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Familiar Ink: Meister Returns to Tattoosday with an Awesome NYC Tattoo

✓ birds, Central Park, hawks, Myles Karr, New York City, Peacocks, pigeons, Squirrels, Three Kings Tattoo

There's something therapeutic about running posts of work I spotted over the summer. The warmth from these encounters is brightening these winter days.

Case in point, on a bike ride out to Coney Island, I was cruising along the boardwalk when I spotted a woman on a bench, reading a book. She had tattoos so, naturally, I stopped.

It was after I introduced myself that she recognized me, and I saw the sparrows on the backs of her calves. This was Meister, who had contributed back in January 2012 here.

Meister blogs at The Nervous Cook and is a food writer and coffee columnist. Now, she is a repeat subject on Tattoosday. I first met her in December 2011 on 23rd Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan. Here we were, 19 months later, in another borough and another season.

What would have been impossible to see in the winter, was now visible in the summer, and Meister rolled up her shorts and shared this awesome tattoo on her thigh:

This is, if you look at it closely, an aerial view of world-famous Central Park. Meister explained:

"It's a map of Central Park, with some birds, and a little squirrely-o ... I love Central Park, it's my favorite part of New York City and I wanted to honor it ...it's my home. And on the other [thigh] I plan to get a lake in my husband's home town, which is Oklahoma City, to finish it off, my last piece, but I've been hesitating because it will be my last piece of work..."

In addition to the red-tailed hawk and the New York City pigeon, there's a peacock because, as Meister explained, "I was running past the park the day that the peacock escaped" from the Central Park Zoo. You can re-visit that newsworthy event here.

Like her previous work featured here, Meister had this done by Myles Karr. If you're going to stick with one artist, Myles is among the best to choose from. He's currently with the amazing shop Three Kings Tattoo, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Myles and the good people at Three Kings have had work featured on Tattoosday many times before. Click here to see everything from Myles on Tattoosday and here to see all the work from Three Kings we've showcased.

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.

Cecilia's Spiritual Dreamcatcher (at the NYC Urban Tattoo Convention)

✓ Chakras, dreamcatchers, feathers, hawks, NYC Urban Tattoo Convention, South Seas Tattoo

Even though the 4th annual NYC Urban Tattoo Convention was at the end of June, I'm still reliving the experience through posts of tattoos I saw there.

While speaking with one attendee named Cecilia, she pulled her shirt up to reveal this dreamcatcher tattoo on her ribs:

I recently followed up with Cecilia and asked her specifically about the tattoo.

First, she credited this lovely work to Kristin Lowery, owner/artist at South Seas Tattoo in Hilo, Hawaii, who used a feather Cecilia had found in New York as reference material. She said she was "pretty sure, after researching, [that] it's a hawk feather."

Cecilia was very detailed, explaining the spirituality behind this dreamcatcher:

"... I wanted to incorporate something like a dream catcher using the symbol of the 3rd chakra ... the hawk - in animal spirit medicine/as a totem in Native American tradition means

-messenger of the spirit world
-focused power
-power to see/clear vision
-connection to spirit, spiritual awareness

I got [the tattoo] on my left side which represents the feminine and I got it on my rib cage for it to land close to my heart and aligned with the 3rd chakra solar plexus and heart chakra.

Chakras are energy points in the human body.

3rd chakra is a energetic center for empowerment, where your ego lives, where your inner warrior develops and where you decide who you are and project it out unto the world. It is from this place that our principles are born and developed, and where our codes for living get created and maintained. It is from here that we assert our will and stand up for 'who we are.' Self-esteem is the result of the third chakra.

[This tattoo] represents for me a rite of passage to connect with my true nature, to gain spiritual awareness, to own my power and to become the person I was meant to and fulfill my purpose in this lifetime!"

Cecilia's spirituality should come as no surprise, as she is an New York-based artist, whose photography can be seen here. You can also visit her Etsy shop here.

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

Tom Shares His Escher and Hokusai-Inspired Sleeves

✓ birds, hawks, Hokusai, Japanese, koi, lizard, M.C. Escher, ocean, Sleeves, snakes, waves

Back in June, I rode my bike out to the Coney Island boardwalk and did a little inkspotting. One of the several tattooed individuals I met was Tom, who had some cool work to share.

It was his M.C. Escher-inspired sleeve that first caught my attention:

Among the designs from which Tom drew inspiration were Escher's "12 Birds"

and his "Lizard."

Tom credited his artist Haun Duong, located in Queens, with this work.

His other arm has a compilation of the works of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai:

This is based primarily on his most recognizable work, The Great Wave of Kanagawa:

Tom told me that the koi fish represent the fact that he is a Pisces and that he has a twin sister. And there are additional elements from the Japanese master lower on the arm that represent him and his wife, along with three turtles (not pictured) which represent his kids. And inside the bicep:

The falcon and the snake represent the good and the bad within him.

Thanks to Tom for sharing his great work 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.