Vicki's Words of Inspiration Get Her Where She Needs to Go

I'm always interested on what people choose to permanently inscribe on themselves, especially when the tattoo is textual.

Earlier this week, I met Vicki in my local grocery store and she had this inked on her inner wrist:

Her tattoo reads "Motivation Dedication Hard Work."

Vicki explained,

"I'm a marathon runner. So, when you get to, like, mile 20 and have six to go, you need a little motivation, dedication and hard work ... I started living by that about ten years ago, and it gets me where I need to go."

In October,  Vicki will be running her 5th marathon.

This script and tattoo was done by Mr. Kaves at Brooklyn Made Tattoo in Bay Ridge.

Thanks to Vicki for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Erica's Tattoos Help Her Through a Difficult Ordeal

I spotted Erica in my neighborhood earlier this month when I noticed a tattoo on her upper right arm. She was actually having some work done later in the week on it, so she offered up this quote on her forearm instead:

When I asked her about these lines, "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars," she explained it was a quote from Khalil Gibran. The original source is unclear, as it is also attributed to a writer named Edwin Hubbell Chapin.

When I asked her why she chose this quote, she elaborated, "I'm going through a divorce right now ... it was a lot of emotional abuse [and] this represents that."

She had that done by an artist at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn.

She also had this on her inner left arm:

She got this done by a visiting artist named Rebecca at Brooklyn Made Tattoo. This, too, has its roots in her past problems with her marriage. "Yoga," she told me "brought a lot of comfort and peace" to her during these difficult times. The flowers and the om on the petal represent that.

She followed up with me the following week with this photo:

The photo is a bit blurry, but you can see the differentiation between the older, larger piece, and the new work that Mr. Kaves from Brooklyn Made added to both the top and bottom of the tattoo. The original work she credited to Vic at Wicked Garden Tattoo in Clearfield, Utah.

Erica is a photographer, whose work can be seen on her website here.

Thanks to Erica for sharing her tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

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.

Ryan Shares an Amazing Portrait of His Mom

I know we've been a little sparse with our posting of late, but we're coming back with a bang.

Last February, I met Ryan in my local laundromat and he shared some of his old school ink here.

I've seen him around since, but today when he walked into the laundromat, he had a stunning new piece.

A couple months ago I had run into my friend John (who shared new ink, which is also forthcoming) who tattoos out of Brooklyn Made Tattoo and he had told me that the legendary Freddy Negrete was going to be in the neighborhood doing guest spots at Brooklyn Made.

A few weeks later I was walking down 93rd Street in Bay Ridge and spotted Mr. Kaves outside of his shop. I stopped to say hello and he pointed out that Freddy and his son Isaiah were hard at work inside. They are both based out of Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Social Club in Los Angeles. I was meeting family for dinner so I couldn't hang around, but it was cool to get a glimpse of a legendary artist at work.

Which brings us back to Ryan this morning in the laundromat. I knew it almost as he told me, he got this sweet portrait of his mother from Freddy Negrete himself that week:

Ryan explained that this portrait is based on a photo of his mother from when she was in her early twenties, when he was around two years old. He elaborated:

"My mother died ... about an hour before her fortieth birthday, so this tattoo means a lot to me. It's the most beautiful work I have on me and I wouldn't have let anyone else do it. Freddy Negrete is a great guy ... he's a humbling guy and he's very humble himself and I am grateful to have met him and his son."

It really is an astonishingly beautiful piece of portrait work, and done by one of the true masters of the art here in our own little slice of Brooklyn.

Thanks again to Ryan for sharing this amazing tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading 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.

Mr. Kaves Shares a Mark Mahoney Portrait

A couple weeks back, I ran into Michael Kaves on 3rd Avenue, a couple blocks away from his shop, Brooklyn Made Tattoo. Kaves is also one of the founding members of The Lordz of Brooklyn. I know Kaves from around the neighborhood, and although I've never been tattooed by him, I have been under the needle in his shop and have had the pleasure of seeing him work first-hand and close-up on other clients.

He's familiar with Tattoosday and wanted to share a tattoo with us here on the site. Check it out:

Located on Kaves' upper right arm, this brilliant tattoo was inked by the legendary Mark Mahoney.

Kaves explained he had gone out to Los Angeles a couple months back and worked at Mahoney's renown shop, the Shamrock Social Club. They had a big launch for a limited edition tattoo pigment - "Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Green". He was there, working on St. Patrick's Day for the official launch.



Mahoney, known to many as the " founding father" of single-needle black and gray tattooing,  tattooed this portrait for Kaves, which took about twelve hours from start to finish.

And who is the woman tattooed on his arm? "It's my grandmother, Marie," he explained, "from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, right here on Third Avenue, 1945."

Kaves' own tattooing work first appeared on Tattoosday back in 2008 here. Most recently, his work has appeared here. This is, however, the first time we have been honored to share a tattoo by Mark Mahoney.

Thanks to Kaves for sharing this phenomenal tattoo by an American master, here with us 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, 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!