Cody's Message of Recovery

These arms belong to Cody, who I stopped outside of Madison Square Garden on June 23.What caught my eye was a beautiful religious piece on his forearm, but it was still healing, so we went with these tattoos instead.Cody explained to me that he is in recovery, and that the strength he gets from this message, "Dealing with the Cards Life Dealt Me," is invaluable. "No matter what life throws at you

Audrey's Wrist Tattoos Keep Her Grounded

Last week I had a wonderful Wednesday of inkspotting, photographing four tattoos at lunch, and those of a fifth volunteer after work.The run started with Audrey, whose tattooed wrist caught my eye in the plaza in front of Borders.As it turns out, Audrey has both wrists done:Her left wrist bears the slogan "Be Present" and the right wrist hosts a series of Roman numerals.The "III.XX.MMVIII" refers

Vince and a Word from John Keats

I'm a sucker for words.Scrabble, crossword puzzles and, when I find them, words inscribed in flesh.I recently spotted Vince, walking down 32nd Street in Manhattan. I caught up with him after he crossed Broadway, heading east.He has eight tattoos, but I snapped a picture of this one:And why does he have the word Beauty inked on the outside of his right forearm?Vince is an artist and illustrator (

The Tattooed Poets Project: Eileen Myles - "Poet, Take My Measure"

For this, our penultimate post in the April Tattooed Poets Series, we present a tattoo from Eileen Myles.Last week Thursday, I met Eileen on my lunch break at a Starbucks in Union Square. For a blog based on meeting people with tattoos, it was refreshing to sit and chat with a poet in person. It was only the second face-to-face meeting with tattooed poets. All others have been based on e-mail

The Tattooed Poets Project: Ruth Kohtz Shares a Poema

Today's tattoo comes from Ruth Kohtz:Ruth explains:I got the "poema" tattoo on my birthday, November 9, in 2007, by Nik Lensing at Fluid Ink in St. Paul, Minnesota. I made the appointment about 2 hours before I got it, and I had the design all printed out already.I had been out of college for about six months and was struggling with lots of existential "what am I doing?" kind of stuff. I have

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cheryl Maddalena's Beautiful Tattoo

Today's Tattooed Poet is Cheryl Maddalena. Cheryl is a performance poet from Boise, Idaho.Although the photo above is small, the tattoo is big, bold and beautiful.Cheryl writes:"It had occurred to me, as a performance poet, that I could never read other poets' tattoos from the audience. Mine is 200 point lowercase Times New Roman, the same font as all my poetry but a larger size."The tattoo was

The Tattooed Poets Project: Amanda's Tattoo Reminds Us that Life is Beautiful

Just a brief note...despite the Tattooed Poets Project for National Poetry Month, I still plan on spotting ink on the streets of New York, and posting photos here.This is one of those posts....On Saturday, April 4, my travels took me to the East Side of Manhattan, a part of town I don't usually frequent.I had run an errand and was about to get on the train back to Brooklyn, when I ducked into a

Only God Can Judge Him

A nice surprise last night when, out of the blue, a previous Tattoosday subject, John, sent me his latest tattoo.I met John initially at the 3rd Avenue Festival in Bay Ridge, back in the earlier days of the blog, where he displayed a leg piece in progress here.He later had the piece finished and we featured it, in all its glory, here. In addition, he sent me photos of his other three tattoos

Kait, On Her Own Two Feet

While passing through Borders at 2 Penn Plaza, I spotted Kait's feet, both tattooed on their outside edges. She graciously allowed me to take pictures of both pieces.On her left foot is a green bow, inspired in part by the fact that she is known where she grew up for always having a bow on her, whether it be in her clothing or in her hair. It's her trademark, of sorts, and the tattoo insures that

Tattoos from the Blogosphere: CoccoRossie's Triple Play

I recently received an email from "Coccorossie" who blogs here.She checks in on Tattoosday from time to time and offered to share a few of her tattoos.Since she took the time to share them with me, I thought it was only fair to share them with you.This "Omerta" tattoo is on her right side, on the ribcage. Omerta, traditionally understood as "Code of Silence," reflects her attitude:"My omerta

Two Tattoos from Lara

Last Friday evening, on the steps of Penn Plaza, I spotted this simple tattoo on the right side of Lara's neck. It is the sign for someone born under the sign of Leo.Even though it was a simple astrological squiggle, I said hello anyway and, as often is the case, she had another tattoo to show me:Actually, she has five altogether, but this one, the word "heart" inscribed on the inside of her left