Out With the Old.....

As we wind down 2010, and look ahead to 2011, I wanted to take care of one of my several loose ends from the past year.

Back in July, I met a guy named John on the D train. He had tattooed arms and we chatted a bit. He said he'd send me photos and he did a few weeks later.

I never posted the photos because the resolution was low, and when I tried to increase the size, they blurred. I was going to include these in the Christmas housecleaning post, but the work is just too good.

So hear you have them, small photos, but recognizably amazing:

I mean, what is there to say? This work is quite excellent. The koi, the tiger, the sailing ship, sugar skull, nautical stars - it's all quite a body of work!

The artist is Nacho, who appeared once before on the blog here. You can check out Nacho's work here. in New York, he tattoos out of Studio Enigma on Avenue U.

Thanks to John for sharing these amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

And thanks to all of our fans and contributors for making 2010 a successful year of inkspotting!

A Bright Spot in December: A Phoenix and a Pin-Up

As one would expect, inkspotting is tough during December. Here we are at the end of the month, and I have only interviewed three people since the 1st. There were a few times over the summer when I interviewed three contributors during my lunch hour!

The last person whose work I photographed was Megan, who I found upstairs at the Penn Plaza Borders store.

Megan has seventeen tattoos, but it was this one that caught my eye:

This is a phoenix, of course, but fewer people may recognize it as Fawkes, the phoenix of Professor Albus Dumbledore, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The artwork is based on the illustration by Jason Cockcroft on the cover of the UK edition of the aforementioned book.

The tattooist Jamie Nichols at Gargoyle Tattoo in Aberdeen, Washington, completed this piece in about eight hours over two sittings.

Megan also has this pinup on her upper left arm:

The use of negative space for the bombs is pretty cool.

Marcus was the artist at Gargoyle that Megan credited for creating this piece..

Thanks to Megan for taking the time to speak to me about her cool tattoos!

Two-for-Tattoosday, Brazilian-Style

Sometimes, due to a) a language barrier and b) the passage of time, we're not always able to give you the most in-depth story about our subjects' tattoos.

Such is the case with Celso and Reginaldo, who I met back in September outside of Madison Square Garden.

Both gentlemen were visiting from São Paolo, Brazil and one of Celso's tattoos caught my eye:

That was on his right arm. He also had this one on his left arm:

Celso's friend Reginaldo pulled his shirt off so I could get the full view of his koi tattoo:

Celso credited Artur at True Love Tattoo in São Paolo for inking his dragon and his mermaid.

Artur also was the artists who did Reginaldo's koi.

Thanks to Celso and Reginaldo for sharing their tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

127. CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN

 Louis de Bernieres 1994

Captain Corelli is one of those unforgettable characters who will stay with me for a while. As a member of an Italian troop who invades the small island of Cephallonia in Greece during World War II, he captivates his delightful house host Dr. Iannis. As a musician, 'in love' with Antonia (his mandolin), he also slowly creeps into the heart of Dr. Iannis' feisty and earnest daughter Pelagia. And as a decent, humorous, sincere and honest man, he ends up inspiring everyone else around him. 

'Dr. Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar, dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan, performed an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful enema, and had produced a miracle by a feat of medical prestidigitation.'(opening lines)

'Just bring in the wood before she asks for it, and bring her a flower every time you come back from the field. If it's cold put a shawl around her shoulders, and if it's hot, bring her a glass of water. It's simple. Women only nag when they feel unappreciated. Think of her as your mother who has fallen ill, and treat her accordingly.'(43)

'This is how we should be. We should care for each other more than we care for ideas, or else we will end up killing each other. Am I not right?'(52)

'There was something too decisive about his movements, his unconsidered responses; can you trust someone who replies immediately, without thought? Someone whose actions and words are poetic rather than solidly cogitated?'(84)

'What I regret is having had to learn a most bitter lesson about the way in which personal ambitions can lead a man, against his will and against his nature, into playing a part in events that will cause history to reap him with opprobrium and contempt.'(91)

'A column of men, much smarter than most of the others, marched by unison. At their head perspired Captain Antonio Corelli of the 33rd Regiment of Artillery, and slung across his back was a case containing the mandolin that he had named Antonia because it was the other half of himself. He spotted Pelagia 'Bella bambina at nine o'clock,' he shouted, 'E-y-e-s left.'

In unison the heads of the troops snapped in her direction, and for one astonishing minute she endured a march-past of the most comical and grotesque antics and expressions devisable by man. There was a soldier who crossed his eyes and folded down his lower lip, who pouted and blew her a kiss, another who converted his marching into a Charlie Chaplin walk, another who pretended at each step to trip over his own feet, and another who twisted his helmet sideways, flared his nostrils, and rolled his eyes so high that the pupils vanished behind the upper lids. Pelagia put her hand to her mouth.'(157-158)

'I think that Corelli was able to find it so funny because music was the only thing he considered serious, until he met Pelagia... he was like one of those saprophytic orchids than can create harmony and wonder even as it grows and blossoms on a pile of shit, in a place of skulls and bones. He let his rifle rust, and even lost it once or twice, but he won battles armed with nothing but a mandolin.'(163)

'She watched wonderingly as the fingers of his left hand crawled like a powerful and menacing spider up and down the diapason. She saw the tendons moving and rippling beneath the skin, and then she saw that a symphony of expressions was passing over his face; at times serene, at times suddenly furious, occasionally smiling, from time to time stern and dictatorial, and then coaxing and gentle. Transfixed by this, she realized suddenly that there was something about music that head never been revealed to her before: it was not merely the production of sweet sound; it was, to those who understood it, an emotional and intellectual odyssey.'(186)

'Corelli looked at her silhouette against the light of the window, and a tune came into his head. He could visualize the patterned patrol of his fingers on the freeboard of the mandolin, he could hear the disciplined notes ringing from the treble, singing the praise of Pelagia as they also portrayed her wrath and her resistance. It was a march, a march of a proud woman who prosecuted war with hard words and kindnesses. He heard simple chords and a martial melody that implied a world of grace.'(239)

'I think of Pelagia in terms of chords... She plays with a cat and laughs, and it is sol. She raises an eyebrow when she catches me observing, and pretends to reproach me and reprove me for the guilt of admiration, and it is doh. She asks me a question, 'Haven't you anything useful to do?' and it is like re, requiring resolution.'(249)

'Love is a kind of dementia with very precise and oft-repeated clinical symptoms. You blush in each other's presence, you both hover in places where you expect the other to pass, you are both a little tongue-tied, you both laugh inexplicably and too long, you become quite nauseatingly girlish, and he becomes quite ridiculously gallant. You have also grown a little stupid.'(279-280)

'Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.'(281)

'Italians always act without thinking, it's the glory and the downfall of your civilisation. A German plans a month in advance what his bowel movements will be at Easter, and the British plan everything in retrospect, so it always looks as though everything occurred as they intended. The French plan everything whilst appearing to be having a party, and the Spanish..., well, God knows. Anyway, Pelagia is Greek, that's my point. So can it work?'(289)

Vintage Edition, 1998

435 pages

Book Owned

Recent research findings on M87 (NGC 4486)

M87 (Messier 87), also known as NGC 4486, is a giant elliptical galaxy, located about 53.5 million light-years away. It is noteworthy for several reasons, including the presence of an unusually large supermassive black hole (SMBH) in its active galactic nucleus, with an estimated mass of about 6.4×10⁹ times the mass of the Sun (M_⊙), two plasma jets that emit strongly at radio frequencies and extend at least 5000 light-years from the SMBH (although only the jet pointed more towards us is readily detectable), and a population of about 15,000 globular clusters.

The total mass of M87 is difficult to estimate, because elliptical galaxies like M87, and unlike spiral galaxies, do not tend to follow the Tully-Fisher relation between intrinsic luminosity and total mass calculated from rotation curves – which therefore includes dark matter. Estimates of the total mass of M87, including dark matter, come in around 6×10¹² M_⊙ within a radius of 150,000 light-years from the center. This compares with about 7×10¹¹ M_⊙ for the Milky Way, but M87 could be more than 10 times as massive.

In other comparisons, the Milky Way has only about 160 globular clusters, and a central black hole (Sagittarius A*) with a mass of about 4.2×10⁶ M_⊙. So M87's central black hole is about 1500 times as massive as the Milky Way's. Pretty impressive difference.



M87 – click for 640×480 image

Besides the recent research listed below, I've written about earlier research on M87 in these articles: Galactic black holes may be more massive than thought, Stellar birth control by supermassive black holes, Black holes in the news.

You might also be interested in some articles from the past year on the general subject of active galaxies: Active galaxies and supermassive black hole jets, Where the action is in black hole jets, Quasars in the very early universe.

Feedback under the microscope: thermodynamic structure and AGN driven shocks in M87 (6/29/10) – arXiv paper

Feedback under the microscope II: heating, gas uplift, and mixing in the nearest cluster core (3/28/10) – arXiv paper

Activity of the SMBH in M87 has a significant effect not only on the host galaxy, but also on the Virgo cluster of galaxies in which M87 is near the center. Energetic outflows of matter from near the black hole force plumes of gas out of the galaxy into the hotter intergalactic medium. The mass transported in this way represents about as much gas as is contained within 12,000 light-years of M87's center. (However, that's only about 2.5% of M87's 500,000 light-year radius.) If it had not been expelled, the gas could have formed hundreds of millions of stars.

The first paper reports on studies using the Chandra X-ray Observatory to measure gas temperatures around M87's center. The findings include detection of 2 distinct shock wave fronts about 46 thousand light-years and 10 thousand light years from the center. This indicates that explosive events occurred about 150 million and 11 million years ago, respectively.

The second paper uses observations from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and optical spectra to distinguish different phases of the hot gas surrounding M87's SMBH.

Refs:
• Galactic 'Super-Volcano' in Action (8/20/10) – Science Daily (press release)
• Galactic Supervolcano Erupts From Black Hole (8/20/10) – Wired.com
• Galactic 'Supervolcano' Seen Erupting With X-Rays (9/6/10) – Space.com

A correlation between central supermassive black holes and the globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies (8/13/10) – arXiv paper

A study of 13 galaxies, including M87, has found a correlation between the size of a galaxy's SMBH and the number of the galaxy's globular clusters. The types of galaxies studied included nine giant ellipticals (like M87), a tight spiral, and 3 galaxies intermediate in type between spiral and elliptical. The smallness of the sample is due to the exclusion of open spiral galaxies and the further limitation to cases where good estimates of the number of globular clusters and mass of the central black hole existed.

The correlation, in which the number of globular clusters is proportional to the black hole mass, is actually stronger than correlations between black hole mass and other galaxy properties previously studied for correlation, such as stellar velocity dispersion (an indicator of total mass), and luminosity of the galaxy's central bulge or whole galaxy (for ellipticals).

In some cases the correlation of black hole mass with total luminosity was especially weak, but better with number of globular clusters. For instance, Fornax A (NGC 1316) is a giant lenticular galaxy with luminosity comparable to that of M87. Yet its central black hole has a mass of 1.5×10⁸ M_⊙, 2.3% that of M87's black hole. It has 1200 globular clusters, 8% of M87's count. Clearly this is not a linear relation. Rather, the study found that the best fit was a power law with M_• ≈ (1.7×10⁵)×N^1.08±0.04, where M_• is black hole mass in units of M_⊙ and N is number of globular clusters. This relation predicts a SMBH mass of 5.5×10⁹ M_⊙ for M87, which is very close, and 3.6×10⁸ M_⊙ for the SMBH mass of NGC 1316, which is high – but the SMBH mass of NGC 1316 is also unusually low in comparison with its luminosity and velocity dispersion.

By contrast, the relation predicts that the Milky Way with a SMBH mass of 4.2×10⁶ M_⊙ should have only about 20 globular clusters, while the actual number is about 160. However, the Milky Way is a loose spiral, not one of the types that was studied, which may account for the much worse correlation. The fit is much better if only globular clusters associated with the central bulge (about 30) are considered.

The obvious question is about why this relation between SMBH mass and number of globular clusters exists. Presumably it has much to do with the typical history of a large galaxy, which is expected to include frequent mergers with other galaxies. The existence of the relationship should provide clues to galactic history, and especially how this may be different for loose spirals like the Milky Way, in comparison with more compact galaxies.

Refs:
• A correlation between central supermassive black holes and the globular cluster systems of early type galaxies (8/11/10) – The Astrophysical Journal
• Supermassive black holes reveal a surprising clue (5/25/10) – Physicsworld.com

A Displaced Supermassive Black Hole in M87 (6/16/10) – arXiv paper

It has generally been assumed that a galaxy's central SMBH is very close to the actual center of mass of the galaxy, because that is (by definition) the gravitational equilibrium point. This central point should be essentially the same as the photometric center of the galaxy, since the galaxy's stars should be distributed symmetrically around the center. Consequently, astronomers have not carefully searched for cases where a SMBH is not very near the galactic center. This lack of extensive investigation is also a result of the fact that the SMBH is often hidden inside a dense cloud of dust, so its exact position is difficult to determine. M87's SMBH (more precisely, the accretion disk around the SMBH), however, is clearly visible, and the research reported in this paper finds it is actually located about 22 light-years from the apparent galactic center.

There are various possible reasons for this much displacement from the center, and not a lot of evidence to identify the most likely reason. Possible reasons include: (1) The SMBH is part of a binary system in which the other member is not detected. (2) The SMBH could have been gravitationally perturbed by a massive object such as a globular cluster. (3) There is a significant asymmetry of the jets. (4) The SMBH has relatively recently merged with another SMBH, subsequent to an earlier merger of another galaxy with M87.

The displacement of the SMBH is in the direction opposite the visible jet, so the last two possibilities are more likely than the others. However, possibility (3) depends on the jet structure having existed at least 100 million years and the density of matter at the center of M87 being low enough to provide insufficient restoring force. Possibility (4) is viable if the SMBH is still oscillating around the center following a galactic merger within the past billion years.

Refs:
• A Displaced Supermassive Black Hole in M87 (6/9/10) – The Astrophysical Journal Letters
• Black Hole Shoved Aside, Along With 'central' Dogma (5/25/10) – Science News
• Black Hole Found in Unexpected Place (5/25/10) – Wired.com
• Supermassive black holes may frequently roam galaxy centers (5/25/10) – Physog.com (press release)
• Bizarre Behavior of Two Giant Black Holes Surprises Scientists (5/25/10) – Space.com
• Galactic Black Holes Can Migrate or Quickly Awaken from Quiescence (5/26/10) – Scientific American




M87 jet

Radio Imaging of the Very-High-Energy γ-Ray Emission Region in the Central Engine of a Radio Galaxy (7/24/09) – Science

Energetic plasma jets, in which matter is accelerated close to the speed of light, combined with intense electromagnetic emissions, especially at radio frequencies, are prominent in about 10% of active galaxies, including M87. However, little has been well established about what processes are responsible for the emissions, or more generally how the jets are powered, accelerated, and focused into narrow beams. Because of the relative proximity of M87 and the fact that the jet we observe is angled from 15° to 25° to our line of sight, M87 is one of the best objects to study in order to learn more about how jets work.

Gamma rays, because of their very high energies (greater than 100 keV per photon), are not continuously produced in active galaxy jets, but are occasionally observed in short bursts lasting only a few days. One such event occurred in M87 in February 2008. At the same time, the intensity of radiation at all other wavelengths increased substantially. Such flares, at lower energies, are not unusual, since the energy output of most jets is somewhat variable in time. The flare persisted for much longer at energies below the gamma-ray band, indicating that the disturbance continued to propagate along the jet even after the gamma-ray flare subsided. However, although we don't know what the cause was, the coincidence in time of the gamma-ray emissions and the beginning of the extended flare makes it very likely that the events had the same source.

This is significant information, because our technology for detecting gamma-ray events has very poor angular resolution (~0.1°), since gamma rays can be detected on the ground only by secondary effects that a gamma ray produces in our upper atmosphere. More than 6 orders of magnitude finer resolution can be achieved at radio frequencies, using very long baseline interferometry. With that technology, it was possible to locate the origin of the disturbance that caused both gamma ray and lower energy flaring to a region within about 100 Schwarzschild radii (R_s) of the SMBH. Since R_s = 2G×M_•/c², R_s for the M87 SMBH is about 1.9×10¹⁰ km, or more than twice the radius of the solar system. So 100R_s is about 70 light-days – which is pretty small compared to the 53.5 million light-year distance to M87.

It's also significant that the gamma-ray event occurred so close to the SMBH, because the cause must be unlike whatever is responsible for the flaring described in the following research.

Refs:
• VLBA locates superenergetic bursts near giant black hole (7/2/09) – Physorg.com (press release)
• Mysterious Light Originates Near A Galaxy's Black Hole (7/2/09) – Space.com
• A Flare for Acceleration (7/24/09) – Science
• High Energy Galactic Particle Accelerator Located (9/14/09) – Science Daily (press release)

Hubble Space Telescope observations of an extraordinary flare in the M87 jet (4/22/09) – arXiv paper

Electromagnetic radiation from SMBH jets is fairly variable in both time and location along the jet. In the case of M87, high-resolution images at various wavelengths have shown the existence of many regions of enhanced emissions within the jet. One of the most prominent of these even has a name: HST-1, so-named because it was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. It occupies a stationary position on the jet, about a million Schwarzschild radii from the center, i. e. about 2000 light-years from the SMBH.

HST-1 has been observable for some time, but until February 2000 it was relatively dormant. After that it began to flare more brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum up to X-rays. In 2003 it became more variable, and it reached its greatest brightness in May 2005, when the flux in near ultraviolet was 4 times as great as that of M87's central energy source, the SMBH accretion disk. This represents a brightness increase at that wavelength of a factor of 90. The X-ray flux increased by a factor of 50, and similar, synchronized changes occurred at other wavelengths. The synchronization indicates that one mechanism is responsible for the variability at all wavelengths.

What the actual cause of the disturbance may be is not clear. Because of the great distance of HST-1 from the SMBH, its basic energy source must not be the central accretion disk itself. More likely HST-1 is a result of constriction of magnetic field lines, resulting in further acceleration of the particles making up the jet. Acceleration of charged particles causes radiation by the synchrotron process, and is evidenced by polarization of the emitted photons. Constriction of the jet may be a result of passage through a region of higher density of stars. The increased variability could mean that the jet has encountered a region of higher but varying stellar density. Alternatively, the jet may be passing through a patch of thick gas or dust, with excess radiation produced by the resulting particle collisions.

These results could explain the variability of light from other, more distant active galaxies, at least those which have strong jets, given that it's possible for a small region of the jet far from the SMBH to outshine the central source. However, another source of variability occurs when a jet is viewed at a very low angle to our line of sight, in which case any slight change of direction could cause an apparent change of brightness.

Refs:
• Hubble Space Telescope observations of an extraordinary flare in the M87 jet (3/6/09) – The Astronomical Journal
• Hubble Witnesses Spectacular Flaring in Gas Jet from M87's Black Hole (4/14/09) – Physorg.com (press release)
• Black Hole Creates Spectacular Light Show (4/14/09) – Space.com
• Black hole jet brightens mysteriously (4/15/09) – New Scientist
• Black hole spews out impressive light show (4/20/09) – Cosmos Magazine

Pinwheel of Star Birth

Pinwheel of Star Birth (10/19/10)

This face-on spiral galaxy, called NGC 3982, is striking for its rich tapestry of star birth, along with its winding arms. The arms are lined with pink star-forming regions of glowing hydrogen, newborn blue star clusters, and obscuring dust lanes that provide the raw material for future generations of stars. The bright nucleus is home to an older population of stars, which grow ever more densely packed toward the center.

NGC 3982 is located about 68 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy spans about 30,000 light-years, one-third of the size of our Milky Way galaxy.

NGC 3982 – click for 984×1000 image

More: here

Christmas House Cleaning

Regular readers of Tattoosday will notice that, although I generally follow a chronological order when I share tattoos I have encountered.

However, certain pieces, for various and sundry reasons, have been bypassed, and haven't made it to the blog, until now.

I was originally going to post a dozen to represent the Twelve Days of Christmas, but I settled for eight. For the nights of Chanukah, perhaps?

Without intending to offend anyone for not receiving a post all to themselves, I have lumped these tattoos, spanning from late August to late October, in one post.

These are the neglected tattoo pictures that are just a little off, some not through the fault of the contributor, but for reasons beyond their control.

The quality of the photo may not be ideal, or the host and I faced a language barrier that prevented a good back story from emerging, or I didn't find the story behind the tattoo especially compelling. And then
there's what is likely one of the poorest tattoos I have seen, but the story behind it is somewhat compelling.

So, without further ado, here is a Christmas cleaning, eight posts rolled together into one gigantic one.

~~~

First up, we have Esteban, who shared his sleeve when I met him in September, at Fairway in Red Hook:

Alas, I was still using a borrowed camera, and several shots were over-exposed and/or blurry, but I was able to salvage this one:

The artwork is pre-Colombian in its inspiration, and is part of a larger tropical motif.

Next up we have Dave, who I met in Penn Station. He has over 25 tattoos and selected this one to share:

The phrase "Uniting the Strong" is the title of a song from Victim in Pain, the second album from the band Agnostic Front. This is a friendship tattoo that stresses unity and the host's nod to the hardcore punk scene.

Dave credits Jelena at Lone Wolf Tattoo in Bellmore, New York with this piece.

~~~

Next we have Orlando, a Fine Arts student at FIT, where I met him outside while walking toward 23rd Street on my lunch break, also in September.

This ship tattoo is an homage to his father, who served in the navy for thirty years. He wanted a "classic look" in the Sailor Jerry style.

Orlando confirmed for me that his dad loves the tattoo.

It was inked at Crazy Fantasy Tattoo in Manhattan by an artist named Antonio.

Orlando has seven tattoos in all, and shared this one, as well, inked at Dare Devil Tattoo on the Lower East Side.

The quote, "This my excavation and today is Kumran" is from a song called "re: Stacks" by Bon Iver.

Orlando explained that he interprets this quote as a reminder that "every day has the ability to make you or break you. It just depends on what you do with it." Other interpretations are here.

For the record, I did email Orlando to ask for an opportunity to get clearer pictures, but I did not hear back from him.

~~~

I met Farkas in Union Square back in October. He had this wolf on his right arm:

He explained that his name means "wolf" in Hungarian, and that one of his friends in Hungary did this tattoo for him.

~~~

A couple days after meeting Farkas, I met an Israeli named Ran on 34th Street across from Macy*s. He shared this iguana on his right leg:

It's a pretty nice tattoo, but he hasn't sent me any further details about it.

~~~

A couple weeks later, I was in the West Village before a concert, and met Carlos, a manager at the Qdoba Mexican Grill where we were having a quick bite before the show. He shared this intricate tattoo on his right arm:

He and friend collaborated on this tattoo together. He told me that, when he was little, he did jigsaw puzzles with his mother a lot. The tattoo reminds him of those fun times growing up.

~~~

The following week, I ran into Iancu in Penn Station, and he shared this piece on his upper left arm:

Iancu told me he came to the artist, Rico, formerly of Rising Dragon in Manhattan, who was initially unwilling to do the tattoo. However, he convinced him to do it. It's basically a Guns N' Roses tribute although, he
noted, the guns were added about a year and a half after the original design was inked.

~~~

And finally, I must first say that  it is very rare that I ever criticize the quality of a tattoo.

Even if it is inferior to the work of much better artists, I always like to believe there are some redeeming qualities in a tattoo.

Which is why I struggled with this next tattoo, which I photographer back in August, and which I have included in this odds and ends post in December.

I approached a guy named Danny who had a lot of interestingly-tattooed words and such on his arms.

However, he offered to remove his shirt in Penn Station so I could photograph this:

Um, yeah.

If this was done by an experienced artist, I would likely not have posted it. Despite its obvious flaws, it is compelling, in my opinion, because Danny told me, like all his tattoos (15 or 16, he told me), this one was
self-inked. Now, I can see tattooing one's arm or leg, but I cannot even fathom how challenging it would be to self-tattoo your chest. He estimated this took one and a half hours to do.

The message is "Diamonds Aren't Forever," or, in  Danny's words, "don't take what you have for granted".

~~~

So there you have it, a Spring Cleaning for Christmas.

I do sincerely thank the individuals who shared their tattoos in this entry. Happy Holidays, y'all!

Home Sweet Home for the Holidays

The saying is, "you can't take it with you," but there is a way to carry your home with you when you move somewhere else.

Take, Adam, for example, who I stopped on Seventh Avenue between 29th and 30th Streets.

He currently resides in Pittsburgh, but he has lived in Miami and New York City.

His tattoos are a work in progress and he has had about eight hours done so far.

Adam says he has lived all over the United States and he wants, ideally, to tattoo a "piece of everywhere I've lived".

Check this out:

The Statue of Liberty clearly represents New York, and the palm trees recall Miami. All the bridges and a few of the buildings are Pittsburgh landmarks, like PPG Place

and the Highmark Building.

The "Home Sweet Home" sentiment is anchored by the multiple locations, echoing the idea that home is where the heart is.

Adam's work is done by Michael Patrick at Jester's Court Tattoos in Pittsburgh.

Thanks to Adam for sharing his wonderful sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

Two, No, Three from Lisa Marie

I ran into Lisa Marie in my local grocery store a few months back and she was happy to share a couple of cool tattoos:

That is, for those who don't know, the symbol of Coney Island's Steeplechase Park.

She got this because she loves Coney Island, one of the most iconic spots in Brooklyn. Lisa Marie later sent me a shot of the tattoo when it was brand-spanking new:

This was inked by Michael Kaves at Brooklyn Made Tattoo.

On her left forearm, Lisa Marie had this whimsical tattoo:

That is a famous golden ticket from her favorite movie, 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the film version of  Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

That tattoo was done by JR Maloney at Vanguard Tattoo in Nyack, New York.

Lisa Marie also sent along a couple of extra photos that she had documenting Mr. Kaves inking another of her tattoos, a cupcake:

Thanks again to Lisa Marie for sharing these cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Luis Shares Two Lotería Cards

I met Luis in Borders, Penn Plaza, last month and asked him about his tattoos. He has more than fifteen altogether, and three are based on Lotería cards, which are used as part of a Mexican bingo game, as well as in fortune-telling.

He shared two of these cards with me and explained that, as a first generation Mexican-American, these Lotería cards remind him of growing up.

The first one he explained is number 21, La Mano:

Luis explained that he relates to this card because "la mano" is Spanish for hand, and  he is a builder/electrician/carpenter by trade. He considers himself a "designer of ideas," and because he works with his hands, this is an appropriate card to have as a tattoo.

The second one he let me photograph is number 27, El corazón:

This card is appropriate, according to Luis, because "El corazón" means the heart and, Luis said, smiling, "I've got a big one".

There are a lot of different artistic representations of these cards out on the web, which tells me that they serve as inspiration for a lot of people.

Image courtesy of "The Lucky W" Amulet Archive by Cat Yronwode

Luis had these tattoos done by a tattoo artist named Fish, who was visiting Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn, but generally works out of Th'ink Tank Tattoo in Denver. Work from Th'ink Tank appeared here once before.

Thanks to Luis for sharing these two Lotería cards with us here on Tattoosday!

tatto trend masa kini

Marisa's Polychrome Calves

I met Marisa walking down 40th Street in Manhattan late one October afternoon. She had just crossed Broadway when I spotted her and asked her about her tattoos. Namely, these two gracing the back of her calves:

These tattoos are based on the work of artist John R. Neill, who illustrated L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books. The female figure in both designs is Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter.

Both legs were tattooed at Rock Star Tattoos in Honolulu. Conor did the left calf:

and Kazan did the right:

Marisa has 11 tattoos in all. Incidentally, having heard she grew up in Hawai'i, I played the small-world game with her and discovered we both had the same history teacher, two decades apart, when he taught at different schools.

Like many people who have Oz tattoos, Marisa loved the books and was inspired by the magic in them, vividly illustrated.

Thanks to Marisa for stopping on the street and consenting to share her wonderful tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Chris's Tattoos Motivate and Inspire

I met Chris earlier this month in Penn Station and he shared his 3/4-sleeve. He is the owner/operator of the Muscle Maker Grill at 92 Eighth Avenue in Chelsea.

His sleeve is a collage of designs that motivate and inspire him, with a skull design thrown in, to boot.

He has the phrase "Live Now. Shoot for the Stars" inked on his biceps. This motto is a nod to his ambition as a business owner.

The three pawprints tattooed below the elbow, on the left side of the photo, above, represent his three dogs (2 Cocker Spaniels and a mutt).

The cross and the prayer, "Lord, Protect Me" are based on his Catholic faith.

In all, Chris figures he's had about 10 hours of work done.

He also gave me permission to share this photo from his Facebook page:

Photo Courtesy of Christopher Almazan

I had hoped to show a better shot of the peacock that is on his back, with feathers that come up over his shoulder, but could not get a clear enough picture. The shot above gives a great idea, however, of his tattoos.

All work is credited to Rick Schreck at the House of 1000 Tattoos in Middlesex, New Jersey. A piece from Rick appeared earlier this Fall on the site here.

Thanks again to Chris for sharing his ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Visit the Muscle Maker Grill website here.

Darya's Bi-Coastal Peacock and Cherry Blossoms

I met Darya coming out of the subway in Bay Ridge and asked if I could take a picture of her tattoo. She kindly allowed me to do so and share it here with everyone on Tattoosday:

Darya explained that she always wanted a peacock tattoo, and she has fourteen tattoos in all (not all peacocks). Joe Maggs at Brooklyn Ink tattooed the peacock.

The cherry blossoms, symbols of regeneration, were added by Illya at Studio City Tattoos in California.

Thanks to Darya for sharing her tattoos from both coasts here on Tattoosday!

pened in 1987, Modern Tattoo is the oldest and one of the most well-respected tattoo studios in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin.
Located a five minute drive from Great Lakes Naval Base, Modern Tattoo Ltd. is a State of Illinois licensed establishment and complies with all OSHA requirements and standards.

pened pada tahun 1987, Modern Tattoo adalah yang tertua dan salah satu studio tato yang paling dihormati di Northern Illinois dan Wisconsin Selatan.
Terletak berkendara lima menit dari Great Lakes Naval Base, Modern Tattoo Ltd adalah suatu Negara pendirian Illinois berlisensi dan memenuhi semua persyaratan dan standar OSHA.

With an increased tolerance of tattoos in modern society in the late 90's came more liberal research on the topic; however, little research has been done that questions the existence and structure of tattoo culture
 in modern society. To define tattoo culture I must first define tattoo community, which has been discussed in recent literature. After tattoo culture is thoroughly defined, I will then explore what characteristics must be present to be considered part of tattoo culture; afterward I will address what factors determine where in the hierarchy each member falls. The hierarchy that I am referring to is the way in which some in the tattoo culture are respected more than others, for similar reasons.


Dengan meningkatnya toleransi tato dalam masyarakat modern di 90-an datang liberal penelitian lebih lanjut tentang topik ini, namun, penelitian kecil telah dilakukan bahwa pertanyaan keberadaan dan struktur budaya tato
  dalam masyarakat modern. Untuk menentukan budaya tato saya harus terlebih dahulu menetapkan komunitas tato, yang telah dibahas dalam literatur terbaru. Setelah budaya tato sepenuhnya ditentukan, maka saya akan mengeksplorasi apa karakteristik harus hadir untuk dianggap sebagai bagian dari budaya tato, sesudahnya aku akan alamat apa faktor menentukan di mana dalam hirarki setiap anggota jatuh. Hirarki yang saya maksudkan adalah cara di mana beberapa di budaya tato yang dihormati lebih dari yang lain, untuk alasan yang sama.

Ketikkan teks atau alamat situs web atau terjemahkan dokumen.

Batal

Simak

The art of Tattooing has become a craze amongst youngsters. Not only rock stars or football players but common teenagers also get tattooed to show their fashion forwardness. The current fashion trend rates the tattoo art to be very cool and beautiful. Though this art is not nascent introduced to the world but the craze as it has gained now was never ever present in the past. Read on to explore about the trends of modern tattooing in the world.

Introduction of Modern Tattooing
The modern tattooing came in being from the early days of Chatham square in New York City. Charlie Wagner along with Lew Alberts opened a supply business and began popularizing tattoo art. This unique art drew extreme popularity in the period around 1940's. People in this fashion era went for cosmetic surgeries to get tattooed for adding blush, colored lips and eyeliner. Gradually this art spread to the entire world when elite people in the Europe were seen sporting tattoos.

In South East Asia, the art was treated in high regard from long back. Many countries with Buddhist following in majority treat it as a holy art. However the modernized version of this art apart from religious and spiritual started when people saw the western world going crazy for this art. It is then that this art gained momentum in the fashion corridor of the Asian countries also. Now a completely new sense of significance has been given to this art of primitive flavor in these countries.

Seni Tato telah menjadi kegemaran di antara anak-anak. Tidak hanya batu bintang atau pemain sepak bola tetapi remaja umum juga mendapatkan tato untuk menunjukkan kesiapan fashion mereka. Tingkat tren fashion saat ini seni tato menjadi sangat dingin dan indah. Meskipun kesenian ini tidak mulai timbul diperkenalkan ke dunia tetapi menggila seperti yang telah diperoleh sekarang adalah tidak pernah hadir di masa lalu. Baca terus untuk mengeksplorasi tentang kecenderungan tato modern di dunia.
Pengenalan Tato Modern
Para tato modern yang datang dari hari-hari awal persegi Chatham di New York City. Charlie Wagner bersama dengan Lew Alberts membuka usaha penyediaan dan mulai mempopulerkan seni tato. Ini seni yang unik menarik popularitas ekstrim dalam periode sekitar 1940-an. Orang-orang di era fashion pergi untuk operasi kosmetik untuk mendapatkan tato untuk menambahkan blush, bibir berwarna dan eyeliner. Secara bertahap seni ini menyebar ke seluruh dunia ketika orang-orang elit di Eropa yang terlihat olahraga tato.

Di Asia Tenggara, seni dirawat dalam hal tinggi dari belakang panjang. Banyak negara dengan mayoritas Buddhis berikut dalam memperlakukannya sebagai seni suci. Namun versi modern dari seni ini selain dari spiritual agama dan mulai ketika orang melihat dunia barat akan gila untuk seni ini. Hal ini kemudian bahwa seni ini mendapatkan momentum di koridor fashion dari negara-negara Asia juga. Sekarang rasa yang sama sekali baru signifikansi telah diberikan ini rasa seni primitif di negara-negara.