A Dozen (or So) of Ed's Sixty-Eight (Approximately) Tattoos

Every neighborhood has at least one or two of them: old-timers who have retired from the workforce and can now shed their suits and proudly display what they have accumulated over a lifetime: their vast tapestry of ink.

Ed lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (my neighborhood) and worked for a bank for forty years. Even today, when the stigma of tattoos is dissipating with the changing times, Corporate America still has employee handbooks which prohibit visible body art.

Ed started getting inked, like many men of his generation, when he was 18 and entered the Service. And, over the years, he collected tattoos. And he's not done, although the real estate is shrinking in quantity.

By his best estimate, Ed gave me a number of sixty-eight (68!). While chatting with outside of the laundromat a couple of weekends back, he let me take a snapshot of his right arm. In this photo, alone, I count at least twelve individual pieces:


Although the focus of the shot is the mermaid on the bicep, one is still drawn to the butterflies, the traditional panther, the New York Yankees logo, the fairy, and the sun.


Old school tattoos have a tendency to be less customized and more based on existing flash art. The result may be an affinity for the pieces, but a lack of great "back story" for many (but not all) tattoos on the older generation of inked Americans.

With so much ink, it is often hard to remember where everything was tattooed, although Ed credits a lot of the work to Brooklyn mainstays like Michael Angelo and artists affiliated with the great the late Huggy-Bear Ferris.

Thanks to Ed for sharing his arm with us here on Tattoosday!

Of course, we hope to feature more of Ed's work here in the future....

You have read this article Designs by Michael Angelo / Huggy-Bear Ferris with the title Designs by Michael Angelo. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2009/06/dozen-or-so-of-ed-sixty-eight.html. Thanks!

Jennifer's Butterfly, 2 Weeks out of the Cocoon

Standing in line waiting to buy a Lotto ticket, I noticed a bright fragment of ink peeking out from the top of Jennifer's shirt.

I struck up a conversation with her and she unveiled the whole piece, a bright butterfly that, as they say, "popped" off the skin.



She told me she just liked the coloring of the piece, and she and her husband were both getting tattoos by Michael Angelo (featured previously here).

The butterfly was inked only about two weeks ago. This explains why it is still so vivid, and also accounts for a little of the residual peeling that is evident on the piece.

She talked about how incredible the artist is, how he doesn't take appointments, that he is first-come, first-serve, and that his clients line up hours before he opens to get a spot later in the day.

Jennifer said her husband got a portrait of their son done by him, and that they are very happy with the work. Hopefully, we will feature more ink from Jennifer and her husband in the future.

Thanks to Jennifer for sharing her new butterfly with Tattoosday!

You have read this article butterflies / Designs by Michael Angelo with the title Designs by Michael Angelo. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2008/06/jennifer-butterfly-2-weeks-out-of.html. Thanks!

The World is Full of Kings and Queens . . .

I've been relying heavily on Tattoos I Know since the end of summer, but today, in the chill of January, I spotted a cool tattoo on a stranger and added him to the Tattoosday gallery:


It was in the mid-30's when I asked Frank about his tattoo. He gladly offered up his newest piece, this playing card queen.

Frank is heavily-inked. He briefly flashed a leg and an arm covered with tattoos. But we stuck with this one. This particular piece, his newest, was done by Mike Profetto at Designs by Michael Angelo in Brooklyn.

When I asked him why he had this queen of hearts, he said it only made sense to complement the king of diamonds on the right side of his neck:


Incidentally, that's a spider in the middle the two royal tattoos.

The queen, being the newer piece, is much brighter and crisper.

Frank is the first Tattoosday subject to offer up side neck pieces. He gave me his contact information, so I hope to feature Frank's work again in the future, with more detail about his tattoos, and the stories behind them.

Thanks again Frank!

You have read this article Designs by Michael Angelo / Kings / Neck / Queens with the title Designs by Michael Angelo. You can bookmark this page URL https://blogarttattoo.blogspot.com/2008/01/world-is-full-of-kings-and-queens.html. Thanks!