Bigfoot and a Bowl of Fruit

I stopped Tony and Emily, an Australian couple, as they were crossing 33rd Street near Eighth Avenue late last month. No offense to Tony, but Emily's half-sleeve really jumped out at me from across the street, so I was thrilled when they agreed to stop and talk tattoos with me.

First, here's a collage of Emily's upper right arm:

Emily explained she wanted a colorful tattoo, and she loves fruit, so this was the path she chose. What I like is that, since she is Australian, we get some more exotic fruit here, like dragon fruit and passion fruit in the culinary collage.

This is one of seven tattoos Emily has and was inked by Josh Plum at Yakuza Tattoo in Sydney, Australia.

When I showed the photos to my wife, Melanie, she wanted to know more. Aside from being colorful, why the fruit basket? I e-mailed Tony and he sent the following reply:

"...She said she wanted fruit for a few other reasons other than colourfullness....1) she is really into nutrition and a healthy living style; 2) she had never seen anybody else with a fruit basket tattoo; 3) fish, flowers, etc. are way too common (which is true when you think about it, everyone has koi fish..."

Speaking of Tony, let's not forget him. He had nine tattoos when I met him. He may have another now from New York, I'm not sure. SO, of course I asked him if he would share, as well. He offered up this rendition of Bigfoot on his right forearm:

This tattoo was the artist's rendering of Bigfoot, as interpreted by Sanchez at Steel Lotus Body Arts in Darlinghurst, in Eastern Sydney.

Why Bigfoot? Tony is a huge fan of cryptozoology.The tattoo took about four and a half hours to complete.

Thanks to both Tony and Emily for taking the time to share their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Sherry Shares Her Lone Star Birthmark

I met Sherry on Penn Plaza at the end of May and asked her about this tattoo:

Situated in the center of her back, Sherry's only tattoo merges the Texas longhorn symbol and the Texas state flag and serves as what she calls her "birthmark".

Originally from Texas, Sherry is a New York City resident who loves her tattoo, "especially here in NYC," because she gets "lots of comments on it when I show it off".

The tattoo was inked at a shop in Amarillo, Texas, by an artist she identified as Brian Baker. Alas, my net-scouring skills were unable to illuminate the artist or the shop, so I will assume he has moved on to another location.

Thanks to Sherry for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday. Feel free to check out her blog here.

Tammy's Earth Fairy

Tammy says that, within an hour of meeting her, Steve Gagliano of Tormented Souls in Kings Park, New York, knew exactly what to do with the tattoo she wanted covered up. He began freehanding a design over the existing tattoo, and the end result made her very happy:

The artist utilized the tribal butterfly that already existed and expanded it into an earth fairy, with a dragon protector.

Thanks to Tammy for sharing this, one of her seven tattoos, here on Tattoosday!

Be sure to click on the Tormented Souls link to explore their site. It's one of the more creative tattoo shop websites.

Jessy's Sugar Skull (Tattoorism)

In what I refer to as tattoorism, today's selection is a reader-submitted tattoo that comes to us from Jessy, in Denver, Colorado.

Jessy writes:

"I was looking at your blog, and since you love sugar skulls, I thought I'd share mine with you...I had it done in Santa Fe by Guido Baldini [As of publication, Mr Baldini's site is not connecting, but he is tattooing at Inborn NYC in Manhattan through July 2, 2010, according to the shop's MySpace]. A bit of a story behind it... at the time, last September, I was just developing a chronic pain problem that was mainly in my left arm. The pain was (and still is) so excruciating that while on vacation with my family, when I should have been out to dinner and having fun (it was a bit of a reunion) I was instead in the hotel room, eating percocets, and just miserable and crying and pissed off and not understanding WHY this pain wouldn't leave me the hell alone. So the next day my brother and I wandered into a tattoo shop [most likely Four Star Tattoo] and a couple hours later I emerged with this - my 1st tattoo!  It was meant to kind of scare the pain away while also reminding me of a (otherwise) great trip with my family to a town I fell in love with. I think Guido did a great job. I love my sugar skull. I plan to go back to Santa Fe soon and have him add some more flowers to it."

Those of you regular readers with good memories may recall that I recently ran into the artist's cousin and he shared this piece, inked by Mr. Baldini in New Mexico.

Thanks to Jessy for sharing this cool sugar skull with us here on Tattoosday!

Great Henna Tattoo Design

Great Henna Tattoo Design

Fiery Skull Tattoo

Fiery Skull Tattoo

Lips Tattoo Images

Lips Tattoo Images