Two for Tattoosday: Hawai'i Calling and a Pin-Up Boy

I met Joakim and Marina last month on the sidewalk, just outside of the 34th Street Penn Station entrance.

The couple were visiting from Sweden and it was Joakim's sleeves that jumped out at me.

He shared this one segment on his lower right arm:


He asked me if it looked familiar. It did, but I couldn't quite place it. He smiled, and told me it's a variation on the cover of The Clash's quintessential album, London Calling,


Joakim loves the Clash and loves Hawaiian culture, so he designed had the tattoo artist design the piece to merge both elements for a great tattoo.

The piece was inked by Big Fat Joe at a shop called Art by Fafnir in Stockholm.


I turned to Marina and asked if she had any tattoos. She smiled and said she did, removing her jacket to reveal this piece, also by Joe:


"It's my pin-up boy," she laughed. Her variation on the traditional pin-up girl is going to tie in with a sleeve she is working on, as well.

She remarked that the artist was "thrilled" to do this tattoo, because it was not the typical pin-up tattoo.

Thanks to Joakim and Marina for sharing their great tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

虎と額：Tiger & Background

Posted by 彫倭 Akilla a.k.a. Horiyamato

虎に額を付けてます。あと三回程で完成予定です。もう少し時間がたつと黒のグラデーションがきれいに出てきます。

彫倭

I add background around his tiger. I need 3 more sessions to finish it.

Akilla a.k.a. Horiyamato.

Whole Lotta Ink

I spotted Dina's runic tattoos outside of Borders on Penn Plaza, late one Friday afternoon:


Dina is a big fan of Led Zeppelin and, as most fans know, these runes represent the four members of the band.


The four symbols represent, from left to right, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Robert Plant. These symbols appeared on the band's untitled fourth album and, for many people, represented the name of the record (i.e. "Zoso" or "Runes"). There's more on the naming of "IV" here.

This is one of three tattoos Dina has and, in case you were wondering, "Since I've Been Loving You" is her favorite Zeppelin tune.

Thanks to Dina for sharing her runes with us here on Tattoosday!

A little bonus, in honor of Dina:

Ian's Three Clowns

I met Ian on the West 4th Street subway platform last month and spotted this tattoo on the outside of his right leg:


Ian had this done three years ago when working in Miami. He's an audio engineer in the television industry, so he travels a bit.

He picked the flash out of a book in the tattoo shop. He liked the sad and happy clowns at the top of the piece, a clown-like Tragedy/Comedy homage, and then added the clown on the bottom which, he said, better reflected his personality. The two separate flash designs merged to make one larger tattoo.

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

佐々木明：Letter From Austria

Posted by 彫倭 Akilla a.k.a. Horiyamato

オーストリアに遠征中のアルペン・スキーヤー佐々木明くんから写真が届きました。空気が澄んでるんでしょうねー。羨ましいです。トレーニング頑張って下さいね！

彫倭

I got the pics from my friend Akira Sasaki in Austria. He is a alpine skier and member of Japan's national team. He is training for the upcoming World Cup and Olympic!

Akilla a.k.a. Horiyamato.

TATTOO SOUL on the snow!

Joe's Piece of π

I was on the 34th Street subway platform, waiting for a downtown N express train, when I met Joe who had a series of numbers inked around his arm:


I asked him if the digits represented his social security number (don't laugh, I've heard it has been done) and he shook his head and rolled up his sleeve to reveal the top of the tattoo:


This, of course, is the value of π (pi), which mathematicians have determined, possesses an infinite number of decimal places.

As a physics enthusiast, he loves what pi represents. He told me, as the "meaning of symbols change a lot, what better [to have tattooed] than a transcendental constant?"

Despite π's infinite number of decimals, he only has the tattoo calculated out to 27 places because, he said, it was "all I could afford" at the time.



Later, Joe e-mailed me and gave me more specifics. The tattoo was done at Utopia in Huntington, New York (out on Long Island). I can't find a current listing foe the shop, so it may no longer be in business. And, Joe said, "the font is Times New Roman, the π symbol is 180pt font (π in degrees) and the numbers are 90pt font (π/2 in degrees)".

This careful selection of font size only emphasizes Joe's commitment to the purity of this πtattoo.

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

パパローチ：Papa Roach

Posted by 彫倭 Akilla a.k.a. Horiyamato

パパローチというロサンゼルスのバンドのメンバーが来てくれました。ドラムのトニーが子供の名前を腕に漢字で入れていきました。ワイアットを当て字で。

彫倭

Guys from the band PAPA ROACH visited the shop today. Drum player Tony got his son's name in Kanji.

Akilla a.k.a. Horiyamato.