See Naomi's Tattoo: Life Doesn't Frighten Her

Well, it's a new year here on Tattoosday, and we still have leftover posts from 2012. But since it's in the 20s today in New York City, and we don't see a lot of work over the winter, I'm always happy to share posts from warmer days.

Going back to July, I was on the DeKalb Avenue subway platform in Brooklyn when I passed Naomi and had to stop and talk to her about her forearm tattoo:

Being a big fan of books, I recognized this as the cover of Maya Angelou's children's story Life Doesn't Frighten Me. Of course, while talking with Naomi, she reminded me whose art graced the cover.

The book is beautifully illustrated with the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a popular New York artist whose paintings exploded into popularity in the 1980s.

She told me she got this more than fifteen years ago from a tattooist named "Batman" who worked out of Sacred Tattoo at the time.

She explained, "I really like Basquiat and then I saw the cover on the book and I really liked the book and thought I have to have this done."

Thanks to Naomi for sharing her tattoo with us for the first post of a new year!

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William's Museum of Art

I met William on the A train one Sunday morning. He was covered with tattoos. When I asked him how many he has, he replied that he had "never counted".

As many of my subjects can attest, when I meet people with a lot of ink, I ask them which one they'd like me to post on the site. William offered up a tattoo he has of Marilyn Monroe, as seen by Andy Warhol. But, as such a tattoo has appeared here before (see Nina's ink here), I asked for something else. He let me choose this piece, a tattoo of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat:

A closer look:

This is based on Basquiat's artwork, which is most recognizable from its appearance on the cover of a Maya Angelou children's story.

William also let me take a picture of his name on his hand, which appeared in Ina Saltz's Body Type 2:

William credited the Basquiat tattoo with David Sena at North Star Tattoo in Manhattan. Work by David Sena appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to William for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!