The Tattooed Poets Project: Matt Wimberley

The Tattooed Poets Project owes a debt of gratitude to the wonderful Dorianne Laux. Although not personally inked, she has, over the past five years, referred me to a number of writers who are, and who have likewise referred me on to others. Dorianne never disappoints and, this year, sent a poet named Matt Wimberley my way. Matt sent me this photo:

He explained:

"I got the tattoo in Boone, North Carolina at Speakeasy Tattoo, the artist was Greg Kinnamon. The line ["All truths wait in all things"] is from [Walt] Whitman's "Song of Myself". I got the tattoo when I moved from the mountains to NYC to begin an MFA at NYU. A reminder to look at the world with an open mind and appreciate the people I meet and places I go."

He also provided us with this tattoo-themed poem:

Gosling

Ryan Gosling
has a tattoo from a page
of "the Giving Tree" on his arm
parallel to his heart. I've never
met him, but I bought the same
jeans he wears in the movie "Drive",
Levis 511's dark wash. My grandfather
worked for the denim mill
late in life, after time in Alaska
surveying for oil near the Arctic Circle.
He was young, his eyes
the same blue as glaciers
jammed in the permafrost of the Brooks Range.
In 1980 my grandfather started work
at Cone Mills, the same year
Ryan was born in Ontario.
The mill supplied Levi's
with all of their denim for a quarter century
until they closed down the same year Ryan
played a soldier in "The Notebook".
Two years ago my grandfather died
in a snowstorm, where the blue mountains
of North Carolina spread out like a quilt.
Today I'm drinking coffee in Brooklyn
overhead a flock of geese point their "V"
South out of Canada. On the table next to me
is a magazine article with a picture
of Ryan Gosling eating a sandwich
on a sun washed street. Ryan
who's read the same book I have
who wears the same jeans
my grandfather helped make
and whose heart goes on in his chest
the way all of our hearts do. One day
he'll die, and someone will write
about it in a magazine. It could be
years from now, it could be
tomorrow.

~ ~ ~

Matthew Wimberley grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. He served as an assistant poetry at the Raleigh Review and currently is studying poetry in New York University's MFA program. He was a finalist for the 2012 Narrative 30 Below Contest and his writing has appeared or is forthcoming in: Rattle, Puerto Del Sol, Birdfeast, and various other journals, including Connotation Press where his poems were introduced by Dorianne Laux. He has two dogs and spent March and April of 2012 driving across the country and back. Matthew resides in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Matt for sharing his poetry and tattoo 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.

John's Incredible Art-Themed Sleeve by Stefano Alcantara

If you go back to the beginnings of Tattoosday, one of our earliest contributors was John Sorezza, a friend of the neighborhood who I see quite often. He shared his first work, the beginning of a leg piece, here.

In the years that have passed since I first met him, John has taken up work as a tattoo artist and tattoos out of Brooklyn Made Tattoo.

Over last summer I ran into him down the block and he shared some of his latest ink, all inspired by his new vocation:

As I've said before, sleeves are always a challenge to capture on a web page, especially when the photos are taken out on the street, where natural light differs, depending on the angle. Despite my amazing photo editing skills, the collage above is marred by totally different tones, but you can still see the gist of the tattoo - the phrase "ART IS PAIN" carved from the inside with an X-Acto knife, with a dripping paintbrush, pen and pencil, all tools of the artist's trade, poking through the letters in the flesh.

And if you weren't impressed by that, check out this phenomenal tattoo machine on the inner part of John's forearm:

And all of this is punctuated by this mask on the back of his hand:

John pointed out that the eyes are fashioned with pen quills, to keep with the theme of this art-inspired sleeve.

This amazing work is the product of the great Stefano Alcantara, who hails from Lima, Peru, and tattoos out of world-famous Paul Booth's Last Rites Tattoo Theater here in New York City. You can also check out Alcantara's Facebook fan page here.

Thanks again to John for continuing to share his work with us here on Tattoosday! You can find John at Brooklyn Made Tattoo in Bay Ridge.

See John's other tattoos here, here, here, and here.

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.

Xrin Arms Explains His Tattoos

I ran into Anthony after work while passing through the Amtrak section of Penn Station.

He was in town to perform in Brooklyn and was waiting for his ride. He performs under the name "Xrin Arms," which he pronounced as "Your-in-arms". He's a techno punk musician currently on tour. Here's the flier for the gig he was playing that night:


He had an unusual series of tattoos which he allowed me to photograph, after he explained them to me.

The tattoos cover a significant part of his upper right arm, as well as one side of his forearm.

First and foremost, as a writer, he had his pen inked on his arm.


He always uses a Pilot Precise V5, he said,

and he produced one to show me, holding it up to the piece to show me that it was tattooed to scale.

The next element of his inked arm is a legion of sperm directed at his elbow. Some of the sperm are traveling from the pen, representing the knowledge that flows from the written word.

At the center of the elbow is a moth in a circle. He said that it represents a "moth in a beehive". When I questioned that image, he acknowledged that that was how he feels a lot of the time.


If you picture a moth in a beehive, you envision many things: solitude and violence. Of beauty and alienation. The sperm heading toward this image reinforce that the creative experience is a birthing process fraught with danger.

Lastly, on the back of the bicep, is an owl with its wings outstretched.


The owl represents to him that he is noctural, and stays up all night.

He has 2 other tattoos but we stuck with these because they played off one another.

They were tattooed by Chris Bragg when he was working out of Hammer's Tattoo & Body Piercing in Canton, Ohio.

Please check out Xrin Arms myspace page here. There's also a cool interview with Anthony over on the blog Digital Liver here.

Thanks again to for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday.

As an added extra, here's a video of Xrin Arms song "Feather Mask":