James and His Colorful Sleeve

Last month, I had the pleasure of running into James, in Penn Station. He has an incredible sleeve, which he gladly took some time to share with us:

James is very interested in Japanese traditions, and this piece, by Christian Masot at Silk City Tattoo in Hawthorne, New Jersey, is a stunning colorful tribute. I mean, check out this detail:

Work from Silk City has appeared before on Tattoosday, check out these examples.

On the bottom of James' right arm is this incredible collage:

This burst of color includes a poison dart frog, a Jackson chameleon, a lotus, a mum, and a tulip.

Thanks to James for sharing his amazing work with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Two for Tattuesday Saturday: Wanderful Love Under the Cherry Blossoms

In honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) , we're sharing this tattoo, which I spotted back in September:

This belongs to Rich, a musician and rap artist. He's a big Harry Potter fan, as exemplified by the magic wand. The snake at the base of the wand not only symbolizes infinity, it is a nod to Severus Snape, a character associated with the House of Slytherin, of which the serpent is the mascot.

The concept of the tattoo is exemplified by the music coming out of the wand, illustrating that sounds can be magical and that Rich is under music's spell.

The piece was inked by Chris at Lady Luck Tattoo Studio in Montville, Connecticut.

When I met Rich, he was sitting with his girlfriend in Penn Station. She introduced herself as Kytti, and asked if I wanted to see her tattoo.

But of course!

She actually has two tattoos, but lifted up her shirt to show me this beautiful design:

Kytti explained that this represents her and Rich together in Japan. They've been together for over a year and they'd both love to go there together and experience the culture. The tree is filled with cherry blossoms, a flower often associated with Japan.

Chris at Lady Luck also was the artist behind this tattoo.

Thanks to Rich and Kytti for sharing their magical and romantic tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Crows are big in Japan.

The crows in Japan are Jungle Crows.
They are bigger, meaner, and louder than the crows you have.
After feeding them and taking pictures for the last two weeks,
I see this story on NPR.org.
ooops.
Sorry, Tokyo.
But they are just so dope.
And they really are boss in Tokyo.
But not in Kyoto....



A kettle of hawks?
I saw a swirling bunch of birds from 2 blocks away,
and I knew something was up.
I knew they were bigger than the crows, even.
I've never seen anything like it,
there must have been 20 or so,
and there was even some dive bombing going on.
By the time we got there,
the big deal was mostly over,
and they just circled around for the next 10 minutes.
The crows, however, pretty much stayed put.
They hung out with the ducks and pigeons until the hawks left the scene.
(I don't blame them)

Parts of Kyoto were pretty sexy.
We only had two partial days in the city,
and I'm tiring of being so on the move,
but I really enjoyed that area of Japan.



The Kiyomizu Temple at night.
Click on the link to see it during the day,
built all on stilts (and without nails).



Two more nights in Japan,
and then back to Minneapolis.
I hope you missed me,
and saved me some fried potatoes.

Horiyoshi III Tattoo Museum

Meryl and I decided to leave Tokyo,
and traveled to Yokohama for the Horiyoshi III Tattoo Museum.
We expected a weird little basement filled with tattoo memorabilia,
human oddities, old photos, and stuff for sale,
and that was almost it exactly.
(there wasn't anything for sale)

I know I got some tattoo friends back home who are super jealous and thinking I am undeserving to have visited such a tattoo mecca since I have so little enthusiasm for tattoo history.
But there's a "I (heart) dead birds" sticker on the front of the museum anyway,
and Horiyoshi III's wife told me I was able to sign the tattoo artist guest book,
which happened to be a plastic skull.



I am glad I went to the museum on this trip to Japan, for sure,
because all this stuff might not be around much longer.
None of it is exactly being displayed in any kind of archival manner.



(this antler display is pretty hot)




Ok, so I'm probably an a-hole,
but I wasn't converted.

Luckily, Yokohama also boasts the tallest lighthouse in the world.

The First Sun.

New Year's Day.

It was such a beautiful morning.
We woke up on our own at 3 am,
wide awake and completely disoriented.
Serious time changes happened on the way here.

It was about 5:20 and 35º when we went looking for the Gokoku-ji Temple.

The Japanese make a big deal about the New Year, and all its firsts.
Like the first time you see a sunrise (Hatsuhinode),
and the first time you visit a temple or shrine (Hatsumōde).
Being at a temple while seeing the very first sunrise of the year, then,
is pretty much the hotness.









One of the traditions is getting a fortune for the New Year
at one of these shrines.
If you get a fortune that isn't positive,
you can tie it to a tree, or sometimes a fence,
in order to make sure it doesn't come true.

Meryl picked us a not so great one, which was cool,
because I wanted to tie it to the branches more than I wanted a good blessing.




I walked around Tokyo from before the sun rose till after it set.
And I think my legs are going to fall off.
What am I doing today?
Walking around Tokyo.
All of those photos were taken before 9 am,
and I'm trying not to over do it.
Meryl will be updating our flickr account later, and I'll post a link then.

There's a secret lighthouse we're trying to find today.
There's so very little information about it (in English) online,
so I wrote down the kanji translation, and we're going to find it.
No matter what.
Our friend Alex is meeting up with us tomorrow.
He lives here now, and is fluent in Japanese,
so we'll be in really good shape then.

Whiter than White

White Christmases.
It looks like we're getting enough snow to last till next December.
We've received 7 inches so far,
and they're promising another 7 today and tomorrow.
Adam made it to Louderhorn Inn just in time to get snowed in again.

But good thing the snow didn't start till last night,
because I packed an entire week of tattooing into just two days.


Almost every time Adam comes to town,
he gets another tattoo.
This year alone I think we've done 5.
An octopus, a narwal, an aircraft exit diagram, and Kissena.
He got a puffin tattoo this trip,
and right before the close of the year.



Sheep goat hybrids are real.
And real dope.
(and real sterile, like mules)
Amanda is sleeving her arm with my weird little animals.
(that's her booby's blue foot right above it)



And Chef Ryan came in to work on his kitchen themed sleeve.
Antique wood stoves are so sexy.





Adam has been insanely helpful with this japan trip coming up.
He's the best ever personal travel agent, for sure.
He's been to Japan three times,
and uses the Google like no one else I've ever seen.

Adam gave us the insider tips,
Meryl found our passports and atm cards,
and Casey's staying at Louderhorn Inn with Shamira while we're gone.
So we're pretty much ready to leave on the 30th,
we just need to pack now.