A Bright Spot in December: A Phoenix and a Pin-Up

As one would expect, inkspotting is tough during December. Here we are at the end of the month, and I have only interviewed three people since the 1st. There were a few times over the summer when I interviewed three contributors during my lunch hour!

The last person whose work I photographed was Megan, who I found upstairs at the Penn Plaza Borders store.

Megan has seventeen tattoos, but it was this one that caught my eye:

This is a phoenix, of course, but fewer people may recognize it as Fawkes, the phoenix of Professor Albus Dumbledore, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The artwork is based on the illustration by Jason Cockcroft on the cover of the UK edition of the aforementioned book.

The tattooist Jamie Nichols at Gargoyle Tattoo in Aberdeen, Washington, completed this piece in about eight hours over two sittings.

Megan also has this pinup on her upper left arm:

The use of negative space for the bombs is pretty cool.

Marcus was the artist at Gargoyle that Megan credited for creating this piece..

Thanks to Megan for taking the time to speak to me about her cool tattoos!

Julia's Pin-Up

I met Julia briefly in a Hudson News in Penn Station.

The flash of color on her foot caught my eye:

Julia explained that she is a visual artist that likes to do pin-up illustrations. This particular design she wanted to be transformed into a tattoo. She brought it to Morgan Reed at Electric Lotus Tattoo in Boonton, New Jersey, and he made some slight adjustments that resulted in this lovely tattoo.

Work from Electric Lotus has appeared on Tattoosday before. This link will show you what else we have featured from their shop.

Thanks to Julia for sharing her pin-up girl with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoosday Goes To Hawai'i - Aloha to the Islands

I wasn't sure how many tattoos I would meet on my five and a half day trip to Hawai'i, but my last day there exceeded all expectations.

As reported before, I met five separate people with tattoos at Pearlridge as I did some last-minute shopping before heading back to the airport.

After returning my rental car and clearing security, I headed to the gate, my heart heavy with the reality that I was once again leaving my childhood home, not knowing when I would return.

I guessed that my inkspotting had ended on the trip, as I dropped my carry-on at a row of seats outside of the gate, which was sealed as the earlier flight's passengers cleared customs.

I guessed wrong.

The delay in entering Gate 25 left passengers lingering in the open-aired terminal with a moment to relish the warm tropical air.

The gentleman next to me removed his outer garment to reveal a short sleeve shirt. And this tattoo:

So, for the next twenty minutes or so, I chatted with Bill, originally from Brooklyn, now living in Hawai'i. How's that for a mirror image?

What's more, Bill had this tattoo, as well, on his upper right arm:

Aloha indeed. What a fitting way to leave Hawai'i!

The top pin-up was inked at a shop in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

The forearm design is a modified version of a flash design Bill had seen at a shop in Honolulu, up near the University of Hawai'i campus in Manoa.

The original design featured the young lady standing in the Waikiki surf, with Diamond Head behind her. Bill opted just for the pin-up, without all the extra stuff.

We had a nice chat about Hawai'i, tattoos, and Brooklyn. He was heading back to the East Coast to visit family.

Thanks to Bill for sharing his cool tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

And thanks again to everyone I met on my trip, and for being integral parts of the Tattoosday Goes to Hawai'i saga!