites like Ink Army (Check out owner and my hubby Hal Sawyer & also Jack Hammah) and do tattoo conventions all over, soon Hal and Keith Zahra will be working Tattoolapalooza in Miami."

Tattoolapalooza, actually, is going on this weekend.

~~~

Alexei Nunes, a scriptwriter and producer for Mellow9 Productions, reently pointed me to a video of their interview with well-known Tattoo Artist, Lou Molloy, as part of there "9 Scoop" Interview Series. Check it out here:

~~~

I received a heads up from NOWNESS.com, which is presenting an exclusive extract from filmmaker Ryan Hope’s documentary Skin. The film follows five skin-art collectors on their journey to be tattooed with designs created by major contemporary artists like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince. Check it out here.

~~~

And finally, a fan named Shannon messaged me:

You might dig these videos - photorealistic animated tattoo adventures!
The making-of video is pretty cool too.
http://www.joshuafrankel.net/Kabar.html

~~~

Thanks for checking these out, and have a great weekend!

Cleaning Out My Inbox: January Edition

~~~

Occasionally I get e-mails introducing me to new shops, or at least shops that are new to me. Suzanne Sawyer is co-owner of Relentless Ink Custom Tattoo in Newburgh, New York. She writes:

"...Thought Id let you know about a newish (March of 2011) local tattoo studio in Orange County, NY, that my husband and I own. Not sure how you get your inspiration for the blog posts and I notice you do write several! Just wanted to point you over to http://www.facebook.com/RelentlessInkTattoo. We have several artists, a couple of whom have been published in tattoo mags or become Featured Artists on sites like Ink Army (Check out owner and my hubby Hal Sawyer & also Jack Hammah) and do tattoo conventions all over, soon Hal and Keith Zahra will be working Tattoolapalooza in Miami."

Tattoolapalooza, actually, is going on this weekend.

~~~

And finally, a fan named Shannon messaged me:

You might dig these videos - photorealistic animated tattoo adventures!
The making-of video is pretty cool too.
http://www.joshuafrankel.net/Kabar.html

~~~

Thanks for checking these out, and have a great weekend!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Pitcher's dog not allowed in new city

Mark Buehrle's dog Slater (right) isn't welcome in Miami-Dade County. (US Presswire/Buehrle family photo)

Mark Buehrle's left arm may have been greeted warmly down in south Florida this offseason, but the same can't be said for one of his family's four dogs. According to the Miami Herald, "Slater" Buehrle, an 18-month-old American Staffordshire terrier, falls under a pitbull ban that has been in place in Miami-Dade County since 1989. That means the Buehrle family didn't have the option of moving anywhere close to the Miami Marlins' new ballpark after Mark signed a four-year, $58 million deal with the team last month.
Mark Buehrle, a dog lover who made headlines when he said he hoped Michael Vick would get hurt, avoided the ban by moving his family to a dog-friendly development in south Broward County. And while he says he wouldn't have signed with the Marlins if there had been no housing alternatives for Slater and the rest of his family, Buehrle still wants to speak up against the injustice of the ban.

From the Miami Herald:

Mark Buehrle believes "it's kind of ridiculous that because of the way a dog looks, people will ban it. Every kind of dog has good and bad, and that depends on the handlers. If you leave a dog outside all the time, it'll be crazy. Slater would never do anything harmful.''
Mark Buehrle grew up with cats, rabbits and fish, but got his first dog with Jamie. They married in 2005 and are spokespeople for Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, which accepted 22 of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick's pit bulls.

The Buehrles have three other dogs — Viszlas named Diesel, Drake and Duke — and adopted Slater after Jamie fell in love with him during work with an animal rescue group. Judging from his festive getup in the picture above, he sure doesn't look too menacing.
As a dog lover who has admired Mark and Jamie Buehrle's work with "Sox for Strays" in Chicago, I agree 100 percent with the pitcher's stance. Without getting into a long drawn-out debate on the subject, the danger with pitbulls lies more with the responsibility of its owners and not the breed itself. There's absolutely no reason why a well-trained dog and its family should be discriminated against through government legislation.
The good news, of course, is that at least this tale has a happy ending. Though Slater and the Buehrles were forced to go live elsewhere, perhaps their story will help end a ban that causes a much bigger hardship for other families.
After all, not everyone who moves to Miami-Dade County for a job has the luxury of being able to choose where to live. The awareness the Buehrles are driving could prevent dog owners from having to make a decision they shouldn't have to in the first place.

Mark Buehrle pets a fan's dog at U.S. Cellular Field. (Getty Images)

source

Tattoorism: Naveed's Cobra

Occasionally we'll post a reader submission, referring to it as "tattoorism," as this is, for the most part, a New York City site. There are plenty of websites that cater solely to reader submissions but, I figure, once in a while, it's nice to see someone making the effort to send me a photo with a narrative.

The following submission comes from "across the pond":

This cool tattoo belongs to Naveed, who writes:

"I am 18 years old currently a student in the UK and I live in Bristol. I would like to submit a tattoo, I know you prefer to upload tattoos from people you've met but I am particularly proud of this tattoo as it is my third. It is a king cobra wrapped around a harp with jasmine flowers surrounding it. They are all national symbols of my ethnicities, the king cobra is the national snake of India, the jasmine flowers are the national flower of Pakistan and the harp is the national symbol of Ireland. It was done by Phil Webster at Tattoo House in Dewsbury."

I should note that Phil Webster is not on the Tattoo House website, but is currently be co-owner of Integrity Tattoo Lounge in Ossett, West Yorkshire. I was able to find a much crisper photo on his Facebook page, so I am reprinting it here for the sake of fully representing what a nice tattoo this is:

Thanks to Naveed for sending along this tattoo to us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoorism: Naveed's Cobra

This cool tattoo belongs to Naveed, who writes:

"I am 18 years old currently a student in the UK and I live in Bristol. I would like to submit a tattoo, I know you prefer to upload tattoos from people you've met but I am particularly proud of this tattoo as it is my third. It is a king cobra wrapped around a harp with jasmine flowers surrounding it. They are all national symbols of my ethnicities, the king cobra is the national snake of India, the jasmine flowers are the national flower of Pakistan and the harp is the national symbol of Ireland. It was done by Phil Webster at Tattoo House in Dewsbury."

Thanks to Naveed for sending along this tattoo to us here on Tattoosday!