Grand Tattoo Design

Friday, August 26, 2011

HANNAH TAYLOR

HANNAH TAYLOR KILLS US WITH THESE OUTFITS. KNITWEAR WE LOVE YOU.

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I met Sabrina on Penn Plaza back in June after stopping to admire her tattoos. She has three and talked me through them chronologically.

She explained , "I like to get [a tattoo] for every place I lived," and her first one was this butterfly armband:

Sabrina is from upstate New York. She went to one of the shops in Utica and spoke to the owner about getting an armband. He dismissed her initial request, saying "I don't do armbands anymore, they're too 1990". So, Sabrina explained, "he designed a different sort of armband and went with that ... ".

She added, "I like butterflies because I like things that fly ... I feel like I'm a free spirit." One of the butterflies is based on a necklace that she wore every day.

Her second piece is on her right forearm and is what she referred to as her "college tattoo":

Sabrina told me, "I just wanted another tattoo and I like Egyptian hieroglyphs." This is one of the symbols that really appealed to her, and she had this inked at a shop in White Plains, New York, near where she went to college.

Her third tattoo, also inspired by hieroglyphs, is the one she got after coming to New York City:

This owl tattoo is more realistic, although she wanted it positioned like a hieroglyph. It is a great horned owl and was tattooed by Bang Bang at East Side Ink.

Thanks to Sabrina for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Emily Picks Her Poison

It's always interesting when I meet someone with a lot of tattoos, trying to guess, when you ask them to pick just one, which piece they will choose to share. A couple weeks ago, I met Emily, who has two full sleeves, along with her chest and back tattooed. She selected this tattoo on her right forearm for our readers to enjoy:

This is a take on the famous Sailor Jerry design, like the one seen in this post from 2008:

Emily created a male version of the classic "Posion" Sailor Jerry woman. She explained:

"I was a Women's Studies major an an undergrad and when I started getting a lot of tattoos, I thought, 'This'll be funny'. That's what most of my tattoos are."

The tattoo was done by Alex Franklin when he was at Sinister Ink in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Sinister Ink has long since closed (Revolver Tattoo is located in its place) and Alex has been working out of Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge for many years now.

Thanks to Emily for sharing this cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Ryan's Tattoo Commemorates the Life of Dolly

Earlier this month I met Ryan, who has a whole host of tattoos. We were working on a project together, so we spent a bit of time chewing the fat, and he wanted to share this particular tattoo, which is on his right forearm:

Ryan explained how he was raised by his grandmother, whose name was Dolly, but he just called Mom. She lived a full life, well into her nineties, and was pretty much the only mother he really knew. After she passed, he wanted something to memorialize her and got this tattoo which not only has her name, but a black rose, a skull, a sparrow, and a derringer. He elaborated about his grandmother's life:

"Back in the day, when she was 19 or 20 years old, she was in the Irish mob and she made whiskey and hooch and she would basically run it back and forth across state lines and that's how she made her money. That's how she supported her family. That's what the derringer is for, because she would always keep a derringer in her bra, just in case something happened ... the black rose ... is symbolic of her life and her passing, which is the skull ... the bird - she's free - you know, God always keeps his eye on the sparrow ... it's a montage of her very interesting life."

Ryan had this tattoo done in Mobile, Alabama, buy an artist he only knows as 'Link,' a tattooist who spent a lot of time in Philadelphia and who also owns a shop in Pensacola, Florida.

Thanks to Ryan for sharing this tattoo, along with Dolly's story, here on Tattoosday!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Daniel Gives Us a Lady Liberty Update

Last May, we featured this great tattoo, courtesy of Daniel:

Read the original post here.

Daniel recently sent me updated photos of his sleeve, which I thought we'd share here. This work is all by the amazing Guido Baldini. He tattooed Daniel during a recent stint at Brooklyn Tattoo here in New York.

Photo Courtesy of Daniel Valvano and Guido Baldini

As Daniel explained it, he worked with Guido and

"We wanted to keep the theme going so I said I wanted a creepy background and he just free handed the clouds and lightening. The rotten apple was thrown in there at the very end."

Thanks to Daniel for updating us on his Lady Liberty tattoo!