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!

Two for Tattuesday Saturday: Wanderful Love Under the Cherry Blossoms

In honor of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) , we're sharing this tattoo, which I spotted back in September:

This belongs to Rich, a musician and rap artist. He's a big Harry Potter fan, as exemplified by the magic wand. The snake at the base of the wand not only symbolizes infinity, it is a nod to Severus Snape, a character associated with the House of Slytherin, of which the serpent is the mascot.

The concept of the tattoo is exemplified by the music coming out of the wand, illustrating that sounds can be magical and that Rich is under music's spell.

The piece was inked by Chris at Lady Luck Tattoo Studio in Montville, Connecticut.

When I met Rich, he was sitting with his girlfriend in Penn Station. She introduced herself as Kytti, and asked if I wanted to see her tattoo.

But of course!

She actually has two tattoos, but lifted up her shirt to show me this beautiful design:

Kytti explained that this represents her and Rich together in Japan. They've been together for over a year and they'd both love to go there together and experience the culture. The tree is filled with cherry blossoms, a flower often associated with Japan.

Chris at Lady Luck also was the artist behind this tattoo.

Thanks to Rich and Kytti for sharing their magical and romantic tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoorism: Aaron and Brandi Share Their Ink

We here at Tattoosday love our fans. However, sometimes when someone sends us a submission from abroad, we may be slow to post it. Brandi and Aaron's submissions are the extreme case in point.

Brandi e-mailed me back in April. Yes, as in that part of the calendar six months ago.

Oh, I had grand plan for the post, planning to unveil it to coincide with a cinematic release, or a DVD release, but I could never get the timing just right.

In the better late than never category, let me introduce you to a couple of tattoos that have been patiently waiting for their moment in the Tattoosday sun.

I'll start with Brandi's tattoo, which is on the front of her right shoulder:



Brandi explains:

"This tattoo is one I got on my 25th birthday but it had been 7 years in the making. I lived in Seattle, WA for 10 years (currently in Texas) and have always loved snowflakes so for my birthday I decided to get this tattoo in memory of my life in Seattle."

The second tattoo is from Aaron. Just to show you how long it has been, when they first sent the photo in April, Aaron was her boyfriend. In a follow-up e-mail a few weeks ago, Brandi called him her fiance, so congratulations are in order as well!

Here's Aaron's tattoo:



Yes, that is the crest of Gryffindor, the crest of one of the four "houses" at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy in the the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Brandi explains:

This tattoo is the first installment of a sleeve project Aaron is in the process of that was started after I suggested to him he get it. He is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and I thought what better way to express his love for HP. The rest of the sleeve will be black and white illustrations from each book and I couldn't love him more for expressing his inner "dork."

I also am a fan of the series and have also share the qualities of dorkitude from time to time, so how could I not share this cool tattoo with our readers?

Both tattoos were inked at Epic Tattoos in Fort Worth, Texas. Nick Clark did Brandi's snowflake and Rudy Perez inked Aaron's Gryffindor piece.

Thanks to both Aaron and Brandi for sharing their work with us here on Tattoosday and for waiting so patiently for me to get around to posting their tattoos!

List Monday- Top 10 Trends of the Decade

Seeing as we are fast approaching 2010 I thought I would sum up the biggest crazes we have seen in the noughties, including the good, the bad and the ugly.

1. Internet and Technology. Where would be be without our Blogger/Google/Facebook/Ipods/Wikipedia/Twitter? It's hard to imagine life without any of them now.

2.The Bob- Made popular this year by Posh Spice putting off her WAGish extensions and now everyone is at it from Katie Holmes to Rihanna. So as far as hair is concerned shorter is definitely better, not to mention chicer.
(Haha I am such a hypocrite I have long hair but don't have the guts to chop it off...)

3. Fake tan- Bleh. Need I say more?

4. 'Thinspiration'- Each decade has a new perception of woman; in the fifties it was the hourglass figure, in the sixties it was waifs like Twiggy, then big hair and hippy flares for healthy looking woman in the seventies, athletic leg warmers and neon for females in the eighties and amazonian glamorous supermodels (including the greats: Linda, Naomi, Christy and Cindy) in the nineties but this decade it will be known for the way-too-thin models. Dare I even say anorexic?
Make no mistake I am a big fan of Kate Moss, Jourdan Dunn, Sasha Pivovarova, Agyness Deyn, Karlie Kloss, Alexa Chung, Coco Rocha, Sophie Dahl Daisy Lowe and Chanel Iman (I could go on) but do you not think that it is time for something different?

5.The Rise of the Vampires- Is it any wonder we love vampires? Even just the word "vampire" has associations with lust, passion, blood, gore and now thanks to Stephanie Meyers, Edward Cullen, the ultimate fictional heart throb. Thanks to the books which have sold millions and now have a cult following and the new adult TV series True Blood which just shows that vampires are not just for tweens. So its no surprise that Vampires are here to stay.

6. Chick Lit- Ever since Helen Fielding wrote Bridget Jones, the best selling author has spawned a whole load of copy cats and even started her own genre. Without Chick Lit we wouldn't have Sex and The City, based on the column by Candance Bushnell and a ton of other films and books.

7. Reality TV- Earlier this year Big Brother said that they were stopping the programme after one more series because the viewing figures were plummeting. We have seen it all in that George Orwell 1984 inspired house and they have had every single type of person imaginable in there. We have seen the "dumb blonde bimbo" (see point 8 haha) the angry middle aged woman, the gay dancer, the '"intellectual student" who says he is going into the house "because it is an interesting social experiment." They cannot shock us anymore.

But of course we can't forget Simon Cowell who seems to be single handedly carrying on the Reality TV rein (whilst infiltrating the music charts) with the phenomenal X-Factor (19.1 people watched the final last night!) and of course the series which brought us Susan Boyle, Britain's Got Talent.

8. The WAG and the 'Dumb' Blonde- Thanks to Jessica Simpson, Jordan, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie (who interestingly enough tweeted "P.S. I went brunette. I feel smarter already" earlier this week) and films like "Legally Blonde" we have a new stereotype of the girl who wants nothing more than to marry a rich man, own a chihuahua, have big boobs and dress in head to toe pink.

9. Indie Music- The past decade has brought us The Strokes, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines and Deathcab for Cutie to name a few. For me it is definitely the defining music of the era.

10. Big Franchises- Good 'ol J.K.Rowling didn't know what she had started when she released Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. She went from scribbling chapters on the back of napkins at her local cafe in Edinburgh to being worth more money than the Queen. Soon to follow suit and jump on the merchandise bandwagon was Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Batman, A series of Unfortunate Events, Narnia etc etc etc. Nice one Harry, Ron and Hermione.

What do you think are the best and the worst trends of the decade? It doesn't have to be one on my list either, just let me know in a comment, I would love to hear what you think...

Beth xx

"Of course it is happening inside of your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

"Of course it is happening inside of your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" - Dumbledore. Haha I am such a Harry Potter nerd.

I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night and it was fantastic!
The love triangle between Ron, Hermione and Lavender was so funny and Jessie Cave (the actress who played Lavender Brown) was brilliant as Ron’s needy girlfriend.
Even though I am a firm believer that the books are better than the films this is one of the best yet because it is so funny in places and so dark in others.
I didn't like the way they cut so much out of the book and put random bits in which are not even in the original but other than that it was amazing.
Also I think I am in love with Draco Malfoy. Yes I have gone over to the dark side!