In keeping with the spirit of duality, today's post is a two-for-Tattoosday Tuesday special.
Yesterday outside of
Madison Square Garden, amid throngs of
Iron Maiden and
Dream Theater fans, I met two guys who just happened to be there. If you want to see a great Maiden tattoo, look back in the archives
here.
I met
Roman, who conceived and performs in "
Evolution," showing Tuesday, July 13, and Tuesday, July 20, at the
Magnet Theater (254 W. 29th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues). With him was Louie, who directs the show which is billed as "international and comedic true stories intertwining spirituality, sex, laws, identity, drug vusts, discomfort, fear and discovery from a spontaneous road trip down south".
Roman shared first, which seemed only fair, as it was his tattoo I noticed,creeping out from under his left sleeve:
He got this purple lotus because he likes the color purple (the actual color more than
the movie of the same name). And the lotus is special because, in
Buddhism, he understands the lotus to symbolize "freedom of attachment and desire".
This tattoo took 3 to 4 hours and was inked by
David Sena when he was at
Rising Dragon when they were at their 23rd Street location, although Sena is now at
North Star Tattoo, the shop he co-founded in the East Village.
Louie's tattoo was much smaller, but it had a more elaborate story:
This small design, on the outer left ankle of, represents a house in
Vancouver, British Columbia, in which he and seven different people lived at different times during their college days. The house and the memories they all shared together there are so important, that Louie and six other friends share the same tattoo.
The narrative took on a more elaborate spin, as Louie explained that his group of friends came up with a family name to represent the denizens of this house. They were/still are "the Fletchers," all residing in the Fletcher House. He likened them to an extended family like
The Ramones, and they chose the name because it sounded tough.
So, as Louie a.k.a. "Rock" Fletcher tells it, his friend "Slim" Fletcher drew up the simple design for the house tattoo, and they had it inked at
Addiction Ink NYC. Over the years, when one of the Fletcher family came to town, they went down to the shop to have the family member tattooed with the same design, not necessarily on the ankle, like Louie/Rock.
It should be noted that Kim Fletcher, who is a relatively new mom (congrats Kim), has avoided the tattoo, so the rest of her Fletcher family created a needlepoint design of the house for her, so that she has the tattoo in a different shape and form, needled, but not in her flesh. Yet. Now that it is written here, forever on the pages of Tattoosday, it is only a matter of time. Kim Fletcher, you destiny is calling.
Thanks again to both Roman and Louie for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! Be sure to catch their play "Evolution" at the Magnet. If you show up at the box office and mention this post, you won't get any kind of discount, but I'm sure that they'll be thrilled to hear that you showed up as a result of their contribution here!
By entering into a tattoo shop, you'll usually see tattoo images on the wall or in binders consisting of flash art, from which you can pick your design. These tattoo designs are hand drawn by the original artist (usually on paper, on paper or card stock for lasting lamination later). Artist or may be part of flash individual or group them in groups. Usually these will consist of a simple line drawing without color, which helps your copy tat artist easy, as the black lines are easier to follow than that already have color tattoos. Original Artist will provide a full-color version so that you can see how tattoo will look when finished.
Your artist will first make a stencil of the tattoo flash, tattoo giving a "temporary" that he / she can describe then follow when applying a permanent tattoo. In this way you can see that tattoo looks like and can make changes, if necessary, before the ink is applied and can not be changed. Of course, it is always good to make your tattoo original art using your flash as a starting point for your tattoo, adding or removing elements as you and your tattoo artist fit, giving your tattoo its unique .
Be aware, though, that the original piece of art, drawn once, hold the copyright status and fall under the same laws as other copyright material in which the original artist may take action against the tattoo artist and person who supplied art if these songs are illegally obtained. Since this has become a major problem with Internet use, companies have created places where flash artists can upload their art and give members the right to pay to download, copy, and use of art, without fear of copyright violations. So, although you probably can get away with stealing someone's art Eels, who participate in Bootleg flash tattoo art tattooing hurts the whole community. This not only hurts the original artist, who had spent their time and talent in creating the design, but it hurts tattoo community as a whole, as a great artist can become discouraged by this kind of theft and creating left by leaving customers with fewer design options.
