The Tattooed Poets Project: Carl Phillips

We're closing out this year's Tattooed Poets Project with Carl Phillips. I've had the pleasure, over the years, of meeting Carl and hearing him read on at least two different occasions at the New School in Manhattan, in conjunction with the Best American Poetry readings. Needless to say, when Carl agreed to participate, I was thrilled.

Here's a photo of Carl's tattoo:

Carl explains:

"I got the tattoo after seeing a compass on a map in my copy of Moby Dick. I chose not to include the N,S,W,E part, to suggest that I lack direction, though the compass itself suggests the desire for direction ... it's on my left upper arm. A guy named Barber did it, at a place here in St. Louis called Iron Age."

Carl pointed me to a few poems online that he said we could share here, and I chose this one:

Leda, After the Swan

Perhaps,
in the exaggerated grace
of his weight
settling,

the wings
raised, held in
strike-or-embrace
position,

I recognized
something more
than swan, I can't say.

There was just
this barely defined
shoulder, whose feathers
came away in my hands,

and the bit of world
left beyond it, coming down

to the heat-crippled field,

ravens the precise color of
sorrow in good light, neither
black nor blue, like fallen
stitches upon it,

and the hour forever,
it seemed, half-stepping
its way elsewhere--

then
everything, I
remember, began
happening more quickly.

~ ~ ~

You can hear Carl read the poem here.

Carl Phillips is the author of twelve books of poetry, most recently Silverchest (2013). He's a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis.

Thanks to Carl for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2013 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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.

Marjo Shares an Amazing Lighthouse from the UK

Back in June, in Herald Square, I ran into a couple named Marjo and Jon, who were visiting from the UK. Both were tattooed, but it was the Marjo's half-sleeve that really brought down the house:

Marjo credited an artist named Sergi Besa at a shop called Nine, in Brighton, with this amazing tattoo work.

At the inner part of the upper arm near the shoulder, is an amazing compass rose:

I only wish the sun had not been so bright, as it washed out some of the color in my photos.

Marjo explained that she had the original concept for the tattoo and Sergi did the rest.

Truly a remarkable piece of work!

Thanks to Marjo for sharing her lighthouse sleeve with us here on Tattoosday!

UPDATE: Jon's tattoo appeared in December 2012 here.

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.

Andrea's Half-Sleeve with Mermaid

Today we are checking out an awesome traditional half-sleeve by Charlie Foos at Reade Street Tattoo Parlour. I spotted it on Andrea outside of the Fuse studios on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan:

Andrea told me this was completed in three sessions of three and a half hours each and was inspired by s piece of jewelery. "I bought this pendant of a ship," she said, "and I decided I wanted a half-sleeve of something traditional." The rest is history.

Thanks to Andrea for sharing this great tattoo 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.