Celebrate the Brooklyn Bridge at Brooklyn Tattoo and Urban Folk Art® Gallery!

The Brooklyn Bridge, an icon that represents our borough, was completed 130 years ago and the good folks at Brooklyn Tattoo and Urban Folk Art® Gallery are hosting their fourth annual celebration in honor of the anniversary.

Owners Willie Paredes and Adam Suerte (who recently tattooed yours truly - here) are hosting the Brooklyn Bridge tattoo special - $30 Brooklyn Bridge tattoos - today, from 12 Noon to 7PM. From the shop's event page on Facebook:

"Those interested in receiving a Brooklyn Bridge themed tattoo can show up at the shop-Brooklyn Tattoo®, 99 Smith Street, Brooklyn, and pick from several flash (pre-drawn) images that evoke the spirit that has defined New York’s iconic skyline. Tattoos will be done by several of the Brooklyn Tattoo® staff on a first come, first serve basis. Also, for those not committed enough to join ink to skin, copies of the flash design sheets will be available for purchase as well as a limited edition book Adam Suerte put together showcasing 50 Brooklyn Bridge tattoos he’s done in the past."

Here's what you can expect from past year's designs:

If you're not down for a new tattoo, you should definitely consider attending the opening of the art show, tomorrow, May 24, 2013.

Again, from the Facebook event page:

"Urban Folk Art® Gallery will be honoring the 130th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge with a group show of over 30 local artists of varying mediums. In their third show of this type, artists will be showing their homages to the bridge with one common element. In February 2013, curator and contributing artist Adam Suerte aquired five 5 gallon buckets of surplus paint from the NY Department of Transit that was used to do touch ups on the Brooklyn Bridge (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/surplus-paint-from-the-brooklyn-bridge-now-could-be-yours/).

As an undying fan of the Brooklyn Bridge that is evident in his artwork, he was compelled to get some. Each artist in the group show will be using the 'Chocolate Brown Enamel' in some way within their piece. Painters, comic artists, graphic designers, photographers, screen printers, tattooers, graffiti artists, toy designers and artists of other mediums will be contributing. Suerte, as one of his pieces, has repackaged some of this paint in a limited edition quart size cans that will be for sale at the show. 

If you ever wanted to own a piece of the bridge, this could be considered pretty close.

The show opens May 24th from 7-10."

 Here are a few of the pieces on display:

by Dave Tree

by Steven Weinberg

by Paul St. Savage aka Angry Eel

Even if you can't make the opening, the work will be on display through the end of June, so, if you find yourself in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, you should definitely stop by and check out the amazing art!

Also, if you get a tattoo, feel free to e-mail us a photo at Tattoosday@gmail.com, along with a sentence or two about why you wanted to get this Brooklyn icon inked on you, and we'll share it on the site some time in the next few weeks.

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn Bridge!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website 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.

"Because You Can't Take the Brooklyn Out of the Girl..."

Back in October, my friend Ronni introduced me to her friend Elizabeth via the web. Elizabeth is from Brooklyn, but resides in Seattle, and was looking to get a New York-themed tattoo on an upcoming visit. She wanted to find a reputable artist and shop in New York City.

Although I am by no means an expert on tattooing in the Big Apple, blogging about ink here for 4 1/2 years certainly qualifies me to speak on the matter with some authority.

I recommended several shops and artists, mostly in Brooklyn, because Elizabeth had a specific idea in mind. And rather than just showing up in a tattoo parlor and going with the first available artist, Elizabeth took my suggestions and did some research, contacting several of the artists, and poring over their online portfolios.

Ultimately, Elizabeth wanted a Brooklyn Bridge tattoo. No easy feat, as she did not want a BIG tattoo, and the architectural wonder lends itself to looking best on a larger scale, in my opinion. This piece, for example, seen here back in July, took up a whole upper arm.

Elizabeth ended up at Saved Tattoo in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, and she got exactly what she wanted:

Elizabeth is extremely happy with her new tattoo. She writes "Zac Scheinbaum ... did a great job, got in a lot more detail than he led me to expect. Now you can definitely not take the Brooklyn out of the girl."

Thanks to Elizabeth for sharing her little piece of Brooklyn with us here on Tattoosday!

[Update: After posting this, Elizabeth wrote to me, adding, "what gave me the idea of having the Brooklyn Bridge tattooed to begin with (and the idea of the location at my heart followed almost immediately) was seeing a woman in the dance tent at the Falcon Ridge Music Festival whose entire upper arm was tattooed with the Brooklyn Bridge. I think it must have been Mariam- unless there's more than one woman with a Brooklyn Bridge on her right upper arm like that. That adds a nice circularity to your piece, for me."]

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.

Mariam's Brooklyn Bridge is with Her Forever

I ran into Mariam on the subway platform at 36th Street in Brooklyn a few Saturday nights ago. She shared this tattoo, much to my delight:

This piece, on her upper right arm, depicts the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge. Mariam explained that the view is from DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Underpass, to you non-New Yorkers).

Everyone usually has a refuge to which they can retreat to meditate and be alone. Mariam says that she will occasionally wander in Brooklyn Bridge Park, with its spectacular views of  lower Manhattan, and that this is the place she goes to clear her mind. This is why, on the rocks along the water, the words "for ever" are tattooed.

Mariam credited Alex at Stylez Barber Shop in Brooklyn as the artist who inked this tattoo. There's not a lot of info about this shop on the web, but they are located at 54th Street and 4th Avenue.

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

3rd Avenue Festival, Bay Ridge, Part 5

I really hit my stride on Sunday when I approached a group of young guys hanging out at the street fair in front of the Rite Aid at 93rd and 3rd.

No offense guys, if you're reading this, but I most likely would have passed you up as possible Tattoosday subjects had it been any other setting. These guys were young, in the early twenties, and looked pretty tough. The mass of ink added to their hard edges.

I approached one of them and started explaining myself, but he seemed very reluctant. However, his friends joined in the discussion and, before I knew it, two of them had allowed me take some pictures and post them here.

I will start with John Candela. He was totally into participating. He first had a young lady lift up the back of his shirt to reveal a huge back piece:



The large cross is a tribute to his friends Rob and Frank.

He then showed me the tattoo on his left arm which was a tribute to the same guys and to a third friend, Smokey, who he called his guardian angels. It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are three angels are around the edge of the piece (only the one at the top is visible).


Lastly, he showed me this free-hand graffiti-like piece, which spells out his last name, Candela, which is the Spanish word for candle, which represents flames, and merged with the fiery border design produces a nice effect.


John credited the work to an artist named "Steve the Butcher," who free-lances out of his house, and is not affiliated with any shop.

I did not ask, as he did not offer, what happened to Smokey, Rob and Frank that caused them to die at such an early age. Had he wanted me to know, I'm sure he would have told me.

The other tattoo I captured belonged to Jaimie, who I think had one of the coolest pieces of the day.

It's actually one piece that wrapped around his left forearm. I generally avoid tattoos that wrap around because it is hard to capture the essence of the piece in photographs.

But it's worth a try, so check these out:






The message is "Brooklyn, born and raised." The Brooklyn Bridge is represented, along with the Statue of Liberty. The best part of the piece, however, is the "and" represented by the letter N of the N train (on wich I am currently riding as I type this up). The N express services a big chunk of Brooklyn (as well as Manhattan and Queens). The "raised" is inked like graffiti on the N train, completing a sweet Brooklyn-themed tribute to the borough in which Tattoosday is based.

Jaimie credited this awesome tattoo to Angel at Hypnotic Designs in Sunset Park.

A hearty thanks to Jaimie and John for their participation in Tattoosday!