Musician Monday: A Trio of Tattoos from Justin Y. of Everyone Dies in Utah

 Back in May, I met Justin in the Borders at Penn Plaza and he shared his three tattoos. Justin had recently been signed to a band from Texas called Everyone Dies in Utah and he was moving out from Maryland. He offered up his knuckle tattoos:

Justin has been playing drums for about eleven years and loves drums, which explains these knuckles. Of course, I would be remiss if I mentioned knuckle tattoos and didn't direct you to KnuckleTattoos.com to see more, courtesy of my friend Nathan.

The most compelling tattoo Justin shared was this piece, on his right forearm:

He explained:

"I have a little sister, she's ten now, but it was last year, so she was nine, and she was all bummed that I was moving really far and touring and stuff, so I told her I would get a tattoo for her ... I was trying to think of what would be absolutely unique, and the only thing I could think of was fingerprints. So, I decided it would be cool to get her hand print, so I went out and got a big old ink pad and did her hand print on a piece of paper, took it in, and he [Jason Kramer at Positive Image Tattoos in Baltimore] did all of his magic and got it done."

Justin's third tattoo was this piece on his left forearm:

He told me

"I love Jesus ... simple as that. I was thinking about doing a whole arm, faith-based kind of thing, and I ike the ides of just being able to walk into a room and people know exactly like, well, that guy's definitely a Christina and he's for serious ... It's a good starting piece to talk to people."

All of Justin's work is by Jason Kramer at Positive Image Tattoos in Baltimore.

Be sure to check out Everyone Dies in Utah on Facebook here.

Thanks to Justin for sharing his cool ink with us here on Tattoosday! 

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David's Traditional Hands

Last month I met David when I stopped after noticing his neck tattoo. However, it was his hands he offered up to us here at Tattoosday:

David works in construction and is a contractor. He also manages the band, Drew Nugent & the Midnight Society.

He has about thirty-five (35) hours of work done on his body, and he explained that these are traditional pieces on his hands.

He was inspired to have his knuckles read "True Blue" as they speak to his belief that our country has lost its values that need to be regained. Key among these values are loyalty and honor, in the traditional, "true blue" sense of the words.

To him, the panther represents that we need to fight to regain these ideals.

And the two roses represent the ideal (the healthy, red flower on the right hand) and what he called the "diminished," (on the left) that is, where we're headed with our loss of values.

David embraced these traditional elements because he feels that "the only way to have a future is to look at the past".

He had the panther done at a tattoo convention. The roses and "TRUE BLUE" knuckles are credited to Rick Meggison at Marked 4 Life in York, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to David for sharing these very cool hand tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Gary's Three Knuckles Speak Volumes

I spotted Gary standing at the top of some escalators in Penn Station. As I passed him, I noticed he had knuckle tattoos so I stopped to ask him about them:

Gary explained that they are Korean characters

that translate to "Soo Bahk Do," or "The Way of the Striking Hand".

Soo Bahk Do is a form of martial arts that originated in Korea.

This unassuming gentleman has studied the form for seventeen years and is a third degree black belt. Gary studied at East Winds Karate in Port St. John, Florida.

The tattoo was inked at a shop on Eight Avenue in Bayonne, New Jersey.

Thanks to Gary for sharing his "striking" tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Joel Marks Memories with Some Significant Ink

What is this? Read on.....

Last week I met Joel, a writer and a marketing director for an artist management and development company.

Joel couldn't tell me how many tattoos he has (he has that many), but he did share two of them with me.

The first is posted above and, despite being a little blurry in the photo, this small piece is an early band logo. In fact, Joel informed me that it was the first tattoo ever inked in honor of the band Linkin Park, one of the first acts to achieve a massive audience with their blend of hard rock
and rap.

Joel explains that, in September 2000, he was travelling with the relatively obscure band in Utah, working as a driver and director of merchandising. They were touring just prior to the release of their breakthrough album Hybrid Theory.

Tattoos are often road maps for one's personal history and this tiny Linkin Park tattoo marks that moment in time.

More important to Joel, however, is this, one of his more recent tattoos:


It's an interesting and unusual take on the knuckle tattoo. Rather than the 4x4 knuckle piece, it's a 2x2, with the letters "M" and "C" on the right hand and the numbers "5" and "9" on the left. When the fists come together, the MC 59 display, representing Mike Conley and the year 1959, when Mike was born.


Joel described Mike as his best friend, who died tragically in February of this year after falling and hitting his head in a parking lot of a Chicago motel. Mike introduced Joel to the work of Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac, and to the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. He was the owner of The Avalon Bar in Costa Mesa, California. I could see the sadness in the eyes of Joel, as he recalled the friend that was taken from life
too soon. Joel said "I'm never gonna be over it."

This was inked by Hek at HB Tattoo in Huntington Beach.

I learned later, by visiting the Mike Conley Family Memorial Fund website, that Mike was a founding member of the Southern California punk band M.I.A. (Not to be confused with the hip hop artist of the same name.)

I encourage folks to visit the website and, if so moved, to make a donation. There are links to some nice articles about Mike and his influence on the music scene.

Thanks to Joel for sharing his tattoos with us here at Tattoosday. And our condolences to Mike Conley's family and friends who lost so much when he was taken at such an early age.

Mike Remembers Mom with a Traditional Tattoo

I met Mike in the Penn Plaza area and asked him, among his countless tattoos, which had the most meaning for him. I may have mentioned before that asking a multi-tattooed individual that is like asking a parent to choose his favorite among his multiple children. Mike shared this feeling,
but ultimately chose to offer up the piece above.

It's a traditional mom tattoo that he had to honor her memory after she passed away in January of this year from cancer.

The piece was inked by Tasha at NY Hardcore Tattoo in Manhattan.

Mike offered up his knuckle tattoos, as well:

Thanks to Mike for sharing some of his ink here at Tattoosday!

Knuckle Tattoos

Just a production note, one of my June posts has been picked up by a site devoted solely to knuckle tattoos. Click on the title of this post to check out the site here. I exchanged e-mails with Nathan, who runs the site, and he had kind words to say about Tattoosday. Should I run across any more knuckle ink in the future, I'll be sure to send them his way.