Grover's Tattoos Recollect the Past, But Focus on the Future

I ran into Grover a month or two ago where he worked in Penn Station and admired the work on his sleeve. As I try my best to not disrupt folks on the job, I passed him a Tattoosday card and was happy to see when he e-mailed me a few days later.

Our schedules are different, and we tabled any definitive date to meet and discuss his ink. But one day, by chance, I passed the business where he worked and he was outside on a break.

And he offered me his arm:


We discussed the inner part of his right forearm first. This cross is a tribute to his parents, who were both injured in a serious accident about five years ago. He had this tattooed after it appeared that they would recover, and it symbolizes his faith in the blessing of their survival. The tattoo reads "Mom. Dad. God Bless."

On the top part of the outer right forearm is an starred banner design and the words "Death Before Dishonor" to remind him that he has kept his head up while working hard for his daughter.

He has chosen the honest life, rather than slip into the easy trap of making a living dishonorably.

Grover's daughter's name is London, which he has inscribed on his flesh, over a tattoo of Big Ben, the emblematic clock tower than stands proudly in the city which lends its name to his daughter. Big Ben is frozen in time at 4:10, the date (April 10) that London was born.


Below that is a skull crying blood.


The blood is the only part of Grover's tattoos that are not done in black ink. This image reflects the harsh reality of the world and the raw emotion that life often pulls out of one's soul, in the form of bloody tears.

And lastly is my favorite part of the tattoo, which rests on Grover's hand.


He grew up in Harlem and the buildings represent the view south, looking to the skyline of the city. The dollar sign and, to the right, the leaves of marijuana plants, represent to Grover what it was like "back in the day," when the drive for money in the big city, and the prevalence of marijuana in the neighborhood, left a profound impact on his days growing up.

Grover credits much of the work seen here to an artist named Marco, who works out of Crazy Fantasy Tattoo on West 4th Street in Manhattan.

I want to thank Grover for sharing his set of tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

You have read this article Clocks / Crazy Fantasy Tattoo / New York City / Skulls / Tributes with the title Clocks. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2009/05/grover-tattoos-recollect-past-but-focus.html. Thanks!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Kat Zemmel's Twisted Clock

Kat Zemmel is a poet and Master's candidate at the University of Tennessee.

Her amazing "twisted clock tattoo" is on the right side of her torso.

Kat explains the story behind this time piece:

"The design is the work of the tattoo artist--I came in one day, and said that I'd recently been enamored with antique clocks, antique watches. I love old mechanical things, the care with which they are put together is something that is hidden in the everyday present American culture. We buy computers, coffee makers, cars, and watches expecting them to work, and for the workings to be concealed. I think that there is something vulnerable and exposed about antique watches--their need to be daily wound, the care one puts into having such an object.

Sheri Matlack is the tattoo artist who drew the design--at the time she was working at Lone Wolf Body Art in Nashville, but since has opened her own tattoo shop: Electric Athena Tattoos (also in Nashville). We had discussed the placement of the tattoo--I wanted it on the ribs, and she thought to twist the watch/clock to fit the contour of my body. The number 8, featured prominently in the lower square, is a favorite number, a good number for me. The design, overall--the shape of the twisted watch-face, the way that the watch itself is segmented, everything--was Sheri's work. I only directed the theme, and she executed it, perfectly. I think that when I first saw the design, I was hesitant and unsure--it was too strange to my eyes; since I've had it done, I've loved Sheri's work, and have come back to her faithfully, for almost every tattoo. I still think it's the best damn black and grey work I've ever seen.

The tattoo was done over two 2.5 hour sessions in December of 2006.

Kat sends along some additional biographical information, including how the art of tattoo influences some of the classes she teaches as a graduate student:

"...As in many programs, graduate students are assigned to teach some sections of first-year composition; second-semester composition courses, while still courses in writing, can be centered around a theme chosen by the instructor. Thus, I am presently teaching a course called "Inquiry into Body Modification." I had some doubts about being able to sustain students' interest in the subject matter, but have had little trouble so far. With this course, I wanted to make students aware that body modification is something people do every day, that it also includes the likes of plastic surgery, body building, dieting, as well as piercing and tattooing. I hope to teach my students to look at every body critically, to read the argument a body makes, to be able to understand a body's stance within culture. Presently, they are working on a paper assignment (Historical Inquiry unit) that asks them to trace the changes in a body modification practice over time, or to study a body modification practice that has been transplanted from another culture... In either case, I ask them to make an argument about the nature of the appropriation or change--for example: how is Chinese foot-binding similar to the Western practice of wearing high-heeled shoes? or: how do Western tattoos differ in meaning from their earlier ancestors? These, and many other questions, are important, I think, to consider--especially in a culture that takes body modification for granted.

I am presently teaching a composition course at UT, but it's a little different because the second semester freshman comp (102) is a theme-based course. The theme of the course that I'm teaching is Inquiry into Body Modification, so my students and I talk a lot about tattoos, and the way they are viewed--the way that tattoos change the surface of the skin into a thing to be viewed differently. It almost gives people permission to look at a body, to enact a weird kind of voyeurism.

Kat is also part of Shelley Jackson's Skin project:

I am a word in her story, and that has also has changed my perspective of tattoos. Having a tattoo means that I am a part of a community, but one in which the members don't necessarily know each other...

I want to thank Kat for sharing her incredible tattoo with us here on Tattoosday, and telling us a little about the courses she's involved with at the University of Tennessee.

Be sure to check out one of Kat's poems over on BillyBlog.

You have read this article Clocks / Electric Athena Tattoos / Good Times Tattoo Studio / Lone Wolf Body Art / Poets / Shelley Jacksons Skin Project / The Tattooed Poets Project with the title Clocks. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2009/04/tattooed-poets-project-kat-zemmel.html. Thanks!